Devlog 11/5/2020

Dylan

This week the team came full circle. Initially, this game was envisioned to be a linear experience, with quests and less open-ended choices. As time went on, we decided to scope down and make it more open-world and free-form. However, that made the game feel directionless, having playtesters recommend a more in-depth and explicit quest system. That is why this week we spent the time implementing a new quest system that updates the synopsis/what to do for the player. Additionally, after play-experience feedback, we implemented the ability for the player to pick up cast dough, made platforms break down after touching them, and tweaked how Cold Spots work. Now, the player has to just enter the Cold Spot to make it a new spawn point, and if they sit there for a moment, they can replenish their dough. The most significant change however is we decided to remove the timer. The artistic intent was to have the player feel the pressure of decision making with limited time, and hopefully cause introspection to how we live our lives. However, the literal timer served as a nuisance for gameplay, which got in the way of the game's intent. Therefore, we made quest completion increment time instead. We believe this maintains the same consequences of choosing how to spend our time. We are hoping this is the last week of mechanical iteration and backend systems programming, so the frontloading of programming can be relieved and content creation and implementation can start flowing. Unfortunately, Marcus is yet to be found.

5 Questions

- How do the locomotion/movement mechanics feel?

- What are some expectations that were not met in the worldbuilding?

- What confused you?

- Do you find the quest system to be useful?

- Did the tutorial cover everything you needed to know?

Tariq

This week I focused a lot more on the assets and modelling for Dough Deep. In particular, the environmental assets which thus far had been only gray boxes. Keeping with our low-poly requirements and aesthetic, I made sure to keep all models below 200 polys and with more jagged angles present. I also made sure to keep wireframes neat and tidy, with all models being cut and UV'd to make later texture implementation much easier. Upon completion of a few models, I then brought them into Unity and replaced the grayboxing with graymodelling, so we now have a map filled with environmental models. The focus for this next week will be to churn out more models so that there is more variety in the environment, as well as begin texturing the characters so that the game's aesthetic can begin to take more shape and really come to life.

McKenna

This week was focused on the main story revolving around the Muffin Man, the Gingerbread Man, and the C Men. It is important to note that even though all these pastries are called "men" they are actually nonbinary like the rest of the pastries in the oven, so the player can place whatever meaning on the pastries as they want. I decided the Gingerbread Man wanted to leave the oven, but decided to go back to be with their family. However, the C Men are blocking the Gingerbread Man from returning home. I also added the Gingerbread Man's family (it is very difficult to find non-binary parent names) and some small conversations about missing their parent. Next week I will focus on more background chatter and maybe a quest or two more.