If you would like to look into a more in depth analysis of this prototype, here is a link to my breakdown in my portfolio: Joe

What you are seeing in this prototype:

• In this prototype you can see that it now looks playtest worthy, this is because my main focus for this prototype was getting a version of the game that would be able to be playtested by not just me but by others. The main differences in this version was implementing some of the art that had been designed by the artists and arranging the UI in a way that best suited the GDD. This was accomplished by researching other games’ UI. In addition to these visual changes i implemented a core feature which is required in most games which is a fail state, i did this through making it so that food is ‘consumed’ when end day button is pressed and once the player runs out of food, the fail state kicks in and makes the player press a button to restart the game. Lastly, I had to fix some bugs and error codes before the playtest to ensure the game ran without any issues such as the size scaling and issues with task requirements.

Sorting UI screen out:

• As I briefly mentioned, I sorted the UI screen out by researching similar game UI which if you want to read more in depth, here is a link to my portfolio page where I explain it a bit more HERE . The more notable changes in this prototype in terms of the UI were removing any individual panels and making it a long panel where all gameobjects fit inside in an effort to make the game look more ‘futuristic’. In addition I moved all gameobjects to the side of the screen for the same reason. I like the way it has turned out but it still doesn’t look right, so we will have to revise this design. It was also mentioned in our weekly group discussion that the progress button felt too ‘cramped’ and felt out of place, so to fix this issue I moved it up with the End Day button where there was more room and to keep the ‘progression’ buttons together.

Fail state and restart method:

• One of the more important things that was added in this prototype was the fail state and restart method. The reason for this being so important is that it creates the overall game requirements for this module which is a core gameplay loop. With this system in place it meant that a player could start and finish the game with a fail state for losing and a restart method to try again. The way I implemented this was simple. In my gamemanager script i was pretty much detecting if the player had < 0 of food resource or if the player had < x amount of the required resource if this was statement was true it would activate a panel which would freeze the current gameplay and then the player would have no choice but to press a button to reset the game from the beginning of that scene.

Sounds and Music:

• Our narrative designer whilst working on the scripts also decided to create not only a soundtrack for the game but also UI clicky sounds. So to make use of these I decided to implement them into the game. This isn’t very complicated and I just wrote three short scripts, two that manages the music and allows me to in the inspector click loop to continue the music past the duration of the soundtrack. And one that I added which was the MouseSound script which really was just managing the sounds for the UI like the button clicks and the mouse clicks. To put it simply, what these scripts do is the mouse soundhandler uses Unitys built in audio components and I just call on them before the game starts and use an update function to check when the button is clicked and determine whether to play the button sound or general sound. The Background Music script just adds a audiosource component where i added the mp3 file to and allows me to play the music at the start of the game, and then the musicmanager script sets the audio component as a singleton to ensure only one instance throughout the game whilst also being set a not to be destroyed so that it plays in both scenes continuously. 

Improving on issues and errors:

• As with all the prototypes I had to constantly work on issues and errors that occurred both during the development of the new features and errors that have developed due to existing scripts conflicting with the newer scripts. My main issues I was still trying to solve were relating to getting the weekly tasks to update during the gameplay. I managed to find a solution to this by getting the script to both check and update the text after each ‘Day’. This meant that the player could see where their progress is in relation to the week’s task.

This prototype was crucial in the direction of the game. As such I asked for opinions and recommendations on where we should take this game now we have a functional frame. I sent it through the group chat so that when we met in person for our group meeting we were all on the same page as to where the project was and we all had an opinion on how we should develop the game.