Dev Log 5 - Production

Well hello again! It's been quite a while since my last Devlog, and lots has happened on the project since then. Throughout development so far I've worked on level design, sound design, game system design, as well as character design for a few aliens. Our team has worked together wonderfully, but now the project's demo is coming to an end!

My most recent task was creating music and several sound effects for the game. I used FL studio to create these, and found it perfect for how I was developing sound. For music, I began with a beat, and worked on a melody from there. I continued to add new sections to the song, constantly changing the instruments to see what fit best. I ended up sticking with mainly synths and echoey sounds to fit in with our sci-fi theme. As well, since the game takes place within a cave, I wanted to evoke a cave-like and mysterious sound. When I shared the song with the team, they requested it be toned down a little to stay more in the background. I was able to do this by switching the synths to be slightly less aggressive. In terms of the sound effects, I created many of them by adding different pitches, effects, and placements of synthesizers. For the alien sound effects, I used a process called layering, in which you add multiple layers of sound to create a new effect. For example, for the Sprog alien, since it is inspired by a Frog, I used a real frog croak slowed down and layered several times with other sounds. This process was new for me, but very exciting! 

We also recently completed our third playtest, where we showcased our feature-complete game. We knew we still had to polish the game, but during our playtest, we found out many things that would have to be fixed before our final game was complete. We ran into a lot of bugs, some regarding the same gene splicing system. This makes sense, as it was the most recently added feature. One of these bugs was being able to splice the same alien with itself to create a glitch where the player can infinitely spawn more aliens using just one. There were also various bugs with the spawning of the aliens. As a team we also went through and chose the most pressing issues to be fixed first by our programmers. We also had some issues with UX and enjoyability. Players had trouble reading the text we had on screen, and we plan to add more of a backdrop to the text to combat this. We also want to move around the UI elements and text on screen, including our quota, so players can read it more easily. Players wanted more to do within the game, so we are also expanding the level slightly and creating a locked off area for the new aliens to come from once unlocked. These should all make the game more interesting, and also improve upon what we already have to enhance the game. My next tasks revolve around this, as I am creating a layout to expand the level, as well as creating more sound effects to make the whole world feel even more alive and interesting.

Overall though, our playtest was successful, and we got tons of positive feedback as well. We are confident that now with our next tasks, we will get what we need to done and have a functional game for our showcase.