Introduction

"Hello there!" - General Kenobi

Just like our favourite Jedi, we're back again to face our problems straight on. The second week is starting to give a clear preview of what has to come. While we're optimizing the code and adding all necessary assets, all puzzle pieces are falling together and our game is taking shape. The in-game models make it a lot more enjoyable to look at, and the correct code gives us a good overview of which parts still need improvement.
Although everything is going smoothly,  as we would say in dutch "There is still a lot of work on the shop." So let's not get ahead of ourselves until the finish line is in sight.

Hopefully, you've done enough stretches, because the sprint is still on! Let's go.

Art

The main focus for our artists lies this week in the creation of the game world.  Our current goal is to slowly make the gameplay and the environment merge together.

Level Design

Most iconic platformers have their level design to thank for their success. This also means that the visual elements should not break the immersion of the game. If you're playing in a desert, you do not expect to see a polar bear... Unless it fits your story... I guess? What we're trying to say is that it should not feel too forced. In our case, we are going for a garage scene. So we intend to add a lot of objects that would fit in such scenery.

All artists did their best to generate usable props for the level.  The following image gives you a quick overview of the current state.

More images of the individual props can be found at the end of the image slider at the top of this devlog.

In the beginning, we had some problems importing the models into Unity, but in the end, everything worked out!

Concept Art

Our final character has finally made it through the concept art phase. We've sent through a  lot of iterations and loved the idea of a DIY toy with a contrasting head compared to its body. While deciding on the body, we considered the fact that we already had a robot character. We preferred having a plane "normal" body, to be more unique compared to the rest, which is why B3 won the voting poll.

We wanted the head to be a dino/lizard head because... Just because... dinos are cool.

Character Modeling

We got the robot from the blockout to the finished Model. We tried to get the silhouette right and all of the basic body parts are in the right position using Zbrush. Afterwards, a lot of details were added in Maya. For example, we replaced the eyeball with a visor to add funny pixel faces. 

The following images show the first Blockout for the plushy Monster character. Based on the Concept Art we decided on. It was a journey to fuse all of the limbs to the body. Furthermore, we made it looks more squishable to add some extra kawaii feel.

Code

In-game models

Because playing as a dumb cylinder all the time got a bit boring, and we already had a test model for one of our characters, we decided to implement it into the game. As said in previous devlogs, we used Mixamo for all the animations. The code for this is pretty simple. Basically, if the player runs, the run animation get played, and if the player jumps, the jump animation gets played. Because we were now playing with an actual character instead of a placeholder cylinder, the movement suddenly felt very different. So that is something we still need to investigate further next week.

Jump Pad

We also added the jump-pad back into the game, and this time it has a model. The logic right now is still very simple, as the spring doesn't compress yet. Eventually, there will be a nice animation and better player-yeeting logic

Moving Platform

Finally, we made a moving platform. This is just a platform that moves up and down, so the logic behind this is pretty straightforward. The platform also has a basic model. Ultimately we would like the platform to look like it gets moved by a drill controlling a pulley system.

Thank you again for reading our devlog! As always, feel free to give us feedback on what you think! All tips are appreciated. (:
See ya next time.

-This text was funnyfied by uwu Gilly-