Hey folks, and welcome back!
This week was all about the level loader. I’ve got big plans for it, and if I want to keep this game flexible and future-proof, it has to be rock solid. So instead of layering on complexity, I decided to tear it all the way down — and rebuild it in the simplest terms possible.
🧱 The Plan: From Corners to Chaos
I started with the basics:
4 corners
4 straight walls
Then extended versions of those walls
Then L-shaped rooms
And eventually… rooms with walls inside of them
Everything had to click together like a digital Lego set — and after some trial and error (and more grid counting than I care to admit), it’s finally shaping up the way I imagined.
Perfection? Not yet. But directional perfection? Absolutely.
🚪What About Robots, Gates, Switches?
Once I had the room structure working, I was excited to start adding gameplay elements — placing in the robot, a gate, maybe even a working switch…
That’s when I noticed something odd.
The camera wasn’t moving.
No tracking. No shake. No flash. Just a stoic, silent observer in the wrong corner of the map.
Turns out, somewhere along the way, the camera logic gave up and walked off the job. So that’s my next mission: convince the camera to follow the robot again without staging a full-scale rebellion.
🎯 What’s Next
Fix camera tracking (or start a new religion around the corner of the map)
Finish phase one of the level loader
Begin placing interactive elements again (and make sure they still behave!)
Maybe — just maybe — get a proper test level loaded and playable
🙃 Final Thought
Some weeks are about cool features. Others are about foundational work that no one will ever see — but everyone will feel. This was the second kind.
Here’s to a week of structure, setbacks, and slow but steady progress. The robot’s not the only one learning how to navigate a maze.
– Chris