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I sure ignored a LOT of google underlining before I figured out that I was misspelling hamster. lol

Its been a while. I'm sorry, poor lonely devlog. While engrossed in making a game, its hard to make time to write about the dev process. But apparently fresh insight is highly valuable after the game is done and the process is forgotten (like childbirth - there might be very good reasons for forgetting the pain of making a game, I might never make another. And I did birth two kids...). And devlog is a course requirement.

 So to recap nearly ...oh dear...two months.  Under orders I made an asset list. After being revived with smelling salts, I  was forced to trim asset quality and scope. The asset list is still terrifyingly long. The scene has most of its 3D assets and basic functions errr functioning. Drawers open, lights turn on, buttons click...and 3D notes turn into UI notes.  With nice stationery! Textures! Fonts! 

Playtesting showed players didn't want to read screeds and screeds of text on the UI, so my goal now is 'show not tell' - which means making props, creating images and recording audio.  

I recorded myself (cringe) voice acting. Found that players didn't want to listen to long audio either! Pesky players! Back to the drawing board - trim the audio, trim the text even further.  When players started the game they wanted to know quickly where they are, and what the rules of the 'world' are. The design of the intro is going to be very important, given that they didn't want a long exposition. 

A big part of story game design is 'gating' players so they don't get story spoilers too soon, but feel like they have choice about where they go and what they read.  To encourage players to read notes, when players pick up a note, they sometimes find under it, the key that unlocks the next clue. Hmmm reminds me of treasure hunts, in long ago childhood parties.

So to ramp up that mechanic a notch, I have locked drawers and doors, and have created gated areas within the room. 

Oh that reminds me! Apparently its an 'Escape Room' game, I discovered today.  Who knew their genres? 

Some another in-game screenshot for your viewing pleasure:

I hope you see progress over two months.  In that time also, life happened. 

I learned that doing 'research' playing other games is risky - I got captivated by a game, so progress almost halted 'til I tore myself free. Pesky games! 

My fellow dev has been absent for 3 months, so this is solo work. 

I was thrilled to interviewed for a job with Weta GameShop (didn't get it, but even so!) and invited to be a playtester for another game studio. Life options after study suddenly became very real. I made a showreel of a couple of my earlier games - and learned how to spell Hamster slightly too late...

And this one...

So that's my devlog. Until  next time, my thousands of super excited fans, fellow crazy devs and wild and woolly gamers!

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#storygame #narrativegame #walkingsim #puzzlegame #explorationgame #fantasygame #escaperoom #indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #WIP #unity3d #madewithunity #girlsbehindthegames  #YoobeeColleges 

Thank you for making me burst out loud  laughing. In class. Thankfully my tutor laughed too.  I am still smiling. so you made my day. 

I'm really glad it doesn't show at all  that we changed direction at the last minute from glamorous necklaces to chain mail. Phew! 

Narrative. design...SO exciting to add story to Min'atoa

Playtesting of Min'atoa showed there was not enough gameplay for a really immersive player experience. There's some function and assets, but what does the player DO?  There are two things it needs, puzzles and story. I played (I mean researched) some narrative games: Gone Home,  Her Story,  What Remains of Edith Finch, What Never Was, and some with puzzles or challenges: A Scholar's Tale, The Wild Eternal, East Shade, Chook n Sosig...I have many more on the list to "research", but all gave me ideas: how much story and how much puzzle were in 'real'games . 

I chose to focus on the narrative because it was the hardest to finalise, despite having built the story into something quite rich over the last 2 years. 

Note to self: Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. I have a habit of optimistically leaping into I things I know nothing about, assuming it will be easy.  In fact,  I've only written non-fiction (policy and science). well...I wrote three short stories (and people who should know  told me they were good) but that's a long way from being an author. I had written thousands of words for Min'atoa but no idea how to start on the game story. Tutor Matt Payne suggested laying out the story beats as sticky notes in chronological order, and then mixing up the order. I set out the sticky notes and tagged them for red for spoilers, orange for misdirections / partial spoilers, and green for open stuff like background information that would be good to get at any time. 

So I had a mess of sticky notes. Now what!

To make the  'paper prototype' for playtesting by last Friday, I sorted  'story bits' into locations in the game, typed them out, and cut the bits and stuck them with sellotape onto an A4  coloured page for each location (1. in the portal, 2. on the balcony, 3. in the lift...). 

Playtesters read the snippets on each page, then turn to the next page to discover the story. Players loved it!  I got a swollen head and ambitiously showed it to actual game narrative designers and authors, who were unbelievably generous with their time and input. I got great pointers , compliments and ...some crushingly honest yet helpful feedback.  The most daunting bit was comparing my work to theirs: I could see how talented they were. I have a long way to go!Turns out, narrative is a complex arcane skill that writers hone over years.  Who'd have thought? I concluded about myself:

“You know nothing, Jon Snow”. Ygritte from GoT (George RR Martin Esq).

I researched writing software - Twine and Prairie, Ren'Py, Inkle and  Fungus...none of it seemed right. a published author friend told me he uses his head, and  maybe Novel Software.  I reasoned that Shakespeare used a flipping quill and parchment, so sternly told myself to get on with it .  Our greyboxing deadline  is 5 July), so I went straight into Unity and made quick 3d assets (cubes with 2d textures of text snippets on them ) to make notes, books,  posters and pictures. I  made a rough assets and placed them in the right locations.

Tonight I am excited to say that I made the player raycast interact with the 3d readable objects to bring up the 2d UI objects like this:

So now I just have to repeat that for the other 2d and 3d readable notes.  

Next task, create books with pages that the player can flip.  

I think this is all doable so I am on track to have a real, playtest-able greybox Unity game by 5 July.  Yay! 

#narrative #storyrich #storygames #prototyping #paperprototype  #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame #gamedesign #devlog @devblog #gamewriter #gamewriting

Thanks I hadn't thought of that, I'm just using the community devlogs. I'll try a game page one. I'd guess I'd like to group my community devlogs under one thread. They do seem to be getting read so that's a plus! 

Thank you for your review! I smiled all the way through. You were spot on with your comments, really got what we were going for and clearly having a good time. If you play it again there are more places to find, but the dog does indeed go via the fastest route. I was rapt that you could hear the direction of Boi's barking because that was my task., first time I'd used audio in Unity.  I will tweak the dog's last destination as the navmesh is not quite lined up with the end; your hearing was spot on.  And, also right on, it was a class project @YoobeeSchool.  I'm hoping people find this as a nice game for kids to play too.

Thanks for the awesome feedback and also for the gameplay video. It shows exactly where we need to remove some invisible walls. Great work. 

Thank you so much for your thoughtful review. I'm so pleased you liked the storyline and music. Our tutor had already critiqued the invisible walls, so we'd deleted some but clearly not enough! It'd be easy to increase player speed too. I had seen the GDW competition, but hadn't thought to aspire to that level... I'll talk to the team about putting in an entry! 

Hot off the press! Just released

You're lost in a forest at sunset, all alone except for your loyal dog Boi ...explore the environment to find Boi and find your way out.

A first person, single player, exploration game., made by a team of four in 4 weeks. 

Downloads for PC and Mac available here at itch.io

https://jaegrace.itch.io/goodest-boi

I like being able to post all my content on one link instead of to a page where people have to search for my game. I haven't uploaded it on itch yet and its probably quite some time away so I can't use the existing Devlogs page, but I like itch and want to keep posting here, but actually its heaps easier on Tumblr for example to put them all in one place. 

So I was feeling bad, not making much progress, having a really bad cold . Thought there was nothing to post, but in fact yes there is! For a bit of lightheartedness, I played around in Illustrator CC and made these sprites for inventory and cursor purposes...then it took ages to get them right in Unity. Turns out the sprite editor is ridiculously literal, and simply does not understand that  I meant 512 x 512 pixels instead of 152 x 152. That took me a lot longer to spot than it should have. Doh.

For the project itself, I added quite a few features: a ceiling and chandeliers, Unity particle fountains and (at last!) waterlilies; a key for the desk drawers, a coffee table, and placeholders for the  station "door", papers and posters. It's beginning to look a lot more interesting.  

AND just tonight , after help from Brad with the rigging, and talking with my tutor Matt Payne about how to design it without gaps, I finally got the bl**y portal door working properly, While there are no longer gaps around the edges between the portal and the room, there is a small line where the room cuts into the portal that I have to fix but, for me, I am celebrating great progress.. Enjoy, my millions of teeming fans!

.Sneak peek into Min'atoa Portal Station

I promised myself  I would do some concept art, put together art, assets and lighting mood boards from Pinterest like you're "supposed to". But I would find myself drifting off with my pen, scribbling down ideas and not getting anything drawn. So today I tried a different tack - I modeled some of my ideas in Maya and voila! 

Here are some lifts that you have to work out how to operate to get down off the portal balcony (one up, one down).

And here are some pools with spouts you can change where the colours flow down, so you can mix different colours for a puzzle I have designed (think of the Cuba St bucket fountain).

And below, everything all put together to show the overall layout, with a high, cathedral-like ceiling in the middle and the opportunity for light to filter in through the ceiling. Also lots of opportunities for fountain particle effects, with. waterlilies! I look forward to making this in Unity.

Not bad for a day's work from home with a horrible cold, I am very pleased with myself. 

I am not sure if I am supposed to put these all on one thread, like the last update, or add new posts, so if someone could enlighten me I'd appreciate it.

If you want to follow my other channels I'm @jaegrace0 on instagram, and urukyra on tumblr.

Oh and where and how am I supposed to add hashtags?

#maya3d  #indiedev #gamedev #startatanyage #makiinggamesisfun #exploration #puzzlegames #bucketfountain #wellingtonnz #whynotme

Until next time, devoted followers!  

I am not sure how to do a second post, if I am doing it wrong let me know! 

I've added a bunch of assets and functionality to the game (not yet my lovely waterlilies). Here's a sneak peek...enjoy!

I've been working on my Min'aota with a coding buddy for (mumble mumble) two years . 

You arrive in a portal station on a strange 3D world (the eponymous Min'atoa).  You explore the station  to work out what happened here, and manipulate the controls to solve how to get out. Inspired by Cyan worlds games of Myst, Riven, Uru ... The game is to demo a small piece of a much larger story. 

I've been meaning to blog about it ... but you know. I'd rather work on the game/ do almost anything else (you choose).  We're (mumble mumble more than five) decades old, and I'm female. So I hope this blog will inspire others - its never too late to start making games.  

Thanks for the feedback! Yes we'd wanted to implement blocked roads (for roadworks). We've made it so it can easily be set to different sized grids for more levels. I wanted to make it 3d, and go down hill, but we had to be realistic about scope. Curving, or more complex networks, of roads would be a lovely feature. 

Yes that's a great idea! Could even be in alien languages, to teach where different letters are on the keyboard. And make the game more interesting. 

Thanks! My first published game, I'm so happy you liked it. Yes, removing control from the player, a big no no, but hilarious 😂 right?