Design Blog 5 - Sunshine RV

Sprint 5 has come to a close and Bootleg Studios is now working on its last full sprint until we go into finalizing the game. I am so proud of the work that the team has produced and cannot wait to see the final version come to life! But, for now, let us focus on all the amazing work that our studio was able to accomplish in sprint 5. 

Art Department

The first thing that most of you will likely notice playing our newest version of Sunshine RV is that most of the textured models have been imported into the game by our level designer. I love seeing the game come to life towards the end of production because I get to see how my vision as a designer was translated to the rest of the team. In this case, I would say that they definitely understood my vision. I tried hard at the beginning of production to make sure everyone was on the same page in terms of the aesthetic of Sunshine RV and it is finally starting to pay off. What I like most about the interior of the RV is that the still at the end of the RV fits into the theme of the RV but it still stands out enough to instantly grab the player's attention. During our latest playtesting session, most of our playtesters went to this area first before the other sections proving its attraction to the player.  Other than the more colorful scene that has been put together, our 3D modeling department has been continuing to make props for the scene to make the interior look more cluttered and give some life to the exterior for the player to see while in the order window section. So stay tuned for another big update on the game's environment next sprint.

Engineering Department

While the exterior environment from the order window section is still empty, the player now has more things to see and interact with. Our engineering department has been working on simple object movement to imitate simple animations in the background for the player to see while placing orders. Some of the animations we have now are a car animation and a plane animation. While staying in the order window, the player can see a car driving around the trailer park and making noises that suggest the car is in dire need of repair thus adding to the trashy aesthetic of Sunshine RV. Additionally, the player can see an airplane circling around far in the distance to add more depth to what the player can see when looking out of the order window. But what I think is the most exciting feat in the engineering department is that the player can now interact with a radio sitting on the window sill to play background music. When the player hovers over the radio, they hear static suggesting that the radio can be toggled on and off. Every player during playtesting has had no problem discovering this feature on their own so I think we will just let new players find this feature without telling them so that they get a pleasant surprise.

Audio Department

At the moment, the radio currently has 6 songs, 3 songs in the Hip-Hop genre and 3 songs in the country genre.  Above is one of the songs that play in the country genre. When we playtested last week, every player felt the need to bop their heads when listening to the songs so I think we did a good job adding them in.  What I like most about these songs is that our audio engineer has been working very passionately to create these songs from scratch. Some of the songs have small references to other very popular songs. So if you play our game, you should try and find the easter egg references. Additionally, the songs do not include any distracting vocals so the radio works as a perfect ambient audio feature. And the best part is that we didn't need to pay for licensing for any of the songs.

Animation Department

And now, for my favorite part of sprint 5, our animation department got their hands on a rigged model of the human model so they have started making animations for the customers. And by far the funniest one portrays a customer taking a drink of Sunshine and immediately passing out on the floor.  Now, if you read the very first design blog post, you might remember how I discussed having to implement a design change as we could not display the use of alcohol in a college-made game. The result was us changing the name of our game from Moonshine RV to Sunshine RV and having the player brew and sell "Sunshine" instead. The reason behind it was that I really needed to have animations like this playing in the background for the player to have a laugh or two while admiring the background. Specifically, I wanted the customers to be seen passing out in the distance and now that we finally have the animation completed, I cannot wait to see it in the game's next version!