I’m not comfortable with using copyrighted material, even though the game is still in development and I have no intention of using said copyrighted assets. I’ve taken a step to alleviate this issue by making a quick, custom-made tileset (one that only a programmer can be proud of). Because this new tileset is very simple, I’ve become a bit more adventurous in making a playfield to really test out the mechanics I’ve built up until now. I have built downwards into the level.
Note that everything outside the camera view “doesn’t exist”. That is, the character will not interact with anything outside of it. This is akin to older platform games, which had limited memory to work with, and as such didn’t have all of the level loaded at once to deal with should-be collisions. This version emulates that behaviour by limiting the collision detection nodes to within the screen’s boundaries.
As far as the engine development goes, the player is now able to jump up through certain platforms and land on them (for example, thin ledges). The player is also able to walk at the very top of ladders. Tomorrow, I will be working on being able to actually use them.