Alright folks, let me tell you about this little project I tackled recently called “mr skelly”. Sounds kinda spooky, right? Well, it was more about wrangling code than ghosts, thankfully.
So, I kicked things off by doing some serious digging around. I wanted to see what others had done with similar ideas. You know, avoid reinventing the wheel and all that. Found a bunch of tutorials and example code snippets scattered across the web. Nothing exactly what I needed, but enough to give me a solid starting point.
Next up, I fired up my trusty IDE and started sketching out the basic structure. I knew I wanted a simple character model – hence “mr skelly” – that could move around a basic scene. I roughed out some placeholder assets, just cubes and spheres really, to get a feel for the scale and movement.
Then came the fun part: actually making the thing move! I messed around with different animation techniques, from simple keyframe animation to more complex physics-based movement. Ended up going with a blend of both, using keyframes for the main actions and physics to add some natural wobble and sway. It was a lot of trial and error, tweaking parameters until it felt right. Lots of late nights fueled by coffee, I tell ya!
After that, I started adding some interaction. Figured it would be cool to have mr skelly respond to user input, like walking towards the mouse cursor or reacting to keyboard presses. That involved a bit of scripting, using some basic game engine APIs to handle input and update the character’s position and orientation. It was surprisingly fiddly, getting the controls to feel smooth and responsive.
Of course, no project is complete without its share of bugs. I ran into a particularly nasty one where mr skelly would occasionally get stuck in the ground or start spinning uncontrollably. Took me hours to track down the cause – a subtle error in my collision detection code. But hey, that’s all part of the learning process, right?
Finally, after much sweat and tears, I managed to get something that I was reasonably happy with. It’s not perfect, by any means, but it’s a functional little demo that showcases some basic animation and interaction techniques. Plus, I learned a ton in the process, which is always the main goal.
So, what’s next for mr skelly? Well, I’m thinking about adding some more advanced features, like AI-controlled enemies or a simple puzzle mechanic. But for now, I’m just happy to have a working prototype to show off. It’s a small victory, but a victory nonetheless!
- Learned: Basic animation techniques, input handling, and collision detection.
- Challenges: Debugging physics glitches, optimizing performance.
- Future Plans: Adding AI and puzzle elements.