Save the World Dev Blog 4 - Dialogue and Collectibles

Since I am the person in my group responsible for building the demo (excluding Ziqi’s contributions of the 2D artwork), the majority of my contributions towards the project since the previous entry have consisted of further development of the demo. I have also been doing some more work on the music with Dan and Rob, and have done some writing up about the music and the audio for the Game Design Document.

As well as the design aspect, building the demo has consisted of a lot of problem solving and bug fixing, which I won’t go into since it’s not so relevant to the design aspect of this project. Below you can read about some of the other aspects of building the demo that I’ve engaged with since the previous entry.

Dialogue/encounters

Since I’m now using my own dialogue system which doesn’t include a response system or multiple paths of conversation, I’ve rewritten Lily’s dialogue encounter to work on a single track. I also wrote her dialogue to allude to what Gustav has said to her, since without a response system he doesn’t have his own dialogue options. I also wrote dialogue encounters for Artemis and Anala and implemented them into their character Blueprints. I then implemented an ‘Added to Party’ screen to appear after the conversation for a few seconds.

Anala’s ‘Added to Party’ widget

I have also spent a considerable amount of time trying to get the NPCs to follow Gustav after joining his party. However, I am yet to be successful in making it work, seemingly due to the paper 2D characters going by different movement rules to other character types. If possible I’m going to be trying to implement this before the project deadline, but since it’s low on the priority list it may have to be a post-deadline update instead.

Inventory and Collectibles

Another system that I had been hoping to implement into the demo was an inventory system with collectible items. Being a survival game, resource collection and management is a core mechanic of gameplay, and I felt that this would be important to represent in the demo. Since each game area/environment has its own resources to collect, I also wanted to reflect this in the demo’s collectible system. To represent the three main areas shown in the demo (above ground, tunnel, and below ground), I added a different type of collectible in each area. I added wood for the surface, luminofibre for the tunnel and sponge crystals for underground. Since the game’s beat chart also lists luminofibres as being available to collect above ground, I added a few bonus luminofibres to the surface hidden around the borders as a hidden extra for those who explore the surface before descending into the cave.

I have been consistently trying for about a week to make the inventory items add to the list in the journal inventory once they’re picked up, but to no avail. This is going to be one of my top priorities to try and get working before the deadline, but if not then it will have to be another post-deadline update. I did, however, manage to implement a text UI to show above each collectible item to mark it to the player as being collectible and telling them how to pick it up.

Gustav about to collect a sponge crystal

After adding this feature, it made sense to also implement it into the NPC’s to show they’re available for dialogue. The NPCs now show a ‘E to talk’ text above their heads once Gustav gets within a certain range of them.

Gustav approaching Artemis

Sound Effects and Music Implementation

After putting so much thought and effort into the music, it seemed only logical to add in some sound effects too to add too the atmospheric soundscape. Since I wanted the demo to reflect the haptics and feel of the gameplay, I felt it was important to make actions feel satisfying to complete and the game environment feel immersive and ambient. I often find that sound effects have a huge effect on whether or not gameplay feels satisfying, and so I purposely tried to find sound effects that make the game action feel clean and satisfying too. I used Mixkit, which provides free sound effects for game developers. Each different item type has its own sound effect chosen especially to represent how it should feel to pick up that item, such as the clicking sound for the wood, and the twinkling sound for the sponge crystal. As well as for item pickup, there is also a triumphant jingle that plays alongside the ‘NPC added to party’ screen, and a page flipping sound that plays when opening or closing the journal or inventory. These can be heard in the video clip at the bottom of this page.

On the subject of sound, I also managed to add music transitions to the map so that once Gustav crosses the threshold into the cave tunnel, the music will switch to the underground track.

Presentation Preparation

To prepare for the presentation, I have created a short video clip of the key aspects of the demo so far. This clip had to be short enough to not take up too much time in the 10 minute presentation, while still showcasing its most important elements. You can view the video below:

I have also been in charge of preparing the slides about the music. Since I will be the one speaking in the presentation I have rehearsed it to ensure I am summarising the most important information on the slides and that the presentation fits within the 10 minute time limit.

You can view the presentation slides here (not including the video clip).