Ryan Crim, Week 5 Journal PPJ, Blog post 5, GMAP 378

Content with Hours (Examples included):

To start the week, I made it a point to update the art in both Abducktion and Draw at Noon, whether I had the final assets or needed to pull from existing assets to fill in.

For Abducktion, this included adding the existing tent texture to the walls and sand texture to the floor of the game to simulate the inside of a tent for the environment. Next, I took an existing bucket model made for the Mech game and added it in place of the cylinders I had been using as cups. This is turn required a few modifications of the code to handle changing the appropriate texture when entering/exiting X-Ray mode. Lastly, I updated the dashboard UI with the new two-screen art and the corresponding control icons that Angela had created as shown in Figure 1. (0.75 hrs)

 Figure 1. Abducktion with updated art

For Draw at Noon, I started by repurposing the skybox textures originally for Crazy Ball to create the environment as well as removed the default directional light for a point light instead as shown in Figure 2. Next, I added in an existing 2D-cutout model for the buff alien to represent the alien, however, the art team is supposedly working on a 3D alien model, so I will add that if and when it is completed. Furthermore, Corey has created a couple of different gun models so I added one into the game for both the aliens and humans. There are a few issues with the normals and they are not textured, but I am leaving them in the game while those issues are worked through. Similarly to Abducktion, the last visual changes made consisted of adding the two-screen dashboard and controls. (0.75 hrs)

 

Figure 2. Draw at Noon with updated art

After all of the art was added to the other two games, my focus fell on finishing the greybox for G-Switch. This consisted of adding alien interaction into the game and better conveying what the humans should be doing to progress to the goal by making platforms not in the middle zone semi-transparent and not solid as shown in Figure 3. In terms of alien interaction, I added a spinner (black line in pink circle) that the aliens try to stop in the appropriate zone (white block in pink circle) and, if they are successful, it causes the section of platforms between the spinner panel and humans to decrease in width. In addition to gameplay modifications, I also updated the G-Switch scene with the two-screened dashboard and well as added sounds for when gravity is switched and the spinner is stopped successfully. (5.00 hrs)

 Figure 3. Finished G-Switch greybox with spinner

The last couple of things I did this week include updating the InputManager with more consistent controls and creating a custom prefab based on Unity’s RigidBodyFirstPersonController. Starting with the InputManager, I noticed that there were a few cases of multiple inputs being defined for the same button as well as there being side effects, such as keyboard inputs being able to control something only the controllers should be able to, so I decided to add all new inputs to properly organize and separate the controls properly. After that, I made sure to update all three of my games to use these inputs. This was a bit tricky for G-Switch, however, since I was using Unity’s default RigidBodyFirstPersonController that uses the standard inputs. Therefore, I created a custom prefab based with customized scripts to expose the inputs used by the controller so that it could be easily changed for multiple games. Moving forward, I will continue to use these controls and hopefully everyone else on the team does so we can keep a bit more consistency. (0.75 hrs)

Content Positive:

- Added art to Abducktion and Draw at Noon

- Finished G-Switch greybox, including alien interaction

- Updated the InputManager with more logical input definitions

- Added custom RigidBodyFirstPersonController for easy control swapping

Content Negative:

- Need alien model to finish art for Draw at Noon

Total Hours for the week: 7.25 hrs

Ryan Crim, Week 4 Journal PPJ, Blog post 4, GMAP 378

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My main goals for this week were to continue to balance Abducktion and Draw at Noon, as well as to add any art created for them. In addition, I was to start on a greybox for G-Switch depending on how much time I had this week.

Starting with Abducktion, I added the 2D duck art that Jinghan had created near the end of last week. This required a bit of reworking in the scene since the placeholder sphere would not display the texture appropriately. Therefore, I added a plane to display the duck art, however, this plane resulted in weird behavior where the duck could sometimes tip over and clip through the cup. To solve this, I made this plane a child of the now mesh-less sphere object I was using to get the proper behavior and visuals as shown in Figure 1. In addition, I tried adding the tent model Corey had made for the environment, but soon after adding it to the scene I noticed it was one-sided and could not be seen from the inside. I made sure to communicate this with the team, and I will add it at the game as soon as it is ready. Lastly, I tried to help balance the game for the humans by adding logic to the code to play a quacking sound every time the tractor beam and cup containing the duck line up. (1.25 hrs)

Figure 1. Screenshot of Abducktion with 2D duck

Next, I spent some time testing/rebalancing Draw at Noon after hearing that it was nearly impossible for the aliens to win since they had too many signs to input compared to what the humans need to input. Playing multiple times with different number of signs, I found that the most balanced number is three, so I updated inspector values and hid a few signs to make this change as shown in Figure 2. In terms of art, I did not receive any this week to add so hopefully next week I will be able to make strides on this front. Lastly, I added a bell toll sound effect to play when the instructions are shown to add to the environment of this game. (1.00 hrs)

Figure 2. Screenshot of Draw at Noon now with three signs for arrow input

Due to lack of art and ease of rebalancing, I had time to start work on a greybox for a game idea called G-Switch. As seen in Figure 3, the main concept of this idea is a first-person runner where the humans get to other platforms by “changing the gravity.” For the greybox, I added a scene with a first person controller, to be controlled by the first human, along with semi-randomly spawning platforms (at least one plausible path) leading up to the goal that can be rotated by the second human as shown in Figure 4. Furthermore, it has a working UI (score and timer) as well as win (get to goal in time) and lose (fall off or run out of time) conditions. The only missing pieces from the game right now are alien interaction, controls UI, and rebalancing to be worked on in the upcoming week. (3.00 hrs)

Figure 3. Storyboard for G-Switch game idea

 

Figure 4. Screenshot from the current greybox for G-Switch

Content Positive:

- Added duck art and quacking to Abducktion

- Rebalanced Draw at Noon

- Started and finished a lot of aspects for the G-Switch greybox

Content Negative:

- One-sided tent model

- No art for Draw at Noon yet

Total Hours for the week: 5.25 hrs

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