Ahoy sea dogs! 

This week, production continues without hitches. With our task log becoming more and more defined, everyone has settled into their work routine and the skies seem ever so clear. After last weeks' teacher feedback, our programmers are hard at work implementing the round system of our game and the fish items' abilities, adding a first version of the wave system and fixing bugs in our code. Meanwhile, the artists have been improving the look of the game map and player character, aiming for a strong, cohesive visual style.

Current level look

Programmers :

Miguel has created the 2 pick-ups that tie into one of our main mechanics, which is the stunning. To be more specific, these are the pufferfish and the electric eel. The pufferfish gets swapped between characters if they collide and acts like a hot potato. Once it gets picked up, a collision is necessary for its activation. Once it activates, a counter starts, after which its current possessor gets stunned. The eel, on the other hand, activates as soon as it is picked up, creating a safe zone around the player that has grabbed it, starting a timer similar to the pufferfish one. But, once the timer ends, the players outside of said safe zone get stunned. Aside from the logic, although still with no final visuals, he also added some basic player feedback, for example : in the form of flashing colors when the timer is about to run off.

He also implemented a round system, which only takes effect once 2 or more players join the match. Players that fall mid-round stay deactivated until it ends, which can either happen once a full minute passes, or when all but one players have fallen into the water. After five rounds (for now), the game resets. Aside from that, he also implemented a temporary UI for both the round counter and the timer. Lastly, with the textures created by Beau, he assigned different groups of materials to each player in order to differentiate between them.

Video showcasing round system, as well as the fish pick-ups

Daphné spent her time this week working on the wave system that makes the ice cube map tilt suddenly. She managed to achieve a natural and smooth movement by reworking the decaying originators that she previously implemented, to now optionally use an AnimationCurve. This new addition has no final visuals implemented yet, as our artists have decided to wait on refining them until the style of the water is more defined. 

She also coded a special spawner for the newly implemented fish pick-ups. Instead of only spawning an instance of a random fish every 20 seconds (either the eel or the pufferfish) out of nowhere, they now move along a curve from the water to their target, the ice cube. This makes it seem as if the fish keep jumping out of the sea and into the level. As Steven Wright once said, “there is a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot”. 

Incoming wave

Fish spawn arc

Artists :

Stijn has spent all his time this week reworking the water shader. Previous week's feedback indicated that we should try and achieve a more toonier look for the water and make it interact more with the props that float on its surface. Therefore, he has decided on using both a normal and height map to create the waves in order to have more control over them, as opposed to the noise map he was using before. He also added a foam effect on top of the waves and around the edge of colliding objects, by using a mask he created from the aforementioned height map.

Shader update

In the meantime, Beau has finished our fisherman player character model. If you've ever dreamed of becoming a chunky old fisherman brawling at open sea, now's your chance! Beau has retopologized and unwrapped the model and, to accommodate up to 4 players joining the match, created 4 different textures for said model. He also rigged it with the help of Mixamo and tried out a couple of animations from the same website, including a running one to be used during gameplay. Certain issues with the mesh were made clear while using Mixamo's auto-rig function, so he made sure to fix the model accordingly.

Retopologized mesh

Different textures

Fisherman running animation

Aside from the player model, he has also made a 2D mockup animation for our wave system, in order to figure out the basics of it. To achieve the mockup, he has spent some time studying real life waves and experimenting with concept art.

Wave concept art

Wave test animation

To finish off, I've been tasked with decorating the scene itself. The latest feedback session indicated that the background blockout I created previously didn't truly match the scene, so I decided to scrap it and start from scratch. I sketched out a concept to get a feel for the new mesh placement, as well as the color scheme of the fishing village, for which I took inspiration from the colorful villages that are found in Greenland. I later modelled 4 different house meshes to populate the scene with, as well as a lighthouse, 2 different terrain banks and a cloud plane visible on the horizon line, and a little boat that will later on be animated. I also created 2 different house textures to have some color variety in the village and modified most existing materials in order to match the color scheme of the scene.

Background concept

Textured house meshes

Assembled village

And that, my friends, will be all for this week. Tight lines until next Monday!

-Alex