November 13th, 2023 – November 19th, 2023
Production
This week was focused on making big changes. After multiple playtests we sat down as a team and made some major decisions on our scope and the direction for the rest of the semester. We really pushed ourselves to get a lot done this week and we are really excited to see it all coming together.
Design
This week, we redesigned the phase1 map, to make the map smaller and intuitive. We also decided to eliminate the time warp tunnel. This feature was taking up a lot of time and we felt that it was possible to have just as much of an impact if we showcased the construction scene at the end of phase 1 and by using the fade out and into phase 2 and will allow us to spend more time refining more important features. Another big change that we decided to implement was a chat box between the player and their dolphin friend. This will allow us to better communicate with the player what is happening in each phase and to help us to provide a more educational experience as well.
Art
This week we worked on making phase 1 more positive and realistic by implementing bright lights and adding in water caustics. We feel that this has helped take the environment to a whole new level.
We also finalized the dolphin texture in the game. Since our lighting in the game has a green tint to it, we had to adjust the color of the dolphin to a more reddish shade so that it appears as gray within the game. We also started blocking out the timing for more dolphin animations to the game.
Here is the simple chat box and health bar UI we created for the game.
We also got started on creating mangrove seedlings for the final phase. However, they still need to be retopologized and textured.
Programming
We have refactored the echolocation system. Instead of two sounds for echolocation, we will only have one sound for when there is a fish present and another when there is no fish present. We are hoping that this will help prevent any possible misunderstandings.
We also refactored the tutorial part. Instead of showing the slides, we put a dolphin into the tutorial, and the dolphin will “explain” the game to the player.
We have made the transition animation at the end of phase 1 so that we now have a cinematic way to imply the damages caused by climate change, including excavator animation, mangrove disappearing and fish dying, etc.
We have adjusted the placement of the obstacle trigger in phase 2 so it would have a red tide engulfing moment at the end of phase 2.
The building version for sea surface material had some issues, so we repackaged several times and finally fixed the problem of sea surface material. We have also made fade in and fade out effects between different levels to make the transition between different levels more fluid.
The chat boxes from other dolphins are also now triggered when the player approaches certain parts of the game so that it is more intuitive for the player and they know what they are supposed to do in the game.
