Troglodyte in Underbelly

    Author : Daniel Reder Contrary to their proclaimed title, death is a key part of survival games. This is usually looked at as a setback, requiring the player to take a different approach to their next life or risk dying again. However, in games where players can gather large amounts of items, having the items collected would be very disheartening and be quite a set back. Because of this, a system was added that allowed the player to collect the inventory from their previous life if they can find where they died. The implementation that ended up being used would capture the players inventory on death, and store it in an object that stays alive between scenes. This object would also store the location that the player died at. When the player returns to the underbelly, the object when then teleport to where the player died at. If the player can find their way back to the object, they can retrieve their inventory exactly as it was when they died.

Quested Crafting Jordan Ireland In the recent phase of development, a significant task involved implementing a goal system, updating item recipes, and introducing spawnable and interactable trees. The challenge lay in crafting a coherent goal structure that guides player progression, refining recipes to enhance gameplay dynamics, and seamlessly integrating spawnable trees with interactive functionalities. Neglecting to address these aspects could lead to a lack of direction for players, outdated or imbalanced crafting options, and a less immersive environment without dynamic, interactable elements. The importance of this challenge is underscored by its direct impact on player engagement and the overall richness of the in-game experience. The core of the issue was the absence of a structured goal system, outdated item recipes, and a lack of interactive trees. To resolve this, I established a goal system that provides players with clear objectives, driving a sense of ...

 Troglodyte in Underbelly: Radial Menu I haven't sold the idea to my teammates yet, but I wanted to add a Radial Menu. This is only if we are going to be done with significant stuff that still needs to be added or if we could use it to get a different UI in something else, like our quick bar.  In any case, this week, I decided to better have it on a different project because when I came up with this idea, it was way too close to the build deadline, so I decided to not add anything else until everything was set. So far, I got it working, but I still need to polish some of the math used to rotate my objects because when trying to select, it changes really fast or not to the expected slot. I also need to combine it with a mouse function because right now, the way you select something is by pressing left or right once the menu is open.  I have an idea of how to fix this bug but I don't really know where to start with the mouse functionality. If that doesn't work or is ju...

Author: Shemaiah Nelson Date: 2/28/2024 This week I was tasked with  resizing all the UI elements within the UI container prefab to scale up to 1920 by 1080 resolution in our game "Troglodyte In Underbelly." While striving to enhance the visual fidelity and compatibility of our UI across different screen sizes, I encountered two major obstacles. Firstly, I confronted a corrupted font file, disrupting the consistency and legibility of text elements within the UI. This setback not only compromised the aesthetic appeal of our game but also hindered communication with players, impacting their overall understanding and engagement. Additionally, I faced difficulty pushing my changes to the main development branch, resulting in the loss of progress and the need to redo my work. This unforeseen technical issue not only consumed valuable time and resources but also disrupted the momentum of our development cycle, delaying progress on other essential tasks. These challenges underscored...

Troglodyte in Underbelly: Chunks and Terrains While working on the new tutorial map, once again, I had to use the tools Digger. This was my second time using this tool. Very convenient to create quick caves and mountains. I decided to spend more time planning on the sections of this cave that would start the player in a tight branch of the cave to familiarize themselves with the controllers (WASD, mouse, jump, crouch, and prone). Then, the branch will open to the main cave with a more freestyle tutorial where they can move around the cave to different areas with some of the basics (Enemies, materials, and crafting). After some hours of work and scripting a sign, I had a decent map for a tutorial to showcase in this week's milestone.  The issue starts when doing the last checks before getting everything to the development branch. I noticed a single error but opted to help one of my teammates who had issues with the other map I created. After finishing, I go back to the error, which ...

   Author : Daniel Reder Keeping the player informed as to what is actually happening in game is extremely important. However it can be very easy to cross the line by providing information in a manner that subtracts from the experience or from providing too much information to the player. This week I had to create a system that would inform the player that they had taken damage and communicate how in danger of death the player was. The were several options and approaches that I could have taken, but ultimately ended up taking the call of duty approach with the screen turning red. I liked this approach as it does not directly tell the player their exact health, but they can figure it out with clues from how much of the screen is red, and by the sounds that play. I also preferred this over a health bar as the player does not need to look at their health bar to see when they take damage when using this approach, as the outer edges of the screen turning red are impossible to miss ...

Seamless Transitions Jordan Ireland In the recent week of development, a pivotal task involved establishing a level load system. The challenge was to ensure the seamless transition between levels without destroying the camera, player, and UI elements. Additionally, managing scenarios where another player object existed in the scene required careful handling to prevent conflicts. The problem at hand had the potential to disrupt the continuity of the game, causing issues such as unexpected resets of the first-person controller's position post-scene load. If unaddressed, these issues would significantly impact the player experience, introducing jarring transitions and undesired resets. The issue stemmed from the default behavior of destroying and recreating elements during a scene load, causing unintended consequences. To resolve this, I implemented a persistent object management system, preventing the destruction of essential components like the camera, player, and UI durin...

Author: Shemaiah Nelson Posted on: 2/20/24 This week, I undertook the task of designing a UI element representing the transition between day and night in our game "Troglodyte In Underbelly" when the player sleeps. I created a sun and moon ui image and devised a smooth sliding animation to seamlessly transition between them. However, I encountered a significant obstacle in triggering this animation at the appropriate time. Despite my efforts, I struggled to implement the logic necessary to activate the transition when the player initiated sleep. This posed a critical issue as it directly impacted the game's immersion. Without a smooth transition between day and night, players would experience a jarring disconnect in the game's world, detracting from their overall enjoyment and engagement.  To address the challenge of triggering the day-night transition UI seamlessly in our game "Troglodyte In Underbelly," I devised a simple yet effective solution. By adding t...

Fluid Motion Jordan Ireland This week's development presented a challenge centered around implementing ladder interactions for smooth ascending and descending movements and refining drowning/floating interactions. The complexity emerged from the need to achieve visually pleasing climbing animations and getting the right balance between jump height and drowning prevention. Without addressing these issues, players might experience awkward animations during climbing, and the water interaction could become frustrating if not tuned correctly. The significance of this challenge lies in ensuring a seamless and enjoyable player experience, where movement animations align with player expectations and the water dynamics provide a realistic and engaging feel. The difficulty arose from the intricacies of animating ladder interactions and fine-tuning the jump mechanics for water scenarios. To address this, I invested time in refining the climbing animations, adjusting speeds, and ensu...

  Author : Daniel Reder A large portion of Troglodyte In the Underbelly takes place in the cave system known as the Underbelly. While most explored and open to the public cave systems are quiet in nature, a realistic cave system from a sound design perspective did not create an atmosphere that we were looking for. While listening to water flowing and your own footsteps in real life would be an experience of its own in a cave deep underground, from a game standpoint the player needs more in order to be immersed in what the underbelly represents. However, there needs to be a balance in sound design. While a barrage of noise works wonders for a game like Touhou, the mixture of silence and eerie sounds creates anticipation and fear of the unknown. The solution to this was to create a sound cue. These cues, depending on the type would play either consistently, randomly, or upon a condition being met. Sounds such as water make sense to have play consistently, as water creates noise as lo...

 Author: Shemaiah Nelson Posted on: 2/13/24 During this week's development, I encountered a significant hurdle while working on the control UI for our game "Troglodyte In Underbelly." Specifically, I struggled to implement a feature that would allow players to rebind their controls to their preference. This limitation posed a considerable challenge as it directly impacted the accessibility and customization options available to players. Without the ability to rebind controls, users with unique preferences or accessibility needs were left frustrated and unable to fully enjoy the game experience. Addressing this issue became crucial to ensure inclusivity and satisfaction among our player base. After extensive research and experimentation, I found a viable solution to the control UI challenge in our game "Troglodyte In Underbelly." Utilizing Unity's sample input system rebind, available for download, proved to be the breakthrough we needed. This robust tool pro...

Dynamic Interactions Jordan Ireland In the current week of development, a significant challenge revolved around revamping the interaction system and implementing a new inventory feature allowing players to click and drag items onto the hotbar. The existing interaction system lacked fluidity and responsiveness, leading to a suboptimal user experience. Additionally, the absence of a drag-and-drop inventory system hindered players' ability to efficiently manage their items in the game. This problem had the potential to frustrate players, as the core mechanics of interacting with the environment and managing inventory play a crucial role in the overall enjoyment of the game. By using the IDragHandler interface in Unity, it was a breeze of checking if the mouse was over a hotbar slot while dragging and inventory item, then it was just up to a series of checks to see if the user is dragging it to/from the inventory or swapping hotbar slot to hotbar slot. The root cause of the issue lay i...

 Troglodyte in Underbelly: New Tools  Jose Davila  Feb 2, 2024 I was introduced to a simple but powerful day by one of my teammates during one of our meetings. When creating the map for my biome, I had to do it piece by piece, making sure to fit the pieces and not leave any spaces the player would exploit. For this level I used Digger. This tool lets us use a Terrain like a canvas to create mountains and caves. Some issues surfaced when I realized that I never used terrains before. I never realized that terrains are the go-to 3D object when designing the floor for a level. I usually started with a plane or base objects like my last level. When I tried using the tool, I got confused about how to start setting it up. I thought Terrains were exclusive to the tool and that I needed to create a terrain using the tool and introduce Digger to this terrain. I spent some time checking the documentation and looking for tutorials, but all of it went straight to modeling the map...

Author: Shemaiah Nelson Posted on: 2/5/24 During the creation of the options menu I had originally designed it to be segmented to represent the volume. First Design of the volume But that was scrapped due to Github complications and I decided to opt for a slider instead. To address the issue with the volume design in the options menu, I implemented a new segmented design to improve its appearance and usability. The segmented look provides a visually appealing and intuitive interface for players to adjust audio settings with precision. Each segment represents a specific volume level, allowing players to easily visualize and select their preferred volume setting. Additionally, the segmented design enhances the overall aesthetic of the options menu, aligning it more closely with the game's visual style and theme. By introducing the segmented volume control, I aimed to enhance the user experience and streamline the customization process for players. The new design not only improves the...

 Troglodyte In Underbelly: Ambient and Lighting Jose Davila This month required more of a creative approach when dealing with levels. The main idea in one of the biomes relied on having less natural lighting and more of a shine coming for the caves. On top of that, getting the actual feel of a cave that contained an Oasis lost in time and evolved into its own ecosystem was something hard to capture. After finding or even creating some of the assets and placing them to correctly give that natural structure to the cave and Oasis in the middle,  now is time to give some personality to the cave.  So far, the lighting is coming from this rock formation with runes in it and a magical rock on top of the body of water in the middle of the cave. The main cave has 3 subsections for exploration that will have resources and enemies to fight later on. As I said, the only thing missing is some personality, so I'm working on the Vines that will provide more lighting and the special reso...

At the end of the program, the studens are expeted to be proficient in programming anything related to video games. However, there are many aspects more than just programming that pertain to creating video games. One that i experienced recenelty was the challenge of designing a game scene. Being that programming is my chosen field, it shouldnt be a shocker that creating beautiful scenes is not something that I have much experience in. A great example of this would be the beta versions of starcraft where objects such as creep were simply purple, rather than texture. This creates a challenge, as this I had to create a scene as part of the underbelly, while not being very artistic. The solution to this is finding source scenes to model mine after. The final product was a satisfying forest scene.

     Crafting Harmony Jordan Ireland This week in development, I confronted a challenge related to seamlessly integrating the user interface (UI) with backend systems, specifically for activities like cooking, crafting, and sleeping. The issue centered around managing prefabs for items in these activities and implementing a smooth system for canceling crafting or leaving an ongoing action. Failing to resolve this problem would result in a disjointed user experience, where players might encounter difficulties in managing crafting processes or canceling actions. Such issues could lead to frustration and disrupt the flow of gameplay, underscoring the importance of finding an effective solution to ensure a cohesive and user-friendly experience. The issue arose from the need for a streamlined system to connect UI elements with backend processes. To address this, I designed a modular prefab management system that dynamically links UI elements to backend data. Additionally, I im...