Devlog 4: Levelling Off!

This week, the project team focuses on more design elements of the game.

Levels

The technical team congregated via Discord to work on more of the levels. This was done with the use of ProBuilder, a versatile tool for constructing 3D levels in Unity 3D. We were able to conveniently create custom shapes, enabling us to design and build intricate level geometry with ease. It also has an intuitive interface and seamless integration, allowing for quick prototyping and level designing. By using this tool, we were able to easily craft rooms of the strange facility, with some works in progress shown below.

A work in progress of the level design. Created by Athen.

A work in progress of the level design. Created by Athen.

Savepoint Mechanics

The programming team has also implement a save mechanic to the game, which is a vital aspect to its narrative (i.e., no one can properly die in the facility). This has been done via a SaveManager game object, which remains intact across game scene changes and saves player information. To enhance accessibility of the game, the team also decided to store save game files as plaintext JSON files. This allows players to access these JSON files and modify them to their own preferences.

A mockup of the save file structure. Created by Shawn.

Enemy Designs

After shelving the enemy design from last week, our artist conceptualised a new design that was more suitable to the context of Amensalism. Displayed below is the final design of a generic enemy - a medical or scientific professional, who works in the facility. 

The character wears a surgical gown, which is distinctively marked with blood splotches, hinting at her role within the game. The choice of attire not only enhances the character's 'authenticity', but also contributes to the game's horror themes, reinforcing this sense of tension and unease. Key features of her design, the goggles and mask, aren't only practical to her role: they also act to 'dehumanise' her, as they obscure her facial features and expression. This furthers the feeling of unease and mystery in the game.

The final generic enemy concept. Created by Georgie.

More progress has also been done on the player character model. The main difficulties were correcting all of the different body parts to look even, and mirroring each of them. Working on Blender with only a trackpad was a difficult task; switching to using a mouse and keyboard has sped the process up greatly, which will help with creating the generic enemy. Now, all that is left is to add a skeleton and create some basic animations: attack, walk, and idle.

Using Texture Paint to draft the player character's bandages. Created by Georgie.

Thank you! :)