DAY 34
Today I spent time testing the grappling hook, toyed around with post process effects and continue working on the second level of the game. Here's how it all went down:
1) Testing the grappling hook: I wanted to see how the mechanic behaves in different conditions and what placement works best for the Target Grapple. During testing, I've noticed a peculiar behavior.
The grapple hook is intended to pull the character towards the grapple target on the Y and Z axis, but it only pulls the character on the Y axis. Here's a visual representation: 
Unlike some issues I've encountered, this one was pretty easy to figure out and had an easy fix to it.
Initially, the character made 2 jumps 1) after the hook was fired and attached to the grapple target 2) after the character reached the target.
This second jump created a small problem where, after reaching the target, it would propel the character too much in the forward direction.
Because of this issue, I've disregarded the second jump. At the time, my thought process was "If it creates issues here, it might create issues at the first jump too". Based on this logic, I've set the launch velocity at 0,0,0. Tested and it worked great. But this proved to be a false positive.
Because it didn't launch the character anywhere, the character would remain attached to the ground, thus it would only pull the character under the grapple target position. So I added a 1 value to the Z axis in the Launch Character Node in order for the character to at least be technically off the ground. And POOF! It worked flawlessly.
I don't know why I did not disconnect the first Launch Character node as I did with the second Launch Character, but it proved to be an inspired move, because I was able to detect the issue quite rapidly.
2) Level design-wise, I've continued working on the second level by adding a few rock pillars and a few bridges here and there.
To recap a bit, this level is sort of based on the Chinese rock pillars that also inspired Avatar the movie.
To give some detail about the level design process, it's basically the Japanese 4-act structure kishotenketsu technique where:
a) you introduce a gameplay element
b) you complicate above gameplay element
c) introduce a totally different gameplay
d) combine step b and c
Right now, I'm at the first stage of the process and have an idea for the 3rd step.
3) Toying around with the post process effect: this thing looms in my brain like a plague. I want/need some visual hook for the game, something that is stylized and sets it apart from other games. As it is, the look is not bad per se. Granted it's not the best, because right now I'm focusing on gameplay and had a "good enough is good enough" attitude when choosing art assets from the marketplace to use as placeholders.
But I feel that just having stylized/cartoon-y looking assets doesn't make my game stand out. Of course there are more elements to this than just looks: feel and mood also matter.
Toyed with edge detect:
This looks really appealing to me. It has Return of the Obra Dinn vibes. What's cool about this is that even though it is reminiscent of Obra Dinn, it gives off a different vibe, mood and feel. More specifically, to me it's similar to the feeling I had as a kid when I read a book that had illustrations. That had the feeling of "oh, gosh, I wonder what it's like to be there?" and my mind would race to that place.
But unfortunately, this post process has quite a few drawbacks:
a) I can't use color or light to guide the player (problematic for game design purposes, like drawing attention to a puzzle or a platforming section)
b) shadows are white (easily fixable by inverting colors of some assets and then inverting colors for the whole level)
c) not entirely original (see Obra Dinn, The Unfinished Swan, Azteca; this might not actually be a problem)
d) has an annoying flicker whenever you move in-game. Might not be a problem when making a build, because I do not have the issue when editing the level, only when I press to play-in-editor.
Here is the inverted version of the above:
Solves the shadows being white problem, but does not give the same vibe as the one before. Not at all.
This is a colorized version of the first:
Easily the worst looking of the three. Gives me no feeling whatsoever and it annoys my eyes.
What do you guys think? I had dabbled in the recent past with post-process and had this look:
Let me know. That's all I've got for today. See ya in the next post. Bye.