Dev Log 2

Project Back-Up - White boxing

Written by Jacob

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkfGOjrfuR8

We decided to work through some unity scripting in our second week of game development. During the week, we created a sample project in unity to start developing our gameplay and mechanics. The foundation for the map we used was made last week. While the map is not based on the final version, we wanted to block out the movement, key collection, and other core mechanics. This sample project is a test for our code rather than a demonstration of our game.

The first addition was implementing doors. Adjoining rooms are covered by a roof until they are entered. Upon entry, the roof is disabled in the script, revealing the interior. The purpose of this is not to overwhelm the player with unnecessary information while walking around. In the following weeks, we plan to add animations of the doors opening and closing behind the player and potentially include a fade transition for revealing the room upon entry.

Our second addition was creating two types of locked doors. The first type is a keypad door with a four-digit code. Walking up to the door and pressing “Space” (a temporary placeholder) will activate a pop-up screen to input the code. The second type of locked door requires a key card to enter. If the player has the correct card in their possession, the door will be unlocked and openable.

Thirdly, we designed a temporary item system. This item system will be replaced in the coming weeks with an inventory system, which is still in development. The item system in the sample project is required for other mechanics. There are two items in our current code test - the key card for the locked door and an oxygen tank. The player picks up the items using “E” and then drops the items using “Q”. Once the player picks up an item, it deactivates the item on the ground and activates a version of the item parented to the player. The ground version teleports position beside the player when the player drops an item. This is because once the game mechanic of rewinding time is created, we can easily add statements outlining whether the item is in the player’s inventory. If not, it will be reset to its original position. 

Lastly, we implemented the game’s central mechanic, the timer and resetting it on command. Once the game is started, the timer begins. Currently, the player can reset the timer and the game world at any point by pressing “R”. However, in future builds, this will be confined to specific areas on the map. After 5 seconds, an area of the map “loses atmosphere” and is highlighted red. If the player enters this area, they will die immediately, resetting the loop. If the player has picked up the oxygen tank, they can survive in the red zone for an extra 10 seconds. The main timer resets the world after 5 minutes. The timing of these events and the duration of oxygen will be changed around in later builds.

The mechanics, inventory and other aspects of gameplay will be in constant development over the coming weeks, alongside covering our ideas of a tutorial and other essential aspects of our game. That’s all for this week from the team here at Matchboxes. Thanks for reading.