Weekly Overview

Art

Assets

This week we worked on some of the final assets for decorating the level! 

Particles

Visual feedback has arrived! And with it the first iteration of the particles.

What's next?

• More modeling, more modeling, more modeling...
• Level decoration
• Set post-process layer to create moooood
• Always playtesting!

Programming

Laser-Sight changes

Our previous version of the laser-sight/aim trajectory was a bit too intrusive in that it clamped onto lock-on targets much too fast, so we made the clamp angle smaller.

It was also still somewhat unclear where the player was aiming at, seeing as we didn't always render the trajectory (only when a grapple'able point was in range and aimed at). To fix this we made it so that the laser-sight is always rendered.

To indicate whether or not something is in range to grapple towards, we made the laser-sight emissive and added a laser-sight dot at the end of it whenever something is in range to grapple towards. We also made the laser-sight stronger when something is in range than when there's nothing in range to grapple towards.

We also gave each player's laser-sight the color fitting to their own avatar to make the players more distinguishable.

Character visualization in controller menu

To better distinguish the player avatars from each other, we added some 3D visualization of the avatars in the controller menu before the game actually begins. This makes it more clear to the players which avatar they will be playing with.

Particles

Flower petals

To add some player feedback for grappling onto the flower grapple points, we added a particle effect which makes it look like flower petals are flying out of the grapple point that's being grappled onto.

Break-away particles

For the break-away mechanic, we added several different particles:
- A smoke cloud which indicates that a player has succesfully broken away;
- A stun particle above the player's head who's been broken away from.

Plunger particle

For some added player feedback on the grappling mechanic, we added a small particle around the plunger when it grapples onto something.

Player animations

We've also added more life to the player by adding some simple animations! The player now has a noticable breathing animation when standing still. This is mostly noticeable before the game starts though, since you'll be moving fast once the timer counts down to 0!

Grapple point rotation

When grappling to grapple points, in addition to the particles, they now also rotate! Giving some extra visual feedback and making it looks extra nice.

Sand in start room

In the room where all players start, the bottom is now a sand layer upon which they can't bounce. This gives the players a chance to get used to the grapple before bouncing all over the place.

What's next?

Next we will focus on removing our current scoring system and focusing more on the racing aspect of the game by having the player who finishes first just win the game without having to focus on separate scores.

We will also be adding visual checkpoints to make it more clear to the players where they will be able to spawn once they die.

And ultimately we also have to add our menu's (main menu, pause menu, controls menu).

See you next week!