Demo Prep
Worked on bugfixes and improvements to a demo that I showcased this week. I increased walkable slope angle and made improvements to the map to display clearer cliffs and unwalkable areas for the player. I also added even more restrictions to the tutorial level, to help the player know which direction to move in.
I altered some mechanics with camera movement, by allowing scroll wheel to zoom in while pressing middle mouse, and also experimented with middle mouse camera rotation as well.
Experimentation
Went on a small tangent with development after watching some episodes of Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix. I worked on a small snowy map, and added a global decal to apply to every asset in the scene. I also modified the player’s clothing materials to apply a layer of snow only on the upward facing normal. I experimented with using deferred rendering over forward rendering, but found that forward provided more performance and more consistent visuals.
Exhibiting
I exhibited the demo at my school’s project fair and received lots of feedback for improvements to the game. People mostly liked the visuals but did not grasp a lot of the complex combat mechanics. They would typically be upset about getting one-shot, due to exposure mechanics in the game that multiplies damage received, and quit the demo after that. I’m not sure in-person demos are the best approach to getting good feedback, since the game requires a lot of time to explore and understand the in-depth mechanics.
I spent a few hours making some of the most requested fixes like starting the game automatically from character creation, sprinting inconsistencies, and pressing esc to exit the inventory. I also did some work with re-adding a mini map.
Next Time
I plan on making all the fixes from the playtest demo and then submitting the game for a few publishers.
Time Allocation (14 hours)
- Exhibiting (4 hours)
- General Programming (4 hours)
- Exhibit Preparation (4 hours)
- Packaging & Building (2 hours)
devpachi 