Vertical Slice - Log #2

Giving the Character a Face

Now that the rough base of the character has been developed it was about to time re-concept the character’s head from the initial prototype concepts. There was some criteria to follow thanks to our story bible. The selected head was then roughly tested with the intended clothing from last week.

Climbing

Climbing mechanics were added into the game, with a simple grab ledge implemented right now, with shimmying. The current climbing also allows our character to transition to a nearby wall when reaching the end of it. We also implemented an IK(inverse kinematic system) on the animation of climbing, so that when our character comes close to a ledge she can climb to, her arms will signal towards it, as a small sign that it is okay to continue. It is at a very early stage, and will continue to get iterated on over the course of our vertical slice - as it’s a very important feature.

Animation Blending

Some of the animation set up was redone to improve our methods further down the line.

Water Shader & Caustics

Here is an example of the caustic light effect on a spot light to replicate shimmering light from the water reflecting onto surfaces. This was created with the help of LightCake from the unity asset store using a spot light with a scrolling cookie.

Some water textures were developed to be implemented at a later date.

Evolving the Greybox

We are now at a stage where we are building modular pieces to replace greybox assets to ready ourselves for playtesting. In which readability will be important.

pillar

bridgetop

bridges

brokenpillar

inengine

inengine2

Experimenting With Decals

As we decided upon using footprints for sandy areas in our game, decals were the best option when keeping our visual effects at a high quality. The decals weren’t implemented but the materials involved were created and tested using a decal package from the unity store. We are analysing the code there and creating our own prefabs from what we learn.

Decals01

Decals02

More Puzzle Elements

A trap/obstacle involving moving hazards was submitted as an idea. Originally we discussed creating pillars that fall towards the player, making the player have to avoid it somehow. But as there was no logical reason for pillars to reset themselves or move back in the other direction, a large pendulum was suggested. Cuboid designs, like those we were aiming for with ruin assets, were made as well as trying a rough thrown together design like the boulder below hanging from a rope.

Moving Platforms

As any good puzzle platform requires, we created some moving platforms, that the player is able to interact with in the game. Here it shows the route that the platform will follow. Very simple mechanic, but it allows us to open the world up with elevators and other moving objects that can bring the world alive just a bit more.

Final Narrative

The final narrative was written in a story bible for the game. As there were many different iterations floating around our heads, the final concrete piece was decided upon. This opportunity was also good for making any revisions where they were needed. Plot holes were filled, character backgrounds and prologues were finished, and the minimum outline for how the game will progress was set.

Music

We have met with two sound engineers from wintec who are going to assist us with developing all the audio assets within our game! This is an awesome opportunity to propel our game forward as quality sound, is able to make a good game great. We created an audio asset list and forwarded some sample audio tracks to help them in their development, so we are all looking forward to see what they come up with!

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The Artists

Aidan

This week was spent redesigning the character’s head/face and beginning a sculpt based on the final concept. I made a page of head/hair designs and asked for the team’s opinion as to which best suited the character. I also began sculpting the head in ZBrush, but hope to have a more presentable version of it next week. I did an art test in Maya to test textures, but it ended up looking like a potato with a lifeless face, so I will be revisiting this method after the head is done in ZBrush and retopologised.

Thanks to one of our lecturers, Ivan, I was able to make some water textures in photoshop to be panned over each other in different directions. Conveniently enough they can be doubled as disturbed sand or used as a heightmap for dunes.

Connor

As there was some confusion with some details in the narrative, I filled out a narrative document outlining the final narrative. Several large plot holes were filled, the story was put in a logical order and the backstory/prologue was set to explain the motivations and intentions of the characters. The only things left open ended were elements directly related to puzzle and world design.

I began tinkering with a decal system that could be used to project footprints onto the ground using normal maps and alpha masks. This would only be used when the character is walking across sand on the ground. The decal system is set to project any material set to it onto the surface below. Projecting it allows the decal to wrap around faces on an object, so clipping doesn't occur like it would with a flat plane.

I spent more of the week going over some more puzzle elements, focusing on pendulum obstacles. Basing the size off of the typical swinging blade trap found in most games, instead using a stone block. I created varying sizes and designs, sticking to cubic design set for the group, as well as a rock tied to rope. UVs were set up, but textures were not done until the art bible was set up for the ruin design.

David

I came in late this week due to being sick so I missed a few days but I began creating models to start replacing the placeholder models with. I worked on some pillars and a bridge top on friday afternoon and implemented them into the scene. Next up I will be working on some stylized procedural textures that I can use to texture these assets and rocks quickly in engine. During this weekend i will model a bulk load of the assets including rocks and some foliage as well as building upon the greybox to add the area where the player will find the hammer and use it in a lever crank to open a door which is the next ‘puzzle’ the player will come across.

I will also be looking at a few techniques we can use to further enhance the water shader for some better looking waves and edge foam.

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The Programmers

Hadley

The Character Controller required a lot more work put into it, refining and cleaning scripts so as to make them perform better, or more efficiently. This involved altering the control scheme for the camera, giving it a more ‘orbital’ feel to it which is necessary for a 3rd person game. Implementing climbing into the build was done as well, which required all of us to test, implement and refine so as to work somewhat smoothly in the controller. However, a lot more refinement is needed, definitely going to have to re-iterate on the whole system to make the flow more stable. Climbing got messy.

Jose

I split myself into three tasks this week:

• Water Shader & Caustics: To start adding some visual polish into the game, I began working on a low poly water shader that would change color depending on the depth of objects under it, create a shoreline with objects it collided with, and use tweening equations and cloth physics to simulate waves. Although it is nowhere near finished, I got it to an acceptable state for vertical slice, although I still need to improve the foam textures. Caustics were requested, and although I looked into coding them myself a plugin was conveniently found to do the same function for free, and easily. So we kinda just used it.

• Moving Platforms: I began work on a preliminary moving platform system. Anyone can assign any amount of travel points in the map, a travel time to each point, and a delay upon reaching the point before traveling to the next point. It is very basic, but if needed in the future I can add extra functionalities such as performing a code function upon reaching a point.

• Climbing: I’m lending a hand on climbing for now. I did a very early pass (very very early) at remaking the climbing system. The main feature we needed was being able to transition to another wall point when reaching the end of a wall. I got it working, but only one way (the character cannot return). Thus, I will work more on it next week. Small things like having to press down before being able to let go, and pressing up before being able to climb up were also implemented.

Isabelle

This week, I did some troubleshooting on the animation transitions.

Jumping

• Idle jump to moving direction

• Idle Jump

• Running Jump

Climbing

• Climb on ledge

• Climbup

• Shimmy left

• Shimmy right.

In the middle of the week, after showing my work to my co-programmers, they suggested to start over again because it is important for us to use the animator component. I started all over again and started off with the walking to running transition depending on the handle action input from the joystick. I created a blend tree for the locomotion. By the end of the week, the character could now walk and run accordingly.