Week 9 -Basic Level Blocking

Visual Choices

Since last week I've changed a fair few of the visual elements, if you read through the last devlog you'd know these changes were greatly needed. I still have a ways to go visually but it's an improvement. 

So far these changes have mostly consisted of making sprites, as you can see I replaced the black and white circle with a little alien dude paired with mechanical claw. These sprites may seem out of place considering my original game concept devlog, Prosaic-Ware is going through a few design changes that I'll discuss in future devlogs, what this changes is the type or themes of mini-games included. Besides sprites the pulsing effect seen on the microwave and the hovering effect on the player character are new additions. I thought these effects would give a much needed sense of polish which and little bit of visual game design, the microwave for example is pulsating because a mini-game can be played if it were clicked. When the mini-game is completed however this effect will stop. In future I'd like to add a particle effect under the player to compliment the hover effect already here, as well as this I'm planning on overhauling much of the over world to better fit with the aesthetic I'm going for.

Mini-Games

Unlike the better part of other games I've seen, the amount of level blocking is definitely lighter, saying this I've made one mini-game that shows the design I'd like to see in all my future mini-games. 

The placement of everything here I quite like, it's weird and a bit silly and that's what I'd like to see in future, I'm not say that this is the final product, I'd say there's still quite a lot of polish necessary. What I've also added this week is a countdown that will switch the cameras when it runs out, unlike last week you won't be stranded looking at a mouth when the mini-games done. The first mini-game just consists of a hand you control with your mouse and popcorn need to throw into the gaping maw. In future I'd like to add a score system but I've got much more to implement before then.

Uploads

I touched on this a little bit above but polish is something I mean to stress, while uploading this weeks new version of Prosaic-Ware I noticed there were a few problems, it was much laggy-er than my unity version and a fair few of the controls didn't translate well at all. These were mostly the hand and the arm which rotate and follow pretty poorly. I'm going to guess I may have to spend a bit on this to add polish and receive better reviews from my peers.

Peer Review

The main criticisms for the game I've been over briefly but I'll reiterate

• The pointer does not follow your mouse very well at all, I think this is a problem with the building process but I'll have to test it.
• Something I didn't notice when testing it myself but was pointed out to me is when the microwave stops animating the size isn't static, it will stay the size it was at when the pulsing stops. 
• The popcorn in the bowl aren't present at all in the built version which is very strange to me, but I think this is another problem with unity building the game. 
• Besides this constructive criticism I've heard positive remarks towards the player's sprite, thanks for that.

References

Will Bruce (2021) ProsaicWare concept art.  (Accessed: 19th September 2021).