Devlog : Beginning of sprint 1

Alright! This week we will finally begin on the production. For the first sprint we plan to have all the major mechanics and art in the game, and for the second sprint we're going to focus on adding as many other features, potions, mechanics as we can. Here is some of the progress we made in the first third of sprint 1.

Witch character

For the witch character we made a little concept so we can make sure that everybody agrees and is on the same page that this is how out main characters are going to look like! If we have the time we can even implement a small variation in model to further increase the recognizability of the opposing witches.

Environment

We've also been thinking about making the level design a bit more interesting. We decided to add a river, because we think we can add some fun features revolving it. These are 2 quick concepts we made so that we can start working on the actual level. We decided we will be making the first layout.

Potions

We have also started figuring out which potions we would like there to be in the game, and we have come up with some designs for them. These icons will be used in the UI of the game, the potion models still need some work. There are more potions that you will be able to craft in a single game, but the plan is that each time you play you will have different potions to brew and use. Hopefully this way the gameplay will stay fun, refreshing and require some clever strategies.

Cauldron and snail

For the cauldron and snail we thought we already had most of the design down from the prototyping phase, so we refined it a little bit and already started modelling some previews for it

VFX

finally for art we starting working on the base versions of some of our effects we will be using. Here is a sneak peak of how it will look like when an item is about to spawn somewhere .  We have a dotted line indicating where the item will spawn. It then quickly shrinks and explodes into a puff of smoke when it spawns the item. The duration of this effect can be easily adjusted with a simple parameter to keep things interesting.

Mechanics

For the mechanics we have already implemented the base of some of our core mechanics. The base of the dash, movement, snail movement and even some snail potion interactions have all been implemented. We are currently still finetuning those, and it is mostly mimicking and improving what we have already made during prototyping. So we will show off all these polished mechanics as soon as we have something new to show!

Conclusion:

Since this week all the designs and core mechanics have been set in stone, next week you can already start expecting some finished models, textures and mechanics!

Programming & Tech

At the first week off our first sprint, we started clean and revaluated our code.

We started with implementing an input system and a game mode which would support our multiplayer game.

After that we started making our player interactions:

The dash:

A sudden explosive boost off speed off the character.

With the press off a button he will no matter what his current velocity is, move explosively in his forward direction.

Giving him a set amount off time to dash and power off his impulse.

When this is activated, he will not stop or turn for as long as the time we set it to.

Collisions:

The fun part about dashing, is knocking everything away from you.

In our prototype, it was very inconsistent about when it worked or how. So we remade the way off how he checks for overlapping actors.

We base the knockback more on the physics system off unreal now instead off simple SetActorLocation(), because this looks more energetic and alive instead off simple linear movement.

Grabbing items:

Items need to be picked up, in the prototype we let these things happen automatically when overlapping with them.

Now we let made it that you need a buttonPress when overlapping the item to actualy pick it up.

We added a difficulty in it that, if you run in to fast and pressed the button to slow, it will bounce away from you.

When dashing, it will fly off far away from you, but we made sure not to far by setting a time on it.

When hit with a dash, it will receive an impulse 1 time, for that set amount off time it will move away from you before it stops.

Of course, if one off you was holding an item it will fly off in the sky.

First one to grab it when it falls wins.

Snail:

The snail is back to his original form but with an actual statemachine and once he gets his skeletal mesh collisions will be improved.

Recipes:

Recipes can now be added in any form instead of being hard coded. The cauldron can now match any recipe or an get its potion according to that. If the potion is almost ready the cauldron will also be able to wait. This is a big improvement over the prototype version as later on we will add dynamic recipes over the course of the game.

Conclusion:

We made the basic movements and interactions, and we already have a base for brewing all the new cool potions and interactions with the snail.