Devlog #1

Week 1 Progress Update:

Accomplishments:

• Basic movement mechanics for the player:
  • Able to move freely on the ground.
  • Can switch between the wall and the ground.
  • Can move along the wall and is affected by gravity.
  • Can switch between two walls.
• Core shadow mechanic
  • Objects cast shadows that have their own colliders.
  • The shape and size of the shadow transforms realistically based on its position relative to the light source.
• Core puzzle mechanic:
  • Player can move objects when they shape-shift into “floor ghost” mode.
  • This movement of objects is dynamically reflected on the shadows such objects cast.
• Created a basic tutorial level design that showcases the core mechanics of the game
  • The player is required to manipulate the shadows of two boxes in order to reach a door that is high up.

Next Steps:

• Have the camera follow the player when switching between walls.
• Integrate more art assets into the game.
• Auto-movement through walls without need of player input.
• Decide upon the object movement mechanic.
  • Should the player be able to push/pull the objects in the environment?
• Plan and brainstorm level designs.
  • Add more variety of shapes/objects that can be interacted with.
  • Moving light sources (controlled by the game rather than by the player).
• Stealth mechanic
  • Make it so that the player can transform into the “floor ghost” for a certain amount of time before being detected, which would result in a game over.
• Enhance shadow mechanics
  • Experiment with Unity’s light system, and make the shadow pop more (draw the shadow ourselves?).
  • Add the ability to cast two shadows on one object.
  • Add the ability to create simpler shadow meshes for complex models, preferably auto-generated.

Important Discoveries:

• The shadow during game jam 2 is a black slab, and the position and rotation are synced with the object itself.
  • After the game jam, we experimented with generating the shadow mesh by raycasting from the light source to all the vertices in the mesh to generate the shadow mesh dynamically.
  • This approach might be expensive for complex shapes with many curved surfaces.
  • One optimization idea is to have another simpler object mesh separate from the rendering mesh. The simple mesh can be generated by resampling the rendering mesh so that close-up vertices are included once.