Week 6 for me has further involved making the numerous micro design decisions that make up the game loop, and otherwise facilitating that they get addressed. This has ranged from making simple meshes to fix gaps, rearranging the map as needed, and tweaking the HUD.

With less than one month left to go in our development, it became glaringly obvious how far behind schedule we really were, and so an evaluation of our time was in order. I made an inventory and assessment of our progress so far, logging exactly what is needs to be done in order to reach our deadlines. This has involved cutbacks to scope and features as necessary – it’s always better to address them sooner than later. I’ve gone so far as to take this chart and stick it to the wall, as we can’t afford to lose track of time with so little time remaining.

As for particles, I continued to work on the most immediate forms of feedback that are required for our game loop, in an attempt to address ways that we’d need to communicate the game’s features to the player. For example, how do you know when an enemy is about to fire at you? How do you know when your supermove is charging? How do you know when you’ve successfully negated a projectile flying at you?

There are so many things that can be overlooked, that I invested at least a week’s worth of time in learning to work Unreal’s Cascade particle system.

Left: A reticle that will appear over an enemy’s head; Right: A charging aura that will circle the player.

In less than a week, the difference in complexity and skill is already beginning to show in my particle effects. Compare the two particle effects for the same feature below – both are attempts to indicate when two bullets have collided with each other in midair. I really wanted to really emphasise the clash between the two, and give it a ‘wow’ factor that would encourage players to pull it off as often as they can. I guarantee that the difference in skill is already noticeable:

Left: My first attempt at bullets collding; Right: My second attempt, which I think looks miles more exciting than the first.

Overall I think I will be able to bring some really exciting visual effects to the project by the end of the year, especially as I gain a better grasp of Unreal’s Cascade. I also hope to study up on 2D animation principles and apply them towards creating some really interesting hand-drawn effects!