Darkness Encoded (Progress DevLog 6 - Testing)

Progress Devlog 6 - Testing (Final)

Feedback | Polish | End Scene | Darkness to Light

End Scene

Previously, in last week’s devLog I spoke about the ability and foundation to have the game be endless. With all the components in place, it creates room for ever-growing expansion. At some point, there must be an end. I used a small-scale length of the game to begin testing on game objects with colliders attached, these colliders would detect the collider and rigid body of the player and trigger an event attached. This would load the end-game scene I created for the completion of the game. With a simple end screen and main menu button, restart and continue button.

I wanted to add a cool graphic element to signify the completion, so I grabbed the individual frames from a few of the animations and made an arc with the progression you made throughout the duration as the different frames.

Darkness to Light

This element was a key motivator of the original concept. I wanted a way to signify in a subtle way that you completed the game but only displayed it at the finishing line. I wanted the progression to be visible for the duration of the game, using this as a motive to reach the light. I would love to expand on this concept in the future as I don’t feel as if it fully completes at this stage. One plan I had at the concept development stage was to make connected to animation at the beginning of the gameplay, I feel as if it would have developed detail to the ‘Dark to light’ concept and having a cut scene to complete the connection is something I plan to create within the future.

Upgrades - Feedback

so a week has past in-between the last entry and now. I have taken onboard some improvements to the game at its current state, I soke with Ian, Dominic and Winston about features I could implement. The foundation for the game was their mostly the polish needed work. I will admit I did not get around to everything stated and i wish for only more time, moving forward I have a great foundation of a game that is a work in progress. In the future I can always return to the project to continue where I picked up  from. Doing this project as part of a major assessment did skew my thoughts and how I must manage my time, The course of the project has taught me many useful skills and techniques to be applied to come. 

White Encoded

An endless version of the game. from base game you start off in the darkness and progress towards the light. This version is all white as it only accessible from completion of the base game. The game mode allows for the ending to be longer a limiter. this version still requires a slight amount of work with the currency integration and the possibility of a high score chart.

White Encoded upgrade scene 

building on from the White Encoded a similar feel is established with a light element in the background. this scene allows the player to track scores and continue to upgrade the same as the base mode. 

fixed end scene

End scene bug with itch.io. In the unity editor the game would progress to the end scene one reached but upon build it would crash. a small fix to the currency not return null allowed for it to no longer crash, 

sound effects - flame sounds for rocket - crash landing on ground.

to add more ambience I used a few sound effects. I didn't want to over do this as with obnoxious sounds, as the music fits well with the environment, I used a flame sound for when the rockets are enabled. to addition depth I used a thump effect on the Collison of the ground. 

particle effect on rockets

As the rockets fire their is a flame animation. This is a great effect but by using some of Unity's built in particle effects I dabbled around creating a smoak cloud shooting backwards. I feel as that I could have been their for days messing around but the additions were well integrated.

adjusting player cineamachine camera position 

This was a simple addition to completed so the player is centralised further in the scene.

general tidy-up/bug fixes

help menu

creation of a button within the main menu and having a guide to how to play within the game accessible, detailing the goal and movements.