What’s Good Everybody,
This is Rashad Patterson, Lead Developer on Project Anklebreaker and welcome to the second dev diary of the project. For the past weeks, we have been working very hard on updating our prototype and now would like to talk about what’s been going on. Before we get into the update, we would like to remind you all that this is a prototype, and developmental progress may change in future. In addition, a new build of our prototype is downloadable via Files or our Github. Without further ado, let’s get into it.
What’s New?
NEW Environment
In our first playable demo, we’ve created within a week our demo environment to test basic mechanics. You can see the grid floor and the block out buildings in the background. Although very helpful, we were getting a bit tired with only playing around in this space. So, we began discussing the idea of making a new setting that not only allows us to test new game machines but also aligns with the streetball competition theme that we’re trying to deliver.
The new demo map that is featured in Prototype 2 is called Autumn Fountain. I was tasked with putting this map together with the following notes our team agreed upon:
- Inspired by Chicago
- Takes place in the fall
- The time of day should be in the Afternoon
Granted this map is still a work in progress but let me tell you this is one of the coolest environments I have ever made. With lots of high contrast Fall colors being the focus and leaves on the ground. The court is tiled with proper shooting lines. Promotional materials, landmarks, and even small little things such as a dummy crowd to make the world less empty and make you feel like you’re in a competition.
Mechanical Improvements
SHOOTING IS IN THE GAME NOW with a Score Indicator
We’ve gotten assistance from Duncan McDonald on getting the player to shoot the ball from their hand and based on how far from the rim the player is, the score will update on that. If the player shoots on or further than the 3-point line, they have a percent chance that they’ll score from that distance. Same goes for the 2-point line, where the percent chance of the player making it is greater. Later down the line once when we have the chance to add multiple characters, these score stats will differ between them. Giving us a diverse set of players to choose from.
Dynamic Camera System
We’ve also added a new camera system. We’re currently trying to find our best method of keeping the game cinematic while also focusing on a specific subject. With the basketball being our focus, this will give us insane shots when the ball is the air and going into the hoop.
Art Related Updates
I’m excited that I’m not the only one working on art related tasks this time around. I would like to introduce our new Character Concept Artist, Angelica Idoko. She’ll be helping out with 2D character concepts and texturing when my hands are full with Environment and 3D model tasks. Currently, we have some concepts of player characters and outfits that maybe featured in the game. We’re still trying to figure out how to blend it with 3D elements, but we’ll figure it out when that time comes.
Critical Bugs
Some issues that arise during this development of Prototype 2 and we’re trying to aim to get patched in Prototype 3 is following:
- Ball falling out of bounds or randomly through the court
- Solution as of right now, exit the game and relaunch.
- Animation System locks up after player shoots.
- Let go of movement input and press shooting button again. It will launch the ball like normal and unlocks the animation system like normal.
If there are any more show stopping bugs, please let our team know so we note them down. With most of team being mainly artist and designers right now, we’re going to get to them eventually based on bad the issue is.
Miscellaneous Changes
Before we wrap up, some small additions we added to this build is a Main Menu System to select the Autumn Fountain Map and Exit the Game. Options currently doesn’t work at the movement. We’ve added a small player indicator underneath the player’s character to tell what direction they’re facing and who is controlling them. More functionalities will be added to them at a later date.
Overall, this is the update for our latest prototype of Project Anklebreaker. With a lot more time on our hands this time around, we’ve managed to gain more substantial progress and we hope that you enjoy what we currently have to offer. Thanks for reading.
Peace,
Rpatterson’22
