Day 2 Progress, AKA "Everything Is 10x Prettier":
I got to work immediately today and put in a few hours, wasted away the rest of the day with fun stuff, then got back to work late late at night! Im finally calling it a day at 2:40 AM so let's go over what I got done:
- Model the tennis ball
Done! Also implemented some code so that when the player finally reaches the ball it goes into the players "mouth". Surprisingly it went really smoothly! I'm an amateur coder so it's good to know I can actually get somewhere now without things becoming trainwrecky haha.
- Do some research on how to change lighting/the skybox over elapsed playtime
Done, though I am wondering whether or not I'd like to implement this in my final product. I will be learning how to code for an AI enemy for the first time for this project, so I'd like to keep things simple and avoid getting too overwhelmed.
- Add some finer details to the environment
Done! It's a very simple environment for this game, but I did have to add a few things. I added a marker that indicates that the ball has been thrown behind the maze, as well as some code so that the marker floats up and down in a very satisfying way. I also added some code so that when the player passes a certain point before entering the maze the marker disappears. Simple stuff.
- Maybe make the opening screen?
Done, though on second thought I don't love how it looks. I'm going to go in and make some tweaks there tomorrow.
The most fun I had today (besides watching code magically come together) was messing around with Unity image effects for the first time. I did a ton with the color curves, added some light grain, and fisheye. I find that a very subtle fisheye effect definitely gives off the vibe that you're seeing through the perspective of a dog: it makes everything feel much bigger.
Here's some comparison shots:
^ Before image edits and...
^ After image edits. I wanted something a bit more muted and cohesive and I realy like how everything's looking now.
Oh, and the green color of the house was bothering me a lot so I switched it to red. I always forget that when exporting as an FBX object from maya, unity will read your lambert material as the same lambert applied to other objects in the scene. No more tree colored house!
Plans for Day 3:
Dig into AI Enemy coding, modeling, and design. This is the meat of this project, and definitely the one big challenge I'll be facing. The question I gotta ask myself is: with relatively limited modeling skills, how should I approach making an effectively scary enemy?
Other Smaller Plans (if not completed on day 3, it's okay to move to day 4):
Make more clouds, add code so these clouds move slightly. Fix the menu. Add a timer and code that shows elapsed time by the end of the playthrough.
Here's to another solid day!