Saturday, April 20, 2013

Movable Pillar Prototype

We now have a working prototype of the Movable Golem mechanic.


The MovablePillar golem class has a forceApplied event that is triggered as long as the pawn is outside the tether length, aka 'stretching.' This sets the direction that the Golem should move. The tick function moves the golem so long as the tether is stretching. Otherwise, it interps to a stop.

   
event forceApplied(Vector direction)
{
    directionVector = direction;
}

event Tick(float DeltaTime)
{
    local vector movementVector;
   
    // Inheritance
    super.Tick(DeltaTime);
   
    directionVector = VInterpTo(directionVector, vect(0,0,0), DeltaTime, 10);
   
    movementVector = directionVector * DeltaTime;
    movementVector.Z = 0.0;
   
    Move(movementVector);
}


Aside from anything that Level and Puzzle designers ask me to change, I have a couple future fixes that I would like to implement. A 'mass' value for the golems, to determine how heavy they are, and how resistant to the pull of the pawn they are, so they don't move at the same speed as the player. Also, I want to experiment with using SmoothMove rather than Move to get a sliding effect. I want to make sure that the golems can be stopped by other assets with collision to limit the distance and places that the movable golems can go.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

A Particle and Programming Show, Feat. Porcupine Max

Brock Boutwell has been keeping up the great work in terms of particles, giving us even more particles to populate both Level 1 and the upcoming Level 2.

A small, fully animated candle flame!

A school of fish to be used wherever there are large pools of water.

Wind stream! Look out for these to be utilized much more often in Level 2. 



 In addition, Kersti Kodas, while taking a break from the Sprint Sheets, has been doing a lot of behind the scenes work, performing programming fixes and setting up things to make placement of certain assets easier for the level designers of Level 2.



And, at some point during the weekend, the crew got a hold of a lot of clothespins...




Saturday, April 13, 2013

Tutorial Level Building

On the road to Entelechy, the tutorial level has been receiving a great deal of love lately. Monica Young, Casey [Danger] Bridgham, and Nicole Brunken have been working on modeling and texturing assets to populate the level, while Max Benjamin has been devoting some of his time to creating the opening cinematic for the level in Matinee. Brock Boutwell has also been busy with some very pretty particle work.

Monica Young's In-Progress textures for the walls and floors of the Tutorial Level's Environment

Nicole and Danger's work on the murals, being used to communicate the story at the beginning of the Tutorial.  

Max's cinematic work, combined with a few of Brock's sparkly particles. Also, a finished mural pictured in the background.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Contest Entry! And Level Design


In preparation for both Entelechy submissions [and another contest], both environment teams for Project Chime are now retooling their efforts to polish up Level 1 of the game.
This means that the Tutorial Level we'd planned to create within the quarter has been moved to top priority and we'll be making a push to have everything up and running very soon.


Meanwhile, our Systems guys [and gals] have been on the ball, coming up with some layouts for both the Tutorial level and Level 2. The following is just one of many concepts. 

The player is represented here as a blue dot, while golems are represented in yellow.
After making their way over to the golems up on a ledge, the player must use the double-tether mechanic to grab onto both of the golems.
After contact is achieved, the player then waits for the third golem [pacing back and forth along the red arrow's path]  to get into range, before tethering to it. The third golem will still continue along its path.

With a well-timed release of the third tether, this configuration will create a slingshot effect, allowing the player to travel much farther.

This travel leads the player to another island, which was previously inaccessible. 


Saturday, April 6, 2013

Look Development: Colour

Another treat today, Nicole Brunken has been working on colouring Lazarus' architectural line work, in the hopes of securing what colors and values will be making it into the final game. 
As it was before, our inspiration is stemming from the saturated colours of the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Oh! How colourful!

Here is the direction we have so far: 




Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Architectural Consensus and a Treat



Along with the rest of the Environment Team, Lazarus has been at work trying to come up with the visual mash-up of architecture that the group had discussed before. The following is a few of the sketches she's devised so far.




And here's a treat! This is one of Lazarus' environment pieces, colored by Nicole Brunken, in order to get a feel for the colours that will be used in the new environment.


Monday, April 1, 2013

Concept Art Begins!

On the Environment front, the Concept phase is in full swing as block-outs are being made, puzzles are being created, and sketches are being sketched... The following are a few pieces made by Lazarus, in the hopes of getting the style of our environment nailed down.






A Cage/Home for potential 'flying' golems.