Ryan Crim, Week 3 Journal PPJ, Blog post 3, GMAP 378

Content with Hours (Examples included):

To start this week, I made a few updates and fixes to Abducktion based on feedback from showing it in class. The first change I made was to slow down the swap speed of the cups a little bit since it was difficult to keep up with what was going on at the original speed I had it at. Furthermore, I added logic to prevent swapping the cups right before the game ends to avoid the unfair situation where the humans would not be able to react. Lastly, I fixed a bug with the X-Ray logic that caused it to not turn it off after time expired. Also, I planned on adding any art created for Abducktion, however, by the time the art was finished, I did not have enough time to add it. (1.00 hr)

Besides Abducktion, I spent the rest of my time this week working on creating a greybox for a new micro-game called Draw at Noon. The main gist of this game is to replicate an Old West gunfight with the focus being on reactions. As shown in Figure 1, the storyboards show that after a ‘Draw!’ prompt, the alien needs to input a random sequence of arrows before the first human raises the gun with one button and the second human shoots the gun with another button.

Figure 1. Mock-up storyboards for Draw at Noon

For the Draw at Noon functional greybox, I set up the scene with a temporary alien and gun, added the appropriate UI and wrote scripts to handle the general game logic, user input and the mechanics of the motions. Below are the scripts I wrote and what their purposes are. (5.50 hrs)

• DAN_Master
• Handles UI for timer and score
• Keeps track of whether the game has started/ended
• Keeps track of who won or if the result was a draw
• Loads transition when game has completely ended
• DAN_Alien
• Sets up the signs with random arrows to be inputted
• Receives keyboard input and updates signs as they are pressed
• Calls motions script to move alien model as necessary
• Shoots bullet at human when all signs are completed
• DAN_Human
• Receives input from controllers to raise and then shoot gun
• Calls motions script to move human model as necessary
• Shoots bullet at alien when both inputs are completed
• DAN_Motions
• Tilts model to side when raising gun
• Tilts and recoils model backwards when gun is shot
• Tilts model slowly backwards when shot
• DAN_Bullet
• Moves bullet object toward the other player
• Determines who win based on which player it collides with

Currently, the flow of the game starts with the ‘DRAW!’ screen showing and the signs displaying random arrows for the aliens to input as shown in Figure 2. When the ‘DRAW!’ screen disappears, the aliens can then press the corresponding arrows from left to right. After two signs are lit up, the alien raises its gun (Figure 3) and when all five of the signs are lit up, the alien shoots a bullet at the human (Figure 4). Meanwhile, the first human player needs to press the Left Bumper on their controller to raise the human’s gun  (Figure 3) before the second human player can press the Right Bumper on their controller to shoot a bullet at the alien. When a bullet is shot, it flies at the other player and causes them to fall back after it collides. Points are added to the score if the alien is shot and points are removed from the score if the human is shot. In addition, if neither player finishes their task before time runs out, the game ends in a tie and no points are awarded as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 2. Start of Draw at Noon micro-game

 

Figure 3. Both players with gun raised

 

Figure 4. Alien’s bullet coming toward human (score changes when bullet collides)

 

Figure 5. Screen displayed when the game ends in a tie

Content Positive:

- Made a couple of modifications to Abducktion

- Created functional greybox for Draw at Noon
- Got a playtester

Content Negative:

- Received the Abducktion art too late to add it into the game

Total Hours for the week: 6.50 hrs