Prototype

Prototype

Design Changes

After making an initial barebones gameplay prototype, playing around with it and getting some feedback, I realised that the direction I want this project to go is for more of a linear walking simulator with options for exploration, creating a hopefully interesting up and down pace of the gameplay "intensity " at different segments. Basically have the game be a bit more chill.

Character Controller

First I started working more on the character controller, as nailing down the feel of it is one of the most important things. I wanted to introduce some verticality to the gameplay (mainly for the exploration part), after all, birds usually prefer perching on roofs and higher ground. And so keeping with my design constraint to keep the control scheme to a minimum, preferably only to the directional inputs, I added in the abilities for the controller to hop up and down steps and to jump off highgrounds and glide. These elements allow me to play with elevation changes in the level design and exploration "puzzles" based on platform navigation. Obviously, this logic is a bit silly, but then so are the birds. 

Putting some life into it

Wanting to get a good idea of a near-finished character controller as soon as possible, so I also spent some time on the artsy side of it, finalizing the player model, rig and making some more-polished animations

Not so interesting bits

After working on the Chracter Controller more, tweaking things, mocking up some environments and being reasonably happy with it, I moved on (wasn't the smartest decision, but I just wanted to be done with it for now) to making the UI, scene management and overall game-flow "architecture".  After that I wasted a bit of time on art tests, trying to nail down the art direction I wanted to go with and failed miserably, running into several dead ends and gaving up on some features. Then some more time working on and expanding the basic NPC AI (read point-to-point steering models).

That was about when the prototype deadline started creeping up, so I started putting all the things together into a full game mockup. I ran into a lot of problems and hiccups with level design specifically, where nothing seems to work well (be fun) and I kinda hate the current iteration. The blocked out level that is in the current prototype build will be redone, I will deffinitely scale it down at the very least. Now that I actually have a whole game prototype I can do playing around with things, more testing and get some feedback on it.

Requirements

As the project stands now, I don't feel like I can fulfill the Polish requirement without leaving the game in its current (kinda boring) state and I'd rather not do that. Instead I'd like to, within the course timeline, play with the design more and hopefully land on something fun and intersting that I can later polish on my own. 

For the R requirements, I believe I already techinically fulfill everything but the R2 - sound requirement as there is currently only a single background and a single ambient music track. Also maybe the R6 - extensions, haven't done a lot of those, mostly using it to debug-play animations in run time. But I want to make an extension for making, setting up and assigning waypoints for NPC agents as that's currently kinda painful.

For the C, again, I think I am already fulfilling it, also more animated elements are to come, when I switch from the placeholder humans for my wip modelled and animated styalized humans.

A Requirements: It's a 3D game, so that's all good, and for the second pick, I will switch from Polish to A2 - Particle system usage

What's missing - next thingies to work on:

• Rework the Level and gameplay pacing
• More NPC types that interact with the player to make the world more interesting - people sitting, other pigeons wandering about etc.
• Music - sound design and assets for danger state, unique ambient music for different areas and all the SFX
• Loads of art assets and animations
• Some VFX
• Loads of small tweaks and polishing touches to basically everything

Judging by how much time is actually left, the game will probably still stay in a placeholderey state for the release, because I will mostly focus on design aspects and creating more variants for gameplay enrichment. Polish and art assets can be finised after the fact more easily than the other way around. I do intend to actually finish this game, even after the course's timeline runs out.