General
This week, our team focused on preparing for the large playtest happening this Saturday. Earlier in the week, we also participated in a smaller playtest with a group of high school students. Overall, the feedback was positive, though this group didn’t fully match our target audience. Many of them aimed to reach the end of the map quickly rather than pausing to enjoy the scenery or explore the designed stopping points.
During the playtest, the tech team fixed several collision box issues that caused invisible walls, while the art team identified and later fixed a color problem in the grass rendering.
Overall, the playtest went well, and most players complimented the visuals. We plan to make a few adjustments based on their feedback and hope for an even better outcome this Saturday.
Tech Progress
We create a demo video using the old map:
This week, we were able to make a new build that can be used for playtests. We found that the grass was the main cause of the lag, so it’s currently disabled in the build. We hope to find a more efficient way to handle it soon. We also finally received the pressure-sensing insoles from Brilliant Sole last Friday. Earlier in the week, we met with their team to troubleshoot some UDP server connection and Unreal SDK issues, which they have been working to resolve.
By the end of the week, we managed to get basic forward movement working with the Brilliant Sole modules. For now, walking simply moves the player forward in the direction they’re facing, and we plan to add speed and directional control later. However, the modules still have connection issues, which makes testing difficult. We’ll keep working on stabilizing the setup and improving performance, as the overall scene remains quite heavy to render.
Art Progress
our new map:
visuals:
The art team reworked the map layout, which now hopefully represents our final version. The lake was slightly reduced in size, and players can now walk up the hill to reach the summit and look down toward the starting campsite. We added more environmental details, new models, and some animations to make the world feel more alive. The team also adjusted water rendering and introduced several Chinese-inspired elements to enhance the atmosphere and visual richness of the environment.
