For the first week of development, I set out to get the player's basic movement abilities working.
Movement
Since the player will be regularly be avoiding hazards and dodging enemy attacks, the character's movement should be responsive enough to quickly react to these threats. To achieve this, the player character both accelerates to maximum speed and decelerates to a stop almost instantly.
This should also help give the player more control and precision when platforming.
Jumping
A very simple feature, but the player has access to both a regular jump and an additional jump in the air.
Currently the player also has full control of their movement while in the air. I haven't currently decided if I'm going to stick with this, but I want to at least have some ability the player can use to achieve this level of air control. E.g. Second jump allows redirecting movement when used.
Wall Jumping
A rough version of the wall jumping mechanic has also been implemented. When jumping in the air, the player character checks for any objects in front of it using a line trace, and determines if it can be wall jumped off of. If the trace is successful, the player character is launched in the opposite direction of the object's surface with a slight upward velocity.
However, since the player currently has full control over their velocity in the air, they can quickly move back towards the wall to perform another jump and essentially "climb" any wall.
While the wall jump is intended to allow the player to reach new platforms, they should not be able to do this by simply climbing one surface like this.
To prevent this, I've implemented a quick and temporary solution. After performing a wall jump, the player's movement is locked for a short duration (0.2 seconds). This ensures the character travels far away enough from the wall to prevent them from continually gaining height.
Dash Ability
Finally, the movement component of the dash ability has been implemented. The full version of the ability will provide the player with a period of invincibility. A cooldown also needs to be implemented, as at the moment it can be spammed endlessly.
That's it for the first week of prototyping. My aim for the next week is to begin working on the combat system.