Week 8
This week I built the Audio Manager. Because the game did not have many (if any) sounds, I sourced all of the sounds I presumed we would need on Sunday. This included grappling noises, jumping, various whirring sounds for other mechanical actions, footsteps, guard sounds, and music. On Monday, I built the Audio Manager from scratch. The Audio Manager that I built overloads the existing audio source structure. Using a custom sound struct as a base, I created a basic overlap/transition sound function, which is used to transition between two different music tracks. This transition is not as tight as I hoped it would be, which was frustrating. I tried three separate approaches (including using DOtween) in order to create a better method, but all of them had various issues with the way I was currently doing my AudioManager. These sounds were then linked up to the game in various ways. I implemented footstep sounds using animationevents, which solved the issues with other mechanics interacting with feet trigger colliders. I added sounds for the player attaching to the grapple, and in the process also fixed an issue with connecting to the point while in the air. When it came to adding guard noises (like a mic click to recognise enemies and footsteps) I had to rework the state logic, which now works a lot more smoothly. Checks for current and previous state now work correctly, which was helpful in several ways. Music was also a big component of my sound choices, and I chose what I considered a fitting theme for the main menu of the title. I envisioned this track as being the ‘main theme’ of the character, and because we did not manage to get the ‘mission impossible’ moment of stealing a valuable in the game, we did not get an accurate time in the level to show the music off. In the production version of the game, I would hope to pull the track apart and use elements of it in the background music, which would change and flow differently. As well as this, I also worked on finalising my level. After the lighting was redone, I playtested the level several times, fixing several graphical issues (like transparencies and their reflectivity) and AI pathing issues (guards getting stuck in random places) that were present in my scene. Preproduction Reflection The preproduction process for us resulted in a title that I am happy with, and I think that the learnings that we took from the process will help us to be a more efficient team. The first two weeks were a result of our game not having extra development not taken into account, meaning we had to rebuild systems (and create entirely new ones) in order to reach a baseline point. Our character design had to be changed as we moved quickly in a different direction, and we had issues coming up with a character that we all agreed on. We avoided these issues, rather than solving them, by just creating a character and moving on. We knew that the character had to have one arm (for the grapple hook) and went from there. Conrad’s initial sketches looked quite different from the finished 3D model, which is only moderately surprising - given the changes that occur when a piece of art transitions from 2D to 3D. The amount of time that we wasted with the grappling hook being physics-based was frustrating later in development. We spent several weeks trying to get this system working, and while we got close several times, we repeatedly encountered weird graphical issues that prevented the arm from behaving realistically. The decision to move to a hand-animated arm was one of the best decisions we made during development, as it forced the team to move on. The level development was also a point where we had a huge takeaway. Corne’s initial designs were all agreed upon, and his building the prefabs was a well-intentioned idea that we agreed on. However, the huge spaces that we created just weren’t conducive to gameplay, and we scrapped them entirely. If we had made this decision even a week earlier I believe it would have been much better for the game. Our level design as a result of probuilder has dramatically improved, as It meant that Dylan, Josh and I were able to create a scene each and combine them into one level. It made the most sense for this because we were the most experienced with the mechanics and systems, and wanted to design ‘puzzles’ rather than ‘environments. Moving forward, I think this approach is far better. I am happy with the way I developed the first area, which introduces the player to mechanics by leading them in a variety of ways, from subtle to image-based. Using the first guard as a way to teach the player about stealth was very interesting. Creating transparent windows allows the player to see the AI at the expected time that they arrive there, and the shorter walls help the player see his head. Overall, my design philosophy with this level creation system was to create the puzzle first, and then design the environment around the puzzle. This was most obvious when Josh and I created the overall level design, and we were able to clearly mark areas where we taught players mechanics. This meant that our level development went much faster than we expected, and we were mechanically done after a week of level development. A week of polishing and adding effects made the levels look visually impressive, which I was very happy with. My impression of the entire process is positive, mostly to do with how much the team as a whole learnt about design processes in developing a 3D platformer. We chose a genre and game style that is incredibly reliant on feedback and ‘feeling good’. If a platformer doesn’t have good jumping, then the game feels bad. This meant that we had to put a huge amount of effort into the controller, which paid off looking at the final product. While the controller is not perfect, the systems we have built give us the opportunity to further develop the controls and mechanics of the game. For the production segment of the game, we have laid the groundwork for the rest of the title, which bodes well for our next segment of development.
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