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1. Game Dev Blog

2. Made some significant changes to the map layout. As
you can see, I have changed the room tile that each
“cabin” uses to a larger tileset.This is so I could add
the aesthetic props such as the bed and tables into
each room.
You may also notice that the “death room” has been
removed.This will be explained later.
The majority of these props have no actual use aside
from aesthetics, but after some experimentation with
the computer prop, I have figured out how to display
text and other images onto it. This is extremely useful,
as it enables me to use billboards and room signs as
directional tools.
I also added lamps that can be turned on and off by
clicking. It doesn’t add anything to the overall game,
but it is a nice effect. It should be noted that each
cabin is slightly different, but follow the same prop
scheme.
Room Changes

6. Using a combination of billboards/room signs and
popups, I am now able to create signs that the player
can read in order to navigate easier around the map.
This is extremely helpful, especially with the addition of
the side quest.The main drawback of these signs is that
they use popups to work, which means they have to
have a background to actually show up. There are only
a limited selection of backgrounds available inside the
program and none of them quite match the design
style of the level.The backgrounds I am currently using
are the Sci-Fi and Parchment ones, top to bottom
respectively.
Billboards/Room Signs

9. The main thing I worked on during this session, aside
from the map/room changes was the optional side
quest. This is a small quest built within the level that
the player can complete in order to gain extra loot and
also visit the secret room.
I decided to implement a side quest because I am
aiming the game at more experience players, who
would otherwise rush through the level and finish it in
a few minutes. The side quest gives the game more of
an RPG feel, much like games like Fallout and Dragon
Age, as well as providing bonus content for these
experienced players.
The quest is multi-tiered, requiring the player to
backtrack through the level a few times in order to
complete. Due to it being completely optional, the
player can simply bypass it and finish the level straight
after beating the boss if they wish. To combat this, I
added a series of popups that would tempt the player
to continue with the quest. The picture on the right
shows the first popup, that plays after the player
opens an empty safe at the end of one of the cabin
corridors.
Side Quest
The player can also speak to an NPC in a
small room before reaching this point
who will ask for help finding a pet robot.
This ties into the questline, but gives no
clues as to where the robot is hidden.

11. Once the player backtracks through the level, they will see
the door to the newly named (Thanks to the room
sign/popup combo) “computer room” is now open. This was
done thanks to a simple rule where the door is opened at the
same time as the safe. Inside the room they will see an egg,
which when clicked, will reveal a small robot who will follow
the player when clicked on. The player must then guide the
robot back to its owner, who will promptly reward the
player.
There is a slight issue that the robot seems to be slower
than the player if the player sprints, and can also get stuck
on corners fairly often. This is due to the AI in the follow
command and there is not much I can do to fix it. However,
the AI seems to figure out how to get around it if the player
simply waits a while.
Currently, the NPC will “see” that the robot has been
returned to her once the robot enters the room where she is
stationed. I may change this if a better option becomes
apparent, as if the robot lags behind the player a few inches,
meaning the player may not get credit for returning the
robot if they do enter the room fully.
Side Quest

14. Once the player has returned the robot to the NPC, the
popup on the left will show up, giving the player
directions on how to find and enter the stash room. This
step is also multi-tiered in an effort to force the player to
explore the entirety of the level, instead of rushing
through and missing sections. As a result, the player will
now find that a room in the cabin area is now open that
was previously locked. This will direct them to a console
that will open the stash room door when clicked.
I am considering added “respawning” enemies for this
quest as well, as currently, once the player has eliminated
all of the aliens, no more will spawn, which means that
they could potentially kill all the enemies on the level
then come back and do the side quest. This will mean the
entire quest will just be running back and forth which isn’t
fun. It could be done quite easily by simply having inactive
aliens that become active after a certain task has been
completed. This will raise balancing issues however, as the
player will need additonal resources (ammo/medpacks) to
deal with these new enemies, however if they skip the
side quest completely, they will have an abundance.
Side Quest

16. Once the player has activated the console, the
“Maintenance Room” door will be open and the
player will be given a series of powerful items.There
are currently three, singular use medpacks and one
multiuse.There is also a combined 40 ammo for the
ray gun. The big item is the “Cubic Device” which is
the highlighted item in the second picture.The
player needs this item in order to access the secret
room at the end of the level.The mechanism for this
is not quite finished and the secret room has not
been made as I am still struggling with how to add
custom music clips to the game, as the computers
we are using seem to be lacking sound drivers.
Hopefully this will be fixed soon however.
Side Quest

19. Something I discovered when
conducting small playtests of the side
quest is that the triggers that are used to
trigger the lore popups work both ways.
Meaning that when the player is
backtracking through the level, they will
activate these triggers a second time. A
quick fix to this was made, where the
trigger becomes inactive as soon as the
player walks through it. It still activates
the popup though.
Trigger changes

21. Before today, there were 3 main ways in which the
player could open a door.
• Providing some kind of input, e.g Keycard/Lever
• Walking up to the door e.g SpatialTriggers
• Clicking on the door
I felt that this constant change was confusing and
overall badly done. As a change, I have removed all
doors that open via spatial triggers and now all doors
open either by clicking on them, or by providing some
sort of input.The screen to the right will show up
after the player beats the first combat room, after
which all doors will open by clicking on them, aside
from those done by an external trigger.
Door Changes
Yes, I did notice the typo in “able”, this has been
fixed.

24. As speech is still broken, I have revised to using
speech to serve as a dialogue option. As this
doesn’t allow the player to reply, it is one sided,
but does provide the context I wanted to include
with dialogue.The picture to the right shows what
the NPC in the room immediately following the
spawn room will say when clicked. It also contains
a small reminder to the player to pick up the
weapon found in the drawers in the spawn room.
This revision is used at several points, particularly
in the side quest, and whilst I am hoping for a fix, it
seems to work quite well, so I may just leave it as it
currently stands.
NPC InteractionTemp Fix

26. Some small revisions have also been made
to the health values in the game. The max
health has been brought down from 300 to
150, with the player starting on 100. This
was because due to the regeneration
function, the player could essentially wait
on the spot, to regain health to max, and it
would take 30 direct shots to kill the player,
not factoring in regeneration in between.
With a max health of 150, this has been
mostly eliminated, however it will still take
15 shots to kill the player from full health.
This may not seem like a lot, but the
targeting AI on the enemy NPC’s isn’t very
good and they only actually land around
30% of their shots.This may make it too
easy for the player to simply “tank”
through the shots.
Health Revisions

28. A small change has been made to the
teleporter at the end of the level.
Now a “teleporter” effect will be
visible at all times as shown on the
right.This is further convey the
aspect that the player is to walk into
the teleporter, without directly
telling them to do so.
Teleporter effect additions

30. One final change made today, was the
changing in the death script. Previously,
once the player died, they were
teleported to a room away from the main
map and told to restart the game
manually, to address the problem that I
have discussed previously. After a search
of game functions, I have discovered that
it is in fact possible for the game to
restart itself once the player has died.
Currently, I have a popup that will be
shown as soon as the player dies,
informing them that they have died and
that the map will restart in 5 seconds.The
map will then restart and the control
popup will show.
Death changes