Devlog 2: Hard at work

Hello everyone!

This week we're deep in the prototyping phase. The goal this week is to determine if it works and if it's fun.

Programmer Updates:

Movement mechanic

The programmers have spent their time prototyping our two core mechanics, and the obstacles in our level.

Here is a look into our movement, if only one player is moving, the movement speed is capped and basically drags the other player. The two have to move in tandem to get smoother movement.

Balance mechanic
Last week we went in depth into the movement mechanic. This week we will explain the balancing mechanic.
We initially had the idea of 2 different versions.

• Version 1: The animal(ball) can roll around anywhere on the stretcher like a ball on a board in real life, and the players move an end of the stretcher up and down accordingly. 

• Version 2: The animal is fixed to the centre of the stretcher, and only visibly panics when the stretcher doesn’t stay levelled. The animal is only affected by horizontal rotation, and during vertical rotation when a player inevitably jumps the animal will have a superficial bounce. 

During prototyping we hope to figure out which version is the most fun!

We ended up going with a mix of both versions. The animal is free to move around like a ball (version 1) & the stretcher only rotates horizontally (version 2).

Artist Updates:

The sound bible and art bible are well underway by now. 
One of our artists spent a chunk of time collecting asset pack references and links. we are considering using an asset  pack for the nature elements.

We also had a call and realised we had been approaching references wrong. Instead of looking for aesthetic images that look pretty, we should've been looking for references that already use our desired camera angle (top-down). 
When working on the art bible and actually comparing images we had, naturally a cohesive art style emerged.
One of our artists is color blind, so in this call we sat down and discusses how we were going to approach picking a color palette. 

1. choose general colors. (we chose main: green & blue, accent: yellow, purple, pink)
2. make a mock-up scene in Unreal Engine and use colors from references that are said colors.
3. adjust based on feedback/whether they look good.

When working on the art bible, we have come to the following decisions:

We really liked this concept art from Alexis Page, and it shows well the key-elements we want to implement in our character design. Mainly: Dynamic + exaggerated shapes & Layered clothing.

The following is our mood board for the atmosphere:

And here is a UI mock-up we made!

Sound Updates:

Main Overview of the Game is written. We found the aesthetic vision and core idea for better understanding how game can sound. For ambience we decided that 

·        Hollow wind

·        Evening crickets

·        Chime

Works well, to support atmosphere of magic.

SFX like planes, siren, low booms in background is going to support the war part of our theme.

Obstacles - all obstacles have unique sounds

·        Mines

·        Fire

·        River

·        Stone

·        Fog

·        Slippery Mud

The general sound palette of obstacles is literal and neutral (maybe a bit aggressive to convey danger). As soon as important objects become closer to players, objects become more audible. That helps players react faster and feel a sense of urgency and immersion in the environment.

Character sound palette will not be so harsh or aggressive as hazards. The sound of characters is going to be high-pitched and smooth, without deep, low or harsh elements to support their friendly character and helpfulness.

That's it for this weeks update! Look forward to next week where we will have the art bible and sound bible finished!