ALL FISHERMEN ABOARD-

...kind of. As the title suggests a holiday is on the horizon for us. With the spring break approaching, we are docking our ships and taking a much deserved breather (hello other school assignments, long time no see:)) With that being said, it does not mean nothing will be getting done, just that we will be taking our time with prepping our baits, rods and the such. And so, that leads us to this week's devlog, bellow will be outlined both work already finished and our plans for the holidays! 

Now then, stay off the hook and let's pull up this weeks fishing nets!

Art

First steps

We have decided not to go for animating everything ourselves instead we uploaded the character with his rig and weightpaint to Mixamo where we searched for cool animations which we can use in the game. This will both save us time as well as improve on the previous animation attempts as we are not animators.

We are planning to work more during the eastern holiday on exporting those Mixamo animations to Unity and texturing the character! We ran into some small hicks ups (curse you Maya rigging!!) with the model's rig and joints influencing the mesh in unexpected ways but we are working on making it all better!

Building a home

This week we have started on the model for the drop off or hand in point for the players. Here is where the characters will bring their fish in order to score points! The low poly of the model is finished for the moment! (Unless the feedback moment says otherwise :')) The UV unwrapping has began but will have to be finished in the future as it is quite a lengthy process, just like the modeling was.

In the future, once the model is properly UV unwrapped, it will be packed, triangulated and then moved to Substance for texturing! And of course lastly moved into engine to be used in the game.

Kris moment

Tell us what awesome things you're working on during the holidays!

Coding

Mechanics! Mechanics everywhere!

This week we properly started finalizing the base game loop, by adding the handing in mechanic for submitting the caught fish. In addition to that, we are expanding on the game loop, by adding an additional mini-game to it. The height bar minigame! A constantly moving bar, that for a moment enters a safe zone, where it must be pressed a few times in a row, to successfully complete it. With 2 minigames added, we introduced making the choice of the mini-game random on starting the fishing activity. 

In addition to that, we can announce that the base for adding items, that players can get for submitting multiple fish at the same time, is completed and ready to be saturated with boosting items. Expanding on that idea is our goal for the upcoming work period.

One with the waves

We've expanded our collection of mini games with the addition of a third one, a thrilling Button Sequence mini game! This new challenge will test your memory as you try to enter the correct sequence of buttons.

We've also expanded on an existing, by adding correct stunning when falling into the water. Now, when your character takes an unexpected dip, the stunning effect will block all player input, making it feel more correct. In the future we are planning on adding special VFX to create a more immersive and fun gameplay experience.

Lastly, we've completely overhauled the Heads-Up Display! We were using two separate canvases, which sometimes led to unexpected behavior. With this update, everything is now streamlined into a single, unified canvas making use of specific panels. This change ensures a smoother, more reliable interface, eliminating any chances of unexpected issues.

Better movement, time for fishing

During the holidays we have been working on movement, trying to make it responsive to player input. We also imporve bouyancy behaviour to be more visible and realistic. But can there be a fishing game without a rod? We implemented the rod rig setup and applied inverse kinematics on it when pulling fish from the water. Also the rod is normally attached to character spine, but when fishing its getting reattached to the right hand. We also started working on animations, but those are not visible yet. 

Future plans!!

• Finishing up the hand in point model and UVs
• Texturing the hand in point model
• Exporting animations from Mixamo

With steady hands and a full net, until next time fellow fishermen!