This will be the final push to complete the alpha build for the science fair playtest. Implementation of all the clues and fixing bugs will be addressed this week.
Tutorial UI ‘E to open sketchbook’ As mentioned in week 4 Rough Prototype a potential idea for the tutorial was guiding the players by talking to tribe members but since the alpha build does not include the tribe a simple UI telling players to open the sketchbook and view the tutorials will act as a starting point. I have coded the UI to destroy once players have opened the sketchbook.
For the audio the BGM and SFX are all added to create an atmospheric environment. Infinite Skies was the music track that fitted our game the most so is the main background music but I also wanted an additional layer to the music so I added a windy forest sound effect on top. I download a variety of SFX for different area where I believe it would benefit from sounds.
Changes to the Start Screen Since the tutorial UI will destroy after the sketchbook has been opened once the game has to reset every time a playthrough is finished so the start screen will also need to include our logo and poster art (viewable in WSA games website). To make the start screen more dynamic and attractive to potential players I created a simple animation with our logo to move. I wanted to make the start screen fade out when players click on the ‘Start’ button to make a cleaner transition between each scene. However, I was not able to get it working before the playtest.
Note: Would need to figure out how to fade out.
Ending Demo Earthquake Trigger I have decided to tie in the earthquake trigger with the ending demo message. I placed the trigger at the opposite side of the map from the starting point so it can conclude the alpha build. That means the trigger needed to have additional coding to make the ending message appear in the sketchbook and trigger the clues popup. Another problem I noticed when playtesting the trigger was entities other then the player was able to trigger the earthquake as well. To avoid this I changed the coding to compare tags and only start if the ‘Player’ is the one interacting.
Changes to the AI Movement The AI movement I implemented a few weeks ago was working on the old model that I had access to but when importing the newer and updated models by Yao the AI movement does not perform as expected. The model will teleport when turning and jump large distances. I did not have enough time to investigate this aspect more so the AI movement code from my group project last year in the virtual pet game called ‘Critter’s Studies’ was used as a quick fix. I will be looking at more movement code in the future to implement a satisfactory result.
Adding Species Adding the updated and new models by Yao (Veggie Felines, Feathered Saurus and Baby Saurus) along with its animations. I made sure to correctly call for the needed animation when the entity is moving and idling. A problem seems to occur when the model moves the idle state is too long and the walking state is too short to see any walking animation show when moving. This will hopefully be solved when I look for better movement scripts.
Added All Clues and Registering for the Photo Mode After adding the relevant clue sprites and assigning them in the order shown in Book Content For Alpha Build and adding the needed components in the species and objects so that raycasting and the photo mode can pick up the objects in the photo. The alpha build of the game in terms of coding have been complete.
Adding More Elements in the Terrain The last section to complete is the environment. I replaced the water shader and added the trees around the terrain. Populating the world with a few of the species in a cluster around the edges. Additionally, I adding small rocks and pillars repurposed from the ruins clue around the area as some clutter.
Changes Made and Will Need to Work on After the Science Fair
Previous Weeks Bug Fix Status: N/A
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To Making Next Week
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