Hey everyone! Thanks for coming back. Again, this will be a retroactive post, covering a summary of development from November 4, 2021 to the 17th. I hope you have fun reading and keep updated for the release of Piggy Payback!
Nov 4/2021: So we have the 2D and 3D artists needed for this project. I talked to our technical artist, Andrew about making the feather explosion particle effect. I found a good set of white feather meshes to use for the bird models as well as the particle effect. Today I added some stylized foliage and trees to our prototype level. It's starting to look and feel like a real game, but there is still a lot of work to do.
I had a weird problem where the seesaw was falling through the floor upon begin play. I checked to make sure the collision settings were right on it and the floor mesh, and they were both set to block all. Everything pointed to the seesaw sitting on the floor but it still fell through. So, I opened a new level and tried the same exact thing again and it worked just fine. I like to think I missed something somewhere, but we're good to go on that front now.
Nov 12/2021: Right now I'm in talks with my 3D artist, Alex about making the first two characters for the game - One of the pigs and one of the birds. I want the game to be visually pleasing, even as I work on it. Plus, I really need content to share so these characters will help nicely with that.
We also received the new log pieces made by Alex. These pieces will make up the physical level that the launched pig is contained in, and bounces off of.
Nov 15: Recently we added a bunch of things to the project. It'll be easiest if I present this to you in list form:
-added a title screen and start menu
-added the core blueprint actors / widgets, such as player controller and game mode
-added 2 pig sprites to use as placeholders for the pig that drops onto the seesaw and the one that launches
-added teleports for pigs - This makes the pigs return to their starting positions after they come to a stop so the player can try again
-added 2D plane background - This is just for the time being. We want to have a 3D background for the final game, once we have some optimized assets
-added some materials to the project for various meshes
-added a post processing volume for that fine look
-added a trail particle system so the launched pig leaves a trail behind it and shows the trajectory it took. This both looks cool and makes the pig easier to follow
-added custom collision to the new log pieces we made
-added logic to enable the game to have multiple characters
-added stop movement trigger once first launched
-added button and logic to open the first level from the main menu screen
-added title widget and "press anywhere" text animation
-added correct start up map and project settings
Nov 17/2021: Today we did an overhaul and cleanup on the project since it was starting to get a bit messy. We then moved the seesaw over to the right a bit to allow for a clean launch. The seesaw is having trouble launching at different angles/trajectories so we moved the plank of the seesaw over 15-20 UU relative to the fulcrum to give the launch more leverage. We also changed fulcrum to an overturned log instead of the basic shape it used to be.
We then tried to change the seesaw to allow for the player to control the trajectory, which didn't end up working. We were going to try putting a curved support piece instead of the flat one. We Were hoping that the pig would use its own momentum to launch itself off of this curved piece. Instead of having the flat support piece, we hoped that a curved one will allow for a continuous motion of the pig, instead of stopping and then bouncing off of that support piece.
Soon after, we realized that we ended up deciding to do away with the seesaw mechanic altogether. The solution was implementing a cannon instead, which we will discuss in the near future. At his point, we just have a simple placeholder cannon in the levels. This will be exchanged for a really cool looking one in the future.
We had to redo some of the game, and that included a new launched pig. So, to give it the right bounce physics, I created a physical material for it, which includes the following:
-Set Raise mass to power
-1.0 -Set override restitution combine mode to true
-Set Restitution Combine mode
-Max -Increased density to very large number
Next, we changed the Anti-aliasing method to FXAA, this makes everything in the level look smooth and beautiful, instead of having those jagged lines. And finally, we decided to make the pigs fly faster the higher the level. On later/harder levels the pigs will be much faster, making timed taps more difficult. To do this we will add mass to the drop pig, which would have made a bigger impact on the seesaw and launch the pig faster. Instead, we will make the projectile pig have a higher minimum and maximum velocity.
That's all for this installment of Piggy Payback! We hope you keep coming back and even share this devblog with your friends! Thanks for reading.
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