Second Project - Play Testing : 27-10-15

Play testing was different this week, we were in 2.4 with all the lights out to help emphasize the dark eerie and horror feel of our prototypes. I got a lot of decent feedback from 'First Horror' and found a bug and a missing aspect that are now fixed. The "bug" was when the player ran into the left border the camera was supposed to stop a little before it but instead it jumped to the opposite border, this was fixed by changing a number in the Camera Controller script. I also added the players light disappearing when they collide with the golden gate to keep them from removing the monsters when they are supposed to capture the player at this point.

Second Project - Finishing Up : 27-10-15

Unfortunately there were things missing or broken with the game. The monster hissing and new children screams weren't created in time, the wolf animations weren't made and the teacher animation was severely broken. I spent the weekend waiting for the models, animations and final sound effects (which didn't show up). I had all the scripts complete and so worked on completing the particle effects for the golden gate and wolf object as well as the level by, creating textures of the ground, adding place holder trees and moving around the triggers. I was originally originally going to have fallen trees to block the player and help guide them but decided to make some broken stone walls instead, I could have put some more detail into the wall textures but as I still needed to add them into game (as well as the other models) it was a bit rushed. I did however take a bit of time with the Limb sprite, I wanted to make it look like the branch of a tree but still look like an arm reaching out towards the player. There were some other objects I wanted to add like bushes and rocks but decided they were desirable and would add them in if I had time (turns out I didn't).

Cartography : 20-10-15

I practiced creating a map today in between working on the scripts for the current Studio project. It taught me some things I didn't know about Photoshop like creating an alpha channel and the threshold layer, I'm not entirely sure what the threshold layer does exactly but for what I was doing it changed the layer beneath it to be pure black and white, I also used the cloud filter which is something I'm not used to using. I want to keep making maps like this and I'm also going to start worlbuilding as a side project, this will mostly be documents on the world, society, characters, creatures, history, factions/religions, etc.

Second Project - Finishing Monsters : 20-10-15

So today and yesterday I've been working primarily on the Monster script. Originally I was going to have one script for the lot and have functions for each type, then I thought it would be easier if they all had their own scripts. Now I've gone back to my original idea because their may be four types of monsters but there are only two types, the attacking and the jump scare. Having it all on one script is also more ideal for the player script, when the players raycast hits a monster it has to call a function in that monsters script and would be harder if it has to check the type of monster and grab different scripts. The jump scare monster just has to run past the player at a high speed, I could have done a separate script for this to keep the two types separate but it was simple making it all one script and works fine.

On Monday Sean and David help me with completing the monster movement and as a bonus help me with the camera shake when monsters get too close to the player. That means the camera script is complete and essentially so is the monster script, I just need to get the player light raycast finished before I remove the space bar control from the monster script.

Most of the scripting is complete, a lot of the audio is done and Erika has finished. I just need to finish the scripts before I start working on texturing the map, Erika and Ben will start skinning and animating the models and Felan needs to complete the audio. Felan told me that he has other assessments due so the SFX may not be perfect but as long as he gets them all finished and hand them over then that's fine.

Current Trello board for 'First Day Horror'

Second Project - Slow Weekend : 20-10-15

I didn't get as much done as I would have liked last weekend. I managed to get the triggers working and added the sound effects Felan gave me. The player movement was a bit glitchy, every time the player character rotated while walking the light would shake, this would be a good feature if the shaking wasn't so strong. Unfortunately it's also a bug and I would prefer it if I could change it into a feature just in case it leads to other problems. The monster spawn points work the way I intended, monsters spawn at random positions around the player character just outside the screen before they run in towards the player. Right now I just have the space bar pushing them back as a way to test their movement, I still need to add a raycast to the player so whenever the player character was facing a monster they would move backwards towards the edge of the screen then disappear.

I didn't hear anything from Erika over the weekend but I'm sure she's working hard. Felan has sent me ll the ambient sound effects, music and the player character voice overs, now I just need the teacher voice overs and monster sound effects and that would be the audio completed. Still need to add the player character's voice overs, I may do it the same way I did the ambiance by adding them to the audio triggers. I think I'll also change the ambient sound effects to play at random times as the player may stand in one spot for long periods of time without any sound effects playing. I could also do this with the player characters voice overs but I want certain ones to play when the monsters appear and when she is caught and don't want to have her saying one thing then have the voice over randomly say something else over the top. But the monster counter on the Game Controller script could fix this, just play the random voices when the counter is zero.

I was a bit distracted over the weekend, I spent a lot of time reading articles on the world building school website. I learnt some interesting things about cartography, fantasy languages and things to consider about creating the universe of an MMO like the cosmology, creating religions, how they change or interact with each other, and how the world itself could evolve. I'm going to practice worldbuilding during my breaks between working on the current Studio project.

Burn The Witch!... After The Dance : 20-10-15

Went to a lecture at UQ on Thursday night about visual imagery of witches. The lecturer focus on the visual aspects of the witches actions and behavior rather than their physical appearance as I was expecting. It was interesting and made me think more about someones behavior. A character could have a very dark and threatening appearance but this would be misleading to the player if their actions were joyful and none threatening, what the player may have thought to be a bad guy could just be an eccentric ally.

The images shown at the lecture could have been misinterpreted as old festivals until they realize something not quite right, like half a man hacking another in half or someone kissing the backside of a goat. These subtle actions can reverse the viewers interpretation and is something to look out for, you don't want someone to disconnect or hate a character you intended people to care about because of a simple action, even a sentence or the way something is said could be dangerous.

First Project - Up Online : 13-10-15

Finally remembered to put Sorrow: A Space To Hold up on itch.io. I did have to fix a few things though before putting it up. I didn't realise that by having the NPC movement animation run it wouldn't change to the dead and saved sprites when I needed them to, so I ended up removing it from the game. I also added the arm movement for the player, now when they are next to an NPC and can interact with it the player characters arm will change (different arm for either side). I like the new sound effects too, using bits of instrumental for the death and saved states works pretty well. I also added background music but it may be a bit louder than I would like.

I may end up re-adding the animations and introducing more (for the state changing and player arm movement) but if I do then I will need to use the animations for every part of the player and NPCs and remove the use of sprites due to my previous problem. The instructions page could use some work too.

seabrisbanegames.itch.io/sorrow-a-space-to-hold

Second Project - GreyBox and Scripting Plan : 13-10-15

I now have two animators and an audio student helping me complete the next project, I've filled them in via the HCD, assets list and mood pitch document, now they all know their work load and dead lines. I began working on a greybox today and all i need to do now is the scripts before the others have completed their tasks and I start implementing them into the scenes.

Sean helped me polish my TDD on Monday so now I have a pretty decent idea on how I want to lay them out. I'll have scripts controlling the behavior of the player and monsters, camera positioning, audio and spawn triggers, and a game controller. I want the monsters to appear at certain times so I've created trigger objects that will spawn a certain amount and different types of monsters within a given time frame, same with the audio triggers which will play some ambient sound effects to hopefully frighten the player.

Originally I was going to make the player controls the basic vertical and horizontal inputs with the mouse as rotation but Sean thought that having a mouse click as movement would keep thing simple and create more stress or anxiety for the player (being forced to stop shining light at the monsters to move around), so I will give that a try to see how it feels.

I think the only issues I will have will be in the monster behavior script and some desirable actions (like having the camera shake when monsters get too close to the player), no doubt I will come across bugs and other functions that I will need help getting passed but I will worry about them when they reveal themselves. The amount of scripting involved with this project doesn't appear to be overly immense and should be fairly quick to get though (a couple of days or so) which will leave time for polishing and allow me to help the animators with texturing (and modeling if they need help there).

Second Project - Pitch : 10-1015

The pitches went well considering I didn't have a voice the entire time. After the first pitch Christy and I change the original story from child running from parents fighting to a child running from their first day of school. The player is no longer guided by a spirit and instead has to make their own way through a maze like forest using a lantern filled with fire flies to ward off the monsters. At the end instead of a house there is a large golden gate that turns into the school gate and the monster turns into the teacher.

Unfortunately my voice worsened before the second pitch so I'm not sure if the audio student's became interested in helping out or even understood what the game was going to be like. Apparently a few of the audio students were interested but I am yet to hear from them and Hayden has told me the same. I'm a little paranoid that this will turn out the same as last trimester. I may end up using text instead of voices but I wasn't expecting to get any voice overs to begin with, the sound effects will be the harder task.

I found a page on Gamasutra that could help Hayden and I induce fear in the players.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/172168/fight_or_flight_the_neuroscience_.php?

It has given me a few ideas on how and when to show the monsters and how to use sound effects and the atmosphere to to create anxiety during situations where the monsters are away.

Second Project - Brainstorming : 10-10-15

Started brainstorming for our next project on Friday and tried something different. Usually I would just research games or themes based on the topic but Christy brought in cards and dice with images on them to help us come up with more unique ideas. At that point I only had dot points and pieces of ideas but over the weekend I cane up with a few different game ideas that I wasn't happy with.

First one had to do with the player being in the point of view of a creature just hatching from an egg in a cave, they have no idea what they are as they escape the creatures trying to eat them. When they get to the end they see the cave is on a cliff overlooking a beautiful forest and the creature they play as flies away. I believe this idea would have been too far out of scope.

For the second idea the player controlled a young monster in a town of monsters under siege. The goal of the player was to guide the young monster through danger and terror to find its parents. Simple point and click but I don't think it would have induced fear in the players.

I ended up creating a red riding hood styled game where the player controls a young girl being guided by the spirit of a dog through a dark and dangerous forest as she is being hunted by dark monsters. The player can use the light of the dog to scare away the monsters by holding it and pointing it in the right direction. At the end of the forest the player comes across a house, but when they get too close the house changes to one that has been burnt down, the spirit disappears and the monsters reveal to be the girls mother trying to comfort her.

First Project - Play Test : 10-10-15

In my opinion the play tests went horribly. For the first half of the session my game, 'Sorrow', was broken. For some reason the most recent build was messing up, the NPCs faded to black way too quickly and the player's ray casts were too long. Half way through the day I had to tinker with the timers and lower the length of the rays. Unfortunately the game was still not at the level I wanted it to be at this stage, the audio was rushed and so wasn't implemented in the final build and the sliders on the title screen were running too fast.

I think the biggest disaster was that half of the feedback was based on the broken version of the game. Surprisingly a lot of the feedback was still what I was looking for. Most people understood the message, felt overwhelmed and picked up the controls... somewhat quickly.

Christy showed me a good site (Incompetech) where I found some instrumental music that I could fiddle with to create the sound effects for the player and NPCs. I've also been creating sprites for the walking animations of the player and NPCs, I've changed the models of the player, now the head and body are separated so that when the player gets close to an NPC their hand will stick out towards the NPC but the head will remain what it originally was. I am yet to try it in game and am unsure if it will work because it may conflict with the walking animation.