Devlog 5 - Week 12: Polish / UI / Feedback

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.

The previously-implemented heart UI, as seen in Devlog 3.

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:

• Visual elements: testers generally found the graphics to be polished and 'impressive'; most players were satisfied with the overall cool-shaded colour scheme (to my surprise). To give the game further visual appeal and identity, testers gave an excellent range of suggestions and ideas: musical props, animated elements, stage lighting, metal music homages, and extra levels with different colour schemes. One tester also suggested consideration for colourblind players, which may require further thought and implementation after the project due date.
• Controls: players generally agreed that the current [F] key for attacking was rather uncomfortable, considering that the left hand is already occupied by the WASD buttons. Most suggested using either [Spacebar] or a key on the right side of the keyboard, such as [J] and [L]. Similarly, as the game is primarily played using a keyboard, one player suggested removing OnClick() (i.e., mouse button) elements and replacing them with key button interactions.
• Attacking: I was pleasantly surprised to find that most players found the current attack mechanics to be satisfactory. Upon observing testers, it was clear that the radius of attack needed better indication - I plan to implement this by adding a circular game object, attached to the player, which renders to the same distance as the guitar's attack range. Similarly, there is currently no indication that a zombie is taking damage (until they die), which I will soon add via coloured particles.
• Camera: having critiques about the player visibility in previous iterations, players were generally happy with the current camera movement and perspective. They found it to be smooth, natural, and intuitive, though one tester also suggested having the camera look slightly ahead of the player, depending on direction.
• Enemies: most players enjoyed the graphics and movement of the zombies, although the mint-coloured variant was slightly too fast to combat. The speed can be easily adjusted via their Zombie Movement script, which I will lower in future iterations. Another problem testers encountered was that zombies could easily push the player and potentially corner them, which I speculate to be an issue of zombies' Rigidbody mass - this will be lowered in future iterations, though I may add an assortment of masses, depending on the zombie variant (i.e., the pale yellow zombie is very slow, which may indicate larger mass).

See my feedback form via: https://forms.gle/EJ8a32D87xYSXApr9