Content with Hours (Examples included):
This week I spent most of my time creating and updating
universal aspects of the game, while also making some updates to my own
micro/mini-games.
To start the week, I worked on creating an easy way to show
score additions/subtractions to the players. Therefore, I created a ScoreChange
prefab that consists of a UI text component with a script that animates and
deletes it when done, as well as plays an audio clip depending on whether
points were added or subtracted. I also updated the existing Score script to
contain the overloaded AddScore() methods below that update the score and loads
the ScoreChange prefab into the scene at the provided position (or by default, Vector.zero
which is the middle of the screen). Lastly, I updated each of the scripts for Abducktion,
Draw at Noon and G-Switch to call these methods to put the ScoreChange prefab
to work, an example of which you can see in Figure 1. (1.25 hrs)
// Updates the
total score and displays the change to the screen
public static
void AddScore(int amount)
{
AddScore(amount, Vector2.zero);
}
// Updates the
total score and displays the change to the screen at provided position
public static
void AddScore(int amount, Vector2 position)
{
// Update score
totalScore += amount;
// Create and set up the score change text
for this amount
GameObject sc = (GameObject)Instantiate(Resources.Load("Universal/ScoreChange"),
position, Quaternion.identity);
sc.name = "ScoreChange";
sc.transform.SetParent(GameObject.Find("Canvas").transform,
false);
sc.GetComponent<ScoreChange>().initText(amount);
}
Figure 1. Fading Score
Change text displaying after humans win Abducktion
Next, I continued trying to bring a bit more organization to
the project by creating a Dashboard UI prefab with a child to hold the humans’
controls image. Unlike before where each game needed to update the dashboard if
there was a modification made to it, now the modification can be made in one
place and automatically updates in each game. This already proved helpful when
Angela pushed the next dashboard with the alien instruction panel (shown in
Figure 1 above) as I was able to update the prefab without having to change it
in each game. Furthermore, I did go through each game and added the provided
human and alien control images that Angela has created so far for the new
dashboard. In my opinion, the alien instruction panel is too large and
intrusive at this time, but I believe this is something that we will discuss in
the upcoming week. (1.00 hr)
In terms of changes for my individual
games, I started with some updates and additions to Abducktion. The first
change I made was to bring more visibility to the duck when X-Ray mode is
activated as it had been noted in playtesting that the duck was extremely tough
to see in contrast to the tractor beam light and the sand textured ground.
Therefore, I created a simple X-Ray sprite of the duck, as shown in Figure 2, that
contrasts much more than the normal duck sprite. In addition, I added the new abducting
spaceman visual timer prefab to Abducktion (as shown above in Figure 1 on the
right-hand side) and made some modifications to the Abducktion scripts in order
to get them to properly behave with it. Lastly, I perused the website that this
team has used for music loops and added in the free shorter edit of this loop (http://www.playonloop.com/2012-music-loops/air-ducts/)
in order to provide more atmosphere to the game. (1.25 hrs)
Figure
2. Sprite of duck for X-Ray mode in Abducktion
Moving onto Draw at Noon, the first thing I did was make
small modifications to the arrow signs that the aliens need to press by
changing the pressed color from pink to green, shown in Figure 3, to align more
with theme of the game with humans represented by pink and aliens represented
by green. Furthermore, in the screenshot, you can see that I also added the abducting
spaceman visual timer prefab to the game and made modifications to the Draw at
Noon scripts to behave with it. Lastly, similar to Abducktion, I added a free
short edit music loop (http://www.playonloop.com/2013-music-loops/bridge-over-darkness/)
to the game. (0.75 hr)
Figure 3. Updated
Draw at Noon scene
For my last game so far, G-Switch, I started by creating
some art to help expand on the atmosphere of the game. This included creating a
very simple portal model complete with a spinning portal as well as simple art
for the spinner to make it look a bit cleaner as seen in Figure 4. The portal
required a simple script to rotate the portal, however, the spinner logic
needed to be slightly modified to handle the sixteen specific angles that the
zone can be in as opposed to the old logic that allowed the zone to spawn on
any degree. Similarly to my other two games, I also added the abducting
spaceman visual timer, updated the G-Switch scripts to behave with it, and
added a free short edit music loop (http://www.playonloop.com/2014-music-loops/twin-turbo/)
to it. (2.00 hrs)
Figure 4. Updated
G-Switch scene
Content Positive:
- Created ScoreChange and Dashboard with alien instruction panel
prefabs
- Updated art in Abducktion, Draw at Noon and G-Switch
- Added visual timer prefab to each of my games
- Added background music to each of my games
Content Negative:
- Alien instruction panel may be too large
Total Hours for the week: 6.25 hrs
