Shooting Star Rebirth
A Unity project I made in order to
study 3D flying mechanics.
The flying style is inspired by games such as Rogue Squadron, while the level selection was inspired by Mario Galaxy.
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Creation
I started the project in order to learn more about programming a 3D flying starship. I have always admired games like Rogue Squadron and wanted to try making something similar.
This is also the first game in which I tried adding save/load mechanics to the project, hence the Play and Continue buttons.
The game is more of a technical showcase in that, so there isn't much in terms of gameplay.
The ship can move around and shoot laser shots at the bigger mothership.
Overworld Hud
The overworld Hud was inspired in Mario Galaxy level selection.
In it, each one of the planets, or stelar bodies, would be a full level in itself.
The ones clearly shown are already unlocked levels while the numbered ones are still locked. The numbers inside each of them indicate how many stars you would need to open the level.
To unlock a level the player only needs to move the ship towards the object and if the conditions are met, the level will be unlocked and the game will be saved.
Save/Load System
The save/load system is made in part using Unity's PlayerPrefs.
The PlayerPrefs have certain limitations to them, so something like Json would be better for something larger, but the PlayerPrefs are enough for it.
Simple values are saved and loaded normally with their variables, but for the level selection screen I used a different system.
Each node on the level selection has sets of parameters to them which indicate whether they are unlocked or not and their specific cost.
In order to save and load this, I transform the values into a long coded number with 0 and 1.
Transcoding the value back perfectly tells the last state of the level.
Levels
There are only two currently available levels to enter, those being the two open by default.
Upon entering the level, the appropriate skybox is loaded and the player ship will show up and will be able to be controlled.
Each level stands on its own, meaning any other unneeded game parts are deactivated and not processing until they are needed once again.
The camera has a smooth lerp follow motion and damping behind the player and the flares behind the ship light up depending on the speed.
The light trails left behind finish giving the ship a sense of speed and motion in fast velocities.
