Milestone 4: Art, Art, ART!

 

Milestone 4: 

Art, Art, ART!

Hello everyone, and welcome to Milestone 4 at Alaren Studios!

The team was hard at work transforming the game - the most notable update thus far! We are very excited to share with you everything that has been going on here in the studio.

First let's review the Milestones for the week.

Planned 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.

Works Completed

3D Book w/ Turning Pages

Alan updated and coded a new 3D book that now has turning pages with animations. This was incredibly important to the team as we felt that the book was absolutely critical to the player's experience. The book has many core mechanics that it had to live up to the art, styling, and feel of the hedge maze. With some extra magic, we now have pages that can be flipped by the player, as well as jumping to different sections. The book takes up most of the screen when in use, so it was important to us to get it right. Now it feels more like a center piece that compliments gameplay rather than take from it.

A New Spell book

Not only do we have improved programming, we now have art to compliment the update! Lauren was able to create new pages and book backing. With these pages, we focused on a spell book/ bible aesthetic to add to the narrative and lore of the game. The pages have an added weathered look as well as fantasy-style bordering. This will dramatically add to the games storytelling and immersion. 

Not only do we have new page artwork, but we also have new book icon art! Renzo has been hard at work in developing the game's story and lore. It was decided that the spell book would become a new character in the game as well as the narrative/ world. Renzo has been world-building and designing a narrative as to which Hedge Mage would live in. 

With the book now being a character, it gives us more ways that the player can interact with the book. As the team continues development of a new spell system, the player will now be able to see visual cues from our spell book. The new spell book icon now takes double duty, not only acting as a way to pull out the spell book and interact with its contents, but now takes some of those contents out of the book and into the game HUD.

In last week's Milestone we went over some of the ways the team was working to implement this into Hedge Mage. Well, we now have artwork to compliment some of these game design decisions. Great job, Lauren!

Here is a recap of what the artwork shows in relation to what the team set out to design last week:

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

Lastly for our book we have a backing/ cover to it which holds space for our bookmarks. Our bookmarks act as UI navigation to different sections of the book. This helps the player navigate to find information quickly.

The team was not able to get everything completed in time for the book's UI implementation in Unity. We have a programmed book, and now artwork. Renzo will work this upcoming week to take those two and insert the book's contents now that they are essentially completed.

Here are some sneak peaks of how the book is coming along:

New Icons:

New Pages, Backing, and Bookmarks!

*Unity version shown without backing and bookmarks

Minotaur Fix

Renzo was assisting the team any way that he could. From artwork, to programming, to animation... he was anywhere the team needed him! This week he helped a lot with implementing the artwork and animation inside Unity. He fixed some programming bugs for Minotaur and tweaked the animations to now behave as they should. 

Updated "Flyer"

Renzo was able to work on the "Flyer" in many ways this week. With last week's art from Lauren, we now how the "Flyer" artwork and animations in game. This really allowed the game to reach its first major design Milestone - mechanics for enemies that now interact with the player in new ways. No longer do enemies just inflict damage to interact with the player character, but we now have non-lethal interactions in-game. Let's dive deeper into what the "Flyer" actually is.

BREAKING - The "Flyer" has officially received its new in-game name. We are excited to announce, Lumenwing! As the player collects letters for the round's word, Lumenwing will be called upon by the hedges to stop the player from finishing the spell word. It quietly flies around the night's sky and waits for the player to collect letters. Once the player has letters, it swoops down and rips them from the player's hands. As it attempts to leave the maze, it drops the letter into a different part of the maze. This allows the player to retrieve the stolen letter if needed.

Lumenwing is a great new creature that is large and ominous. It surely will add new dynamics into the game that will enhance the player's experience.

Updated Mirelight 

Lauren was able to update the artwork and create new animations for our Mirelight. We now have improved animations for its transformation and pounce. All the artwork and animations for Mirelight have been updated into Unity - we are working through some updated logic to complete this creature. 

New Environment Art 

Lastly, Renzo was able to create new environment art for the maze. New courtyards have been added with the cobblestone as well as gardens with wrought-iron fences. The central plaza and courtyards will act as a centerpiece representing beautiful and magnificent fantasy hedges. Though its early in the development, the level is really taking shape. The plaza and courtyards act as eerie beautiful place in the rough-horror maze. This contrast adds appeal, visual dynamics, and lore enhancements to the game.

New Environment Art:

• Wrought Iron Fencing
• Planters
• New Cobblestone
• Wrought Iron Gates (new mechanics and game flow in the future)

Here is what the central plaza and courtyards looked like before the artwork was implemented:

After the new artwork:

Planters, Wrought Iron Fences & Gates

Wrought Iron Gate Animations

Updated Gameplay Clip

Next Week's Milestones

• Programming 
• Assigned to: Alan
• Key Targets: Core Structure, Functionality, & Playtest Ready
• Details: The book UI needs to reach a status of playtest ready with placeholder art and typography for testing of user flow, structure, and content assessment. 
• Artwork 
• Assigned to: Lauren
• Key Targets: Complete Animations for Current Creatures - 3 in Total
• Details: Our Minotaur, Flyer, and Mirelight all need a complete set of artwork to complete animations.
• Game Design
• Assigned to: Renzo
• Key Targets: Design Narrative & Mechanics for (5) New Creatures, Improve Lore,  Introduce Diverse Creatures and Abilities, & Write Out Narrative for Current Creatures
• Details: Introduce additional creatures to the game that will add to dynamic gameplay that improves the player's experiences and evolves over time. Creatures must be diverse in ability and player inability.