Building Phase

Building Our First Obstacles

This week was a really exciting one for us, because for the first time since we started this journey our project is actually starting to feel like a real game. Up until now, most of our work has been behind the scenes dealing with systems, networking, character movement, and all the foundational things nobody ever sees but every game needs. But this week, we finally shifted into something more visual and fun building obstacles.

Disappearing Platforms and Walls

Our first obstacle idea was to make platforms that vanish after you step on them. It’s pretty simple concept but took a little time to build. In order to build these platforms, you have to figure out quite a few things: timing, respawn delays, animation, and even syncing everything across the server so that every player sees the platform disappear at the same time. After some trial and error, the platforms finally worked. Seeing them blink out while our character sprinted across them was super satisfying.

We were so excited about this that we kept messing around with some other ideas and ended up also making disappearing walls. Essentially these “walls” look real but when you walk into them they disappear revealing a secret path. We aren’t sure exactly how this will fit into the game or if we will use them but it was sure fun to make!

Falling Rocks

For our falling rocks obstacle, we wanted something that added pressure as players climb. So we built a system where rocks spawn, tumble down the mountain, and either block your path or knock you off balance. Getting the physics right took some experimenting, but watching those rocks crash down the slope is genuinely fun. And it is pretty unpredictable since these rocks collide with each other making the obstacle new and different each time. And as a bonus, falling rocks is a pretty realistic danger when climbing real mountains!

A Real Player Camera System

Another huge step was adding a proper player camera. Until now, we were using Unity’s default camera, which wasn’t great… We built a basic follow camera that actually tracks the player smoothly as they move around the world. Our game will be in the third person perspective so this camera will be positioned behind the player. But this was no easy task and was really our first frustrating obstacle. For whatever reason our camera kept getting stuck or randomly spinning and we had no idea why. We asked our viewers for tips and suggestions and after days of trouble shooting we finally figured out what we were doing wrong. We got it properly attached to the player and so far no more issues (fingers crossed).

It’s Starting to Come Together

For the first time, we can load into the game, run around, dodge falling rocks, jump across disappearing platforms, and watch our camera follow us as the world moves.

It’s still early, still rough, still missing 95% of what it will eventually become Base Camp, but these small pieces have changed everything. We can finally see the shape of the game forming. And that’s the kind of progress that keeps us motivated.