What we did this week.

This was the first week of the polish sprint. This is the second to last week that we have to make our game as good as it can be. We focused on the effects, polishing the textures and making sure every mechanic is working correctly. So that we would have a little more time to get the best sound effects for our game. We want to add more features but unfortunately we don't have enough time for adding extra features but since this week there is a feature lock.

Mechanics

During the previous play sessions we got the feedback that it would be nice that the player got a little more feedback while playing the game, We used that information to add haptic feedback. So now you will feel when you are doing something wrong. We found out that while the players where pushing, the arms were glitching into each other.  That wasn't what we were aiming for. 

We also added some sound effects to the game such as a grunt sound when the sumo throws the other player. We also added a visible cool down timer to the throwing mechanic. The players now see how long the throwing ability is on cool down and when it is available again. We also made the rotation of a sumo smoother when he gets picked up by the other sumo.

After discussing a problem during the weekly meeting we decided to implement a loading screen to show the player what he needs to do to get an advantage against the other player. We made a little video to let the players know what the different foods do.

Art Assets

The trees got a quick update. We got rid of the pot it was standing in, as we didn't really use it as a bonsai tree anyway. The leaves are also less straight and square. We made them more wavy by adding a noise modifier on the leaves mesh. This is amplified by the wind material made for the foliage.

For the windy foliage material we followed the tutorial made by DitzelGames. A gradient noise is used in combination with the UV space and World Position to offset the vertices. This creates a wavy effect. The grass needed some extra nodes to prevent the root from swaying in the wind. This was done by lerping the UV and world position with the gradient movement.

We also updated thet texture for the cannon. It seemed a bit dark before so we had to make the cannon a bit lighter.

Some in-game particles were made. For the good food, we added the sparkles. The bad food has the bad odor effect.

We also made oildrops and oilstains for the barrel.

We also started working on the dust particle, but it's not implemented in the game yet. 

To make the loading screen tutorial we needed of course a tutorial level. This was quickly made using the existing assets. We tried to make it functional but still appealing to look at.

Problems during the first week of polish

Luckily there weren't many problems this week, so we had more time to make sure everything works as intended and looks nice.

What are we going to do next week

This is going to be the last week of the development of our game. We need to be sure that it is finished and as polished as it can be.