Art

Player Character

This week we have been working on further blocking out the visual aspects of the game. As a start to this we have been playing around with proportions for the player character, the witch. We tried making some blockouts in a few different styles. We used the modern Mario title's proportions on the left. We used overcooked proportions on the right. And finally we had one of our artists try something himself, which you can see in the middle. Which one we will finally end up going with is still somewhat unsure, but at least we can now see which one of these three fits the best with our vision.

In-game Layouts

Another thing we have been working on this week is the actual layout of a level. Do we want separate racing tracks? Do we want extra stage hazards? Do we want specific spawn locations for different ingredients? These were all questions we wanted to figure out this week, and we have been actively blocking out some of these ideas. We can now use these ideas to have a better idea of what direction to go in.

These blockouts were also really useful to gauge the proportions of the characters, tracks and the sizes they take up on the screen. We obviously want to find a good balance between a readable and nice looking layout, that is also a good size for a competitive feeling.

Here is another quick sketch of what the game layout could look with some environmental assets and a UI

Shader

We have also continued working on our games main shader. We want something with many parameters so we can currently play around with the values and see what we like the most.

The gif you see here showcases that material on different meshes and with different parameters

Our Shader vs UE Standard Shader

& More

On top of all of that we have also been hard at work figuring out a good system for file naming conventions. We have been working on putting together an Art-bible, and we have also given the itch page a brand new coat of paint.

Code

Snail Racing

As mentioned last week it was important that we figure out how the snail will race to the finish line and how we will manipulate the snail in the potions. We will still have to play a lot with the behaviour of the snail to find the right speed, so we have time enough to fight for it but not to frustratingly slow. Below we influence the behaviour as follows. When the character uses a green potion and drops it on the snail, the snail, when he became stationary because of collision in his path, will destroy the obstacle and continue his slow journey. 

The other way you can influence his behaviour is by throwing a speed/blue potion, this potion can be used for both buffing and debuffing. See below for a demo.

Character

We also implemented a dash ability to the character, so he can rush to the snail or the one good item he needs. This will consume their stamina though but no worries this will recover gradually by time.

Future

With the dashing against each other, we want to implement a knockback to other characters so that they will lose their item/potion he was carrying.

We will also develop more potions, to influence the behaviour of our snail.

For now we skipped the item system since it is logic and not crucial to our game, but now we will slowly start working on it.