Best Curve Combination
After playing around with the animation curves controlling position and rotation during the gravity switching, I’ve decided that this is the combination that works best:
Rotation – Custom when moving, S when stationary
Position – Convex
I’m going to put this as the default settings in the game.
Of course, I will have the option in the settings for players to choose different animation curves to use. I think there will even be an option where it skips the transition completely and just places the player in the new orientation (it will still take the same amount of time, so as not to mess up the mechanic). This is mostly done for people who are have motion sickness with the game. I’d like the game to be as accessible as possible, so would hate for people to not be able to play it because of that.
Also, I would love to make a VR version of the game. And I think for that format, it would require a lot of tweaking as well, so it’s good to have the options in place.
Light Bleedthrough
Was noticing an issue with light bleeding through the wall:
It turns out it’s because the light isn’t set to cast shadows. I could set the light to cast shadows, but I think that’s more performance heavy than is needed for this. I ended up just reducing the range of the light.
Illuminated State of Boxes
Working on the designs for the illuminated state of the boxes (when they’re placed on the correct switches)
This was the original design. I thought by turning the outline around the shapes to white, it would make for a stronger effect:
I posted these images on twitter, and several people complained that the white arrows on the yellow box was pretty hard to see (yes, it is pointing in the wrong direction). It did seem pretty inconsistent, especially given that the arrows on the other color boxes were quite clear.
I decided to add the outlines back. Here’s what the illuminated boxes look like now:
Head Bobbing
Finally got around to tweaking the head bobbing settings.
When you land, there’s a stronger head bob effect. I’ve made it so that how much head bobbing occurs is dependent on the speed of the fall right before you land. So the faster you were falling when you landed, the greater the head bobbing. The relationship is quadratic, so that the really big head bob effect doesn’t happen unless you’re falling near terminal speed.
Here’s a video showing the effect:
Water Redirection
Got water redirection working in the new build! Excited to show it off at GDC and have people try it and get feedback on it. It’s pretty broken, but works well enough to convey the idea.
GDC
Finally, I’m going to be heading out to San Francisco later today for GDC. Very excited to catch up with friends and also meet new people.
Last year was my first GDC, and my experience then had a tremendous impact on the development of the game. A lot of the feedback I got at the time was that the art style needed to improve. I was actually a bit frustrated by this, because I thought I had really great mechanics and that was all that mattered. I have come to realize since that I was wrong, and that art and mechanics are closely linked, and both matter a lot for the final game.
Anyway, last GDC inspired me to dive into shaders and constantly improve the art style, and I think all the work has paid off.
Here’s a comparison of what the game looks like back then and what it looks like now:
Of course, there’s still plenty of room for development, so I’m excited to see how the art style evolves moving forward!