Astronaut Gameplay

Having added a run cycle, I added an idle cycle and got my GLTF code working with multiple submeshes - allowing the astronaut’s backpack to be rendered. I tied some basic movement and animation state to the left analog stick and the camera followed the astronaut from a fixed perspective. I then allowed camera rotation with the right stick. As an extra challenge I added in jumping using some of my existing physics code. Lastly I added in a space buggy model I made a while ago to make the empty world slightly more interesting.

There are lots of improvements to be made, and many more things to add, but it was encouraging to make something that sort of resembles actual gameplay.

Driving Experiment

I build on this and added a driving pose to the astronaut and added a driving gameplay demo. The ability to navigate both on foot and in vehicles is something I really enjoy in open world games and want to have the ability in my own. I also reduced the resolution to give it an old school feel.

The buggy’s wheels don’t move yet, and the astronaut is similarly static while driving, but as with the basic player motion it is very satisfying to see!