Update Overview

This week, our goal was to create a fully playable version of our first tape. This meant completing the assets, puzzle logic, and interactions from start-to-finish of the workflow. We encountered a few bugs here and there, and identified some areas where enhancements to the 3Cs are necessary. Hopefully by our next update those will be more polished. We also decided as a team to remove the push/pull mechanic, and focus solely on object pickup.

Progress

Implementation

• Implemented branching logic.
  • The TV will swap to the corresponding video clip of that branch and eventual solution upon correct placement of branching objects and key items.
  • Puzzle solution will be altered depending on what branch the player is on
• Added interactions with branching items: posters (snap to an anchor position on the wall). Switching between branches is done by replacing the poster on the wall.

• Implemented tape interactions so players can now insert and remove tapes to and from the TV, which will play the corresponding contents of that tape.
• TV model and UI were updated to new assets
• Populated the new room model with clutter props and added textures.
• Key objects for the first level were added.
• Cleaned up the hierarchy of game objects in the scene. Made objects into an agreed-upon prefab structure.
• Footstep SFX were added and different footstep audios now play as the player walks. Creaking of the floor also plays once in a while.
• Changed object location and size on PickUp interaction.
• Players can now inspect and rotate a picked up item.
• Changed object drop upon correct placement. Now players have to drop the item in the correct spot manually for it to register.
• Clamped camera y axis movement.

Scripts & Tapes

• Finished a detailed play-by-play script for tape 1
• Storyboard for tape 1 (original corrupted, branch A corrupted, branch B corrupted, branch A solution, branch B solution) are done and timed
• Joaquim’s voiceover for tape 1 is recorded

Assets - Models

• The attic room layout has been created and populated with many new assets. 
• Textures added for some of the models (boxes, ragdoll, lamp, guitar, strings box, composition notebook, cuckoo clock, old chair, candelabra, vinyl, couch, receipt)

Assets - Audio

• Created a tracking sheet for all audio related work to facilitate communication between the subteams
• Base layer for the background music is complete and integrated. Started work on the first layer in branch A (when composition notebook is placed).
• Obtained props for foley recording

Challenges

• Branching item interaction and hierarchy is hacky for now. Needs refinement later.
• Need to resolve what happens if a tape does not exist in the TV but players so happen to place objects in the correct location. This should do nothing but we will further discuss to finalize the edge cases revolving this.
• The state changes are difficult to follow between different scripts. Further discussions are needed and we will make a detailed state transition flowchart together. 
• We must make sure Tape 1 storyboards translate well into the 3D space of gameplay, and players understand what they must do to progress.
• In order to implement some of the new features such as branching, old systems had to be reworked.
• The positions, sizes, and rotations of objects are world dependent instead of object dependent, resulting in resize feature bugs.

Setbacks

• Due to the time limit, we only show a basic workflow of the first level. Detailed implementation of corrupted item cues, detailed textures and layout positions of objects will need further refinement.
• Some key prop textures were not ready, but will be added later in the week.
• Character model rigging is not complete yet either, so we added the base model temporarily.