Tutor Feedback and Notes - 4/4/16

Tutorial Feedback from Doros, on the first Demo:

1. Start page – too dark / black text on dark bg –text is unreadable.
2.  Camera – too far out – needs to be zoomed in more. Needs to be decided before you design/fine tune your level
3. Character animation – Needs more frames / more fluent change between idle / walk / jump
4. Tree animations – interesting effect but maybe it have been better if the tree trunks don’t move and only the upper part of the trees/leaves?
5. Level navigation/jumping. Controls are not accurate enough for this type of level design. The character jumps way to far and the blocks are too small making the level frustratingly difficult to navigate (Maybe its me, but I did not manage to climb the tree – and I did try more than 20 times!) 
6. Character clings on platforms on the way down.
7. I want to see an example of the dialogue and how it will be implemented.
8. Examples of enemies / fight mechanics? How are the enemies going to be moving around the space? Will each type of enemy have a unique moveset?

Notes:

1.  Start Page was an after thought to inform that the art assets were temporary and that all placements were subject to some change.
2. Agreed, The Camera is too far out. This shall be rectified first.
3. Temporary Sprite, All finished sprites are still being drawn.
4. Tree Trunks move by mistake, Product of the sprite being cut afew pixels short. Shall be rectified imediatly.
5. Jump needs to be fine tuned. Will also experiment with stone placement to try and find the best layout.
6. Hadn't thought of that.
7. Dialogue is currently being written, I should recieve it later today. Ready for implementation.
8. Yes, Each type of enemy will have its own style of movement. Mock sprites are being created.

Technical Difficulties - Unity Crashes

Save Every Few Minutes.

As the initial Build came to an end, Unity decided to crash. This would not have been too much of a problem, except no saved copy had been made in over an hour, and the crash happened mid-save. After rebuilding for the next hour and a half (saving every 5 minutes), an attempt was made to export a version of the file. To my dismay, Unity crashed again.

Several hours, and two computers later, it was discovered that a flaw in the previous update had prevented the file from exporting. The initial crash was most likely due to stress on the machine, as it was later followed by the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death".

 Correspondence to Doros (30/03/2016):
ML: "I have been attempting to send you the Demo build that we agreed upon all day, but for some unknown reason Unity keeps crashing as I am exporting the file. I will carry on with the export attempts but I am sending you this to confirm that the demo of level one has been built as requested. Unity has been crashing on both of my systems for the past two days, so I am unsure of what the problem is, but you shall recieve the demo as soon as it has been exported."

Correspondence to Doros (31/03/2016):
ML: "Apologies for this being a day later than agreed, It took till 1:40 this afternoon for all software problems to be fixed (apparently it was to do with the previous update not installing correctly on either system). Please a link to the first level demo, formatted as a web file for ease of access."

Contruction Begins - Unity Building

With mock sprites created for a number of background and interactive elements, construction begins on the first level. Using Nikki's original sketch and description as a starting point, assets were placed in a manor to test weather the layout worked well. While the visual asthetic seems appealing, the placement of stepping stones and rocks proved that the characters jump height and hit detection need to be recalibrated, and the placement tweaked. The current build, while labelled Level 1, is approximatly half of the level. No enemies have been introduced yet, and character interaction still needs to be implemented. The level, however, serves it's purpose of exploring what needs changing before final assets are created.

Place holders

While awaiting for final sprite art to be finished, it is a necessity to start a build with temporary sprites. With the game centring around female leads, using one of the previous male sprites seemed inappropriate. To combat this initial problem and double as bases for any future place holders, a set of blank female sprites were created.

While currently working as a placeholder for the main character, Nimbus, they can also be repurposed as templates for later characters or height comparisons. Providing them with a multi use purpose that will not only help in the development of this project, but in future endeavours. 

For the purpose of sprite movement, a modified version of Dodge's code (From a previous game, http://gamejamechallengemlw.blogspot.co.uk/) was implemented, with a more controlled jumping height to accommodate for the difference in environment. 

The limited art in regards to the temporary sprites, is less of an issue at this stage, as they are only providing a stand in for how the character will move through the environment. At this current stage, similar assets are being created for interactive sections of the environment, such as tree branches and rocks. Once these have been created, implemented and tested, stand in enemies will be created (most likely taking a cue from previously created enemies) to test the main characters collision detection and scene reloading.