Weekly Overview

Art

UI

First we did some concepting for a new logo that would fit with the style of the game more

We decided on one of the logo’s in the 2nd column of the first picture

Then we decided to make the title in 3D.
We made 2 versions; 1 made by hand and another one using a svg file that turns a vector image automatically into a mesh.

Menu
We also refined the player connecting menu and the finish menu!

What's next?

Keep polishing!

Programming

Minimap update

The minimap has had a fresh new look this week! With a more visible color you can now see the minimap more clearly and each of the players are displayed seperately, also being visible when at the same height! In the gif of the game intro below you can see a small preview of this : ).

Game Intro and Countdown

When the game starts, there is now a transition from the top of the level to the bottom to give players an idea of where they have to go! As soon as the camera reaches the bottom the countdown starts and the game will begin.

Main Menu Animations

Let's start with the main menu! We added a 3D game title to the main menu scene which is slightly animated. The title is visualized by having the camera start zoomed out and then slowly zooming it closer into the player.

The title isn't the only thing that's animated though. The 3 levers now also have a slight animation.

Loading Bar Animation

To spruce up the loading bar in the controller menu, we added a 2D animation of a rolling hamster.

New Controller Menu

The controller menu has been updated with the new (but not yet final) and improved design. Once the first lever is pulled, the controller menu drops down from above and then the players can connect their controllers and ready-up to start the game.

Particle Effects

Speeding Trails

We added some speeding trail particles behind the players to indicate their velocity.

Checkpoint Particle

Whenever a player reaches a new checkpoint for the first time some star particles are spawned right above that checkpoint to indicate that it's been activated.

Litter Particle

We also added a particle effect to indicate when a player has collided with a litter volume.

Controller Vibration

Besides audible and visible player feedback we also added a subtle controller rumble whenever a player collides with the environment to make the movement feel even smoother than it already did before. 

Finish Menu

The Finish Menu has also been updated with a new and improved design!

What's next?

The final steps to a complete vertical slice are to implement all remaining sound & particle effects, experiment with different post processing effects, improve the visualization of the mini-map and add a panning effect in the main game scene when the game first starts so that the entire level is visualized to the players before the game actually starts.

See you next week for our last Dev-Log!