Week 5: Production Sprint 2

Art part

Environment Updates:  

As promised we make some big changes to the level and we are ready to show you more about it.  

New rocks for the turrets 
First, we were looking for a way to place the turrets. We thought that placing them all on the ground would be a bit simple and not very interesting for the design and gameplay elements. After thinking about it. We were thinking about platforms to set the turrets on it. Now came the decision of making a sci-fi platform or more natural platforms. Even though we decided to go in a more futuristic approach. We still want the nature part to be the dominant visual part of our environment.  

The design of the pillars is like all the rocks we already made. By making sure that they are modular so we can use them everywhere we want. They also allows us to set turrets in different height level. No need to have them on the ground or close to the ground. This way we can add more variety to the gameplay.

We finally have a dome!
A crucial piece of the environment design is the dome. The whole design is based on that idea. It's the biggest light source of the level which makes it not only important for the design choices but also important for the art direction. We also had to think about a way to avoid that the player goes out of the map. It was not a very difficult thing to do because we had the advantage of having sci-fi elements in our game. We thought that a magnetic forcefield would do very well in our scene.   

As you can see we added a little animation effect on the forcefield to give it a more sci-fi vibe. We also did use a blue color which is not the color palette of our enemies. We did that first because the blue color works better in an orange/brown environment and because the green we use for our enemies is way too distracting if we were ready to use it everywhere. That makes blue a great choice and sci-fi is more familiar with blue than any other color. Which makes the scene look more believable.

The force field will be used for many things not only the dome. Those things still need to be added to the game. We think that we can already explain how and for what we can use this force field. You probably already know that we want to add a stand for people that watch the combat. They naturally need protection for the debris but also for the explosions. We think that a force field would be great for them to stay safe! The second one is the hatches where the enemies come from. These hatches will open at every wave to let enemies come into the arena. The first idea was to use glass. Let’s be honest! That isn't as cool as a force field.

New trap reveal! 

The last one is our new trap! For the one who read the previous devlog, we talked about a new trap which this time is an environmental trap, Or more precisely a combination between a sci-fi trap and an environmental trap. Let me explain. The trap is still a sci-fi part but it will highly impact the way you fly in the environment. The idea is that between two high rocks we set a barrier with a force field. That will happen on some waves. We designed it in a very versatile way. We can make that the force field appears between different rocks which changes the flow of the environment. We can even activate multiple barriers at the same time. That way we can completely change the map and make the flying more challenging. We can't wait to test this one out because this trap will have a major impact on the gameplay. We can’t show you how it looks right now but we are working on it and will be presentable in the following weeks.

Brand new ground material
We have the walls, the rocks and the dome the other important part is of course the ground! The ground was challenging because making a new material is not always easy. First, we have to make sure that the material goes well with the other materials. If not, you’ll have a bad result and your global scene will be very sketchy.  

We are in the desert! It is simple to think that we just need sand and that would be it. We thought that adding some stones in the material would be a nice detail and would make the ground less empty and after some tweaks and adding some details. We made something that we think looks great and cool. That’s the message no ground should be empty!

Enemies Updates:

Fixing problems
We did something wrong on the mine trap which created a problem for the game development team. The mine trap and the mine should be two separate meshes because they need to be used as two apart objects. By separating them we created another problem! We broke The unwrap of the mesh(both) so we had to remake the unwraps and of course, start the texturing process again.

Change textures
When we changed the texture of the mine trap we decided to make a little graphical upgrade to all the enemies already made to make them look a bit more realistic even though our art style is still focused on stylized visuals.

First turret enemy done!
We finally finished one turret enemy. We already make the extra graphical upgrade on it and everything went pretty well without problems except for one! It’s not a real problem. It's more like finding a way to do it properly. Previous week we told you that we had to find a way to make the weapons of some enemies aiming at the player(main ship). After some tests, we discovered that it’s not as easy as we thought it would be. We still have to fix a lot of problems with it. This is going to be the main focus of next week because if we can't get that right. Making the enemy shoot to the player is not going to work. 

Pick-Up Updates:

Shield pick-up!

We made a pickup for the shield of the character. We want our pick-up to have their shape language. The player has to understand the difference between a pickup and every other object. Of course, a floating object is not going to be very visually satisfying. That's why we are going to add particles to our pickup to make it more clear that they are pickups.

Technical part

Finetuned movement

After doing the basic movement, we finetuned it and made it more optimal and realistic looking. The ship now doesn't immediately stop when not pressing any movement input. It goes slowly back into its forward-facing state, overshooting a bit if the force is too great. Both modes now have a more realistic feel to them and have been carefully examined and tested. The overall response was great and we decided to fully implement it.

Shooting! Both bullets and missiles!

Yes you heard it, it is here and it is ready to be used! Our new firing mechanic is close to completion for both the bullets and missiles. 

Not only do the ship guns have an overheating factor, but they also cool down whenever not firing! This will lead to the players having to find a balance between shooting and trying not to overheat. These bullets do not explode upon impact, but what does are our missiles! By making the missiles we thought of three different parts... the basic firing mechanic, a lock-on system, and the homing missiles! Whilst both the lock-on system and the homing missiles are being worked on, the basic firing mechanic is almost ready! When pressing B, you fire a missile that will detach itself underneath your ship. These missiles then speed up with great velocity and explode on impact (explosion and damaging factors are not yet implemented). The reload time of a missile will be much longer than those of the bullets. They will also be limited in the future, so use them carefully!

The origin of enemies!

And with this, we mean our spawner! It is almost done, working but needs minor improvements on some aspects. These spawners will open up at the start of every wave, let out the enemy they choose, and then close when possible. It is impossible to know which enemy is going to come out and these hatches are indestructible. Shooting at them will result in...Nothing! The hatches will be randomly scattered around the map, some more hidden than others! With the wave mechanic in development, these hatches will form a terrifying surprise!

Still in development...

Our turret enemy is partially done. We just need to work out the animation and then you'll have another opponent to watch out for!

The wave system is starting to take shape. When finished, you'll be able to test your skills and become the best space gladiator!