Week Ten

Tuesday 4th May

Unity Review

This morning I had a call with the rest of the Anima Mundi team to present the unity build so far and ask for feedback or concerns about everything that has been implemented so far. A summary of what is included int he vertical slice so far can be found in this blog post, Unity Development Part 7.

The process of presenting the build began with a walkthrough of the puzzle that had been implemented already (the bridge puzzle) which does have some issues. So I explained the expectation of how it is supposed to look, that they are aware of, which is that the player presses "e" to use the boulder throw ability, and a boulder is thrown into the gap of the bridge so it is able to be walked over. I explained the issue that there is a problem with the colliders and as it is now, the boulder throw isn't really what we planned for it to look like. But I am going to discuss with a consultant how we can change it to fit our vision.

We went through the player movement and discussed the speed and jump force, deciding if they were appropriate values. We all agree that the walk speed should't be so quick for a peaceful game with little action, and the jump force just needs to be enough that the player is able to traverse the platforms with some challenge in places. The animations are working smoothly and we have no problems in that area, I do still need to add in the ability animations but this is a simple process as long as they are to scale with the other player animations.

Next we panned the whole length of the game and I asked for feedback on the composition of the islands across the game, and the team agreed that there was enough variation in elevation but there should be more space between the puzzles as they are too close together as they are.

I had put in markers for the assets I did not yet have but some present features include the panpipes, and gave feedback to the others, showing where I had problems and where they needed to take actions. The panpipes as they are now, are too detailed compared to other assets in the scene and with the scale that is required for them. I have asked Charisma to take out a few of the pipes, there are eight of so of them, and bring that down to five larger pipes so they are more visible and can be scaled larger than the player without taking up a huge amount of space on the screen.

We had a brief discussion about lighting as members of the team had concerns about how complicated it was and none of us had any experience with lighting but have been reminded on multiple occasions by James, to get it started. I explained that I didn't think it was a good idea to begin the lighting until I had made further changes to the structure as I get all the puzzle pieces in and respond to the feedback received in this call. When it comes to putting the puzzles together and working out where the player needs to be positioned, there are bound to be instances where I need to change or add more elements into the scene and I don't to have to keep re-hiring the VFX lead to do more and more work on the scene when it would be more efficient for everyone if it was completed in a fixed slot.

So to summarise what needs to be done:

More space between puzzles, therefore insert more island platforms to be walking over and additional details that need to be placed on those new islands.
Charisma will recreate the panpipes to be more suitable for the puzzle - larger scale for the individual pipes and less line work.
Book another session to go over the boulder puzzle again so it works as it was designed.
Get the new sky finished this week so we can begin plans for lighting.
Molly needs to send the boulder sprite sheet so I can add the flourishing details to the bridge puzzle.

A further discussion we had during this call was going over the UI that Charisma had created and giving her some feedback. She had created a really lovely start screen as well as some menu screens and then a page of fonts to look over and decide which looked best to us.

Thursday 6th May

Team Meeting

In this meeting, we gave James an update on our progress, showing him our individual work that we had achieved that week. I explained the point I was at in the unity development and we discusses booking a lot to fix the boulder puzzle. James seemed concerned that we still had not begun the process of implementing lighting and insisted we start talking to Nerice but I explained our reasons for not having done that yet, promising that the sly and refined structure would be completed this week. Molly was not present for this meeting but I explained that she has some plans for the lighting and I would like her to work alongside Nerice (lead of VFX) to get lighting done.

James also pointed out that there is some inconsistency in our work in our use of perspective in our assets. The islands that the player walks upon have top- down oblique view to suggest a more three dimensional perspective but the other assets are all face-on and do not have as much dimension. He suggested we either make changes to the assets using lighting and re-scaling, or changing the view of just the platforms so every element in the game has the same perspective.

We presented to James some scene testing we have done where we have built up the background of the game using the clouds, mountains and architecture that we have created and he was really impressed. These scene mock-ups (found in week 9) showed our plans for how we will build up the game world to create more immersion. He did suggest that we make some changes to the cloud details, tinting and highlighting them with the colour of the sunset shining up from below.

Other than needing the new sky and preparing for the lighting to be done, as well as me being a little behind on the unity development as the plan was to have the first version complete last Friday, I do think we are still on track and it is only that one milestone that we have not reached. The puzzle pieces are almost all finished and now it is just the case of refinement and implementing the last few game features; lighting, sound and UI. I do not have any concerns for the team, and know we will be finished well on schedule.

Progress Update

Final few puzzle piece assets have been completed and are ready to be put into the vertical slice. I am at the point in the unity development where I am building all the puzzles and getting them to function. This week I am making refinements to the boulder puzzle and will ideally get all the others completed by the end of next week. The EAgle's movement scripts still need to be created, the patrol one can be done this week but the eagle that is part of the panpipe puzzle will have to wait until I get some further guidance from James during our development surgery sessions.

Here is the windmill developed by Daniella! The expectation of this puzzle is that player will notice that the windmill is not spinning, will walk into the boundary where they are able to press the "r" key to use the gust ability to start turning the turbine on the windmill and therefore turning on the fourth lantern, restoring beauty to the scene. The windmills turbine motion should clear clouds from the scene to reveal parts of the beautiful background behind.

The panpipes have been recreated so they can be scaled up so individual pipes are a little larger than the player. To complete this puzzle the player will have to walk past the pan pipes and face left in the direction of the panpipes increase in size. Then they will use the gust ability to blown a gust of wind up and through the pipes to play a peaceful sound that will draw the eagle away, clearing the path for the player to continue on their journey. This asset will be flipped in unity. The purpose of it being reflected are because the player will initially walk past them, not being able to interact with them from the left, and then realise they cannot pass by the eagle. So will retract and have to use intuition to work out the right way to use the pan

pipes (facing left, towards them). The purpose of this complication is just to add in a little further challenge and prevent the player from just spamming "r" everywhere in an effort to get things to happen without caring about what's actually happening. I realised that this is a behaviour that people exhibit when I did play testing for this vertical slice. I want the player to know their intention and value the narrative of each interaction.

The windmill and the panpipes are last two pieces I needed to build the last two puzzles in the game. I am so pleased with how quickly Charisma responded to the feedback given on Monday and prioritised the task at hand immediately. I can confidently say that all game assets have now been complete so all focus can now be moved to the flourishing details. This is great because it means we have met the last milestone right on time (Fix & Flourish, week 10 on the project pipeline).

Week Ten Reflection

This week we had done, final few assets I need to get the puzzles done in unity. The last few I needed, being the windmill and the panpipes. Once the puzzle are in, it is just the case of making sure everything works smoothly, building up the background with layers of beauty and if there is time doing what we can to incorporate the parallax view we have planned to use. I am still waiting for Molly to make final changes to the gust visual so we have gust of wind created when the Shaman swirls the staff to use the ability. That will not take long to implement.

UI, lighting and sound are all under way, being developed by Charisma, Molly and Emilia respectively, meaning that we are well on track and met that milestone for that the be gun this week. We are organising a time to speak to VFX department today. Other tasks have all been complete so the departments will be able to put a lot of focus into those last few elements and then have time if realise something is not working as expected in unity. Emilia also has the Anima Mundi website up and running. It shows an insight into who we are as individuals, a look into our development process and what it means to us to be women working in the games industry. Furthermore, Daniella is working on some game manuals to summarise how to play the game, what the objectives are and give a brief description of what the game is all about.

To summarise, these are the next set of tasks the team are working on:

Daniella - Game Manuals

Molly - Lighting

Charsima - UI

Emilia - Sound Design & Marketing

Me - Unity Development and make sure sky is done for Monday

This week I have made more progress in the unity development and this documentation is spread across two posts in my blog, Unity Development Part 8 and Part 9. In these sessions I have planned how to implement each of the puzzles with a description of what the expectation is and how I plan to execute it, all the additions I have made to the vertical slice this week and any issues I discovered during the process that need to be addressed. In part 9, I have documented the expectation of each puzzle and how I plan to execute it. I sought guidance from an outside consultant who has experience with similar unity builds and asked for some suggestions on how I could achieve what I plan to do. Additionally, I am also working on the FINAL sky painting for the background of the game, which will be finished this week because I have some cloud testing to do stat.

Progress Review

At this point in the project, we have made it to our testing milestone! This means at this point we need to be really heavy on testing everything that goes into unity and looking back at the expectation of each of our features. We have been really good at keeping on top of quality checks and scene mock-ups to test our assets together but at this point we just need to remind ourselves (for unity work especially) that everything needs to be tested thoroughly so that it works as we planned for it to work. If we forget to do this, we risk not having the time to make any fixes that are required.

Our final milestone to reach is the project hand-in and I am confident that all assets will be finished a little earlier than the hand in and it will just be my part leading up to the final day, checking that all features are functioning as they are supposed to and making sure the vertical slice is complete in every way. Getting our tasks done ahead of schedule has meant that if I do come across problems in the last few days, my team will be available to help amek those fixes.

The plan for next week in the unity development is to complete all the puzzles to the best I can, with help from James during the development surgery on Thursday. And also I plan for Emilia (lead artist) and I to complete the background design, putting in all of the assets as she has planned in a scene by scene mock-up she is currently working on.

The communication and work ethic amongst the team at this point in the project has been excellent. If we come across an issue or realise there another piece of work to do, people are jumping on the task straight away, determined to make this vertical slice the best we can.

We are still have regular calls every week besides the scheduled calls with James on the Thursday and discussions are a lot more lively than they were earlier on in the project and I think that is because we have a clearer sense of direction at this point and members of the team are working on tasks that they seem to be really enjoying. Every piece of work is uploaded to slack and we are giving quick feedback as it comes as we make this final stretch to the deadline. I am very happy with where we are at at this point in the project despite the amount of unity work that needs to be done being quite daunting.