Booming flower prices promise great rewards for the fastest Flower Plower!

Initially Flower Plower was conceived as a Pacman style maze running game.

The design of that game called for a continuous movement grid. Objects on the grid can move smoothly between grid cells but are only allowed to turn when they are in the center of a grid space.

Objects have two variables controlling their direction. Current Direction and Desired Direction. If the object wants to change its direction it sets the Desired Direction variable.

When the object reaches the center of a grid space it checks if the Current Direction is equal to Desired Direction and tries to turn if not. If a wall is blocking the turn the Current Direction remains the same until it is possible to turn.

This system allows the player to hold the direction they want to turn early and their character will turn when it is possible.

Objects move continuously and are only allowed to turn in the center of a grid node.

One added complexity is allowing 180 degree turns in between tiles. It might feel better to allow players to turn slightly late and move back to perform a turn – just a slightly wider window of opportunity.

This system works well for a Pacman style maze runner but now that my prototype is heading in a simulation puzzle direction I have decided to use a discrete grid.

A discrete grid uses arrays of integers for positions rather than Unity vector3s with float values. This means that an object can not be between two grid locations.

This approach has brought with it a lot of additional complexity but I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! So hopefully there will be more details in a future post.