Starting with what was done this last week, we had edited level 1 as well as fixing a large number of bugs that were present in levels 2 and 3.

With level 1, a more cheerful background music was added to it compared to the nature ambiance and lantern sounds heard in level 2 and the chase music in level 3. We also added a large number of dialogue events to help the characters learn the mechanic, but also to start learning the stories between the father and daughter. In the level, the daughter walks through a path to collect pine cones hoping to feed some squirrels, and the father walks through his path to shoot logs and collect a key. This key opens a gate in the clearing, and leads to the level 1 to 2 cutscene.

The level 1 to 2 cutscene was drawn out and colored, showing scenes of the daughter running ahead of the father, and then another scene of the daughter leaving her father and going through a small hole in a gate, thus separating the father and daughter and moving into level 2. There is also dialogue added in this cutscene, and shows the conflict between the daughter and father occurring. The dialogue includes the father telling the daughter they must leave the forest and go home as it is getting late, but the daughter does not want to go home. She tells her father that she does not have enough freedom, and runs away. This then leads to level 2.

In level 2, there were no large changes made, but multiple small changes. The first change was that invisible walls were added to ensure that the father and daughter do not stray too far out of the path and become unable to finish the level. We also increased the speed of the monster,as earlier the daughter would be able to outrun the monster by a significant amount. We added more dialogue as well to further push the story between the father and daughter. Another small change involved the numpad and gate the father uses. Originally, the father would open up the numpad UI immediately after he approached the gate. Now, there is a particle system (the same as the one used for collectible items) that the father can interact with to then open up the numpad UI. Multiple bugs were fixed, such as the wolf encounter, in which the father could throw the bone before the daughter would hide from the wolf, and therefore would cause the level to not finish. Other small bugs include the father being able to shoot the logs from far away, and removing dialogue that would appear when it shouldn’t.

The level 2 to 3 cutscene had stayed the same, except for dialogue added to the cutscenes. This dialogue has the father and daughter happy to see each other, but also has dialogue where the daughter tells the father there is a monster in the woods and she hears it nearby. This then leads to level 3.

There was one large change made in level 3, in which when the daughter collects all 4 keys and interacts with the fence, the screen will now change to full screen with a background of the daughter facing the gate with the locks. The lock and keys UI then appears, and the game has a focus on the daughter, and the father player is then able to watch and support the daughter as she goes through this final task. Other small edits and bug fixes include adding invisible walls, fixing lighting issues, adding the jitter movement to the monster, as well as adding more dialogue events. The game ends once the father and daughter approach the truck, and the final cutscene plays.

Full Screen Daughter Moment in Level 3

This final cutscene wraps up the story with the father and daughter running away and entering the truck. The monster follows until they reach the edge of the forest, and then the monster turns back. The father and daughter then reconcile, and the story ends. Like all of the other cutscenes, music is also added to this one. 

Some other bugs that were fixed that do not depend on a specific level include fixing a bug regarding controller issues where the players would have to reconnect their controllers after every level. This could cause the players to switch if  they were playing the father or daughter, but has now been fixed. There was also a lot of dialogue issues that needed to be resolved, such as  the font and font size. Another dialogue issue occurred where dialogues would play at the same time and cause a jumble of letters to appear, which has now been fixed. Finally, the menu UI underwent some changes to make it more intuitive and interactive.

As a group, we had learned a number of new techniques and programs. 

Asumi, the producer, learned how to manage hers and everyone else’s time, as well as ensuring that no one was overloaded on work they had to do for the week. She also learned how to do a large number of small tasks that range from programming, animation, and design. She also learned the process and amount of work and cooperation it takes to create a game and is glad she had a wonderful team to bring this game to life. 

Gary, the artist, learned how to use After Effects and cut down on his time spent animating. He also learned to consider the character’s movements when animating. For example, using the puppet pin tool in After Effects allowed some jerkiness into the animation that felt appropriate for the monster. 

Joshua, the sound designer, learned how to use Ableton Live, Audacity and Midi keyboard to compose music and sound effects that fit the game theme, and also how to use FMOD to control music and sound effects in Unity. Joshua also helped in programming, in which he learned the syntax of C# and how to program in a more efficient way in Unity, such as using coroutine, delegate, singleton, and serialized parameters to make the code clean and efficient. He also learned some basic GLSL shader coding, and pure C# coding to implement the same shader effect, as well as learning the new input system for Unity, sprite animation, and UI. Joshua also contributed to 3D modeling, in which he learned how to use Blender and put them in Unity, and created particle systems to generate glows and fire. Regarding teamwork, he learned how to express his ideas in English as a non-English speaker, how to cooperate and understand the importance of team spirit, to trust, help, get help and learn from teammates, and to work as a team in a way more efficient way.

George, the programmer, became better at writing clean code. As Asumi and Joshua also contributed to some portions of coding, he made sure to include a lot of comments so it is easier for them to understand what is occurring. He also learned how to use Unity’s new input system. This new system was confusing if there are 2 or more controllers involved, and therefore had to learn this new system. He also created PlayerInputHandler.cs and CutsceneInputHandler.cs to interact with the PlayerInputManager.cs provided by Unity. Finally, he learned about writing shaders for Unity’s default render pipeline. He had to write a posterize post process shader and a red hue shift post process shader for this game. 

Finally, if we had more time, we would have liked to fix additional UI bugs and also add some better dialogue, as sometimes the lines do not flow best in the game and can come out strange. We would also have liked to edit the monster animation and movement to match the new animation that was created but never implemented. Another edit we would have liked to change is the level 3 camera angle, as we had tried  multiple fixes, but could not figure it out, and therefore had to leave the camera angle the way it was before. We would have also liked to optimize the code more and have the game run smoother, and create more 3D models to use in the game. We also would have liked to edit the pacing of the story, to make it feel more cohesive.

Before we sign off for the last time, we would like to show you our game trailer! We hope you enjoy!

For level 1, we have decided to make a very short tutorial level where both players can learn the mechanics they will be using throughout the game. The goal of this first level is to open a gate that is in a clearing. The father needs to shoot down a pile of logs that are in the way and collect a key. The daughter is able to walk around and collect pinecones, as well as hide in different locations throughout the map. Once the gate is opened, the level ends which leads into level 2. This level 1 is made to have as little new material as possible, as we are nearing the end of the semester. We have no new mechanics, and will only require new music in the background of level 1, as well as an icon for the pine cones the daughter will be collecting. There is currently a composed demo of music for level 1 that will be completed soon. The majority of the work that is needed in level 1 is terrain design and laying out all of the objects. This is currently in the works, and will be completed by the end of next week. If major problems were to arise however, we do have an image of a tutorial, with what each of the buttons on the controller are used for, which can be used if level 1 cannot be completed. 

Level 1 Layout

Other time was spent making small edits and fixes to levels 2 and 3. The first edit we made involved adding textures to the dirt path and the forest ground so they can be distinguished a bit better. Also, grass was added to the forest floor on level two to help distinguish between the path and forest floor further, as the grass is more visible in the dark and can help the players determine where the path is even if their light is not shining on it. After playtesting and getting people’s thoughts on the grass, we will add it to levels 1 and 3. A different visual change we also made is with the logs the father needs to shoot in level 2, but we may also add to level 3 to increase the intensity. We made the logs look more natural and smaller, but still made sure that the father must shoot down the logs to go through the path. The destruction of the logs should also look better when compared to beta. 

Ground Texture and Grass

Another edit we made was the monster animation. We have made a change to it so it looks like it is lunging forward with irregular movement instead of constantly moving. We are still currently in the process of adding it into the game, but will be added by the end of next week. We are attempting to implement it so the speed of the monster changes at different points of the animation, so it is slower as it prepares to lurch forward, and then speeds up as it lunges.

Also in level 2, edits were made involving the number pad on the gate that the father must input the code in. We modified the look of the number pad to appear older instead of very modern. Sound effects were also changed for the lock, such as hovering over a number, modifying the input, having the code inputted wrong, and the code inputted correctly. Along with the number pad edit, an edit was made to the wolf encounter so the music disappears once the wolf disappears, as previously it would play even after the event was over. 

UI Change for Number Pad

In level 3, we have made changes to the camera angle to stop the sprites from appearing like 2D objects, as well as creating a new backdrop image to show while the daughter unlocks the key. This creates two possible ways to have the daughter open the gate. The first method is what we currently have, in which the game is split screen at this point, and the daughter unlocks the locks while the father shoots away at the monster. The second method is to have the entire screen show this new backdrop image, and the screen will no longer be split screen and only show the daughter working through the locks. We will be playtesting both of these methods and determine which method players like more and move forward with that method.

Another edit made in level 3 is changing the chase music that plays in the first part of level 3 where the daughter and father attempt to escape from the monster. The pitch no longer changes as the monster approaches, and the music does not fade if the monster is too far away. Instead, the music plays continuously in the section.

Finally in level 3, we are editing the monster movement mechanic. As of now, the father shooting the monster only froze it, and would make it so the monster would always be chasing them from behind. Instead, we will now have it so when the father shoots the monster, the monster will retreat and then appear from a different direction. This will help create more intensity in the level. 

As we are nearing the end of the project, this next week will be spent working on a multitude of small fixes, instead of a few large ones. This includes fixing small bugs such as inventory icons being too small, and changing the dialogue font size in some portions. We will also finish laying out the rest of level 1, or continue with the tutorial image. We will also be coloring in the cutscenes we have previously created, and add one small one betweens level 1 and 2.

However, first large change, we have a main menu! This main menu contains a composed piece to play in the background, and we have two possible images we will continue with for the final version. Once the button is clicked, it leads to level two, and there are also sounds for when the buttons on the main menu are clicked. 

Two Options for Main Menu Art

Although when one hits play on the main menu it loads to level two, there is also a tutorial UI that was made so the players understand which buttons to press. We are hoping to make a level one eventually, but if there is no time would have to change the idea to being only a two level game, and have the tutorial be an image showing the different mechanics one can do. 

Tutorial Image

In level 2, multiple edits were made. The first large change involves the monster.  We added the walking animation for the monster, as well as changed how the monster moved. We made the monster have a jittery effect when walking, which hopefully ups its creep factor. For Alpha, we had the monster disable itself and completely disappear when the daughter hid, but now we have made it so when the daughter hides, the monster goes away. 

We also created a new cooperation task the father and daughter must do. At the start of the level, the daughter comes across her first collectable, a code. This code will later be used for the father to unlock a gate on his end. This will hopefully create more of a cooperative game feel, instead of two separate games that the two players are playing side by side. 

An inventory was also added to the game, which is used in both levels two and three, but is a larger focus in two. Now, when the daughter and father collect items, they will be able to open an inventory to see what they have collected so far. This will let the daughter to see the code again after collecting it for example. 

Inventory Open on Father’s Side

Other changes that were made include creating and adding 3D models to the game, such as a pile of logs for the father to shoot down, as well as placing other landmarks so the players understand where they are in the map. We have also fixed some dialogue bugs in which the dialogue would repeat itself, and changed the font for the dialogue. Some sounds were also changed, such as the lantern sound, the gunshot, and the wolf encounter music. The tree transparency was tweaked, and now shows the trees to be semi transparent so the daughter knows where the tree is and does not walk into an invisible tree. 

3D Model of Logs

After the father and daughter meet up in level two, it switches to a cutscene consisting of three images. These images will be paired with a dialogue the two players read. This is meant to help push the narrative of the father and daughter, as well as provide more insight into what is happening in the game. Cutscene music was also made to play in the background of the cutscene. 

One of the Cutscene Images

Once the cutscene finishes, it leads into level three, which can be thought to have two parts. Level three is different from level two in that there is no longer a split screen and instead they will work together on one screen. In the first part, the father and daughter must navigate through the forest as the monster appears from all directions. However, there have been some small tweaks since we last saw the monster in level two. Now, the monster freezes whenever it is in the daughter’s light. This is done because the father’s lantern has been broken at the start of this level, and therefore the daughter’s flashlight is all the light the two of them will have. The daughter must shine the light to determine where to go as well as stop the monster from shooting. The father on the other hand must shoot at the monster to make it run away before it attacks the father or daughter. A sound effect has been made for when the monster touches and attacks the player.

As the daughter and father work together to fight off the monster, they go into a clearing in which they find their family truck! However, it is behind a gate. This is the start to the second part of the level. The daughter’s flashlight is now out of battery and does not work, and therefore can only work off of the truck’s light. The truck’s light is different from the daughter’s in which it does not stop the monster from moving, which will make this second part harder than the first part of the level. The monster will still continue to appear at random times, but to leave and get on the truck, the daughter must now collect four different keys that are found in the clearing. These keys are then used to unlock the gate that leads to the truck. There is a matching type game the daughter must do, in which she drags the key to the lock to unlock it. She will have to match the right key to the right lock, and will need to do this four times. There are sounds that also show if the match was correct or not, and the lock and key disappear if it is a match. The key and locks can be figured out to match as they have a matching material and the keys have a base that resembles the shape of the key.

Once the daughter completes unlocking the gate, the game ends. Another cutscene plays of four images, and shows the monster turning back from the father and daughter. The father and daughter are safe, and the game ends.

Image from Cutscene

In the upcoming weeks, we will like to fix the way the inventory looks, some changes to the post processing for the light, along with possibly creating a short level one as a tutorial for the two players. We will also need to make small changes such as adding invisible walls so the players do not roam too far out of where they are supposed to go, along with increasing the speed of the monster as it is a little slow as of now. We will also have the inputting of code for the gate in level two, and the lock and keys in level three to open up after investigating it, since as of now it pops up after getting close to it.

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.

This week, we have focused on creating one smooth level to present. In terms of level layout, we have two separate paths, the father and the daughter, which then connect so they can meet, and the level ends after some dialogue. This alpha presentation will be focused on level two out of the four levels that will be available in our game. We chose to present this level, as it shows the unique mechanics of the father and daughter as well as showing the cooperative aspect that can still occur even if they are separated.

Path layout of level

In terms of art, smaller, level-specific assets for the alpha were made. After the basic layout of the level was outlined, item pickups, clues, puzzle UI, and a basic tiled wall/fence were drawn out. A wolf is also showcased in this level, so the art and animation were done using After Effects. 

Wolf Animation

The main coding that was created was the wolf mechanic. In the level, a wolf appears in the path of the daughter, and the daughter must hide. However, the wolf will not move away on its own. Instead, the father must throw a bone that he collected earlier in the level, and throw it in the woods to lure the wolf away. This new mechanic uses a lot of the previously made mechanics, but with a few small changes. 

For sound, a wide array of sound effects were made, including picking up an object, throwing objects, clicking for a puzzle UI, music to play when the wolf appears, sounds during the wolf encounter, and monster ambient music. After these sounds were made, they were made  interactable inside Unity. Some of the sound effects such as the wolf encounter and monster music includes a distance factor to adapt the volume and pitch accordingly.

A new father mechanic was also added, which is path tracking. The father will encounter a split of paths in which the objects in each path look mirrored, but contain one difference. This difference is a large paw print, in which the father must follow to find the monster to protect his daughter from. 

Sample of Path Tracking

Other important additions to the game include adding dialogue to hint and help the player throughout the level, a particle effect to show that an object can be collected and  investigated, a ring to show hiding spots available to the daughter, and other small nature objects throughout the level. The tree transparency has also been implemented, and now the trees are transparent while rendered between protagonists and the camera.

Moving forward, we are hoping to implement other puzzle-like features to our game, as well as add an inventory so our players can look back into the different items collected. We are also hoping to add more quality of life improvement, such as more dialogue throughout the map, adding invisible walls so the players cannot wander too far off the path, and fix the light colors. We are also currently working on a function which involves a code the daughter finds, and a fence that requires a code the father finds, in which the father needs to input the code the daughter finds. Although this is almost complete, a few more edits need to be made to implement, and are hoping to add this into a level soon.

The posterize effect reduces the number of colors that the game can display. Under the hood, Unity uses a “fixed4” data type for colors in its surface shader, which means that the RGBA channels are represented with 4 floating point numbers. The standard size for floating point number is 32 bits. The posterize effect effectively reduces the number of bits used to represent the colors; in other words, colors that look similar with a high bit depth will get aliased to each other and become the same color.

In addition to the color posterize effect, a similar effect was added to the light levels or “luminance” of the game. In the demo video below, the game is using 2 light levels. If a pixel is in shadow, then it will be drawn completely black. If it is not in shadow, then it will be drawn with the posterize color effect.

A couple improvements were also made to our dialogue system. The player can now experience dialogue with multiple lines. To proceed to the next line, the player must hit the “Confirm” button. Additionally, in the Unity editor, we are using ScriptableObjects to represent the dialogue lines. The scriptable objects help us abstract the dialogue lines away from the C# scripts that use them – we no longer need to write the dialogue lines in a “public string” field attached to a text display C# script. Instead, we create a DialogueEvent ScriptableObject and just give that to the text display code. We anticipate that the final game will have lots of dialogue, so having a DialogueEvent will help us organize the dialogue later in the semester.

The music has been in the works. Now that the outdoor ambience sounds are complete, we have been working on the main background music. It is almost complete, and will have it done by the alpha stage.

For art, the daughter art has been updated with new lighting to show the flashlight effect better. The animations have all been updated with this new art, and can be seen from the video above. Apart from the new lighting on the daughter art, the hiding art has been made, along with the animations for the father shooting. The daughter hiding has been implemented into the game, and the father shooting will be added soon. There is also art for sparkling particles that will appear when there is a collectible item in the map.

There has been more level development for the alpha stage, and within the next few weeks, we are planning on building more on the level, by adding more dialogue, collectibles, and things for the father to shoot. We are also planning on adding parts that will help the appearance of the game, such as adding fireflies.

To help create this moment, we started to create sounds to help players feel more like inside the game and create the mood. We have implemented footstep sounds on grass, a gunshot, the rattling of a lantern, and ambience noises that are associated with nighttime in a forest. The footstep is set responsive with the walking/running speed, also set up the discrete terrain in FMOD so that later on we can easily assemble footsteps for different ground types. The rattling of the lantern is set to randomly occur, and is currently attached to only the father. The ambient sound currently is a mixture of a night owl, a raven scream, insects, wind and tree leaves, to give a vibe of immersion in the deep night forest. The ambient sound later on can be set more random so that players don’t feel the loop. For theme music, we have a draft for now, where piano and light sounds represent the daughter, while the cello and heavy instruments represent the father. We have set them separately for left and right channels, making it more asymmetrical, the mood is supposed to be dark and sad.

This week was also spent correcting the lighting on the daughter’s frames and other cosmetic changes. We also finished all running animations for the father, and fixed all animations for the daughter and father. These animations work for both keyboard and gamepad. For keyboard, it can move diagonally if multiple of the keys are pressed at once, and for a gamepad, the degree at which the joystick is moved decides the direction. Depending on the direction the daughter or father was moving also changes the direction the daughter and father face when they are idle. An example of this is if the daughter runs east and stops moving, she will face east when idle, but if she runs west and stops moving, she will face west when idle.

Monster concept art has also been drafted for the game. The monster will look like a clump of different body parts mashed together to form almost a blob. Throughout the game, it will mostly be just portions of the monster being shown, and it will only show the shadow of the monster. The reasoning is that having an “amalgamation” type monster requires less frames to draw, as one animation cycle can be used for any direction. Also, glimpses of it seen through the trees can mislead the player early on, with suspense and confusion building as more limbs are revealed.

For the coding, we have fixed some bugs from our prototype, and have added new game mechanics. We fixed the shooting mechanic so it feels better to use. The bullet is no longer a rigidbody moving through the scene; instead, the father does a Raycast and the bullet instantaneously travels to its destination, and we also removed the explosion animation. There are destructible objects, such as logs, that can be placed and the father can shoot to destroy. We are thinking about replacing the explosion animation with a little bullet spark that emits from the hit point. 

The daughter has the hiding mechanic already implemented, but we have now also added the ability for the daughter to collect objects she finds while in the forest. The daughter will be able to go through the map and discover objects to help shape the narrative of the story. Knowing that our game will be heavily narrative based, we knew that we wanted to have dialogue in our game. Therefore, we have created a very simple dialogue display to playtest and determine where we should put the dialogue, along with if there should be two boxes (one for daughter and one for father), or the daughter and father to share one dialogue box.

To make the game feel more asymmetric, we have also changed the lighting for the daughter. While the father carries a lantern which allows him to see his surroundings in all directions, the daughter will carry a flashlight and therefore can only see a small portion of the surroundings in front of her. We will introduce this for playtesting and determine if we will keep this lighting for the daughter, or change it so the daughter is also carrying a lantern. We have yet to decide, so we are holding off on redrawing the daughter’s arm in all the frames holding a light source.

The level is quite simple, in which the daughter is able to collect an object and reach the bottom of the cliff, while the father goes up the cliff, having to shoot a fence and destroy it to reach the top. For the prototype, we used assets instead of using terrain, but this week we have moved to using the terrain tool on Unity.

Next week, we are planning on making changes based on the feedback we receive from playtesting. Some things that may change based on playtesting include the lighting for the daughter, where the dialogue boxes appear, and the way the level is laid out. We also would like to make small fixes that will create a better experience for the player, such as having the trees in front of the camera and player fade out. Additionally, we would like to begin some initial testing with toon shading and changing the look of the daughter’s screen vs the father’s screen. Art-wise, we’re hoping to finish up the majority of essential animations such as the shooting animations, monster animations, and daughter hiding animations by early next week. After these are completed, we can start on refining our existing ones and adding smaller improvements to enhance the feel of the game. Besides that, we are also going to start on UI and in-game items to build out the story.

For the daughter and father core mechanics, we wanted the daughter to have the hide mechanic while the father had the shooting mechanic implemented. For the daughter, we have a monster that patrols a route and will start to chase the daughter. When the daughter steps on the hiding area however, the monster will stop chasing. In our main game, we will want to use this to create moments of suspense, with the daughter having to hide while the monster lurks nearby. We were able to make a navigation mesh to have the monster chase the daughter. The father mechanic is a bit simpler, and is a generic shooting mechanic as seen in most games. However, due to needing to switch input systems, there have been issues with the camera angle changing while the father tries to move to aim and shoot. Although the camera angles make it difficult to shoot right now, we may edit the camera angles slightly so the daughter and father have different ways the camera moves. The daughter may have it so the environment does not change angles while the father does, which will allow for more confusion among the players as they attempt to find each other.

Monster Patrol & Hiding Mechanic

Father Shooting Mechanic

Split screen was functional as of last week, but the inputs involved only one keyboard, with one player using the wasd keys, and the other using arrow keys. This week, we wanted to change the input system so each character is controlled by a separate controller. There were many issues to be had, such as the characters rotating about each other instead of moving, but in the end is able to work and the characters can now be moved with either one keyboard and a gamepad, two gamepads, or two keyboards.

A small level was needed for this prototype for the father and daughter to have an area to shoot and hide respectively. At first, there was an idea to use the terrain feature and paint out the area to be used. However, this turned out to be difficult, as it is hard to control the heights of the terrain and was difficult to create small rough patches to indicate a forest ground. Therefore, instead of using terrain, we found a free low poly nature asset that contained different ground pieces, along with trees, rocks, mushrooms, and more. We were able to create a small area using this one asset to make sure everything looked well together. It was interesting trying to paint the trees with the different size brushes and densities, as it was very easy to have either no trees in an area, or an extreme amount of trees so no ground could be seen.

Prototype Level

The art for the daughter and father are slowly being completed. The father and daughter idle and running artworks are all complete, and there are some frames completed for the father shooting and daughter hiding. As time progresses, we will have more art for the mechanics, as well as start to focus on art for the monster. For adding this artwork into the game and animating it, there have been some troubles. The animator was mapped out, however implementing this ino the code has been troubling. With the new input system, there has been trouble determining when a joystick or key is pressed to determine the right animation to be used. As of now, only the idle animation is played even when there is movement.

Daughter Idle Animation

Father Running Animation

Overall, we are hoping to work on the animation and ensure that the controls are smooth for two player split screen. Our next steps will be to work on the shooting and hiding animation, along with some basic sketches for the environment. We will also start focusing on the collectible mechanic for the daughter, which will be used to help the players go through the narrative.