This week we built out the final boss level and fixed up small bugs around our game.
I created the core functionality of the boss level and added more menu backgrounds designed by Anthony. Only a few bugs and details left to fix and we will have completed our project scope.
This week our team focused on getting the beta code together as fast as possible. We added sounds, animations and cleaned up the interaction.
My role this week was to fix up all the interaction points, create menus and transition between cutscenes. I also made small fixes in the levels such as protecting the block from falling in level 3. Additionally, I simplified Itztli’s abilities so that the players won’t get frustrated later in the levels.
Next week we will finish up our boss level, and clean up all the assets that are left out
This week, we implemented a bunch of assets left over. We implemented character animation, sounds, and slapping mechanics working. All of this necessary for the beta release.
I started on the boss battle functionality. Got the rockets and laser attacks working based on intervals and states. Also fixed a few small bugs here and there including an animation bug.
Next week, we’re focusing on playtesting, polishing, menu implementation and overall compiling the beta build.
We had a bit of a more relaxed week this week to catch up with other homework. Went for the immediate improvements needed and assets left to do. Ryan’s looking into the boss mechanics, I’m fixing up immediate bugs, kenny’s got the sound ready to go for me to implement next week, anthony’s working on animations and Keegan is also working on bugs, level fixes and the GDD.
In terms of immediate bugs. I’ve played with the physics of the characters to be a bit more fun and physics based and added a smooth fade transition between scenes. I also added the ability to press t to go to the next scene, for debugging purposes.
This week was quite a bit of work. As a team, we conducted 6 playtest sessions and ran into many bugs along the way. We finalized the level designs and cleaned up/improved many of the assets. We fixed MANY issues we had and are quite content with the state it’s in right now.
Personally, I built out the levels, fixed bugs in said levels, fixed a few of the bugs Ryan was having issues with, fixed the big catalyst issue we had (creating another less game breaking one), fixed the lighting a little bit, finetuned the placement of the messages, and fixed the controller bugs.
Next week, based on our feedback, we will mainly be focusing on the physics of the game, boss level, and adding a slap gimmick just to mess around with the other player in a silly way. We will also work on the many bugs we have and add sound and animations.
This week our team tried to finish off the leftovers we have and loose ends in order to start creating our full level set. We were stuck with enemy ai for a small portion, but have just gotten over the struggle. Smooth sailing in the graphical upgrades.
I added a lot of quality of life improvements and general improvements on the game this week
Next week we will test, complete the gdd and slides, build the levels fully and be prepared for the homestretch
This week our team was focusing on how interaction and adding what needs to be further added being Enemy AI, post processing and interaction glow.
I focused on redoing the tutorial messages based on feedback. This included adding lighting and setting up the basic structure for how objects would be highlighted in the scene. Also implemented Anthony’s sprites. This upcoming week I will be focusing on camera shakes to add better game feel and a menu so the player can actually exit our game.
This week we did our playtesting, GDD refinement and presentation design as a group. Our main feedback was the lack of feedback from the controls of the game and how they were a bit confusing. There was lack of contrast on the intractable elements as well, so we need to make that our priority moving forward.
Individually, I fixed a mess of bugs and finally made the game actually playable with controllers. There are a few temporary fixes here and there but, i’ll get working on them asap as soon as my other homework is finished. My main focus in the upcoming weeks is to work on replicating the minor bugs left, adding a feedback and interaction system (including a camera shake), and implementing more of Anthony’s assets. Enemy AI and additional prefabs will be on Ryan’s shoulders as I get the game as functional as possible. Hopefully, it will be smooth sailing from this point on, but I still feel as if we are ahead of our project timeline.
Dear Diary,
This week our team was focusing on getting our GDD and first playable done ahead of time. Since we already started working on everything, we were quite ahead of the schedule and rolling at a good pace.
I mostly implemented a bunch of features that were detrimental to our first playable due next week. We have the first two playable levels working and connected, both characters with functional mechanics (albeit with a lot of bugs), minimal UI, organized prefabs, and fully separate controller support.
I’m quite proud of the work this week and the game looks like it’s really coming together. Even play testing among ourselves, it feels quite fun. By the end of next week we hope to have the few remaining bugs fixed mechanically. Regardless, we were not able to play test today (Wednesday the 2nd) as we found too many bugs and will most likely play test on Monday.
This week we filled out the GDD and elaborated on the characters, stories, and early levels. We discussed many different aspects over the course of filling out the GDD and realized that our game was, in theory, already going to be quite fun. The only thing we really had to do was flesh out the narrative and make certain details set in stone.
I worked on the gameplay portion of the GDD/slides, found names for our main characters, cleaned up the GDD/slides and cleaned and commented my previously written code in order to merge with Ryan’s on github. We also discussed how I would accomplish the fissure ability with Itztly (our rock character) and how to make the transpose ability more applicable to the main levels. More work will be done on these over the weekend.
IAT 410 - Gabe's Blog 