Suzy Cube Update: Friday November 6, 2015

#suzycube #gamedev #indiedev #madewithunity 

This week I worked on the first user experience, tester flow and a new level!

Let's Get it On!

Your player's first impression of your game will tint their entire experience. In fact, a bad first impression will, most likely, result in a lost player. So, this week, I made up a draft tutorial screen and coded up the first user flow from title screen to gameplay. Now, the first time the player starts the game, instead of transitioning from the title screen to the level select screen, they are taken to the tutorial screen. From the tutorial screen, the player is taken straight to Level 1-1, again, without going through the level select screen. It just makes sense to plop the player right into the game rather than having them click through a menu screen that is still, at this point, completely meaningless to them.

Are You Testing Me?

Similarly, I've added a custom flow to test builds that adds an instruction screen for the tester instructing them on how to log into Everyplay, a game recording service, which I hope to use to gather tester footage. I expect to write a Lessons From Suzy Cube post on the subject of play testing once I get around to, you know, getting play testers testing the game.

Level Up!

Have I used that header title before?
Anyway. I also made a new level this week, Level 4-3. It's going to be desert themed, but I haven't done any work making decorator props or anything for this theme yet. What I have done, though, is gone and made the complete white box for the level with all hazards and functionality.

White box for Level 4-3 

As you can see above, the level is split into three towers. During play, though, it seems more like you are descending a single long tower. That's the idea, anyway. Those big red blocks? Oh, those are devastating spike crushers that relentlessly descend the tower, hell bend on making Suzy painfully regret dawdling. The stage is split up into three distinct sections to simplify the use of checkpoints.

What a nice, shady, spot...

The level also makes copious use of spikes and crushers to make Suzy's descent even more harrowing!

The Tortoise Never Actually Wins

And.. thanks to my slow internet connection, I'm still downloading the latest version of Xcode, which I hope will allow me to build on iOS again. Stupid iOS9.1 update...

And More!

I was planning on mentioning that I also used my custom culling system in a new way this week, which I did (by parenting culling zones to other culling zones if you're curious), but as I was taking notes and realizing I would, basically have to explain how my culling system works, I figured I would make it into its own post instead. So, you can pop on over and read Lessons From Suzy Cube: Improved Mobile Performance Through a Custom Culling Solution if you're interested.

I'm currently debating whether or not I should attend GDC in San Francisco in March. I need to decide sooner rather than later, though, as It will end up affecting how I decide to proceed with development for the next few months. Getting the game show-ready would mean ditching the broad strokes approach for a while and concentrating instead on polishing World 1 so the game can make a nice first impression. But, nothing is decided yet, so, I don't really know what to tell you about my plans for next week.

What do you guys think? Start the GDC buzz early or save it for the following one?