Cs design deadline tests and feedback March 17

Recommendation from the Guest

“But i think what the game lacks, that you should try to solve, is to give the player purpose and to justify the co-op nature of your innovation. Having dumb enemies that wander around doesn't prop up the purpose of your game. Every feature decision you make should be in service of making the co-op bit work, and be fun.” ~ we will discuss this saturday at 1pm.

*** OUR GOAL IS TO GET EVERYTHING DONE ON THIS LIST BEFORE MARCH 20TH. IT ARE WRITTEN IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE. SOME OF YOU MAY BE COORDINATING ON CERTAIN ASPECTS. I SPECIFICALLY MENTION WHO AND FOR WHAT PARTS, IF YOU ARE. MILESTONE DEADLINES WILL BE ADDED SATURDAY TO EACH TASK. WHEN A TASK IS COMPLETE SEND A MESSAGE AND IF IT IS VISUAL, A SCREENSHOT TOO IN YOUR GROUPS CHAT AND @AGALIA SO I CAN CHECK IT AND CROSS IT OFF THE LIST WHEN FINALIZED. WORK ON THE BOLDED THINGS FOR SATURDAY. ***

Agalia:

• Update itch.io page with new assets, mechanic changes, sprints, screenshots for the front page and POST THE ALPHA and audio as it comes in
• Set up timeline FOR EVERYTHING ON THIS LIST IT NEEDS TO GET DONE BEFORE march 18th
• Discuss having a bar that measures overall length of trails to incentivise shooting when failed either one player or everyone is targeted and chased by a large scourge model which also follows the colour mechanic (the biggest issue is adding more incentive to the coop create a list of solutions) Make the trails MUCH MUCH HARDER to the point where you constantly have to shoot. If this doesn't work add a sort of cool down on bullets or increase regen/sizing
• Draft balance ideas and solutions to problems with gameplay
• Check with teammates wednesdays outside of meetings and on each deadline they have to make sure everything runs smoothly on schedule
• Adjust menu visuals
• Adjust font type colours and placement
• Death screen animation
• Design buttons that fit the aesthetic 
• Player death animations for the corner of the screen use colours, flashing and scaling to convey this HUD
• Get your butt in maya to try and help out. Mess with organics since you can’t even manipulate objects anymore because it's been so long. Make the trail

Mark:

• Scourge model- the only animations you would need for movement: a sort of bobbing head and arms that sway claws back and forth (like arms when walking), Death: a sort of idle stop that causes them to sink into the ground, Spawn: a goopy formation that comes out of the ground and forms a mass (this can be done in many ways ex slowly scaling the size of the model or distorting its scale (ex create the model mess it up a lot and shrink it at the same time then play that in reverse) There should be a turn around reference for you in the art chat 
• Finish implementing textures on calamity scrap the moving colours may be too distracting try to make the colours a little bit less detailed (sort of colour grouped and blending together less) I really like the oozing from the eyes however and the details you add just scale it back and make the overall texture bigger
• Create idle hand animations for the calamity and one where he bends over so we can see that lovely face design you did at the beginning of rounds

Tae:

• Go back into the building models and make them a lot more detailed add cracks debris and ornamentation to the models themselves go nuts
• You may need to make another grey texture that's slightly lighter because a guest mentioned making shadows darker than the object just so we can test it
• Create a cracked hole texture/model to add to the floor of the map

Kyle:

• Import bullet models and get them working
• Make sure bullets don’t bounce and that they disappear on contact use the same vibrant colour examples that are in lewis’ list for bullets :

• Make it so trails are like in the proof of concept
• Make it so players cannot walk back onto their own trail do not be forgiving on the trails
• Colour mechanic with the ball enemies make a build that makes the enemy only killable by ONE colour and another where it chases ONE colour but everyone else can shoot it. Make the enemies less brain dead so they don't get stuck on obstacles and trail players more accurately. Spawn ideas: at the end of the players trail, in the center or at a set distance behind them. We need to test this with various people to see if this mechanic is confusing one way or another. A guest said: “Having dumb enemies that wander around doesn't prop up the purpose of your game. Every feature decision you make should be in service of making the co-op bit work, and be fun.”
• Implement sound effects in game (not music or menu that's lewis’ job coordinate with him on this)
• Check out issues with boundaries, obstacles and players flying out with chantal. Make sure there is a kill switch when out of bounds if in case there are bugs we don't know about. When players run into obstacles the trails should hit them because their motions slows and they die as well.

Lewis:

• Chantal and Lewis make sure the game alpha is posted on itch.io with updates: making sure animations show up, adding the back button in character select. Let me know when you do so so that I may check it and make sure the settings and whatnot works by Friday (march 5) night. I saw that you guys got it working perfectly just update the build.
• Discuss other HUD animations and development with Agalia to see what we can add to make things easier for players
• Adjust player colours; they all blend together make them more vibrant and not so dark. Test out illumination on their textures (especially the trails). Here are colour guides to reference: 

        Trails     Players

These may need to be flipped depending on visual quality

• Implement sound effects for menus and music in game check in with kyle he is also working on in game audio, specifically the sound effects
• Set up buttons and a placeholder for the death screen with sounds
• Make sure menu settings are working with sounds
• Move timer slightly up on the screen note: tangents meaning when things line up with each other or the end of the screen they look visually unappealing and distracting move it slightly up so that it is between the top of the screen and the top of the platform
• Change colour of shadows to really dark and desaturated hue (no colour): remember a guest mentioned having the shadows be darker than the buildings
• Adjust obstacle angles and placement if we do not fix the controls to be more dynamic and match the angles of the buildings
• Place the calamity over the map as we discussed

Chantal:

• Chantal and Lewis make sure the game alpha is posted on itch.io with updates: making sure animations show up, adding the back button in character select. Let me know when you do so so that I may check it and make sure the settings and whatnot works by Friday (march 5) night. I saw that you guys got it working perfectly just update the build.
• Add round system: players stay dead until the end of the round, they respawn at the beginning of the round.
• Remove the taper from the end of trails
• Make trails maximum length infinite. And look into testing trail length that marks where the player has been instead of following them. Ex players need to shoot the trail in order to remove it at all instead of having the ends of the trails move a bit with the player.
• Make death animation happen instantly and fast (kyle is also working on removing player forgiveness with hit boxes coordinate with him
• Check out issues with boundaries, obstacles and players flying out with kyle. Make sure there is a kill switch when out of NOTICEABLE bounds instantly, just in case there are bugs we don't know about. When players run into obstacles the trails should hit them because their motions slows and they die as well
• Make it so that when players die the corner images change to reflect that chantal is working on player deaths as well coordinate with her Implement player death animation for the corners of the screen Agalia will be making these animations and colour feedback 
• Remove non building obstacles and reduce the number at the start of the game

• Make sure to time the animations for running they didn't seem to flow correctly for the speed that the player was moving (also increase player speed slightly)
• Make sure when all players die the game fades to the death screen lewis is putting together with Agalia
• Test increasing size of player models and width of trails
• Push adding obstacles
• Growing shadows for obstacles that get longer as time progresses
• Add controller capabilities to the game
• Look into having the timer change colours based on how far the round has gone or in the last few seconds maybe have it blink or turn colours

Justin: 19th finish the music tracks

• Discuss Fmod goals, plans and if we need it
• Generate 5 tracks 30 seconds each)or as you mentioned the gradual tracks. This can be done by just making them the proper length per round if possible. Raise bpm distortion and player stress throughout.
• Death screen sound track (perhaps a distorted, deepened or darker version of the menu track) I am currently working on the animations here's the concept and the work in progress respectively. The jaw is going to open really large like a snake and laugh/shout. The animation is similar to the start screen menu however, there are more tentacles and they are more sporadic and there is also a mouth in this version as previously mentioned. 

• Look into adjusting volumes or intensity of music when more players are dead and how that would be done

Nicholas:

• Adjust player death audio to be more punchy and stick out versus other sound effects. More terrifying and emotional maybe?
• Adjust the horn honk on the countdowns to fit more with the theme. So, turn it into something that’s not an actual horn sound effect maybe the calamity screaming or a sort of sound that makes your heart drop
• A game over sound for when all players die and it transitions to the game over screen
• For the death screen: the continue button sound effect
• Will update you if any other sound effects come up as soon as we decide on their necessity