Adventures in Unity – 2.9 Tileset Spectrum
Below is a (hopefully) complete list of tiles used in the Spectrum version of Bounder.
Both foreground & background (floor) tiles are included.
I’ve presented all the tiles in Black and White – However, in game their colours are defined by the current level.
From levels 1-10 (left to right) their colours would be;
Note: After level 7 the colours start repeating
Default Tiles
Type: Standard Floor Tiles
Levels: All
Effect: Safe tile – player bounces off
Effect Tiles
Type: Long Jump
Levels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10
Effect: Allows the player to jump twice as far
Type: Moving
Levels: 3 4 5 6 7 9 10
Effect: Safe tile – player bounces off
Type: Mystery
Levels: 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 10
Effect: Mystery tiles are activated if the player bounces on them.
They can provide either positive or negative effects.
Each mystery tile has a specific effect assigned to it – It will have the same effect every game.List Of Potential Effects:
2 bonus jumps
5 bonus jumps
10 bonus jumps
15 bonus jumps
20 bonus jumps
25 bonus jumpsminus 10 jumps
1 extra life
2 extra life
3 extra life
4 extra life
10 extra lifeInstant death – dart
Instant death – mouth
Instant death – explodes
Instant death – player shrinks out of game
Instant death – bear trap
Instant death – boxing gloves100 bonus points
500 bonus points
1000 bonus points
10000 bonus points
25000 bonus points
Instant Death Tiles
Type: Barrier
Levels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10
Effect: Kills the player on contact
Type: Spike
Levels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 9 10
Effect: Kills the player on contact
Type: Wall (Type 1)
Levels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10
Effect: Kills the player on contact
Type: Wall (Type 2)
Levels: 2 3 4 5 6 8 10
Effect: Kills the player on contact
Background/Floor Tiles
Type: Floor
Levels: All
Effect: Kills the player on contact
Next Post: 2.10 Enemies, Bonuses & Environmental C64
Last post: 2.8 Tileset C64
Portishead – Glory Box
Adventures in Unity – 2.8 Tileset C64
Below is a (hopefully) complete list of tiles used in the C64 version of Bounder.
Both foreground & background (floor) tiles are included.
Default Tiles
Type: Standard Floor Tiles
Levels: All
Effect: Safe tile – player bounces off
Type: Standard Floor Tiles (Corners)
Levels: All
Effect: Safe tile – player bounces off
Effect Tiles
Type: Mystery
Levels: All
Effect: Mystery tiles are activated if the player bounces on them.They can provide either positive or negative effects.
However, the way mystery tiles are handled on the C64 version of Bounder adds a slight random/strategic element to the game…
Each mystery tile has a specific effect assigned to it – It will have the same effect every game.
When a mystery tile is created, its effect, rather than being attached to the tile, is instead added to a global list.
So – If the current game screen contains three active mystery tiles, the list will contain three effects.
No matter which tile the player bonuses on, the first effect in the list will be applied to the player.
Once the effect has been applied to the player, it is removed from the list – Otherwise, it is removed from the list once the mystery tile scrolls offscreen.
List Of Potential Effects:
1 bonus level jump
2 bonus level jumps
5 bonus level jumps
20 bonus level jumpsMinus 10 bonus level jumps
1 extra life
2 extra livesInstant death – dart
Instant death – mouth
Instant death – player explodes200 bonus points
500 bonus points
1000 bonus points
2000 bonus points
5000 bonus points
7000 bonus points
10000 bonus points
30000 bonus points
50000 bonus points
Type: Long Jump
Levels: All
Effect: Allows the player to jump twice as far
Type: Vanishing
Levels: 5 6
Effect: Disappears just before player collision
Instant Death Tiles
Type: Grass
Levels: 1 7 (Green), 10 (Yellow), 6 (Blue)
Effect: Player can safely bounce on basic grass (single colour tile, far left column) – All others kill the player on contact
Type: Lava (Type 1)
Levels: 2 4 9 (Orange), 5 (Blue), 8 (Purple), 10 (Yellow)
Effect: Kills the player on contact
Type: Lava (Type 2)
Levels: 2 4 9 (Orange), 1 (Green), 5 (Blue), 8 (Purple), 10 (Yellow)
Effect: Kills the player on contact
Type: Lava (Type 3)
Levels: 4 9 (Orange), 5 (Blue), 8 (Purple), 10 (Yellow)
Effect: Kills the player on contact
Type: Mud (Type 1)
Levels: All
Effect: Kills the player on contact
Type: Mud (Type 2)
Levels: 3 5 6 7 8 9 10
Effect: Kills the player on contact
Type: Water
Levels: 3 5 6
Effect: Kills the player on contact
Type: QuickSand (Water Yellow)
Levels: 10
Effect: Kills the player on contact
Background/Floor Tiles
Type: Floor
Levels: All – 1 7 (Green), 2 4 9 (Orange), 3 5 6 (Blue), 8 (Purple), 10 (Yellow)
Effect: Kills the player on contact
Next Post: 2.9 Tileset Spectrum
Last post: 2.7 Mesh Fade
Toast Of London | Best Of Steven Toast | Series 1 & 2
Big Trouble In Little Blender – 1.7 Initial Unity FBX Import & Animation Notes (Part2)
Notes made after creating a spring for a game element in my current Unity project.
I’d built a model and animated it in Blender using rotation, location and scale – no armatures required. I wanted to be able to import the model into Unity with the multi-mesh animation all ready to go. These notes are based on the mesh having only one animation
These notes probably won’t be useful for anyone other than myself. I’m planning on building models as required, rather than in one lump – Which means I’ll forget everything in the meantime & have to relearn every model I build – To avoid this as much as possible, I’m hoping to use these posts as a reference point.
Apologies for any obvious mistakes or omissions – These notes were made as I was learning, and not necessarily as I had learnt.
Exporting a mesh with a single animation created using rotation /scale and location – Using no armatures.
Important safety tip:
when creating animations this way –
if the ‘scale’ of a mesh is modified during the animation
the scale of all child meshes will also be affected
this will only be apparent after importing into unity
the animation will play as expected in blender.
First step – change layout to ‘Animation‘ (top of the window, right of the help menu)
change the view in the top left frame from dope sheet to ‘Action Editor‘
in the ‘Outlier‘ frame on the far right, select all the meshes with animations you want to merge
Back in the ‘Action View‘ frame (top left) – click ‘+ New‘ button to create a new ‘action’ – this will merge the animations of the selected meshes into one action
Blender will be give this the default name ‘Action‘
Click the F button – Positioned next to the Action section
Looking something like this;
Now the action has been created – it needs to be exported to Unity (in this example I’m exporting as an as an FBX)
Select File->Export->FBX
This will display the ‘export FBX‘ options frame
In this section – Select ‘Animation‘ & untick everything except ‘Baked Animation‘
Next – in the ‘Armatures‘ section – clear the ‘Add Leaf Bones‘ tickbox
in the ‘Main‘ section – make sure only mesh is selected (Empty, Camer, Lamp, Armat & Other should be deselected)
& Finally – Click the ‘Export FBX‘ to export and save the model into the Assets folder in your Unity project.
When the model is opened in Unity – it should only show one animation (called ‘Scene‘)
Last post: 1.6 Animating a basic spring
Terrorvision – Tequilla
Big Trouble In Little Blender – 1.6 Animating a basic spring
Notes made after creating a spring for a game element in my current Unity project. I needed to animate the spring – The notes below provide a method which keeps the scale intact.
These notes probably won’t be useful for anyone other than myself. I’m planning on building models as required, rather than in one lump – Which means I’ll forget everything in the meantime & have to relearn every model I build – To avoid this as much as possible, I’m hoping to use these posts as a reference point.
Apologies for any obvious mistakes or omissions – These notes were made as I was learning, and not necessarily as I had learnt.
In the add modifier section change the value of the ‘Screw‘ field to stretch the spring to the desired maximum height.
next duplicate the spring using tools->duplicate – creating spring #2
Back in the add ‘Modifier Tools‘ section – change the ‘Screw‘ value of this duplicate so the spring #2 is at its minimum desired height – then click ‘Apply‘
Select the original (fully expanded) spring #1 and click ‘Apply‘ in the ‘Add Modifier‘ box
With the original (fully expanded) spring #1 – still selected
select ‘data object data‘ – the triangle icon next to the modifiers screwdriver icon
in the ‘shape keys‘ section of ‘data object data‘
click the + button/icon
this should add an element called ‘Basis‘
storing the settings the original (fully expanded) spring #1
Select the second (fully contracted) spring #2
hold down shift and select the original (fully expanded) spring #1
in the ‘shape keys‘ section of ‘data object data‘
click on the black arrow/triangle (under the ‘add button‘)
this should display a pull down menu
from this menu select ‘join as shapes‘
which will add a second element to the ‘shape keys list‘ – this element will have the name of the second (fully contracted) spring #2 (in this case Vert.001)
Since there no further need for the second (fully contracted) spring #2
this can be hidden (or deleted)
In the ‘shape keys‘ section of ‘data object data‘
click on the name of the second (fully contracted) spring #2 (vert.001)
doing this should expand the ‘data object data‘ section
displaying more the shape keys parameters
(if this doesn’t occur try clicking on the white down arrow on the right hand side of the ‘data object data‘ section
sliding the ‘value‘ parameter up and down should expand and contract the spring.



To create an animation – Using the animation bar move the green marker to the first frame
in the ‘shape keys‘ section of ‘data object data‘
slide the ‘Value‘ parameter and set the spring to fully coiled
& with the mouse pointer OVER the ‘Value‘ parameter press the I key
this will add a frame to the animation bar & turn the ‘Value‘ field green
in the animation bar move the green marker to the last frame
& with the mouse pointer over the value parameter press the I key
In the animation bar move the green marker to the middle frame
in the ‘shape keys‘ section of ‘data object data‘
slide the ‘Value‘ parameter and set the spring to fully uncoiled
& with the mouse pointer over the value parameter press the I key
Now pressing play – you should have a half decent bouncing spring animation
Next post: 1.7 Initial Unity FBX Import & Animation Notes (Part2)
Last post: 1.5 Creating a basic Spring
Blackadder How did World War 1 Begin
Big Trouble In Little Blender – 1.5 Creating a basic Spring
Notes made after creating a spring for a game element in my current Unity project. The process itself isn’t too complicated & the results are pretty nice.
These notes probably won’t be useful for anyone other than myself. I’m planning on building models as required, rather than in one lump – Which means I’ll forget everything in the meantime & have to relearn every model I build – To avoid this as much as possible, I’m hoping to use these posts as a reference point.
Apologies for any obvious mistakes or omissions – These notes were made as I was learning, and not necessarily as I had learnt.
First the ‘Add Mesh: Extra Objects‘ add-on needs to be enabled – This is used to add a single vertices later in the process.
To do this – goto File->User Preferences
This should open the ‘Blender User Preferences‘ window
From here click Add-On’s tab at the top of the window and search for ‘Extra Objects‘
Add a tick to ‘Add Mesh: Extra Objects‘
& everything is done.
Next add a circle – this circle will be used by blender to create the body of the spring;
Once created – scale the circle to the desired thickness of the spring
since the spring will coil around the XY axis – the circle needs to be rotated by 90 degrees on the x axis
In this example – the spring will be generated/coiled around the central point (position 0, 0, 0).
The radius of the spring will be determined by how far the circle is moved along the x axis
Now to add a single vert – this is used to determine the centre of the spring
Make sure the circle is selected.
Press shift-A to open the add menu
From here select – Mesh->SingleVert->Add Single vert
this will add a single vertices at position 0, 0, 0
The mesh and circle need to be ‘joined‘ creating a single object;
Go to ‘object mode‘ (bottom half of the screen – right of the Object menu)
right click the circle
hold shift and right click the single vert
this will select both elements at the same time
hold ctrl-J – this will join the two objects
it will also move the axis point to the middle of the world (position 0, 0, 0)
Next the screw tool is used to generate and define the spring – but first it is needed to create a doughnut;
On the right hand side of the screen in the click the spanner icon
this will open the modifiers section
click ‘Add modifier‘
and from the list select ‘Screw‘
this should apply the ‘Screw Modifier‘ to the circle
Construct the spring from the doughnut;
In the ‘Add Modifier‘ ‘Screw‘ settings;
to set the scale of the coil – change the value in the ‘Screw‘ section
this will determine how much the coil rises each 360 degree rotation
set the number of coils – change the value in the ‘Iteration‘ parameter
this will termine the size of the spring – the number of coils used to make up the spring
the steps parameter determines how many angles are used to build each coil
the default is 16 – since I generally work with low poly game elements I’m moving this down to 8
make sure ‘click order‘ option is selected to make sure the spring is drawn nicely
That should create a simple spring.
if thats all you need – click ‘Apply‘ in the modifiers box to set the values chosen & move on (maybe close the ends of the spring?)
if you want to animate the spring – DON’T click ‘Apply‘ quite yet… go to the next post (link below) and continue from there…
Next post: 1.6 Animating a basic spring
Last post: 1.4 Initial Unity FBX Import & Animation Notes (Part1)