This week was spent cleaning up the level that was made in alpha, along with determining the next steps in our level.
The first major progress that was made in the level we presented for alpha was the addition of the fence and code. This event involves the daughter finding a clue that contains a code, in which the father will later encounter a fence that needs a code, the code the daughter found. There is now a function in which a number pad appears for the father, and can move around the gamepad and press the button B to select a number. When the correct code is entered, the fence will open allowing the father to walk through. There are also sound effects that will play and change based on if the code entered is correct or incorrect.
Number pad mechanic
Other sound effects were also edited. The volume of the gunshot, monster audio, and distance of certain 3D sounds, were all tweaked. Also, several sound effects were added such as the Menu interface.
An inventory system was also added in which each player could hit right trigger on their controller to open the inventory. When a player collects an item, the icon will show up in the inventory. An inventory UI was made, and will be implemented later.
Animations were also fixed for the father and daughter. There were issues in which when the father was shooting, the animation will play, but the father can keep moving and therefore looks like he is sliding. The daughter also had the same problem in which when she was hiding, it would appear that she was sliding if she tried to move while hiding. The father animation was fixed so the father cannot move if he is shooting. The daughter animation was also fixed so that if she were to try and move, she will no longer be hiding, and will have to hide again.
After multiple weeks of edits, the trees are able to fade away if it is between the camera and character. RayCasting was replaced with SphereRayCasting, and it now allows a certain range of search of the objects instead of just detecting the objects along a single line. These parameters were also added to the UI interface, so it can be easily tweaked later. Now the camera clipping can be removed, but for the convenience of debugging and developing, we are temporarily keeping it.
Trees fading if in front of character
Small but important things that were changed or added to the level include fixing issues such as not having a visual effect ring to show a hiding spot by the tent, fixing some items not being able to be picked up, as well as having the ability to change font and font size for the dialogue events. This will make it clearer if the dialogue is a thought the players are having, or if it is dialogue for an event occurring. We have also added a screen effect in which if a player is close to the monster, the screen will turn red and give a sense of intensity to the game.
We also added and discussed elements that are not all related directly to the alpha level. We have created a Main Menu, which can be controlled by the gamepad. There have also been more assets made such as a fence, truck, and keys with locks. These keys and locks will be used in the final level between the father and daughter. We have also discussed more in depth about narrative design, including motivations of why they need to help each other as well as why they are lost in the forest. We have fully planned out the first level, so all there is left is to build it. Finally, we discussed and made some changes to the wolf mechanic and monster appearing, so the level can flow better.
In the coming weeks, we are going to start focusing on level one, which will be a tutorial type level that occurs before level two, which is what we presented for alpha. There is also a dialogue bug in which the text can show a jumble of letters if the buttons are pressed too quickly, which we are planning on fixing soon. We will also implement the inventory UI, since as of now it works, but does not use the correct UI.