Suzy Cube Update: Friday June 10, 2016

#suzycube #gamedev #indiedev #madewithunity 

Another boss level in the test queue, more and more feedback coming in from testers and some spiffy new environmental effects! A pretty good week overall.

Between last Friday, after the update, and Tuesday, I was able to finish up design work on Level 3-B including level layout, coin and star placement and the boss fight sequence itself. Next up will be the game's second boss fight, which I've started on paper, focusing on making sure it feels different enough from the first, third and final boss fights.

Adding a Little Atmosphere

From the very start of the project, I knew I wanted to have some decorative atmospheric effects. I had already experimented with particle effect based snowfall to varying degrees of success. 

Ultimately, I decided to purchase a solution from the Unity Asset Store called PA Particle Fields from Popup Asylum. Basically, it's an asset used to generate exactly what I was looking for, fast, volume based particle fields. The system isn't meant to emulate effects like explosions or trails or any of that stuff for which the build-in Unity particle system is really well suited. Instead, PA Particle Fields allows you to define a volume and have it filled with particles which use simple behaviours. This is perfect for atmospheric effects like sun beams through trees (as you can see above) or more obvious effects like snow fall.

Winter wonderland

And since the particle field volumes can easily be parented to moving objects, like the camera, it's trivial to create the impression of the whole level being snowy.

It's gettin' hot in here!

Using, essentially, the opposite behaviour and some colour changes, I was able to easily add some floating embers to my lava levels as well.

I've got something in my eye...

And the system is versatile enough that I was also able to come up with these cool sand drifts for desert levels!

Test Tube

I want to take this opportunity to thank those who have already signed up as testers and to remind everyone else that I am still taking names (see last week's post for how to sign up).

I've already gathered dozens of game clips from testers and started incorporating feedback as well. Unfortunately, my crappy internet connection coupled with the fact that Everyplay simply refuses to downgrade video quality to a sufficiently crappy level means I can't actually view the clips from home! I'm planning on popping into the Embassy this afternoon with a notepad to review all the clips I've not been able to watch so far since they have a half decent connection.

This sad fact is particularly frustrating given that I was really hoping these clips, direct from testers, could be my, sort of, ace-in-the-hole since I'm working so remotely. I really do need to find a way to work around this inconvenience because comments are fine, feedback is welcome, but nothing compares to actually watching players play!

Finally, I want to warn all of you that I've got a couple of obligations with the Embassy which will be taking up some of my time for the next few weeks. I really don't know what sort of impact these will have yet but I know it could be significant. For instance, I spent all of yesterday afternoon working on a list of Canadian music to build a Canada Day playlist for an upcoming shindig. So, things might end up slowing down a bit for little Suzy for a while. I'll try to keep the updates up in spite of this, if only to keep all of you in the loop. Thanks for understanding.

See you next week.