Dev Log #2

To begin, there has been much work done on the game, but also not as much as I would have liked. In my previous DevLog I said I would have completed the saving and loading system, the settings menu, the level intro dialogue controller, the scoring algorithm, and some new asset creations. What a fool I was. My hubris. As I was on track to completing these goals and even moving beyond them, I was hit by the bus of reality, and I got sick. I still kind of am, but we're getting there. In the end, I completed the scoring algorithm and several new assets, as shown in the external tutorial-level image above. I will say that between the last DevLog and this one, I squashed all known bugs with the game which should provide a more solid foundation to work with. Shoutout to Unity for hiding their update transforms option in the player settings, it only took me a few hours to fix. 

Some notable things done between the DevLog #1:

• Tutorial level working completely (will touch up and refine, skybox and audio for example)
• The scoring algorithm works completely, and it's modular which will make building levels faster
• Several new art assets were created, which makes the levels look a bit better. (This level is serving as an art build for me to reference throughout development, especially when working on the inside of the factory)
• Under the hood improvements, bug fixes, saving system was partially set up

Things I'm planning to work on for the next DevLog:

• Finishing saving and loading systems
• Finishing level dialogue controller (easy)
• Adding the settings menu (easy)
• Creating load screens between levels (I'd like to plead the fifth)
• Creating assets for factory levels
• Setting up AI for factory workers

There are a few other things I'd like to work on as well, however, those are only going to be worked on If I feel I have the time.

Design-oriented part of Dev Log

So these last two weeks I worked a ton on creating the exterior of the factory, which I wanted so that it could serve as a tutorial level of sorts, before throwing the player into the monotonous task of painting the internals of the factory. In my mind, it's like giving them a glimpse of freedom before throwing them into the pits. If you've worked a shitty job before you know what I'm talking about. This level is very short, and while serving as the tutorial level, I also like to use it for testing out new things I'm working on for the game. Towards the end of the game, I think I'm going to have the player come outside again if I have enough development time as part of the endings.

While the tutorial level has the most to show for what I've been doing the past two weeks, there isn't much more to talk about in terms of things created for it without showcasing tons of screenshots of art. Time to talk about the scoring system. I wanted to create a fair but challenging scoring system for the level, so I created a kind of janky but also decent scoring algorithm. Essentially, at the start of a level, the level controller detects how many paintable objects there are in the scene, and stores that value privately. Then at the end of the level when the player interacts with the door, it counts again. It then divides these numbers to get a percentage of completion which is the base score. Then, I subtract the time spent on the level. There is also a time multiplier value unique to each level, as the default scoring system relies on completing the level faster than 2 minutes to get an S rank, and this time will not be enough for some levels. I like this scoring system because the completion percentage caps how much you can possibly get, however, I may need to adjust because if the player misses even a few things the score drops fairly rapidly.

One thing I need to consider before I start working on the level layouts for factory internals is how parkour will be implemented. I have a pretty solid character movement script, and some of the feedback I have received for my game is that this should be used for parkour stages of levels. My thoughts on this is that it's a great idea, and I think that rather than enforcing parkour it will be means to shortcuts around each level. No risk without reward. I'm still playing around with how the parkour sections will be laid out, but it's looking like a feature at this point. 

That about sums up the past two weeks of game design, here's hoping that I get much more done in the coming weeks.