Hi again and welcome back to the third production blog for Clay Striker! My name is Courtney and just as a refresher, let me remind you what Clay Striker is all about. Clay Striker is an on-rails FPS that aims to bring the realism of shotgun sports to the excitement of arcade shooters. Players will be challenged on courses valuing high speed and precision to shoot down all the clay targets and achieve the highest possible score.

Our goal for this sprint was to get all of the stations for level 1 put in the game and build out the on-rails movement mechanic. We wanted to test how the level design feels this sprint with where the bunkers that spawn the targets are situated, where they are aiming, how the bunkers arc the targets, and how fast they shoot. This production blog will walk you through our process of creating a digital prototype this sprint along with everything that went right, went wrong, and how we overcame problems.

Now, let’s get right into it!

Modeling

This sprint our main texture artist, Jerrod, textured just about all of the props for our first level. We have lots of inconspicuous props to fill out the stage and make it feel more natural. These props are all things that can be found on a regular shooting range such as a shooting house, bench, outhouse, and flowers. With two more props being textured, we plan to have the first level completely filled out with props in the next sprint.

Additionally, our other modeler Michael got to work on the models for the second level. In theme with the spooky season and to match the outdoor country aesthetic of the first level, the second level will be a carnival level. Therefore, Michael began modeling some carnival tents and carnival rides which will be seen move over the next two sprints.

2D Art

During this sprint, our 2D artist Lily finished creating all of the expressions for the mascot of our game, Pat the Panda. Pat will be used to give the tutorial as well as tell the player their status as they play through the game, whether they are doing well or poorly. Having this completed means that we can start on the tutorial for the game through Pat’s text boxes. Lily has been doing a great job getting all of the 2D work done and will be working on the icon and box art for our game next sprint completing all of the required 2D assets for our project.

Level Design

Our level designer Patrick finished the block-outs for each station in level one of our game this sprint. This is crucial as we can finally get more valuable feedback on the project with an actual level for the player to progress through. He worked on the positioning of the bunkers which is extremely important since the player cannot move and will only be able to experience the game through the bunkers that shoot the targets. We will be testing the current level design this sprint and making adjustments in the coming sprints. We will also be working to add the now-textured props to each level to fulfill the aesthetic needs of the game. 

Programming

This sprint our programmer Owen worked hard on the leaderboard system, helping our level designer with the bunker and on-rails movement mechanics, and the objective of the game. A main component of the game is the intrinsic motivation a player gets from a leaderboard. We want players to want to challenge themselves over and over again to get better scores on each level. Owen fully fleshed out the board so that it shows up at the end of each level, saves the player’s scores, compares scores and categorizes them by highest score, and saves between play sessions. As this is the main motivator of the game, it was important to have this in the game and we are excited to test out this mechanic more next sprint!

With the completion of the on-rails movement mechanic last sprint, Owen assisted Patrick in showing him how the system worked. The system that Owen made allows the designer to place “target” empty objects where the player should go and moves the player between them after each station is completed. Owen taught Patrick how these worked and helped him angle and place the bunkers that, for now, continuously shoot targets at the player.

Owen also created a clear condition for the game so that each level stops after a certain number of targets have been spawned. Now that we have a full game loop, we will work on refining it next sprint to include a pause system and the level select screen.

Conclusion

Overall this Sprint we had 56 points assigned and completed a total of 32 of them making our current velocity 31 points/sprint. Our goal next sprint is to complete the first level by filling it up with textured assets and finishing up some of the UI components by allowing the player to pause the game and transfer between menus easily. The work displayed on this blog was only part of what got completed this sprint and I would like to thank my team for the great work they got done. We hope you’ll stick around and we’re excited to show you what we have in store in two weeks! 

Thank you for reading!