Workload

Sprint progress

While the sprint went amazingly, not all features were implemented. The core gameplay and all the characters look amazing. It doesn't mean every feature is 100% bug-proof.  Throughout the sprint we found errors with implementations of prior tested features. This became a bit of a problem. It did not happen a lot, but when it did it took some time to figure out the cause. Luckily the team pulled it together to get a lot of content in the game.

Expectations

Before the sprint our expectations of ourselves were off quite a bit. From finishing a task in half the expected time to even doubling its expected time. There were some issues that arose along the way for sure. For the next sprint it is important to keep ourselves grounded and maybe scratch some features that sadly can't make it due to time constraints. It pains us to do it, but that's how the cookie crumbles.

Features

Sound

We don't have anyone who is specialized in sound, that is quite obvious by our quiet game right now. For the next sprint it is important to get all our features fully kitted up with sound. Working on features however brought more attention to effects that will be needed. For example a punch has to always make sound, but what happens if it hits a player compared to miss a player. These details seem quite small, but by the end of the next sprint you will thank us.

Programming

We chose for Unreal Engine, but wow can the engine fight you. You add a component in c++ and it completely breaks the game. For some reason the object is there in the blueprint viewport, but without any properties. This is because it is a nullptr! "Wow how do you fix it?", you say. You don't you need to make a new derived blueprint, that one will be fine. This is a massive issue when working in an agile way where you add components as features get implemented. What do I recommend for this? Be prepared for anything, you chose your medium so you got to take the good with the bad.

Unreal my beloved Anthem

Art

In terms of visuals, almost all features have been implemented (minus UI/HUD and the effects).  Some fixes were made from last week, such as the balloon specular being achieved by roughness and not being just a spot that's painted on. 

The clouds also have textures now, in this process tough, as artists we made the decision to change our guidelines a bit - we weren't planning to use normal maps, but without them, the clouds felt flat and not cloud-y enough. This just comes to show how prototyping is really important and even afterwards  changes need to be made to those base concepts, and that is ok,  as long as they don't topple everything else, of course.

We also played around with  widget blueprints, to see how this whole UI/HUD ordeal will work. It took quite a bit of time to learn this new skillset, but it is very much rewarding once you see it work(-ish) in the level! It's not really doing anything (YET) but isn't it cool? 

The iceberg models are done and a few of them are textured, the only thing left to do for the environment itself is to make a water shader and place all the iceberg assets in the scene. 

In total there were 7 models of icebergs made:

All of the icebergs together:

Additionally, Penguin and Owl model have been rigged. However, the penguin model still does not have proper controls. It turned out that rigging as well as placing controls for that model, was much more challenging task compared to the owl.