During the previous week our team placed a heavy focus on level design as well as the new glider mechanic to be implemented into the game. We have also worked at refining the movement in the game to give the optimal feeling of enjoyment and satisfaction when platforming through the levels. Our second enemy the “Eel Turrets” have now been fully implemented into the game and can be used to create interesting platforming challenges for the player. We found it beneficial to switch the turret firing from being script based to being animation based. This means that the turret now shoots bullets based upon animation events which eliminates the issues of de-sync between the turret firing and the bullet leaving the barrel. The new glider mechanic within the game has also been fully re-worked to better suit the needs of the game. Now instead of using physics based movement the glider utilises a custom built movement system to give it the intended feeling of gliding through the levels. The glider features realistic acceleration properties which allow it to speed up when nose diving and slow down whilst banking upwards. It also has a minimum speed value which once reached will cause the glider to rotate downwards and begin a small nosedive. This essentially limits the glider from behaving the way that a plane with a motor would by restricting the amount of time the player can fly upwards at a steep angle. Because of this, the glider essentially loses altitude over time. To counter act this, we have also set up basic air vents which the player can aim for to gain a short upwards acceleration to re-gain height which has been lost. The combination of these mechanics has allowed us to create a fun environment in which the player can experience movement in a different way and will provide a nice “break” from the general platforming within the game. It is important to note that the movement controls for the glider have been set up in a way that makes it easier for the player to control. This is because we have opted to ditch the standard “plane controls” and instead use a system which involves automatically banking when steering left or right. This makes the glider movement easier to handle which in turn will make it easier to play for our target audience of younger players. A new camera system has also been implemented for the glider movement. This camera behaves like an elastic band as it pulls further away from the glider whilst travelling fast and pulls in closer as the glider slows down. This has the great effect of increasing the feeling that the player is travelling faster/slower and gives a real sense of the gliders speed. A lot of time has been spent testing and tweaking the values of both the glider and the follow camera to try create the optimal movement experience for the player. The team also organised a formal playtest session this week in which we received useful feedback about the movement within the game as well as the new glider mechanic. This provided us with crucial information regarding what could be changed to optimise the users experience within the game. For example, people who tested the glider enjoyed the mechanic and felt that it “behaved the way that a glider would”. However, they also gave some feedback stating that the camera felt as though it pulled to close to the player at some points and too far away at other points. We also received feedback that the gliders speed needs to be better conveyed to the player as it can be hard to tell when it is about to reach its minimum speed and begin descending. This feedback helped us identify what could be fixed and as a result we implemented some simple trail renderers behind the glider which become shorter as the plane starts to slow down and longer as it begins to speed up.
In the week to come we will be focusing on level design as well as continuously refining the current mechanics which we have implemented into the game thus far.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
September 2017
Categories |