Sprint 6 Animation, Sound & bringing it all together

Sprint 6 largely focuses on bringing all the different elements I’ve been working on together, adding sound and music and adjusting the balance and mechanics of the game. I will also be simultaneously working extensively on my trailer during sprint 6, so progress may slow a little.

Note: The UI looks terrible! It’s a work in progress!

Icons, UI & Mechanics

I designed a set of icons in Sprint 5 that looked adequate on Canva and then looked terrible in the game. The lesson learned is to prototype next time, fortunately, I designed a few different icon sets trying them out and an older version of the UI looks much better.

Planting the seeds

You can gather seeds, purchase them and then plant them in your garden! You can also collect cards as you gather and plant a species. I programmed these features with PlayMaker and because the gardening game mainly focuses on UI the mechanics were fairly simple. When you gather enough seeds you can click on a flora icon and it will check if you have >0 seeds and then spawn a game object in designated planting zones. In the future, I would like the player to be able to choose where to place a plant but this would be more complicated to develop.

ProCamera2D

Using ProCamera2D I also set up rooms and boundaries so the player cannot tap off-screen.

Fixing the UI

I reverted back to an old UI design, which looks much better!

Orthographic Camera and change in the winds

Switching between the 3D camera and orthographic camera during Sprint 6, I realised my lighting weather effects and artwork looked much better in a 3D perspective.

I changed my mind again, and switched the camera back to a 3D view, just in time to create the weather effects in full 3D effect.

Fig 4. Masters 2021. Fog Creation

Creating Weather

Post-processing (global volume) will create both a warm and cold looking effect.

Adding in all the Art Assets and Final Adjustments to the Lights

Creating Super Pretty Mist

Fig 11. Masters 2021. Mist

Following a tutorial by Nemric (2019) ‘How to Create Mist in Unity’ I adjusted the mist to look good in a 3D space and then played with the settings to get the right atmosphere. The mist rolls across the ground, creating a sense of time and speed, you can also see the light from the sun/moon rise.

Creating Snow

I also created snow and rain using particle generators and programmed them to appear at random intervals while playing.

Sound & Music

Background Music for the garden, wind chimes and forest ambience:

Background music: Wind Chimes (Set 2)
Ambiance: Forest Twilight – for John

Weather sounds:

Bringing all the art and music together

Fig 12. Masters 2021. Bring on the music

Sprint Retrospective

At the end of Sprint 6, there are many features that I have not had time to implement for the vertical slice but I am pleased with my progress overall. At this stage of the project, I believe I over scoped slightly at the beginning of the project but my planning has been generally realistic.

The game is starting to take shape and it was a relief to add all the art, sound and music together. I’m particularly happy with my rolling mist.

List of figures

Figure 1. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Mechanics.

Figure 2. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Icons.

Figure 3. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Icon set.

Figure 4. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Fog Creation.

Figure 5. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Creating Sun.

Figure 6. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Creating Cold.

Figure 7. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Progress

Figure 8. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Progress2

Figure 9. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Progress3

Figure 10. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Progress4

Figure 11. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Bring on the music.

Figure 12. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Snow

References

Nemric. 2019. ‘Tutorial: How to Create Mist in Unity’. Renderosity [online]. Available at: https://magazine.renderosity.com/article/5563/tutorial-how-to-create-mist-in-unity [accessed 21 Dec 2021].