Alpha

After receiving feedback from playtesting, I have been trying to implement the suggestions that I received. A main point of feedback was that the physics currently feel a little bit off. Since rocket jumping is the main aspect of this game, I have been putting time and effort into getting it to be as satisfying as possible. I have been tinkering with the values for the grenade's knockback amount, affected area, and firing speed. I do not think I have gotten it to be as good as it can be, but I will continue to experiment with the values. Another next step in this area is to get the grenade launcher itself animated. I have a simple model rigged and textured with simple colors, I just need to animate and implement it. I hope that by having a good amount of animated feedback from shooting the grenade and then reloading, using the grenade launcher will become even more satisfying. 

Another piece of feedback that I will be working to address is the idea of players wanting more chances to move quickly through the air. In its current form, the basic level that I have laid out involves a lot of walking from one jump to the next. To hopefully remedy this, I have added a new type of obstacle: a hoop that the player must pass through to activate something. My hope with this is to be able to create scenarios where the player is quickly moving around the level, passing through these hoops in order to reach the goal. The main issue with these hoops currently is that the player is able to stand on them, which is not ideal. I do not want the player to be able to bypass platforming challenges by simply landing on one hoop and then jumping to the next one. My current thoughts for remedying this is having the physical portion of the hoop push the player off if they stand on it. There is also the issue of making these hoops large enough for them to not be incredibly difficult to propel yourself through, but not too large that they pose no challenge to the player. 

Additionally, I have been focusing on cultivating the 'vibe' of each level theme. I have been mainly focusing on the ocean level theme, but I plan to expand the sweets level theme.  For the ocean level, I created several simple assets that contribute to the feeling of being underwater. My favorite from among these are the towering stalks of kelp that can be seen in the background of the level. I utilized Unreal's simple foliage wind system to get the leaves to sway in the water, giving them the sense that they are being moved by some invisible current. As for the sweets level theme, the main thing that was holding me back from fleshing it out further were some frustrating issues with Unreal Engine's Chaos destruction systems. After some research and experimentation, I have the basic destroyable objects in a place that I think is acceptable for the time being. 

There is still a strange bug with the destroyable objects that I am trying to correct, but it does not really impact gameplay and I have posted about it on the Unreal forums. The destroyable objects are currently set up to have no physics applied to them, so the pieces of them are propelled away from the explosion but do not fall.  My intent with this was to lean into the dreamlike atmosphere I intend to create. The current issue is that if a destroyable object is only partially broken, gravity gets applied to the unbroken piece of it, allowing it to fall. Ideally, gravity would not be applied at all. Hopefully I will find a solution soon, but for the time being it is fine since it has no real negative effects on moment to moment gameplay. 

My next steps are to finish polishing the basic obstacles, create the UI (I know exactly what it will be I just need to do some research into the technical aspects of implementing a 3D model into 2D UI), reworking how the weapon system currently works, and putting together a couple levels to demonstrate the variety of level styles I intend to include. 

This is a very basic framework for iterating on mechanics that I made using my immense talents in Microsoft paint. 

A demonstration of how the sweets level is currently looking. I want this level theme to have an emphasis on destructible objects and platforms since cookies crumble apart (and I think that the idea of exploding giant cookies with a grenade launcher is a funny mental image). An idea I am currently workshopping is a castle made out of cookies that you have to destroy to finish the level. 

This is how the ocean level currently looks. The glass balls bob up and down, providing a fun challenge and adding to the theme of the level. I want to change the grey boxes to more appropriate ocean-y platforms sometime soon, but I need to do that after I finish polishing up the rest of the obstacles.