This is Ben taking you through our second blog update for Myco: Keeper of the Light! In this update I’m gonna tell you about how we revamped the Conversation system, got our combat system started, and got some new models in the project.
First things first our conversation system! In the conversation scriptable object it used to take a bunch of other scriptable objects for dialogue but now it’s a list that contains all the information the dialogue system needs. This includes the character’s names and an image. We also implemented a UI for this so it looks really nice. Our resident UI artist Christian did a great job giving the art a natural feel like a vellum. Everything with it looks fantastic and works great. It’s honestly been the most successful and easy thing to implement. We also have it set so we can run a piece of dialogue once and change a flag in our system data which is how we’re going to handle environmental puzzles. The final note on our conversation system is that Nick implemented a super cool dialogue camera so the player can get a closer view of the characters and the world.
We got the model for our main character Myco into the project these last two weeks, as well as a model of our first enemy, a jester frog type enemy. This is going to be super important for our playtesting because we’re going to have actual models to use in our combat. Cris has done a fantastic job on all the models and has been putting out stellar work at a high pace. The animations he’s made are also in the game and ready to be implemented in the coming days.
Finally, Trevor and the rest of the programming team have continued work on the battle system. We have all the attacks able to read out what they’re supposed to do. It’s a really deep and rich combat system with single and multi targeting attacks, heals, buffs/debuffs, and speed priority. Tom and Trevor also spent a good amount of time this week making a spreadsheet with some of the abilities we will be implementing. Our milestone goals have been adjusted a little as Nick and I have been working on other things that will really add to the feeling of the game but we’re still on track to reach all our goals by the end of the semester. We haven’t missed a milestone, we have just re-prioritized some of the tasks.
In the not too distant future, all the UI is getting implemented which is going to be an awesome time with Christian and I especially for the battle system. I have absolutely loved the experience of doing most of the programming for the way the player interfaces with our game. I feel like their experience is in my hands and that I have a lot of fun and smaller responsibilities.
That's all for now. Our next two weeks are a sprint to get ourselves ready for playtesting and I have every faith that we’re going to excel.
Update by: Ben Appel