Devlog. 5: Second week of Production Sprint 1

Introduction:

Welcome everybody to the fifth edition of the devlog for Master Thief Showdown (yes, we have finally settled on a name, took a long while but we've gotten to this point at least), and we're coming to a point where you might call it a 'video game'.

We're now in the full swing of production, with this being the second week. Where the previous week there was a focus on getting the basics sorted and creating the foundation of the game, we now had a focus on adding the gameplay important elements so they might be further developed on during the final week of the first production sprint. If we are continuing this house analogy, we are finished making the concrete columns and laying a flat surface, this week we started work on making the walls and stairs.

So while we programmers are focusing these gameplay elements and all their logic behind it, the artists were hard at work adding fun little block-outs within the level. Primarily, for the game objects the programmers needed but also some for the mansion architecture and finding the right assets we can use to then decorate each of these rooms. Along with a little addition to the guard that will give them that just a little bit to make them the magnum opus of the game. (you'll see)

Art Section:

As stated before, the primary focus for both of the artists was to start adding some more block-outs to all our existing game objects within the game to move away from the grey blankness that was last week's iteration, we haven't moved away from it completely just yet, for that you might need to wait till the second production sprint. We promise its going to look pretty. However, each artist had their own little side quests they embarked on, definitely our resident, self named 'mathematical' artist Matteo Tillmann who's been hard at work as ever on getting the lighting right within our level.

Though, one making sure that everything still stays pretty looking, Tommy has been working hard on some of the block-outs that you can see for the interactable game objects which can be found within the first main hall. Specifically, he focused on the throwable noise maker trap item which then in turn helped setting up the collider to be used with its throwing logic. Its still a blank model but he promised to work soon on the textured version of it.

Along with this, his been also working on the door model, getting all the needed measurements right for it and started implementing the future door opening animations along with it. Making it definitely look like a door is opening and allowing you to pass through. Just for those that reading this without any grasp on what could be an animation for a door object within a game. Besides this, he also had fun implementing some of the future switch walls within the level, with their respective animations. I don't have gifs of the animations for both of these models but I'll be sure to show it off once I do have them. More reasons to keep reading these devlogs (you haven't heard this one before).

Though it might be a bit too dark to see without the other ambient lighting, there's a space to put a painting on it. Meaning png or jpg images which can be added by our choice. We do have an extensive list of all the images we can add but for the hell of it, we'll let all of you have fun putting their own propositions within the comments. Lets say the first five commentors will have their proposed images put on the painting space (only if they can reasonably done, perverts).

Then onto our lighting side of the art section, with our main star Matteo having added his work to showed off. His main job was adding the lighting required for the light detection behaviour on top of the player detection script that the guards already had. So the lighting within this current state is definitely not final but the lighting important to the gameplay are added and they look fantastic. Hopefully giving you an idea of where you should and shouldn't stand as to not be spotted by the guard. If you notice that the level is a bit brighter than the final version, don't worry, its just me turning off the fog in the level. 

Together with this, Matteo has scoured the distant lands of unity asset packages and found one perfect for our use (before you start, we're a team with only two people having an art bone in their body and an entire mansion to fill within 7 weeks, you do the math), and it fits our set dressing needs very well. If you took your time looking around the level you might have found a surprisingly more decorated room compared to the others. For those that don't really care to the searching themselves, below is a very fun picture.

You can expect that soon a lot of the rooms will look similar to this one, though some of the colliders might be a bit strange now, don't worry those are just colliders we haven't placed yet.

Programmer Section:

Now for the programming part, Raphael, Cristian and me have had fun adding the most important gameplay elements within the game and creating future systems and interfaces that we can rely upon for all the other interactables and their unique behaviours that we might have within the future. Along with this, we added improvements to the guard's AI as well as layering extra complexity to their normal behaviours, the guard can now catch you within the level so be careful while demoing.

Cristian had the focus this week of creating the pick-up script which is used for both our traps and valuable items within the level, and how they must be carried by the player. This might not look like much but this is very important for a game all about stealing and carrying valuables to the deposit points. So we're all very grateful for it. Besides this, Cristian also worked on light visibility of the player for the guard, so that now if you are standing with a very bright light spot, the guard will definitely spot you from a far distance. The gracious soul even added some extra complexity to it, there are different light levels for each of the light spots in the game, some will make you more noticeable than others. Pretty cool right?

Meanwhile, our Raphael has been hard at work adding a major part to the guard's behaviour, the sound detection system. This system will allow guards to be attracted by sounds within the level and will move to go and inspect these noises that they've heard. This system will be in the future used to create objects that will fall over and create sounds, meaning another thing you'll have to be carefull while running around the level like a maniac. For now, you can try out this system using (my) throwable noise maker, you should see the guard moving to the noise maker's position to go and inspect it. Along with this he added a hat to the guard. Very important stuff, in short. His name is Fred, Fred Frederiskson.

Finally, I had been tasked with creating the catch behaviours within the guard, the respawn system that works with it and finally the previously mentioned noise maker. As you might have noticed while playing, when the guard catches up to while he had you already spotted, you will be caught and have to deal with a five second respawn before you are allowed to have fun again. This respawn timer was put in place to make sure that other players have ample the time to steal away your valuable that you were carrying.

I also had the pleasure of adding the first ever sound effect within our game that is made when you throw the noise maker, if you had the pleasure of meeting this sound effect then yes, it was me who added it. And no, I won't apologize for it. Along with this sound effect, I had fun experimenting some of the drop and throw physics for both the drop and throw mechanics, so hopefully the dropping and throwing within the level should feel a lot more natural.

And that was that, we've been having fun implementing all these new mechanics within our game andd hopefully by next week, you'll start seeing the completed versions of these mechanics. Hell you might have an actual completed gameplay loop so that you and your friends can have fun trying it out and competing against each other. So I hope I'll see you again for next week!