Concept of opening level platforms

Yep, an idea of what the platforms should be like in the first level and perhaps the first world. How specific is that? I'm surprised by how well this scales! I need to set up the game at double size sometime.

This is my idea so far. It'll be a world of levels that focus on jumping probably. I'm scared of how many platforms I may have to make. Maybe I'll cheat a bit.

Today I programmed in the morning and worked on graphics in the afternoon (with loads of breaks because weekend). I could totally turn that into a habit. Making graphics is really relaxing after all that thinking.

• Set the camera bounds when loading the level... (Have I done this?) Now I have :)
• Start work on collision detection before doing anything fancy 
• Remeber to code it in such a way that the character can change size at any time
• Find a way to define all solid objects as polygons now i just need some convenient way to load them
• Figure out how to detect collisions between these polygons and the player and move the player out of them apropriately
• Decide on how to determine when the character is on the ground
• Jumping
• Flipping the polygon of the character
• Entering polygons via CSV (probably)
• Work out an animation class
• Improve the camera
• Set up an option for 2x size graphics

Collisions are red

Pretty self explanatory. It only stutters like that in the video.

• Set the camera bounds when loading the level... (Have I done this?) Now I have :)
• Start work on collision detection before doing anything fancy 
• Remeber to code it in such a way that the character can change size at any time
• Find a way to define all solid objects as polygons now i just need some convenient way to load them
• Figure out how to detect collisions between these polygons and the player and move the player out of them apropriately
• Decide on how to determine when the character is on the ground
• Jumping
• Flipping the polygon of the character
• Entering polygons via CSV (probably)
• Work out an animation class
• Improve the camera

Mr. Minkowski what are you doing in here?

So I've been back working on the game these last few days. I'm using Minkowski difference to figure out if two shapes are overlapping. I'm going to use it for collision detection. This should make it easier to do collisions on slopes and with different shapes than just rectangular platforms. I came up with my own algorithm for doing the Minkowski difference. Actually I came up with more than one and wrote it a few times before I settled on this one. I'm not sure this is the best way to do it but I'm quite happy I was able to come up with something that works and I guess I can replace it later or edit it a bit since I have a few ideas to make it more efficient.

I'll make a video showing what it does. I've got a hazy idea of how I'm going to use it for collisions that I'm going to have to flesh out next. Once that's working (this could take me a while though) I'll be able to move on to things like animation and the full range of character movement. Only then will I design the first level. It may be slow but I'm making progress! I still have no intention of giving up on this project.

Now get out of my house Mr. Minkowski! You're a function now and I'm done with you!

Here's my to-do list from last time:

• Set the camera bounds when loading the level... (Have I done this?) Now I have :)
• Start work on collision detection before doing anything fancy 
• Remeber to code it in such a way that the character can change size at any time
• Find a way to define all solid objects as polygons now i just need some convenient way to load them
• Figure out how to detect collisions between these polygons and the player and move the player out of them apropriately
• Decide on how to determine when the character is on the ground
• Jumping

Here's a silly video about Minkowski difference: