Posted October 04, 2023 by georgie
Implementation
The checkpoint for this week's implementation includes polishing the game, and ensuring a user interface (UI). As seen in previous weeks, the UI of Riff Wrath has included a simple healthbar in the form of 3 hearts, which dwindle when Davey collides with zombies.
For this week's updates, a new UI element has been introduced in the form of an item pickup indicator. Now, when Davey discovers his guitar and collides with it, a guitar icon will appear on the UI, signifying that he has 'acquired' the weapon. In truth, this guitar is not simply added to his 'inventory' in the traditional sense; instead, upon collision, the game object representing the in-world guitar (and its shadow) is disabled, the UI displays the guitar icon in the corner of the screen, and a function called EnableAttack() is triggered, indicating that Davey can now attack. In the next implementation, the guitar will instead be found on a stage.
The current pickup implementation.
In terms of polish, several new elements have been incorporated, aligning with the envisioned game experience. Several particle systems have been implemented, indicating the following interactions: guitar attack, player damage, player death, and zombie death. Each particle system has a colour and shape corresponding with its respective elements; for example, the guitar attack emits a purple, star-shaped particle, in randomly-generated configurations. I have also incorporated sound effects in the form of electric guitar chords, which trigger under two circumstances: 1) when Davey acquires his guitar, and 2) when he initiates an attack. All of the abovementioned effects were easily introduced by using public variables within the respective scripts, wherein customised effect assets could then be linked. All sound effects were acquired from user mikey_eff of Freesound.
Current particle system implementation, showcasing player damage, guitar effects, and a zombie explosion.
Lastly, to add more polish to the unfinished gameplay, a simple starting menu was added. This menu had some small elements, including a tilemap background, a looped animation, music (courtesy of venusiancharm from Freesound) and two UI text elements. The second UI text element, which says "PLAY", has a button attached to it, as well as a script called Scene Switcher, wherein another game scene can be linked. Upon clicking "PLAY", the scene will switch to the main gameplay scene.
The transition from the starting menu scene to the main game scene.
User Feedback / Improvements / Alternative Approaches
User feedback for this week was collected via a collective game-testing, with fellow students of KIT109 (as well as other esteemed guests!). This feedback encompasses all aspects of Riff Wrath:
See my feedback form via: https://forms.gle/EJ8a32D87xYSXApr9