Senior Production - Moving Through Greenlight, and an In-Depth Look at the Tool Lens
As we head on through Greenlight, the work is going to start ramping up in terms of new mechanics and interactions that we’d like to provide to the player. It’s a lot of small things that will simply enhance the feel of our game, and ground it in some sort of reality, such as rotating stove burner dials, light switches that toggle lights on and off, and proper collisions between objects in the scene. And of course, there will be those more fantastical elements in the game that provide that more whimsical experience, such as Wes’s gravity changer in the new Witch’s Hut level, and what we like to call the Tool Lens. Throughout our game, the player has access to a variety of lenses they can use to view their environment differently: the X-Ray lens lets them see through objects, such as walls and doors, while the Fairy Lens lets them see hidden magical creatures roaming the environment.
A third lens that we have planned for the game is called the Tool Lens. Essentially, there will be objects placed throughout the scene that won’t be seen with the naked eye at first. By attaching the Tool Lens to the camera, and snapping a picture of the object, that item will materialize into the world and the player will be able to interact with it. For example, in the Witch’s Hut level, there will be an open fireplace that seems to be just that, but looking through the Tool Lens, we can see that there’s a cauldron over the fire. Taking a picture of the cauldron will cause it to materialize into the real world, and the player can interact with it by placing ingredients into it to create other objects.
Interestingly enough, in our early stages of prototyping different concepts for Camera Shy, we messed around with this mechanic already. We had drafted and prototyped a concept of a detective mystery game, in which the player had a variety of tools to help them gather clues. One was a camera, which is how the camera for our game came to be, and throughout the level, there would be symbols and pictures around the level that, when taken a picture of, would materialize whatever object it was showing.
What the player initially sees in a scene
A new path and key have appeared
Given this, it shouldn’t be too difficult to implement. The only tricky part I can predict would be the system where only one object can be materialized at a time. So taking a picture of another hidden object with the Tool Lens would dematerialize an existing one. This simply involves some layer swapping on the objects in question, so I’ll have to look back at our earlier code and see what I did before.
Aside from all that, the rest of the project is running smoothly. We all have tasks estimated for each sprint toward the end of the semester, so we have an idea of where we want this project to be by the end. We’re taking the game to PAX East this year, which is exciting, so we’ll be able to show the game off to testers outside of the realm of Champlain College, and to a lot more people than we could ever possibly have at a testing session here. There are still discussions as to who will be going, since only two members are allowed to go, and what day we’ll be showcasing. I’d like to go, one because I’m part of the original team behind the concept, so I’m one of the ones who knows the concept and mechanics best, and two, because I’ve never been to PAX. Also, it would be helpful to a programmer available to fix any issues. But it’ll be up to the team to decide that.
