Section 1 (March 27th and 29th):
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Develop concept behind the game
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Develop a physical playtest
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Begin website
We had a good time play testing the physical prototype this week. The maze setting seemed to work really well in the physical version, but we did use hexagonal patterned boards so maybe the digital version won’t need to be a maze but rather an open world map.
We started a website on Wix and figured out the name of our game: Dreamscape.
Section 2 (April 3rd and 5th):
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Create prototypes of the levels for the game
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Reanalyze ideas influenced by physical playtest
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Complete main layout of website
We finally figured out exactly how many levels there would be in the game (three) and what each level would be (bad dream, neutral dream, and happy dream). We found several concept imageries online that each game level could be associated with and used this concept imagery to begin preliminary maps for each type of level.
This week we also split the group up into which members would be doing what for the final game. Matt and Ashwini will be working on the website, documents, and figuring out the art, concept imagery and environmental aspects of the maps and scenes. Peter and Edmund will be figuring out the coding and mechanics of the game.
Section 3 (April 10th and 12th):
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Playtest game levels
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Refine code for working game mechanics
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Update website
Other than play testing our initial environments this week, we also began work on the game mechanics and coding to make the player interactions work. This is taking a lot longer than we originally thought it would… We are currently trying to figure out how to make the two players be able to play on the same keyboard but switch between the players every 10 seconds, as well as how to switch between Unity scenes so that every level we have has a different Skybox and different music associated with the environment.
We also began searching for play testers for next week. In general, we asked people we know, and friends that we know would be willing to critique our work in order to make it better. We seem to have secured two people who are willing to come – with the guarantee of food of course!
Section 4 (April 17th and 19th):
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Finish a working prototype with working environments and game mechanics
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Play around with idea of Virtual Reality
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Further refine game levels and code
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Update website
Playtesting week! Unfortunately, we were not able to figure out the game codes and mechanics in time for the play test so we decided to simply test out different environmental maps instead. On that note, the play testing went really great! We were able to pin point exactly which maps worked the best (we had created 3 maps for each level of the game, so we were testing 9 maps in total). A lot of the comments on the game had to do with how much better it would be with player interactions which puts us in high hopes for how the game will be in a couple weeks! In general, the testers seemed to prefer the environments that were more realistic because they were essentially more immersive as a character and player.
In terms of game mechanics, we seem to be closer in figuring out how to make the scenes work. Player interaction is also almost finished so hopefully we will be able to put all the elements together and figure out how they work together soon.
Section 5 (April 24th – May 3rd):
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Complete Game Mechanics
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Do further documentation
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Main website update
We were finally able to figure out the gaming mechanics and coding for the game! Because the file size was so large, we decided to split the games into two different files: one where we worked on the coding and one where we worked on the environments. This seems to work the best because the coding file is relatively small and we were able to move the file between the team a lot faster and easier than moving the environments around. Matt and Ashwini decided to just add the environment to the coded file once it was ready.
In terms of coding, the characters now easily interact with each other. Despite the comments made during the play testing, we decided to keep the characters in third person in order to be able to fully see the character in the environment. This would also allow the players to see the animation when the two characters actually hit each other (the Dreamer falls to the ground and the Nightmare roars and throws up his arms in victory). The gates (we changed the doors to gates) also work now. Peter was able to figure out how to make the different scenes load one after another so now each scene can actually have its own sky and music associated with it without mixing up with the other maps.
Most of the design document is now complete and has been updated on the website as well. Other website documentation has also been uploaded like the meet the designers page, concept art page, and play testing page. As soon as the entire design document is complete, that will also be completely uploaded onto the website.
Section 6 (May 8th - 15th):
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Pull together all different parts of the game
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Finish documentation
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Complete website updates
Final week for the game! Everything is finally pulling together. Edmund and Peter finished the game coding and mechanics and were even able to add several new aspects to the game like Peter’s coin system that would help the player who collected the coins, and Edmund’s barrel land marking system which would help the players mark the map around them to be better able to find their way around. Matt took over finishing the environments and making them immersive but not too graphics heavy. Ashwini took over cleaning up and finishing the documentation for the presentation on Wednesday. Edmund worked on putting together all the different parts of the game (all the different Unity files) in order to make them one exe file. For some reason, the environments don't look the same as they did on Matt's computer on Edmund's computer so we had to put the whole game together on Matt's computer instead. Not sure why it does that...
The website is completely up to date with the entire design document uploaded.
But finally we are done! The game works and all the colors and environments and mechanics are correct! We are ready to present the game on Wednesday!