Summary:
We met on Wednesday this week, and we talked mainly about level two design, where we are doing an underground level. Because the level is underground, we modified the look and attribute of the enemies. We have also talked about fixing level one, what kind of puzzles, how to lay out level two, and decided who need to do what due to the time limit. We also reduced the game to three levels. So Jameson is drawing out the level design with right scale, and then pass it on to Averi to start the assets. Where Fahad and I will be fixing the bugs left from alpha code.
Contributions:
My personal contribution for this week is just trying to fix bugs left from the alpha code. The bug for player to hang on the ground when player full off the cliff is been fixed, but we need to test it later on. I also add small code for the player to jump over platform when player is right underneath a platform. I also went to the TA to get help for the animation glitch, where changing from jumping to climbing as player jumps and lands on the ladder. I managed to fix the bug before meeting the TA, so I asked help for rotating the enemy laser and debugging a null pointer error.
For the team meeting, I contributed by giving suggestions, about level design and how feasible things can be done. Because I think our game right now does not stand up with a unique feature, I suggested that we could use flame of light to indicate the path to the next level by blowing out the candle. The game screen would turns to black, the light flame will make a trace to the exit of the level, and every intractable will be highlighted. The trace will disappear after a few second, the candle will be lit again and the screen will turn back to normal. There will be a timer for the candle to be blown out to show the trace again.
Self-Reflections:
I think the process of discussing on how to fix level one did not go well. The environment assets look great, but I think the level is very empty. I suggested to add more puzzles in, and cut down the time length of simply walking and jumping through the platform, but it seems we have spent too much effort on the assets, we can’t cut down the length of the nice looking assets. The only option we could do is to add more assets for new puzzles, or just leave the level like that. Right now we are just fixing the code and we are not fixing the problem of the empty level that brings down the experience of the game play. Another issue we have is making a unique feature in our game. I don’t want to make a project I don’t like myself, so it will be best of we can a unique feature to stand out. It doesn’t means we have to add my above idea, but something stands out. We also have some conflicts today where the group is not agreeing on the kind of puzzle we want to implement and how we should carry on the game. I think the placement of level two right now is more like a complete level, and make level three puzzles more complicated but not increasing the map length. Our game right now is more emotional driven, and we need many audios, but I am suggesting we only do that part after we finishing building good level design and game play mechanics. Right now I suggest we talk to the TA as a group and see how things go, so we can make sense of everything. I hope when we talk about things, no personal feeling are attached. I say things in a straight way, but please don’t take things personally. I am not trying to attack anyone, I am just trying to make something we are proud of. We can then adjust the work distribute based on TA’s feedback to see if we should spend more time to fix everything or the work flow are fine to continue, and some suggestions of how to make out levels.
