6/7/19

Development Progress

1. What has been recently completed?
   • A final build has been constructed with much of the feedback from Beta testing. Some of the exciting new additions are listed below:
     • A complete tutorial suite of the basic user controls
     • A beautifully constructed Air Puzzle
     • Hints can be found amongst the debris in the level. Clean up to get help solving the final puzzle!
     • There’s now calming music that plays in the main room!
     • Bug fixes
2. What each of us is currently working on:
   • Cody: 
     • Polishing up the game
   • Michael: 
     • Putting together the final build and analyzing feedback
   • Travis: 
     • Adjusting final touches with hints
3. What features/ideas are on the backlog are to be done next?
   • Move the hints around
   • Add an object affected by the air element
   • Place more objects to clean up
   • Create a scoring system for how much was cleaned
   • Add highlights to important parts of puzzles
4. Analysis of play-testing:
   • Positive Highlights:
     • Cool, Interesting, etc. puzzles.
     • Overall great graphics and ideas.
     • Cool spells.
     • Excellent Tutorial.
   • Negative Highlights:
     • More uses for the elements.
     • Tutorial exit doors should be interactable instead of automatic.
     • The font for clues led to multiple misunderstandings.
     • Controls could be smoother/frame rate should be improved.
     • The final puzzle had bugs.
     • Add more sounds, improve the lighting.
     • Game breaks in pop up menu.
     • Unclear how some puzzles work.
     • Hard to understand what to do next.
     • Space seems large for what’s in it. Probably because you wanted to put more in it.
   • Decisions based on feedback:
     • Admittedly, there currently isn’t an object to clean up with the air element in the game. The team was however starting to implement a pile of trash that would fly away but didn’t have enough time. During the paper prototyping phase, the team did consider making puzzle locked off until a previously unlocked element was used. An example would be the idea that the earth puzzle was frozen in ice that had to be melted by the fire element.
     • The team wants to make the change in regards to doors to give players more control, but don’t have the time to implement it.
     • The team agrees that font for clues is confusing, but there isn’t enough time to swap it out for another one currently.
     • The control/frame rate issue was due to the demo being run on a MacBook Pro with high resolution.
     • The version for play testers during the class did have a bug related to the Final puzzle and wind machine puzzle, it’s now fixed.
     • If the team had more time, the lighting would be changed and more sounds would be added for actions like using elements.
     • The breaking pop menus were because the in class play tests were done in the Unity editor where loading some of the scenes could take seconds. Each time a major gameobject would be loaded, the Awake and Start functions of every object would be called repeatedly. So this isn’t a problem in the build of the game.
     • In regards to clarity of puzzles, the team considered adding more bright coloring to important parts of puzzles, but didn’t have time to do so. An example would be highlighting the fans and turbines in the wind machine puzzle.
     • For understanding where to go next, the team does want the player to explore somewhat, so the team is currently comfortable with the amount of non-linearity there is in the game.
     • In regards to space usage, yes the team did want to add more things to clean and more decorations to give the room more character. It was also decided that each person would work on a third of the room so the size was somewhat set in stone at the beginning of development.
5. Obstacles that are blocking development:
   • Finals week, work, and graduation-related functions making development time less abundant
6. Reflection on game and process. What is working, what is not working.
   • Working: Delegation of tasks is very effective allowing us to work in parallel
   • Not Working: Breaking up tasks can be challenging when there are interactions or dependencies between different people’s work. Overall, this method has been productive and effective.

Development Progress

1. What has been recently completed?
   • An introductory tutorial was added to cover the basic mechanics was added
   • Casting is now constrained by each governing resource value
   • Interaction is now more accurate and easier to use
   • Improved Earth Puzzle
   • Modifications were made to the puzzles so that they are more intuitive and understandable
     • Buttons are more distinguishable
     • Tool tips added to interactable objects
     • Water valves now animate
   • Additional assets added to the project
   • Bug fixes
2. What each of us is currently working on:
   • Cody: 
     • Air machine
     • Additional assets and level design improvements
     • Final puzzle hints
   • Michael: 
     • Finishing the introductory tutorial
     • Making sure puzzles complete as expected and are disabled upon completion
   • Travis: 
     • Adding materials to the environment
     • Adding inanimate objects to restrict player movement and guide them through the level
3. What features/ideas are on the backlog are to be done next?
   • Add hidden clues to understand the puzzles
   • Add Earth-affected objects
   • Add a success screen
   • Improve visibility of each puzzle when solving
   • Improve the user experience as a whole by minimizing confusion
4. Analysis of play-testing:
   • Highlights of the play tests somewhat grouped:
     • Work on a guidance system for the player.
     • Maybe add more text with explanations because I was able to understand all the puzzles after only some explanation from the creators.
     • So hard to figure out what to do.
     • I found that there wasn’t a whole lot to go off of in terms of figuring out what I needed to do, but once I did figure it out, it was a lot of fun.
     • Last puzzle needs more guidance.
     • The end puzzle was difficult.
     • The puzzle is too hard.
     • Consider making puzzles easier?
     • Play-ability is low.
     • Add more puzzles.
     • Having more puzzles would make the game longer and more fun.
     • Needs more thematic consistency.
     • Collecting element mana is slow.
     • Make elements more important.
   • Decisions based on feedback:
     • Many people noted a lack of direction in the game. To address previous play tests and now this one, the team had already added a tutorial for movement and will be creating further tutorials for interaction and element use.
     • From the beginning we knew the final puzzle would be very difficult for the average person to solve and have had a card in our Trello for a while saying to add clues for final puzzle to the room, hiding them in things to clean. An example would be a clue hidden behind several Soot pane prefabs on a part of the main room’s walls. The team believes this will address the play test notes.
     • Based on play tests, the team has to decided to cut the number of buttons/lights on the fireplace puzzle in half to bring its complexity in line with the other element producing puzzles.
     • For play-ability, the team is looking into adjusting the physics of the player character (this is a GameObject, not the actual Unity Component) to allow for more precise movement so that it is easier for the player to position themselves in the world.
     • No more puzzles will be added both by design and time constraints.
     • More models have been created and will be added to the scene soon to better model the fantasy theme.
     • The absorption rate from element wellsprings will be increased to reduce the wait time for refilling the meters.
     • More game objects that react to elements will be added, like more soot spots, debris, cobwebs, and strewn rocks.
5. Obstacles that are blocking development:
   • Ensuring that the experience for the user is understandable and their objectives are clear for each puzzle.
   • Finals week, work, and graduation-related functions making development time less abundant
6. Reflection on game and process. What is working, what is not working.
   • Working: Delegation of tasks is very effective allowing us to work in parallel
   • Not Working: Breaking up tasks can be challenging when there are interactions or dependencies between different people’s work. Overall, this method has been productive and effective.

Development Progress

1. What has been recently completed?

Digital prototypes of the Element Meters, Interaction System, and Element System were made. Each is in its own scene. A scene called “SceneLoader” and scripts related to scene loading were made so that the player can go between the prototypes’ scenes.

2. What each of us is currently working on:

Cody: Final door puzzle

Michael: Connecting the digital prototypes together in one scene.

Travis: Improving the element selection wheel

3. What features/ideas or on the backlog are to be done next

• • Final door puzzle prototype
  • 3d asset creation
  • Level construction
  • Implementing puzzles for the “mana generators”
  • UI connections with magic usage
  • Mana regen. script
  • Finalize text (for intro, puzzle clues, etc)

4. Analysis of play-testing (probably as a separate page)

No play-testing has been done at this time.

5. Obstacles that are blocking development.

6. Reflection on game and process. What is working, what is not working.

The project has been growing at a wide-scale, with all of the core functionality being implemented by the team. Our method of breaking the project into small tasks and delegating them based on individual interests and strengths has proven to be effective, we will continue this way. We’re still running into occasional merge conflicts, but they’re not really blockers. In conclusion, our developmental process is on the right track and moving at a steady pace.

Development Progress

1. What has been recently completed?

We have just completed our paper prototype which shows a basic abstraction (paper version) for the mechanics in our game as well as some concept art/level design.  For images of the paper prototype and further details, see below.

2. What each of us is currently working on:

Each team member took a portion of the paper prototype:

Cody:     Concept art/main view of level, puzzle for final door, and stair-fixing magic

Michael:              Fountain “mana-source” activation, fireplace clean-up and activation

Travis:           UI including element wheel selector, mana bars/current element, and intro textbox.

Work for the next phase is assigned as follows:

Cody: Asset creation and puzzle design

Michael:  Movement Scripts, cleaning code

Travis:  UI implementation

3. What features/ideas or on the backlog are to be done next

We are using a Trello task board for the full backlog, but here is a high-level breakdown of the current backlog items:

1. • Asset Creation
   • Player Code
   • Puzzle Code
   • Dungeon Cleaning Code
   • Level Implementation (Dungeon Creation)
   • Intro Room Implementation
   • UI implementation

Note: most of the items will be broken down into smaller tasks

Also, the Trello board can be found here: https://trello.com/b/CEfUGhXu/arcane-engineer

4. Analysis of playtesting (probably as a separate page)

No playtesting at this time.  Presentation of the paper prototype will be completed this evening.

5. Obstacles that are blocking development.

No major blockers.
Puzzle mechanics are still being refined. Since this is part of the work in progress at the moment, it isn’t really a blocker but until we finalize the puzzles, implementation of these features will be stalled so in that sense it is.

6. Reflection on game and process. What is working, what is not working.

Positives:

• Our game has a fairly unique flavor (the combination of puzzles, cleaning, and magic in a 3d environment is something different).
• The design for our levels is interesting and encapsulates the style that we are going for
• Mechanics seem to be coming together nicely
• In person meetings have been productive

Negatives:

• Asset creation involves a large amount of work and could create a bottleneck if not handled properly
• Digital prototype is due in about a week and a very large amount of work needs to be done between now and then
• Some puzzle details still need to be ironed out
• Scheduling can be challenging at times for our group

Mitigations:

• Assets are being designed in a modular manner for reuse and simplicity
• Depending on progress, we may reassess the asset work load and try to find ways to split it up more, use other assets, or reduce scope.
• Basic (placeholder) assets will be used in the interim so that development doesn’t bottleneck
• Puzzle design is underway and initial testing of the puzzles will begin in the next 2 days
• We are working to find times that work for everyone but Discord is our current fallback for keeping the team up-to-date on our progress. We will also be adding more frequent scrum meetings.

Paper Prototype Images:

Overview of Paper Prototype from Planning Meeting:

• Theme: An Arcane Engineer who uses their elemental powers to clean and repair a dungeon meets the Fantasy theme requirement
• Mechanics:
  • WASD keys: Movement
  • Look-direction: Mouse axes
  • Right-click w/ selection: Set active element by highlighting an item within the Elemental Wheel and releasing
  • Left-click: Cast element
    • Water rinses dirty areas and replenishes water holding objects
    • Earth fixes physical structures and applies great force
    • Air levitates and launches objects
    • Fire welds metals and reduces debris to ash
  • E key: Interact with puzzles and other objects
• Win/Lose:
  • Win: Solve puzzle on master door and exit the dungeon
  • Lose: Failure to solve…
    • Count up/down time?
    • Cleaning grade
• Achievements/Upgrades:
  • Achievements
    • Completed a room within the antechamber or main dungeon
    • Exited master door
  • Upgrades
    • Larger Resource capacity
    • Access to additional Elemental Resources
• Innovation:
  • Combination of Viscera Detail Cleanup and Elemental interaction
• Fun:
  • Solving puzzles is exciting
  • Using elements is cool
  • Key finding feels progressive
• Challenging:
  • Puzzles