Here comes our Beta! From Alpha version, our team have responded to the feedback we got and fixed game mechanism and add more living elements to our level design. Let’s have a look!
Programming ⌨️
Tasks
This week required writing the code for visualizing and implementing the new tasks decided on for the final version of the game. We have two types of tasks:
Pickup tasks, where players must pick up an object and place it in a certain location. These tasks were harder to implement since the object needed to visually appear in the hand of the human for both the human player and the other players, so some delicate network programming needed to be done to make sure everything worked correctly even across possessions.
Hold tasks, where players must interact with an object for an extended period of time. These were simple enough to implement using our existing interaction system.
Both tasks were implemented with their own components which integrated with our universal interaction and win condition system.
Visualizations
In order to help players navigate the tasks I used Quick Outline from the asset store which puts a solid outline around the mesh of its gameobject. These outlines toggle depending on the state of the task, for example the place where players must insert the objects for hold tasks glow only when the player is holding the necessary object.
These helped a lot with player confusion and eliminated any need for a minimap or complex visual navigation system.
UI
A visual task list was also implemented which shows which win conditions are fulfilled for each player. Tasks start as red and turn green as they are fulfilled. Once all tasks are fulfilled, the win screen appears which provides a button that takes the player back to the main menu.
Bug Fixes
Heaps of bugs and networking race conditions were also resolved this week. We no longer run into any issues with parasite and player movement and their animations are also networked correctly. A change in the official network animator was required which allowed non-server clients to influence the animation state.
Audio 🎹
Let’s listen to two new music made for the ending of the game!