EMMA TETHRAIN
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Wille made props for the dog and started on Greta's cane. Lucas made stairs for the home. Felicia's texturing progress.
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Today I continued to add sounds to the Unreal Project, and I also added notes to the Sound Designers about sound files that I couldn't use and why. Loke's work today! Felicia's work today! Wille's chair! Lucas has placed wooden beams on the walls and ceiling in the basement!
Today we fixed a sub level that I can work in with the sound implementation. I'm very thankful to Melinda and Casper for helping me setting it up! Today I listened through the sound designers SFX more thoroughly and imported the sounds that were good and took notes of the sounds that needs to be edited or be rerecorded. I couldn't get all of the sounds in today, but I'm almost done with that, so tomorrow I will start to implement sound in the level I hope! I also did some more research on how to make footsteps sound different on different surfaces, and I think I'll be able to implement that tomorrow with the sounds I have so far. We went on a open house at Tenstar here in Falun and I really enjoyed it! It was fun to be able to visit a studio, see their premises and get to hear about the way they work. I also got to speak with a designer there and he was really nice and answered any questions I had, which was really helpful, so I'm thankful for him taking the time to talk to me! Linus managed to make the save system work today! Well done!! Oskars progress on Greta! She is in the process of getting hair! Oskar is so talented!!! Wille started making a armchair today, it's coming along great!!
Today I went through the Trello and the priorities. I researched the Sound Reverb effect in Unreal Engine and how it works. I tried to implement it but it didn't work so I'm going to try it out again tomorrow. I finally had time to listen to the SFX the Sound Team have made so far, and checked off on the GDD to see what we have and what's left. I also checked their Trello. I'm going to listen through the sounds again and import them in Engine to test the sounds out before I import them into the real Game Project. I want to make as much preparation for it as much possible so when it's time to implement sounds I can do it efficiently, so that the others can get back to do what they need to do. I hope to get a bunch of sounds in this week before the Milestone. It's a little frustrating that I got the "implement sound role" today, because if I had known earlier then I would've had more time to do research and prepare for this, instead of only having less than a week. But It's good to know for the future. But It does feel good to actually create something, so I'm happy! Down below is some print screens of my experimentation with footstep sounds. Adding the sounds to the project, and putting them in a "Sound Que" which determines the behavior of the audio playback. Creating a two new Variables in the Player Character called "Footstep Trace" and "Try Footstep". Call the "Footstep Trace" in the other newly created Variable "Try Footstep", to make sure the sound plays the location of the player. Created a "Timeline" for the Footstep, calling on the variables function every 0.5 seconds, to see it the Player is walking, I need to tweak the numbers as a step can still be heard when the Player stops and the sound is triggered. Felicia made all of these today, which is crazy to me, she worked really hard!!!!! (A dresser, A bedside table, A wardrobe, Another Dresser, A fireplace, A cardboard box, A freezer box, A barrel, A lightbulb on a string) Wille finished his standing lamp! It looks awesome!!
Felicia made the 3 main valuables that is the players goal when breaking in. They look really good!! Wille finished his floor lamp.
Today Zordix visited the school and presented their company. Loke made a double bed today. Oskar worked on Greta's texture and animations today. Wille made a high and a low poly floor-lamp as well as a dinner table. Felicia worked on making foliage today. Lucas made a bookshelf and a wall shelf and two paintings today. He also worked on the second floor. Ellinor made smaller props for the kitchen.
Today we had three companies present at school. Tenstar Simulaton started out, followed by Massive and in the afternoon The Gang held their presentation. I got to have a very nice conversation together with Alex and Stoffe from The Gang together with other students and I really enjoyed it. Loke finished the van today and it looks amazing! He did such a a good job on it!!!
Today the visit from the Company Kill Monday was cancelled because of sickness so we had time to work on the Game Project today. In the afternoon we were visited by Embark studios. Today I made a template for SCRUM so I don't have to copy and delete text everyday. I updated the Trello and made sure things were tagged and labeled correctly, I also looked a bit on priorities amongst the assets. I looked over the level again today and I was thinking that the level is still too big if we want to make it look lived in with props, I don't think we will be able to achieve that feeling with the amount of time we have left. I was thinking that we should cut the second floor and make the first floor a bit bigger for more fun gameplay and ways to flee from Greta, but before thinking too much about it I decided to consult Lucas about it. I talked to Lucas about the level design and shared my thoughts. He really wanted to keep the second floor and was confident that he would be able to produce enough smaller assets to make it work. He brought up that the hidden pathway that goes from the closet to Bedroom 3 was going to be hard to lighten up, so we decided to cut it, and also remove the walk-in closet as well. I did feel that there was too many hidden pathways overall and that having them in a large amount of numbers would remove the surprise element of finding one, so I'm happy that we could cut back. Now currently we have two hidden pathways in the living quarters. In total we have seven hidden pathways. The walk-in closet and hidden pathway has been removed (top left corner) ||| After / Before I talked with Dennis about picking up stuff from the ground, he's going to look into a way for the player to pick up items without having to bend down every time. We looked at Alyx together and I think that the motion of flicking your writs is a bad motion to have to repeat over and over in the long run so I hope we can avoid it. Plate, Mug and Glas made by Ellinor! TV and VHS player and VHS tapes by Felicia! Wall textures by Lucas! The finished grand clock by Wille! It turned out so good!
This entire week we're going to have gaming companies come to school and talk about themselves, so there won't be that much time to work on the Game Project. Today we were visited by Nornware's creator Johno and I was really inspired by him! I took a lot of notes and learned a lot. Since me, Magda, Alfonso and Dante are making a Visual Novel game together on our free time, I took the opportunity to ask him for advice, and I'm glad I did. He seems really nice and passionate about what he does! He made me feel validated in wanting to be able to fully use my creativity to create games, and I feel encouraged to take my own way. I was thinking of going for the indie dev route before this, but listening to him made me feel even more sure about it. I still do want to have the experience to work for a bigger studio as well though! But now I have a determined goal that I'm aiming for. In the afternoon we were visited by Science Center 2047, I didn't catch the name of the man who presented the company but he was very passionate about their game idea, which was to teach younger children about economy, social and the ecological. To make the player think more about the effect that production has on the environment, and to find environmental friendly ways to produce goods. It was very interesting. I won't apply to their company however since there is no chance in getting a job at their company afterwards for a designer. Grand clock by Wille!
Today I edited the sprint that Kevin started on and I feel like I was kind of off today so I didn't do a good job being the presenter for the group so I feel a bit down over that. I hope that I will be able to recharge during the weekend and do a better job next week. I talked with Lucas and then Melinda about the size of the level and I cut out the Garage on the First Floor and the Attic. I also asked Melinda to scale down the basement so we talked about that and then she continued to work on it and then presented the new layout. It feels more doable! The new layout is to the left and the old layout is to the right! Made by Melinda! Wille's grand clock looks so incredible good!!!
Today I've looked over parts of the Game Project, to see what we can down scope on. We have a lot of assets that still needs to be made, and I've heard some people being nervous about it. So to give the artists a peace of mind, I want to make sure every asset is important that are being made. I also started to look over the level layout and see what rooms we can cut and if we can make the rooms, doors, locked doors and hidden doors, meaning and logic behind them. Since we are now sure of what types of rooms we need in the basement. I'm going to whip up a suggestion and present it to Melinda and listen to her opinion about it. Today Melinda, Theodor and Oskar recorded some motion capture and i feel really excited to see what comes out of it! Wille's grand clock! It looks so good!!!!!!!
The first day of coming back since being sick! It feels good to be able to work again! Today was mostly about getting back on track and see how far we've gotten with the project. I also discussed a lot of things with Melinda. I finished the dev diaries posts up until today from last time I posted. It was fun to see that you're able to walk around in the level in Unreal and have Greta follow you around. Felicia has done such a good job with the bag!!! Wille's grand clock!
The last day I was sick!! Wille is doing such a good job with the grand clock!! Wall assets by Lucas!
I'm still sick today but I finally have some energy, so I hope I'll get better from here. I organized a bit in Trello and Updated my Dev Diary, from when I went home on Tuesday until today. Wille's door. Felicia has made textures for the books and clutter, she also made the clipboard that the player is going to use.
I was very sick this day as well and couldn't partake in the project. Loke's Van! Wille's Door! Ellinor's fridge! Daylight by Lucas! (and he made the carpet as well!) Moonlight by Lucas!
I was very sick this day as well and was unable to partake in the project. Greta by Oskar!!! He is so talented! Door by Wille! So awesome!! Wille also made a kitchen chair! It will get a tiling texture in Unreal Engine later!
I was very sick this day and was unable to partake in the project. Baked light test by Lucas! After baking the light Lucas is able to tweak the indirect lightning. These two screenshots are from the same bake! Felicia gave our Dog a hair-dye treatment, since the black would perhaps fade into the dark a bit too much. It looks so cute!
Today I write a "To Do"-list for the Designers so that when you don't know what to do next, you can pick a Task from the list. I added the assets that are going to be in the living room to the Trello. I have "Tennisarmbåge" right now so my elbow hurts really badly and has been for the few last days, but today it's really bad. I feel sick as well so I'm going to go home after lunch. Hopefully I'll get better with some rest. There as been no pictures from the artists today yet, but if they add any to discord then I'll make sure to add them to the post later. - Update - Felicia worked like crazy today!! She did such a good job!! Felicia managed to make the TV-bench and one big bookshelf and a smaller bookshelf. She made a VHS player and a thick-screen TV and two books and clutter. I have no idea how she managed to make all of that in one day, I am so impressed!! Wille added measurements to the Lock-pick tool in the middle
Today we had our second Sprint! Showing what we've been up to last week and I'm so proud over what all team members have done so far! I made the sprint and held the presentation. Kevin helped me clean the presentation up a little bit as well! I also organized a bunch of stuff as usual. We had a meeting after the sprint with Anton and Stefan, the sound crew of the group and managed to give them a clearer concept of the game! Dufflebag by Felicia! (blender donut!!) Greta's Drip by Oskar!!!! Loke's progress on the Van!! Wille' work for today! Lucas made moodboards for all of the rooms in the house!
We had a designer meeting today where we went through questions we had regarding the game. Melinda talked about if we're going to have an inventory and how many slots it will have (around 4-5). How will crawling, running work? How will pushing and throwing stuff at Greta work? Melinda also suggested we added a laundry hatch so that the player could access the basement level in two different ways. However that would most likely cause motion sickness, so I suggested a Dumbwaiter (mat hiss) as an option. Kevin informed us about the questions that the programmers had about how Greta's AI system will work and we talked it through and came up with a solution that he will continue to work on (Aware system). He also asked if you drop one of your equipment, like the flashlight, will it stay on the ground in the same spot or will it teleport back to the player. One thing I was confused about was where the Art direction was going. What we decided for the art aesthetic was that the first floor and the second floor, basically the livable areas, were supposed to look like a normal residents house but now it seemed like the entire house was supposed to be horror themed. I brought it up to attention and we discussed it and reached the conclusion that we need to reinforce the vision that we had with the aesthetic. Kevin wrote a document directed at the art direction and we also spoke with lead artist Lucas about it so he makes sure people follows it. We will also make sure to inform the artists to read through it and follow it. Everyone agreed that this was a good meeting and in the future we'll make sure to talk as soon as we stumble upon an issue with someone. Bathtub and Stool made by Ellinor!! Player hands & Skull and Teeth made by Felicia!! Toilet paper holder and Towel rack and hook by Wille!! Sink by Lucas!!
Our studio logo that Felicia made today! Today I supported Alfonso's group "Monster Wash" with their structuring of the art aspect, and I also gave them my GDD for Burglar as a reference template since Lukas who was tasked with writing their GDD had written it in a storytelling format, which I personally would not have been happy to have to read through every time I needed to find a simple instruction. So I had a meeting at 10.00 with Alfonso and the Monster Wash artists to help out structuring them. And also a smaller "pre-meeting" where I helped Alfonso, Magda and Felix with structuring their work and what to bring up at the meeting and I encouraged Alfonso to dare to take place in the project. Since Lukas was away I told him to make decisions because they need to be made. Just like Fanny taught me in the first game project. I'm happy that I could help, even if it was just a little. I hope their game goes well!! I managed to work a bit more on my puzzle. But I feel like with Melinda's puzzle she made today, maybe there is too much focus on teeth-related puzzles. I'm afraid it will be too much of the same thing so maybe I'll change the idea. Melinda's puzzle! We started installing Unreal on our computers. The people left are; Felicia, Me, Oskar, Kevin and Viktor. Me, Melinda and Linus (designers) and Lucas and Felicia (artists) had a meeting at 14.00 where we discussed narrative. We got access to out dev kit today as well so that was exciting, and I'm in charge of it so I'll make sure it is well taken care of! Teeth and Skull made by Felicia! Floor material made by Lucas! Toilet made by Lucas! Lantern made by Ellinor! Lockpick tool set by Wille! Cigarette, Ashtray, Candle, Candleholder and Toilet paper holder by Wille! The safe Loke finished yesterday!
I updated meetings that we have had as well as the two scrums we have had so far on discord. I also informed the Sound designers over discord how to access the GDD and where to find the information they need. We also had a small designer meeting (me, Kevin and Melinda) where Kevin presented the system he had written for how Greta our AI will move around and her behaviors, and he did a really good job and thought about every aspect!!! I also added two puzzles to the Miro board. The Skull puzzle was written on paper so not all of the information is there yet, but I hope to include everything tomorrow. I also added the puzzle Melinda came up with, the dog and bone one. Puzzles on Miro board. Lockpick by Wille!! Dirt Decal made by Lucas, displayed on wallpaper and on concrete Level Blockout by Lucas! Dog by Felicia! So cute!! Loke finished the safe today and started on the Van.
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