Level Design Update and Audio

Hello, it's Alexis again this week.

This week I will be showing you some of our updated levels. We still have one function that needs to be implemented, but the game is already playable and somewhat challenging.

Updated Levels 1 and 3

The last time I wrote, I showed levels 1 and 3, highlighting where we would put most of our prefabs and interactions. As you can see in the gifs below, we have filled out the scenes with our implemented prefabs and interactions. Creating the models took a bit of time, but updating the levels was fairly quick and painless thanks to the tiles

Note: The toon bender is off for easier editing. 

Level 3 Update

Level 1 update

Coins and Gameplay

Also, take note that we decided to add coins into the game to boost the player's score. We were planning on having a lot of obstacles, but that would have made the scene too cluttered. Instead, we opted to have coins to give the player a bit more interaction.

We also added them based on feedback from our peers. When playing our alpha, we noticed that players would just randomly click everywhere or move. The players want constant interaction but not to be bombarded with it. Coins, for us, have proven to elevate the gameplay, as confirmed by one play tester.

We also added different value coins: blue coins equaling 5 points and red coins equaling 10 points.

Lastly, these coins are placed in harder-to-reach areas to reward players for skill and achieving a higher score. In a risk-reward scenario, if they fail to get the coin, they lose a life; if they don't take the risk, their score suffers, but they keep their life. These coins are a great way to direct where you want the player to go.

 Audio

The latest thing we are working on is currently audio brought in from royalty-free sources. We have set up a Unity mixer to make it easier to adjust audio on the fly and have created a list of what audio we need, which greatly speeds up the process. What we currently have implemented is a bit of the soundtrack for each level and coin sound effects, which we pitched up to make them more pleasant. So far, everything is still under consideration audio-wise, and it shouldn't be too much trouble to switch them out if needed.

Thanks for reading, and that has been our update for this week.