Week Seven

Monday 12th - Tuesday 13th April

Team Meeting

Today is the first day coming back from Easter which was three weeks long. Over that time, I got quite unwell and a, now in discussion with my Doctors and having test done. I was worried that I would have to take time off from uni but i'm pushing through and just hoping I remain well enough that my health in not going to have a negative impact on the project. I am organising a meeting with James to talk about what accommodations can be made and whether it is worth getting an extension so i'll have time to catch up on my documentation.

On the Monday I contacted my team to remind them on our next milestone organise a call to discuss our progress, the next steps in our project and the new tasks I am going to set. I also asked everyone to put up any work they hadn't shared in slack up on the Trello board as this would help me organise what needs to be covered in the team meeting.

The Meeting

In the meeting I reminded the team that we are aiming for development to be finished by the 30th of April so we have time to play-test and then make any changes to the game if something does not work the way we expect it to. Of course, we'll still then have time to work on any additional features and refine our work further. I put up the tasks in the slack so we could all see. This week I set quite a bit of work but as we still have quite a bit to do, and we want to finish a little earlier so we have enough time to make sure our documentation is complete, it makes sense to pick up the pace a bit.

The tasks are as follows:

Daniella - create the windmill asset for the fourth puzzle. Make sure to create the turbine as a separate asset so it is able to spin. Share finished controller mapping, and sourced scripts, with the team so we can give feedback and make checks. Also work on windsocks and Torii gates if you have time.

Molly - New player idle animation (first one was out of proportion to the rest of the sprites). Create the cloud loop and raincloud animations. Make final changes to the gust animation. Send me the boulder so I can use it in unity.

Charisma - Blossom trees to stand on platforms, shrubs (five or so variations for platform decoration) and discuss with me what work you have for the unity build. Will give access to the collaborative project.

Emilia - The bridge asset. Japanese huts and scene mock-ups for scale and asset checks (quality and comparison).

I also made the Anima Mundi unity project a collaborative project today so if any members of the team who have additions to make, they will be able to. For example, when we get around to working on UI, lighting and sound, those people who are tasked with those roles will be able to access the project directly.

After discussing the tasks we also went over some problems we had and what we need to do to fix them. We are still missing the butterfly animation and there was some concern over who was going to create the animation because nobody was really confident in their ability. Emilia did volunteer and that has been added to her list of tasks. We also spoke about the lighting and how the background needs to have some changes made to it so the lanterns have a significant effect in game once they are turned on, therefore I will also be working on further sky iterations this week before creating the final design. The lanterns in question look odd by themselves so we discussed how they are going to need to be hung in the trees throughout the game but that doesn't require any extra work.

I reminded everyone to make sure they refer back to the art bible and make sure their work is consistent in style and colour scheme to every other asset that had been created.

Wednesday 14th April

Progress Update

Over Easter, the team were able to finish the tasks that were set during week six and also worked on some further development on the game assets. Emilia created an asset table that states the name of the asset, its expectation for its functionality and appearance, number of variations, the creator and then the feedback she is providing as the lead artist. This is to make ensure consistency and quality control. I have created my own table for how these assets are implemented into unity. These documents will be vital in keeping track of the versions for each assets and logging any issues that we have with them.

To the right is part of my table documenting the logging and version control of the assets imported in and created within unity, including all script versions. In this document, each version of scripts that I write or source are displayed within heading with details about what was changed and why.

This log is great for keeping track of changes and it allows me to keep up with my progression of the unity development. This table, when finished, will be displayed in my testing tab at the top of the page alongside a detailed analysis of the development process with screenshots and vidio clips also provided.

To the left, part of Emilia's Asset table. As you can see, there are detail for its expectation and then once it's completed, feedback is provided. Once the author of the asset has responded to the feedback, the completion box is turned green. This table is shared on google docs so any member of the team always has access.

Over Easter, Molly also made some changes to the gust abilty animations.

As well as some experiments for the Shaman's walk animations!

The animations are really great as they make the same motions as how the player will swirl finger on the screen in order to actually use the gust ability. Now that I have the final animation for the player walk, I will be able to gettthis into unity.

The tasks I set at the beginning of the week were completed very promptly and once we had enough assets, we were able to start scene testing and had more to discuss as a team, about what was working well and what might need some further adaptions.

On Wednesday, the team uploaded their progress onto slack and we had small discussions on each asset, providing feedback. Above are the iterations of clouds that Emilia made, as we realised in the team meeting we had trhe previous day, that it was a key feature that we were missing. We decided on the clouds we liked the most. For the game, we need to have two variations. There will be clouds floating in the back and foregrounds of the game to add dimension and immersion. Then there will also be clouds on the player platforms that will block the player view of where the platforms are levitating in the air. This makes traversing level more difficult. The latter clouds will have to be far more opaque to block the view whereas the surrounding clouds made for decoration can be more transparent.

Molly has created a final animation for the boulder throw. IT has been designed so that it starts as a large, cone shaped rock that crumbles once it is thrown and makes impact with the ground. Therefore, the player will be able to walk over it, once it has been inserted into the gap int he bridge.

We had to consider making changes to the controller mapping because of this but we agreed as a team, that this design was great for the game. I will work out what the best method of "creation" is as Molly mentioned, when I program the ability in unity.

The final bridge has been created Emilia for the boulder puzzle shown above. It has been split into three assets so the player is able to walk over the steps.

I did have some concerns whether the boulder or even the gap will be visible to the player but if that is to be the case, the changes shouldn't be time consuming as we could just crop the hand railings and posts from the bridge. It also might change how large the scale of the player character may need to be. All in all though, this is a great asset and look amazing.

The idle animation has also been created and is shown on the left. It is the front view of the Shaman and it does a stationary bobble as we discussed in a meeting. However this was a little problematic because it meant that the Shaman flash-rotated from side-view to front view in the game, and the proportions of the body were completely different. So, I had to ask for a new Idle animation from Molly, with the changes necessary.

I suggested a new 2-3 frame simple bobble as we do not have much time left to be making lot's of changes or completely new assets.

Scene Tests

Emilia put all of our finished assets together in a scene so we could all see how they looked together. The purpose of this was to make sure we were happy with the scale between different assets, happy with the colour arrangements and how we thought the sky should look.

I am really glad that we began scene testing early on because it allowed me to see that my sky designs \i had created too far were far too bright for the scene. I am therefore able to fix my mistakes early on, therefore having more time to work on them. The sky needs to be dark enough that the lanterns have a significant effect when ignited.

...

Here is a brief discussion we had on slack after the scene testing about what changes will need to be made to the background design, what could be added, as well as concerns about the scale of different assets in the scene and whether the puzzle interactions will be able to fit upon the islands as they are scaled in the mock ups. I suggested including tree details in the background and have thought about also adding in more floating islands in the background scene that could have beautiful features such as waterfalls or little pieces of evidence of habitation such as ladders or homes that have been built into caves. This idea development and experimentation is documented in the blog posts on the home screen of this website. We also discussed changes to the cloud design that was earlier posted by Emilia and decided that the clouds should be subtle brush stroke rather than outlined with harsh lines and a more cartoon style of art. I also suggested to Charisma to add roots to the blossom trees so they could look as though they are standing upon them rather than us having to place them behind the islands which look quite unnatural. At this point of the project the team are far more involved in discussion which is amazing as we are able to make changes to our work efficiently.

Above is further discussion about the clouds in the scene and how they don't yet look harmonious with the other assets in the scene. Charisma quickly created a mock up of how the clouds could look instead and we were all happy with the change. It is far more natural looking and doesn't take away from the main point of focus, being the platforms and pieces in the foreground.

Controller Mapping

Today, Daniella presented her designs for the controller mapping. This included how the player would use their finger to swipe in motions on the screen, how they will move the player left and right, and how the player will jump. As proposed, the player will left and right arrow keys to move forth or back upon the islands and then the player just needs to tap anywhere on the screen (excluding UI position) in order to jump.

To use the gust, the player must swirl there finger int he direction of they want it to impact and for the boulder throw the player needs to swipe from the ground to the position they want it to land

I was unwell later in the week so I hadn't yet supplied Daniella with feedback but I can say everyone on the team was happy with the designs that had been created. Daniella also mentioned she has been experimenting with how to implement the controls in unity which will be super useful when it comes to adapting the unity build for mobile later on in the project, as it makes my role as programmer a little simpler.

More Assets

Here are the finished lantern designs, created by Emilia, for background detailing in the game scene, or they could possibly stand on the islands. The islands however have been created with top-down oblique view and the other assets have been created straight on. This is a problematic detail that we did not consider in hindsight. To get all the assets redesigned with the top-down oblique view would be incredibly time consuming

and I don't believe we have the time to be making such complex changes so I think the best plan of action would be to keep these architectural details in the background of the scene, behind the floating islands that the player walks upon.

Despite this issue, the assets follow the art style and colour scheme of the vertical slice and are visually stunning. I am worried that there will be too many red tones in the game but colour changes are far easier to make in comparison to changing the perspective.

Here are the ability animations created by Molly with the staff's flame colour differing to indicate which ability is in use. The boulder throw involves the Shaman swinging the staff up and around and then forward as though the boulder is being pulled front he earth and the its path directed where it is being thrown. It looks very natural. The gust ability involved the Shaman taking a wider stance and swirling the staff in tight circles. I loved that the Shaman changes his stance as though the force of the gust could take him off balance. I think that is a really lovely detail that again just makes the movement so unique and natural looking. A lot of thought has clearly been put into this design and I am really happy with it.

When it comes to implementing this into Unity, the task will be much simpler if I make it so the abilities can only be used when the player is idle. I would have to create less animation transition paths. Furthermore, it would look rather silly I think, if the player was to make the boulder throw motions while in mid air. It should be quite a simple task for me to do. The flourishing details such as getting the gust and boulder to actually show will be more difficult.

Here are Charismas new blossom assets that have the addition of the lantern hanging in them. We were concerned as to where int he scene the lanterns should hang as the islands so far have minimal detail so we decided it would look best to have them hanging from the blossom. The other change was the addition of the roots which has made it look a lot better as before it seems as thought the trees were not planted into anything. The blossoms are a very important tree for Japan and has great significance in Japanese culture going back hundreds of years. The cherry

blossom represents the fragility and the beauty of life. This meaning makes the blossom tree very appropriate for our vertical slice which has a great focus on providing the player with great beauty and a calming, contentful experience. Also obviously a fitting addition the vertical slice as Anima Mundi has great ties to the Japanese culture and the Shinto religion.

I asked Charisma to make up some shrubs this week to add a little more detail to the islands. They add a little more dimension and I think they will look good placed around the roots of the tree to help make that look a bit more natural. They look great!

As you can see in the concepts above where the shrubs have been placed at the back and forefront of the platforms, it adds a lot more dimension, helping our 2D game to look a bit three dimensional. The player will be walking in front of some and behind others. The variety is also great, while still sticking to a strict colour schme so the game scenes do not get too crowded or overwhelmed with loads of colour.

Thursday 15th April

Meetings

I missed the team leader and the team meeting with James today as I was too unwell to attend.

What was spoken about?

Lighting was apparently the main point of discussion. When do we plan to implement this? And how can we make sure our assets are designed with the direction and colour of the light emitted from the sun?

Lighting will not be able to be worked on until we have a final sky painting so we know what colour the sky wil be, the tones of the sunset and the direction of the sun light as well as the time of day. I am going to get a new refined sky painting done by Monday so we can have further discussion about this. For assets, we can different lighting effect in unity such as highlights and shadows tinted the appropriate colours of the sunset depending on where they are placed in the scene. Therefore the lighting cannot be completed until we have fixed the final composition of the game in unity. I understand that it could be easier to plan ahead and then we can work around that plan for what colour and composition is going to be put in place but it is incredibly likely that those things will change as we are in the process of doing it. So, I am convinced it is better to wait. The clouds that we will be developing further next week will need to be tinted on the bottom, the colours of the sunset to show how the light is impacting them.

Week Seven Reflection

Personal progress update

This week I worked on the sky designs for the background of the vertical slice. To do this, I had to re-familiarise myself with digital drawing and watched some tutorial videos to learn how to best paint clouds. The development process for this can be found in my blog posts here: (..................). The feedback documented at the top of this page shows that I need to further refine the paintings and make them more suitable and harmonious with the composition and colour palette of the other assets created by the other members of the team.

Also this week, I did some further work on the unity build and the development documentation for that can also be found in a blog post here, titled Unity Development Part 4. During this session I, managed to fix the issue I had where the player was unable to jump at all, after I changed the placement of the rigid body on the player. I also wrote a new player movement script and managed to incorporate the background so it actually moves with the player. after stressing so much with how to achieve that last week. Furthermore, I experimented with the Animator and tried my best to gain an understanding of how it works and how I will create the the transitions between the different player animations.

The next steps for this are to clean up the sprite sheets that were sent over by Molly and get all the player animation into the game and functioning. Now I have the ability animations, handed in by Molly this week, I am just waiting for a new Idle animation and falling animation left for the player.

Anima Mundi Progres Update

We have now established the controller mapping for how the player will play the game and use the abilities on a touch screen. We also finished developing many final assets for the game this week, such as the shrubs, the gust ability, the bridge and the ability animations. Some changes/adaptions do need to be made for some of our work, for example we need to make sure the blossom tress are consistent between the ones that are sitting on platforms and the one that has been created for the tree restoration puzzle, and furthermore new clouds need to be made for the game.

The next steps for the team are to create a new tree restoration animation that follows the agreed art style and consistent with the other blossom trees created. We need to work out who is going to create the three animations planned for the eagle (idle, take-off and patrol), the butterflies and their animation also need creating and we are still waiting for the windmill to be created by Daniella. Furthermore, Emilia is going to begin her sound design next week, including writing a uniquely composes soundtrack for the time it takes to complete the level and then source other sounds we require for the game such as a rock thump and gust of wind.

The updated list of tasks is as follows:

Daniella - continue windmill creation. Separate assets for windmill and its turbine.

Charisma - Asset creation (tree restoration + animation and clouds)

Emilia - Asset creation (Torri gates, butterfly and its animation) and beginning sound design

Molly - New Idle animation. Working on gust animation refinement.

Kiera - New sky iterations and unity development (implementing animations)

Project pipeline update

At this point in the project we are in our second week of development out of four, working on the final asserts and getting all the moving parts into unity and functioning, as they are made. I believe that we are on track to get the first version of the game completed at the end of these 4 weeks of development. I am going to need to book more development surgery sessions with James on the Thursdays of each week, to guide me through the parts of unity that I am having trouble understanding.

At the end of those 4 weeks, will have a call together to walk through the game and decide what isn't working for and therefore whether we need to make further changes or final additions. Once that has been established, I will be assigning the roles of UI design and lighting. Lighting is going to have to be put on hold until we have a fixed structure of the game and we are sure that every element is working together because it would be problematic to start it and then having to keep going back and forth as we add in further assets.