6/11/2020 Developing the Map:
Before we begin placing stuff down in Unity, I was tasked with giving an above ground map for reference. I will also be making a more stylised, rough, post-apocalyptic sketch for a map to be used in-game.
As you can see, we have a full, above ground map sorted. Yellow markers are loot, so better guns, ammo, health kits etc. The yellow markers will be added later in development and the blue markers are the more important, as they are important story details and objectives that we need to get sorted first.
I will use this as a rough base to make the more stylised, in-game map. The angel wing, found on the floor, will act as a ramp up to give a little bit more player freedom and to make the map a little less linear. For example: The road leads straight ahead to the angel, but you might favour going around and up the ramp.
The map for the base underneath is in the concept and ideas stages, however I’m having second thoughts, why? Well, I’ve thought about our game and how we are going to play.
The above-ground section is expansive with explorable areas, as well as ways to piece together a story without having to use dialogue all the time or have all parts of the puzzle in the same place, or close together. The above ground section is also going to be crawling with bandits but they are easier to take out than the agents below.
There should be a somewhat large focus on player freedom above ground, we don’t want the game to feel too linear when exploring for clues or loot, but when underground you should have to plot your movements carefully and choose your path wisely as there could be agents around any corner. To add to this challenge, there should be no map.
10/11/2020 map sprite:
I wanted to keep the scribbly, makeshift feeling of other notes in the game while also making the map somewhat readable, but to add a challenge in, it is nearly unintelligible. The map depicts the view from the spawn area upwards and does not highlight anything of interest, it’s up to you to find.
10/11/2020 Underground Base Layout:
Our underground base will lack an in-game map option, this is to add to the challenge of traversing the dark base, and also to make sense as I doubt any of the survivors from the story would be able to draft up a map while hiding in the dark corners.
The map is a large box-shape with around 11 room intervals between corridors, one of these rooms is blocked off to restrict player freedom and to make the level more ‘linear’. When grabbing the schematics, the radio helper will open some of the blocked off doors from before and close the previous ones to stop any reinforcements coming through that way, and so you get to the exit quicker (Marked in Blue).
Glen and Niall will be working on their own interpretations of these maps and implementing them into the game during blockout/production.
16/11/2020 here is the map that Glen has modelled and put together, there are some more modifications to come to the layout which will be finished by the end of the week.
22/11/2020 here is a mapped-out description of each interval between corridors and their purposes, I may make a more detailed map in the future.
The Reason We Are Using Standard Assets 17/11/2020
We have made the decision to use some– NOT ALL, standard assets for our terrain. This will save us precious time and also we are down a man work-wise. Glen has an essay to focus on and has been gifted extra time due to his medical condition, and has been told to ditch any group work for now by our tutors. Because of this, Ollie is getting a bulk of the modelling AND texturing work, and modelling a tree and creating grass textures is somewhere I and others not only lack knowledge due to our time off because of COVID-19, but don’t know how to execute effectively.
We have been given the all clear by two of our tutors, one of which said with a valid reason, which is listed above.
Lessening the workload 17/11/2020
Just yesterday, I was informed that Niall and Glen were wishing to tackle the elevator scene of the game a little differently. Instead of having two scenes and the elevator animation (tedious), we were to have three scenes and no elevator animation bar the doors opening and closing.
I like this idea a lot, it gives a retro game feel to things and also makes it easier to develop, saving us valuable time and resources to put into elsewhere.
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