WEEK 10 – POLISHING AND TITLE SCREEN

The production has come to the finals, and most of the art works have been done. So basically I don’t have so many tasks to do in the last week. Ning and I are responsible to bring some liveness to the environments. So I modeled and textured some magnets on the fridge, in order to add some personalities. In addition, I re-textured the paintings because we thought that some paintings in the old version are not appropriate for the environment. So Anna found some pictures, and I re-sized them in photoshop in order to fit the paintings’ UV. On the other hand, I also designed the title screen background. But it still needs to be verified by the other group members.

• Model and texture the magnet and stickers ( 40 minutes )
• Re-textured the paintings  ( 10 minutes )
• Screenshot and design the title screen ( 1 hour)
• Weekly meeting ( 2 hours )

POSITIVE

The game is getting better and better now, and it looks good aesthetically.

NEGATIVE

None.

SOLUTIONS & SUGGESTIONS

We may find some other people play test our game now to get this game better.

Week 10 – Blinded by the light

Art-wise, there wasn’t much to be done in the final week in this project.  So all that was really left for me to do was polish the light in the scene.  I fixed an issue with the ceiling as well.  There was some light leakage coming through and caused some problems.  I tried to optimize the bloom and shadows as well.  Several materials needed changing so that light could properly come through.

Here’s this week’s breakdown:

• Lighting
  • Changing the adaptive light code – 30 minutes
  • Learning about new features with Light Probes in Unity 5 – 30 minutes
  • Adjusting light values – 2 hours
  • Implementing light probes – 1.5 hours
  • Changed several materials and incorporated new ones – 1 hour
  • Last minute lighting changes – 1 hour

 

POSITIVE

The bloom is looking pretty nice in the game and the apartment looks good.  I saw the mosquito earlier and I love the look of it.

NEGATIVE

None

SOLUTIONS & SUGGESTIONS

None

Week 10 – Programming a Better Bug

This week I made a lot of progress towards the final product of this game for next week. I first set up scripts for the audio for swinging a weapon and hitting something with a weapon. I sent this over to Ethan so he could apply the correct sound to each weapon. Next, I started to create the functionality for the network select screen. Fortunately, I was able to get it spawning in players, but there is a bug in it spawning the wrong prefab. This took a lot longer than expected, unfortunately. Next, I finished up the adaptive light script and added all of the values that Josh had given me. There was some miscommunication on how it should shift so the script has to be altered accordingly. However, it does sync with the clock and transitions to dawn starting at 4 AM. I also revamped the way that Mosquito controls and it feels a lot better. There is no more floatiness so he finally stays still (complete with an idle animation, thanks to Kai-lin!). We also came up with a workaround for the rotation of Sleepy’s swing. In order to do this, Kai-lin created separate animations for 3 different angles. I then wrote code to shift between these animations based on the current camera angle. In addition to this, the animation now syncs over the network!

• Meetings (1 Hour)
• Audio Scripts (20 Minutes)
• Network Select GUI (6 Hours)
• Adaptive Light (1 Hour)
• Mosquito Controls (3 Hours)
• Sleepy Swing Rotation (30 Minutes)

POSITIVE

The GUI Network select screen is almost working! We figured out a workaround for swatting in the camera’s direction! Mosquito controls feel way better! Animations now sync over the network. There is mostly only polish left.

NEGATIVE

Miscommunication between myself and Josh led to the adaptive light not functioning as intended.

Creating a custom GUI for the networking took much longer than I thought it would and still does not function as we want it to. Because of this, I was unable to implement the win/loss screens this week but they are in place to finish for next week.

SOLUTIONS & SUGGESTIONS

Stay focused on finishing the game even if you’re on vacation in San Francisco next week!

Week 10 – Delegation

I continued  a dialogue with Kai-Lin on everything that needed to be done for the game before half the team leaves for GDC next week. Since art is basically done, I focused on looking for sweeteners that the artists can do without putting more strain on the designers/programmer.

• Review Saturday online SCRUM, the various channels, and Kai-Lin’s checklist document (0.5)
• Direct meeting and help with verifying assets so that everyone is actively working on something that contributes to the game or eases the burden on Ethan, Kai-Lin, and Jal (2)
• Class presentation (1)
• Help with audio (0.5)

Positive

Everyone was very willing to do things outside of their wheelhouse!

Negative

We’re at a point where we’re trading off the scene in order to make changes.

Solutions & Suggestions

For next week, since I will be away, we might want to schedule time to have with the build so that the burden isn’t on one teammate to make all the changes to the objects in the game.

Week 10: Ning Zhang’s PPJ

This week, I didn’t do too much because most of the art work are done. I had waited for the revising in the first few days. Then I had the access to our Github and pulled the game down to my computer, then I kind of play-tested our game. I found the controlling of the mosquito is very hard. The room is a little bit small. The lighting condition is not perfect… However, it is already a playable game. In our weekly meeting, we discussed the current statues, Josh fixed the lighting, and we added some task to polish the game.

I researched on Ambient Occlusion. There is a package in Unity named Screen Space Ambient Occlusion(SSAO). we can use it to generate Ambient Occlusion in our game. I tried imported it and the results seemed not so good. So we gave up using AO in our game. Also, I checked all of the colliders and masses of the object in the scene in order to make sure everything is placed well.

1: Research on AO (1 hour)

2: Import AO and adjust the attributes (1 hour)

3: Weekly meeting (2 hours)

4: Check the colliders and masses of the objects (1 hour)

POSITIVE

The game is almost done. Yeah~

NEGATIVE

The control scheme is not so good according to my own opinions. There are also some other imperfectness, such as the lighting conditions, the size of the different objects, the color/textures of the objects…

SOLUTIONS & SUGGESTIONS

I think we can do as much as we can to polish the game within the limited time. Also, me and zheng will work on some other work in the final week to complete the game. They are: add a background to the main screen; do some promotion stuffs, such as a poster or a sticker…

WEEK 10 – WIN/LOSE SCREENS & SOUNDS

For this week, I spent some time creating and revising the win/lose screens according the needs of the game. I created different variations as well as a final stats page for the end of game. I also worked on shortening sound also, after Anna reviewed them. The summary of the weeks tasks are below:

1. Win/lose screens – 2.5 hours
2. Sounds – 1 hour
3. Meeting – 2 hours –  Total – 5.5 hours

 

POSITIVE

The team worked really hard and the game is in a much more complete state than it was.

NEGATIVE

Nill.

Week 09 – Texturing and Mosquito Modeling and Animating

It seems that our art team has finished almost all the art works in the last week. For me, I spent most of my time UVing and texturing some furnitures and some assets that the sleepy guy can interactive with. The cartoony wood texture and the reference of the bed texture is provided by Anna. In addition, I also modeled and animated Mr. mosquito. Basically the mosquito is made up of some spheres and columns. So it didn’t take me very long to get it modeled. As for the wing animation, I added two joints to the mosquito’s wings, and rotate the y-axis mainly through expressions in Maya. I think the flying animaiton turns out to be fine. But it still needs to be verified by Anna or Kai-lin.

• UV and texture samurai sword ( 3 hours )
• UV and texture bed (30 minutes)
• UV and texture bowling ball (20 minutes)
• UV and texture kitchen island ( 2.5 hours )
• UV and texture painting ( 40 minutes)
• Model the mosquito ( 30 minutes )
• Animate the mosquito’s wings ( 30 minutes)

POSITIVE

Finally we have completed almost all the art works in the past week, and it feels better that out game is getting prettier than before.

NEGATIVE

There are not so many tasks left in the art team. So I don’t know what’s next for me to do.

SOLUTIONS & SUGGESTIONS

I can help animate the sleepy guy if it is needed. And I can also polish the assets and textures in the next week.

Week 9 – Timer, Mosquito, Swings, etc.

This week I managed to get a lot roughly finished that was discussed last week. First off, I created the working clock which is synced across the network. The clock takes 6 minutes to tick from midnight to 6 AM, in which case the game ends. The clock required me to write a custom shader so that the 3D text would not show through everything. Next, I worked on replacing the mosquito with the newer model and created a script for the third person camera. When the mosquito’s camera gets close to any object, it will assume a different position until mosquito has flown away from that object. I also replaced the placeholder UI with Teslim’s assets and gave all of the buttons functionality. Next week, I will work on getting the lobby to work as expected. Lastly, I worked on getting Sleepy to swing towards the camera (again). However, we ran into some more problems with the rig along the way (it’s orientation was reversed on the z axis), which cost some time. In it’s current state, Sleepy can pick up objects and swing with an animation which is set to a default rotation. Alternatively, with “Animate Physics” set to true, his arms rotate and animate towards where the player is looking, but the animation does not play 100% correctly.

• Meetings (1 Hour)
• Sleepy Movement (4 Hours)
• Replacing Sleepy (20 Minutes)
• Picking up Objects (1 Hour)
• Clock (2 Hours)
• Mosquito Controls (2 Hours)
• Replacing Mosquito (10 Minutes)
• UI Replacement and Functionality (1 Hour)

POSITIVE

Every feature of the game is in place, at least in some rough form, and requires polish.

NEGATIVE

Animations still do not sync correctly over the network. Picking up objects sometimes syncs over the network. The rotated animation does not play properly. Networking is still not perfect.

The artists no longer have things to do.

SOLUTIONS & SUGGESTIONS

I feel that a lot of the polish is left to me and it would be great to have some of the people who do not have as much to do to lend a hand if they have Unity knowledge.

Week 9 – Pulling Things Together

This week I and Anna decided upon a color pallet, I continued to import models into the game, continued to put some basic colors on everything, redesigned the room for more maneuverability, fixed colliders, organized the folders in Unity (things got pretty cluttered), started to animate Sleepy before switching jobs with Kai-Lin, and wrote two sound scripts.

• Environment layout, fixes, and texturing (4 hours)
• Sound scripts and attaching (1 1/2 hours)
• Animating (1 hour)

New layout!

One of many objects that now has a texture in game.

Positive

The game is slowly but surely coming together into some kind of being. Building up the environment has been very satisfying, as was scripting. Not nearly on the same level as Joe, but still fun. The team seems to be communicating much more – big plus.

Negative

Having only one dedicated programmer is really becoming a weakness for us. Joe is working his butt off, and we still haven’t playtested. Discovering the Sleepy rig needed to be re-rigged was incredibly annoying, and not a setback that we needed at this stage.

Solutions & Suggestions

I’m not sure what else to offer up here other than everyone needs to work on this as much as possible over the next week.

Week 09 – Second to final push

After last class, I did an assortment of management and art tasks. Most of my effort went into supporting Jal and Ethan.

• Texture checklist for artists (.5)
• Verify Mosquito model (.15)
• Experiment and made wood texture – Figure 1 (0.15)
• Created a wall with window cutouts and thickness – Figure 2 (0.75)
• Update Trello with new cards based on edits to Master Asset List (0.15)
• Verify textured assets and import them into the game – Figure 3 (1.15)
• Class presentation (0.15)

Figure 1 – Wood texture

Figure 2 – Wall

Figure 3 – Textured bed and other materials with textures in Unity

Positive

Assets were good this week! I had to spend some time getting them into Unity and setting them up.

Negative

I accidentally deleted one of the models that were being used in the scene assuming that another existing model was being used. That was my fault on communication.

Solutions & Suggestions

We’re at the end of the term almost and we are hustling along. The art team is basically done so they’ll be moving onto fixing assets as needed. Jal needs more support so I have been working with Ethan to move the models into the project.