Gold - Log #4

Pressure Plates v2.0

The updated pressure plates were finished last week and imported this week - complete with emissive maps to show activation.

Tower and Lotus

The tower and lotus from last week were finalised this week and implemented into the build.

The Artists

Aidan

This week was spent spicing up the intro area for the Armageddon/PAX build. I mostly worked with existing assets but added some dirt mounds as I had no control over terrain manipulation. Along with last week’s emissive maps, I updated the pressure plates and cubes to have emissive maps for when a successful connection is occurring - for the sake of readability. My final task this week was to design a poster for Armageddon/PAX, so we as a team decided to name the game ‘SAFA’ as it felt relevant to our game.

Connor

This week is the week before Armageddon and PAX Australia. I finished creating the tutorial area, laying out the puzzle elements and doing a bit of set dressing with rubble, skylights, collapsed pathways the player can’t proceed down, and the area in which the player picks up the hammer handle, collapsing some of the pre-made “pantheon” area. After creating the interior, I also created the exterior elements, building a mountain around the area, sheer cliff faces around the edge of the water, and making an exterior dome as the pantheon only had an inside plane in the previous iterations.

I was also asked to make an effect for the top of the tower. A source of the light beam shooting toward the main tower in the scene. It is just a simple mesh with emissive lighting, a particle system, and a scrolling texture to look like energy. I finished recreating the crank mesh and new materials, as the programmer in charge of sound raised concerns that the sound playing during its use had stone and wood grinding.

David

Leading up to PAX I created shrubs and trees to populate the island and polish the exterior as well as adding some islands in the distance to bring more life into the island. The shrubs and trees were created in SpeedTree. This weeks progress was slow because I was sitting an art test all week.

The Programmers

Hadley

This week was hectic, twas the week leading up to Armageddon, and the weak before PAX. So we were in full throttle due to the artists leaving on the weekend for Melbourne Games Week. So we had a serious overhaul of a lot of aspects of gameplay, sound effects were implemented throughout the game world, ranging from dynamic footsteps, hammer swings and frog croaks. I revamped the falling animation to fit more with the new jump style, I finished refining the bell puzzle area, polished the tutorial puzzles, added light beams from the tower to the “Main Temple”, completed the game loop by adding an end state inside the main temple, and added debug teleport points for rigorous, on the fly playtesting at the conventions. Least we forget the mountains of game juice we added, particles everywhere, on jump, on hit, SFX on landing, Mohaj voice lines caused by certain interactions, and a collectible statue of Mohaj himself. It was a big week, and ended hours before showcasing at Armageddon.

Jose

I kept adding new sound effects and effects, such as a little dust cloud when Safa jumps, a trail renderer on the hammer, sparks and sounds when the hammer hits something. Some little ambient sounds like frog croaks…I also edited the soundsteps so they would change depending on terrain.

Mohaj now speaks! Finally! When staying idle, hitting things too much, solving puzzles, or even obtaining him the first time! The hammer blinks too. Spooky!

Izzy

This week was dedicated for Armageddon and taking in feedback from the players that played the game in the expo. We took turns on who manned up the booth which was just me Hadley and Jose, the artist’s didn’t make it for reasons. This week was also unlucky for me because before the night of armageddon, Hadley, David and I were making changes into the game, (finishing touches etc.) to create a complete game loop, my computer did not cooperate and it suddenly stopped working. All my changes were lost and it was not ideal. In the end, Armageddon was a good experience and definitely was rewarding to see a lot of people sit down and play the game.