Lights, and Rain,
And Trees, and Clouds…
Alright, it’s been mentioned a few times, but for real this time – Soft Opening is next week.
Soft Opening, or “Softs” as it’s more commonly known is the second to last milestone of an ETC project. It’s essentially like Quarters, where the faculty come around one by one to try out projects, but at this point the advice is less “what do we think of your project direction”, and more “what can you do to polish this up in 2 more weeks?”
For Softs, what we really want to do is get that tutorial scene in, so we can get feedback on how that flows.
There’s another little snag on that though. This week is also CMU’s Spring Carnival! Which means we are off on Thursday and Friday. “No big deal, we’ll just get it done before then!” is what I said. But there was another issue as well. My previous semester project was going to France to showcase at Laval Virtual, so I wouldn’t even be in the country during the week!
Luckily, this team is amazing, and…
The tutorial scene is done!
In the scene, both players face opposite directions, with a big black border separating them. To start the main section of the game, both players must take a photograph of the marketplace floating in the air, and place it in a frame on the wall.
This gives both players a space to practice and figure out the CAVERN VR side of things, before we start throwing the multi-perspective duplicates at them. Time will tell if this works… But I have hope!
I also quickly threw together a peaceful guitar intro, to contrast the energetic main theme! Here’s a sample.
The Market scene itself has also been reworked, to match more with the actual market square we’re taking inspiration from.
Also, those fireworks for the ring ending I mentioned last week, here’s what they look like!
And finally, since our list of items is getting close to finalized now that Softs is here, here’s a description of them:
Flower (red): A simple rose, that blooms when it is when one player hands it to the other.
Flower (pink): A pink rose, that functions similarly to the red rose, but it triggers a shower of petals when it is handed to the other player.
Headphones: The headphones play a simple song when they are placed on either player’s head. While the song is playing, the headphones are tracked to the player “wearing” them.
Ice Cream: The ice cream can be “eaten” by bringing it towards either player’s head. It is used up when it is eaten 3 times.
Frisbee: This is the hardest item to complete. One player must throw it, and the other must catch it. As a tip, try to throw it as level as possible, using a long arcing motion of the arm to keep its path straight.
Bird Seed: When you hold the cup of bird seed, it attracts a bird to start eating it. The other player can pet the bird, but if either player moves to suddenly, it’ll get scared off. Scaring it off is how to “complete” its action.
Ring: A simple handoff action, that triggers fireworks, and the happy music during the end of the game.
Rock: A rock, that when thrown, ends the game without happy music or fireworks.
We’re really getting close to the end here, and I’m very excited with what we have!