These are interesting times in the Valley! All the separate pieces are finally coming together, creating not a full game, but a suggestion of one. The basic gameplay is there, the tools are online (if not all very usable), the monsters are threatening and the stones are glimmering. We just had the most fun co-op Quest testing session with Jammu.
This week we had the Loot Grinder come online. You remember the loot box in Cave Digger where you placed your loot and it spat out everything at the end? Same thing. You pour your hard-earned riches in the Grinder, and after the run it crunches the numbers and gives you the total. There is something there that I’m skeptical about – all the nasty mobile principles where it’s all about the flashiness and retention. But we do want to reward the player as much as possible. And in this I think we have already succeeded.
In other news, our music system is in the game. It reacts to the situation accordingly – whether you’re wandering around, actively mining new passages or stuck in combat – the music is reacting to the environment. Eetu Mikkola is currently doing variations for all the songs and he’s already started on the FX work.
Justus used this time to implement the Hurricane VR plugin into our game. It needed some refactoring of existing grabbing systems but it allows for better tool physics and hand animations. This also is something that will surpass CD1’s very bare bones implementation. Above is a video of Justus testing stuff in his aptly named sandbox-scene. Coder humor.
Tiina and Harri have also been busy. Now we have the other enemy ready to be implemented – the fearsome Nautilus. Tiina is animating life into the big guy, while Harri has been working on the remaining tools – the Shovel and the Gold pan. Next sprint we’ll have all the tool mechanics implemented with their respective loot nodes.
That’s it this time! See you next week.
-Kharan (Jaakko Asikainen)
Random development quote: “Suomen suurin VR-tuotanto on omituinen pornopeli, jossa työkaluina käytetään kirjaimellisesti venäläisiä perseensuristimia.“
