Week #1

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Hey, it's Gary.

The first thing I did for my project was to make some quick game design documentation: this will act as a guide to the making of the project and store all the ideas I have for the game. It got pretty huge pretty quickly (6072 words, so far), but it was nice to get all my ideas on paper, so to speak.

Fig.1 - The game doc so far

The next thing I wanted to do was to make the prototype - this would just include the basic game play of a movable character, throwing 'bait', and interactions with one of the aliens. I'd yet to use Unity to make a 2D game so took some time to 'research' what was different. I learnt how to:
  • Use Unity's sprite editor.
  • Use Unity 2D specific content, like changes to animator controllers and altered components like Rigidbody 2D, etc.
  • Any Unity 2D unique workflows, like slicing a sprite sheet.
This formed the start of my prototype, with a movable character by the end of my research. For practice I sprited a Metroid from the Metroid series, which is a placeholder for the alien.
Fig.2 - Metroid sprite

I then made the functionality of the first alien, which now:
  • Follows the character and emits a particle effect whilst 'tame'. It moves faster the further away it is from the character 
  • Is tamed by dropping bait nearby it
  • Runs toward and eats the bait once over it (needs tuning)
  • Is in the background at first, tinted black by shadow. When bait is dropped it 'pops out' with a particle effect of leaves.
Fig.3 - Taming the alien

I also made the sprites for the 'bait', which you can use to tame and tempt aliens. As well as the idle and being eaten animation, which you can see above, it'll decompose after being left out for a while.
Fig.4 - Bait sprite sheet

I also made:
  • Some HUD elements (amount of bait the player has, nightfall timer).
  • Leaves particle effect.
  • A script which spawns 'trees' across the length of the level.
  • A script which spawns a random alien (once there are more than one).
  • A heart themed particle effect.
Fig.5 - Heart sprite sheet
Fig.6 - Heart animated

I made good progress for the first week. Of what I'd wanted to have done in the prototype I'm only missing the farm landmarks and their functionality like the pen, etc. Obviously a lot of art in the prototype is a placeholder for now - I will exclusively spend next week practicing pixel art by making art assets of what is currently in the prototype, such as:
  • Chests,
  • Items,
  • The alien,
  • Trees,
  • And art for more particle effects.
Fig.7 - Bait decomposition

See you then!

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