Milestone 3: Minotaur & The Spell Book Pivot!
Milestone 3:
Minotaur & The Spell Book Pivot!
Hello everyone and welcome to Week 3 - Milestone 3 at Alaren Studios!
Ability Charges (How many available uses of the ability the player has.)
Additionally, Lauren was able to complete "The Flyer" artwork and animation. The team is hoping to have an illumination effect as it swoops down to steal a letter from the player.
We made some great progress this week in narrative design, lore building, and creature development. We are very excited to share with you what went on this past week at the studio.
Let's dive in!
Planned Milestones
- Artwork for Creatures
- Assigned to: Alan
- Key Targets: Functionality & Playtest Ready w/ Current Creatures + New (1) Creature
- Details: Improve logic/ functionality of Mirelight & Flyer, while adding logic in for new creature
- Artwork for Creatures
- Assigned to: Lauren
- Key Targets: Complete Animations for Mirelight & Flyer
- Details: Our Flyer and Mirelight all need a complete set of artwork to complete animations.
- Game HUD Redesign
- Assigned to: Renzo
- Key Targets: Prototype New HUD, Feedback, Implement Artwork of Book UI
- Details: The game needs an updated HUD that improves the design and layout of health, lives, and the book. We need to remove the timer and incorporate the book's new lore design while adding spells/ abilities tot he HUD. Also work in Unity to update Book UI.
Works Completed
Prototyping a New HUD
Renzo was able to come up with some HUD concepts for Hedge Mage this past week. The key focus in the design of the new HUD was to eliminate any unnecessary information and clutter. With the game's genre of horror, we knew that whatever HUD we came up with needed to be simple and minimal. All great horror games use minimal design to help limit any distractions for the player. The intention is of course to focus on the gameplay rather than cluttered information which takes you out of the story.
Were were able to create some concepts, but not yet decide the best direction for the HUD. Our new HUD will hopefully be sorted out this week with some art to support.
For the player's health and lives, Renzo focused on displaying the information solely on the player. The aim here is that the player will not have to look elsewhere on the screen to find the most important details.
Here are some concepts sketched out below (player is the purple rectangle):
As for other vital information, we realized the timer has no added value to the gameplay. This mechanic will be removed from future gameplay. As for the menu navigation, creature info, gameplay progression, and spells/ abilities, these are all integrated into the Spell Book.
For the Spell Book, we don't want the player to have to open it for player ability/ spell casting. Currently the team is in discussions over how we can use the Book Icon as part of the HUD for spell casting.
Some ideas that we are exploring are:
- Hand with fingers coming out and over the top of the book
- Number of fingers = number of charges
Ability Cooldown (Time cooldown between charges.)
- The book will be a character in the game's narrative. An eye on the cover will interact with the player
- Eye closed = spell unavailable
- Eye halfway opened = spell cooldown is hallway
- Eye opened & glow = spell available
Ability Category Type (What category the spell is such as utility, attack, or survival.)
- Bookmark or card peeks out of the book showing the symbol of the ready spell
Book Typography
Renzo was able to create a new font inspired by the broken page letters in the maze. The font will be used in the book to tie in the letters and improve the gameplay experience. It was time consuming, but the details were very important! Currently we are testing other fonts to pair with it in the book.
Book UI Implementation in Unity
Renzo unfortunately was not able to complete the Book UI in Unity as we had a scoping issue. We want the book to have animated turning pages as the player navigates. We are pivoting this week to ensure no time is wasted in Unity and we have the right scope and project goals set up at the start. We are hoping to have the Book's UI further along by the end of this week.
Narrative, Lore, and The Story of Hedge Mage
Renzo was able to work on the game's narrative, lore, and story. We are very close to announcing the story of Hedge Mage - stay tuned!
New Creature Art
Lauren had another great week! She fully finished the animations for Minotaur. Renzo was able to apply the animations in Unity - Minotaur's revamp is in the game, and he is scarier than ever!
The Flyer:
Unfortunately, we don't have a completed set of artwork for Mirelight just yet - stay tuned!
Social Media Artwork
Lastly for Lauren, she was able to finish up a banner for Hedge Mage's social media!
Programming for Creatures
Alan this week was able to fine tune Minotaur and Mirelight with revamped code. The behavior they now show in-game is closer to what we are hoping to be the final behavior design.
Minotaur now behaves more like a charging bull and is faster down the straights when the player is in view. An improved cooldown fixes the previous issue of Minotaur's repetitive attacks. Please see below (previous artwork shown in the example):
Next Week's Milestones
- Spells & Book UI
- Assigned to: Alan
- Key Targets:3D Book w/ Turning Pages
- Details: Improve the book's function by implementing turning pages for the player to navigate. Make appropriate changes to code as we implement the book's UI with spells.
- Book UI Artwork
- Assigned to: Lauren
- Key Targets: New Artwork for Symbols, Page Decorations, and Book Cover
- Details: The book's redesign needs a new cover with animated eye, hand, and symbols. Additionally, create new assets to improve lore as well as symbols for spell identification.
- Book Content & Implementation
- Assigned to: Renzo
- Key Targets: Fully Complete Narrative, Book UI in Unity
- Details: Assist Alan & Lauren with the implementation of the Book's UI with spells, creatures, etc. Implement narratives & content into Unity.
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