We've entered sprint 2, which means that for the next weeks we need to implement everything we want there to be in our game. Let's see what we have added.

Items

So after a bit of playtesting we noticed that it's a little hard to tell what each item is. We also noticed that that's not really the case for our non-interactable items. Easy fix; let's just switch them!

We also noticed that the abilities you could get from the items are a bit useless. It makes the gameplay too complicated for our target audience and the overall playing feel we wanted, so we made the tough decision to just drop them all together.

Checkout

A problem we had with our gameloop is once you checked out with the cart, you're done playing and will have to wait until the others are finished. That's not a lot of fun, so now once you check in with your cart, you will gain points accordingly and respawn at the bottom with a slightly longer list. 

Cart

Before, you could only tell what was in a cart by holding it and reading the list. However it would be more fun if we could tell from a distance what a person was carrying in their cart. So we tossed out the little pop-up list and now put the physical items inside of the cart. 

Now when holding the cart you also move a bit more slowly, so others can catch up with you. The same goes for when you are carrying an item.

We also fixed the toppling of the cart, as it was never really clear when the cart was toppled.

 

Outlines

Yes we added outlines to our items now, mainly the ones you can pick up. We needed the extra player feedback, because you never really knew when you could pick up an  items. We also increased granma's reach. It just felt a lot better when playtesting.

(Though it might've already been visible in the cart toppling example)

Score

Now you also get bonus points for completely finishing your list. Though you also get points redacted when you bring items not on the list. That just makes things more interesting.  The winner gets displayed when the timer reaches 0.

Rigging

We are getting our granma ready for animations! The hands are separated from the body in separate meshes. This is so that with code the viability of the hands can change based on if the player is holding the cart or not. 2 extra joints are added to the glasses and bun in the hair for more movement. The mesh got skinned and we fixed the weight paints.

We also started setting up a skeleton blueprint for the animations.


RFX

We got this little splatter effect ready for when granma walks in some puddles.

This next one is for when granma gets hit.

Lights out

To make it more clear that the game is over, we had a little idea to turn off the lights. This would make it look like the store is closed. Neat little way to breath more life into the setting.