Final Post - Design

I kept forgetting to do the weekly posts, but at least I can provide a comprehensive list of what I've contributed over the course of this game.

• made designs for the skewers/sticks and reiterated upon the first pass based on playtest feedback 
• placed the marshmallows onto these skewers/sticks
• tested out different placements to make sure the marshmallows wouldn't roast all at once
• tested out different skewer/stick placements for the best visibility with the current designs
• adjusted and calibrated the camera angle all throughout the development process, tweaking it to suit changes to new assets (the fire pit, etc.) as well as feedback from playtesters 
• created a placeholder terrain in the alpha phase and later modeled the current terrain used in the beta build 
• worked with Clay in experimenting with a reflection shader after playtesters expressed a lack of clarity in marshmallow distance from the fire 
• we ultimately had to discard this reflection shader but the prefab still exists in the files 
• placed and arranged the environment assets from Heather into the level to populate the world and build ambiance 
• assets include trees, fire pit, grass tufts, and moon 
• adjusted asset placements accordingly based on playtest feedback
• designed the Start and Menu buttons for the main menu, as well as the night sky background
• animated the title logo after receiving it from Heather and John 
• had plans to animate the Start and Menu buttons
• also to make the stars twinkle in the background of both the menu and the levels
• this is all to make the menu more dynamic for the player if they linger there 
• collected some playtest data over the course of development from friends and family outside of DePaul

Final Post

What I worked on mostly is coding the mechanics for turning the hand. I also wrote code for making the hand move naturally. Other aspects that I worked on where putting the animations for the faces into the game and coding them to go along with the different states of the marshmallows. I also working on getting the particle effects working. What I would like to continue working on is introducing new marshmallows and adding more levels to the game.

Beta Download

Mellow Mallow Beta

Animation and Modeling: Heather
Programming: Clay and Matt
Design: Cassie and John
Music: John

Gameplay Link

Controls- Left and Right arrows rotate wrist. Up and Down arrows move closer or farther from the fire. Space moves to the next level.

Enjoy!

Game Download

Beta post 6/8

Everything is set for the beta. Ended up making a bounce for the camera, allowing the player to have more give over it all. I would say this game is about 30 - 40 percent complete with everything in it now. The fire still needs work and the loading between start menu and first scene is longer then I want. That pause may be from the size of the face images in the game.

Final Post - 6/8

I worked on several things in the game.  I originally had the idea to use the left & right buttons to eat/finish the level but we ended up changing that to the space bar for the final game.  I also originally found the fire pit that we had in the game that included the rocks, logs, fire and particle effects.  We eventually created our own logs and rocks to use but kept the particle effects.  I also had the idea of use Unit's terrain editor to add grass to the level.  We kept the idea of the grass in the level but used a Maya model for the terrain and grass instead.  I also came up with the logo for the menu.  Another thing I worked on was the signs that were in each level.  I found and edited the sound effects that were used in the game.  The thing i spend the most time on in the game was the music. At first I spent a quite a bit of time trying to find pre-make tracks to use but then I was tasked to try and create a original track to be used in the game.

week of 5/24 - 5/31

This past week I've been working on finishing up on a music track to use somewhere in the game.  I think it could be good for a title screen track.  I also created the logo for the main menu.  I started to work on modeling and texturing a sign to use in the game to display instructions.

5/24 Transitions and basic control polish

Next I have to work on is the fades out and fade ins to each scene. We want to have each scene look like its part of the same "area" without it clearing looking like its a new level.

I also have to change the controls to allow the spacebar to go to the next level when the arm is at a specific height.