Update Overview

This week, we mainly focused on adjusting our Alpha release version based on feedback we received from alpha presentation, playtesting, and TA feedback.

Progress

Implementation

Controls & Cues

• Fixed control cue errors. Changed "X" to "B" to exit in inspection mode. Also fixed the bug of not showing interaction cues when selecting branching items.
• Added support for keyboard control cues. Now the change between controller cues and keyboard cues is manually. Later will make a setting page to let users set input types.
• Added skip button to story intro scene

Scenes

• When the player enters the attic scene for the first time, the attic is dim and dark, except the TV and tape are glowing. This helps to make tapes more obvious rather than the posters and other objects. Once the tape is inserted and the player has a general idea of how the tape works, lighting is changed back to normal.
• Updated the story intro scene with a more polished exposition

Object Interactions

• Interactable Objects now include a line of dialogue on inspection. The dialogue changes with every object and includes worldbuilding and clues for puzzle solving. Prefabs have been adjusted to support object dependent dialogue.

Camera

• Hide cross-hair when watching the TV.

Puzzle Logic

• When a key item (branching or non-branching) is placed in the right spot in the memory scene, a new object will appear in the memory to signify reconstructing the memory. Different objects will be placed for different branches
• The bug where the y-axis was not taken into account when calculating distance to the target object is now fixed.
• Added glitch VFX to the puzzle target shadows

Scripts & Tapes

• Added new “quest” cues to the TV tapes that tutorialize the game. Two main additions were made: one for the first tape, and one for the branching-corrupted first tape.
• Dialogue has been expanded to include object and tape interactions.
• Script for tape 2 has been finalized.
• Tape 2 has been storyboarded, lined, and colored

Assets - Models

• New interactable (non key) objects have been added to the main scene.

Assets - Audio

• Sound effects for entering and exiting the memory scene in progress
• Sound effects for object interaction in progress

Challenges

• Automatically detecting input type (controller or keyboard/mouse) is difficult, so we decided to make it adjustable in the settings page.
• Enabling a dialogue system that supports both object interactions and future dialogue options without infringing dependencies required research into ScriptableObjects.
• It took us a while to determine what sort of effect to do in the memory scene when correct items are placed, because we are in the late-stage of the development process and do not have time to create completely new assets. Therefore, we came up with very simple ideas that use what we already have with the simplest possible additions.