Producer Devlog 05

Hello there, and welcome back to the bi-weekly update of Leggy the Robot Arm. Throughout this sprint, we got some good work done. One of the big goals that I wanted to achieve this sprint was having the official assets made and ready to be implemented for the tutorial level. Additionally, I wanted to have one goal zone level set up for each level designer. Since we are at a point where the goal zone/sorting mechanic is functional and ready to be set up, I wanted to make sure that I prioritized those levels over others, so that they would be able to conduct playtests and get valuable feedback from their levels. We also have some really good programming progress completed. On Leggy’s side of things, most of this sprint was bug fixing; however, we got some great progress done on implementation of menus and navigation, as well as art for the menus. Although the alpha did get to the point where we were hoping, the overall progress that we made this sprint was amazing.

3D Art

On the 3D art side of things, Elmer focused on getting official assets finished for Mariely’s garage level, as well as Ismael’s bookshelf sorting, and John’s gumball level. He got some amazing work done with those models, and the finished textures turned out really cool. The toolbox that he worked on was particularly my favorite.

Magnus got some progress made with the tutorial assets. He did a great job at meeting Els’s vision for these textures. With the tutorial level aiming to give the sense of being in a simulated testing area, Magnus really nailed the aesthetic, and it turned out looking awesome! Unfortunately, we were not able to get those into the alpha, but they will be included in the following build. Magnus also worked on some other props, such as the water cup for Ismael’s Picasso level, as well as a staple gun and toy chest.

Elmer

Magnus

2D Art

Jasmine got some awesome substantial progress done through this sprint. The way that I wanted to approach her tasks was to have her do a sketch(es), make sure that they are what we were looking for, and then have her do the full art version of that sketch. This turned out to be a very effective way to go about doing this. For the main menu, she ended up giving us 5 different sketches, each very distinct from each other, and we were able to actually implement 3 of the sketches in different areas. One being for the main menu, one for the pause menu, and one for the credits. I also had her working on getting art for the level select screen going, which also produced amazing results. She really did a fantastic job with the work that I assigned her this sprint, and I am proud of the results that she ended up with.

Jasmine

Programming

For programming, we ended up having to spend a lot of time bug fixing with Leggy. We were still experiencing some rather significant issues while doing internal playtests with Leggy’s claw movement. I feel like we will be able to move past this soon, but it is a difficult situation. Luckily, Shane has been working his ass off to get Leggy working, and his perseverance is on another level.

Joseph worked on getting the menus functioning so that you can navigate them with a controller, solidifying the happiness mechanic’s interaction with the sigmoid curve, making the time that the fade-in screen takes from the level select to the menu adjustable, as well as creating visuals for the tutorial. In my opinion, this was one of the most significant things that Joseph worked on over this sprint. With the tutorial, we decided that having a low opacity cover over the screen, except for over the controls and happiness bar, would really help in directing the player’s eyes to the on-screen reminders of the controls. There is still refinement that needs to be done, and this was not able to make it into the alpha build, but he really did a fantastic job with this!

Shane

 media to be added soon

Joseph

Level Design

The level designers got a bunch of work done this sprint. They have done an awesome job with the work that they have been kicking out. Even though they are at a point where they are kind of stuck, since we do not have a build to test their levels, they have been continuing to kick out work, as well as spending extensive time making sure that their levels are set up the way they want it to be. I am really proud of them and the work that they have done.

Ismael made some great progress with his levels. For his bookshelf sorting goal zone level, he got it to a point where the primary things that need to be adjusted at this point are bringing in the official assets, which are being worked on the next sprint, and then making sure that everything is hooked up correctly to put into the build. He also got the general framework of his Picasso key object level mostly set up. The only thing that has to be implemented for that to be completely functional is the paint brush projecting decals, once Shane is able to finish up and move on from Leggy.

John came up with an absolutely brilliant idea with his gumball level. One of the ways that you can “complete” John’s level is by picking up a hammer and breaking the glass with it. The way that he implemented that was that when you break the glass, the colliders on the gumballs all activate at the same time, causing an explosion of gumballs that just go everywhere. This turned out to be absolutely amazing and hilarious. He also got some work done with the lighting of the level, which was perfect for what Els was looking for.

Mariely achieved some great progress as well. She spent a large chunk of time setting up the garage/workbench, which is directly related to her level, where you sort tools into the toolbox. She did a fantastic job setting up all the prefabs and organizing them in the scene.

Ismael

John

Mariely

Audio

Linus finished working on the sad version of the ambient music for the game. They continue to deliver such amazing work and do an excellent job with everything they are given. With this audio, it triggers as the total amount of happiness that the player has is low, aiming to invoke a stressed/anxious feeling while they are playing. They definitely gave us exactly what we were looking for!

Linus

Designer

Els worked really hard to get a user-friendly system of the implementation of grabbable objects, sortable objects, and goal zone so that our level designers could easily set up this feature, reducing the chance for errors that could cause bugs/issues with playtesting. They also worked on creating documentation for each of these systems, which was comprehensive and very helpful for our level designers to be able to reference and implement. They also worked on getting the URP implemented into the project. With our desire to use the decal projection system for the Picasso mechanic, as well as for placing aesthetics in the environment, having the URP implemented was a requirement, and the project was initially created in the default Unity project type, rather than 3D URP. This was a large task, and luckily, by the time we got to that, we did not have a large number of official assets/materials made. This was very good because all the materials that were already created had to have their settings changed.

Els

Production

On the production side of things, we had 167 points that were assigned, 110 points complete, and 57 points that were assigned but not moved. Our Ideal velocity is at 94, with our current velocity being at 109. Throughout the next sprint, one of my priorities is going to be going through the backlog and doing a larger-scale reprioritization of the tasks currently in there. Due to the reduction of scope, there are several user stories that we are unfortunately not going to be able to get to.

Overall, I am extremely excited to see the progress that was made through this sprint, and I am even more excited to see where things end up with playtesting and builds in the coming sprint. Thank you for tuning back into the progress of Leggy the Robot Arm! Check back in 2 weeks for the sprint 6 devlog!