Devlog 3 - Building the Base Game (In-Progress)

Hello there! It's nice to see you again.

If you're pawsitively curious about what's been going on, this devlog is for you!

We're here  to give you a few more updates on:

- The Prototype (the aliens, multiplayer server, and UI)

- The Game Development Document

- The Tech Document

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Work on Cosmic Cat-Astrophy's prototype is well underway. 

We've got aliens walking and jumping about, waving their hands in the air like they just don't care.

Ragdoll-like aliens can currently:

- Walk, sprint, and jump around planets (jump now gives a better sense of control);

- Turn around without moving from their place;

- Pick up and move objects;

Both the aliens and objects are affected by low gravity.

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Cosmic Cat-Astrophy is online two-player, and so we've also made efforts to purrfect  our Lobby:

- Lobby creator now receives a passcode other players can use to join the game

- Lobby's UI has been further developed

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Our UI as a whole has been improved throughout this week, with meowrvelous 2D art being applied:

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Our first complete iteration of our Game Design Document is finally concluded, as well.

They say curiosity killed the cat, but since satisfaction brought it back, here's a sneak peek:

We've also completed our Tech Document, evaluating the technology necessary to develop Cosmic Cat-Astrophy and the challenges each feature and experience goal might bring us while we bring the game to life.

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Per Member Report

Guilherme "Kob" Pereira
Heyo, Kob here. I'm glad to announce we've got non-local multiplayer online and we're able to play with a friend that has a copy of the game on another computer! This was a challenge by itself but I feel very satisfied with the result has I was able to learn about Unity's Netcode for Game Objects and it's services (lobbies, relays, etc). With this, I was able to have two players on the same environment interacting with each other - now I'm trying to import Belbute's character to this new workflow so we can add the ragdoll to the multiplayer experience.

Miguel "Yoshi" Belbute
Hello everyone! This week, I mostly worked on getting the low-gravity environments to synergize well with the ragdoll characters and played around with a new orbit camera. This meant implementing proper character rotation while considering both the gravitational forces and the camera's rotation at each moment. I added a running behavior to the ragdoll and improved the overall game feel of its controls (such as the jump which had some problems due to conflicting lines of code). Lastly, I made sure to make the character's controller as independent from the remaining scripts as possible, thus making future implementations easier and improving scalability.

Carolina "Carol" Brás
Hey everyone!
I've started this week by doing more components for the UI, and Overlay (in-game) elements for our game. These improvements will be integrated into the lobby menu, pause menu, and game world scene.
Then I did the overall design and illustrations for the GDD and Tech Document and I also assisted my colleagues in writing these documents.
On the gameplay side, I started working on level design and programming. I've created a simple puzzle that showcases most of the game's core mechanics. Players will need to solve a simple puzzle in order to collect a spacecraft component, gather oxygen and then advance to the next planet. This feature is still a work in progress, and I'm aiming to finish it over the weekend.

Alexandra "Alex" Pato
Hi!
This week, I completed the first version of our Game Development Document:
- I pinpointed the key aspects of the game's core experience, mechanics, target audience, player personas, and play scenarios - and summarized said content;
- I added more relevant conceptual models and finished turning the few conceptual models that were only textual descriptions into visual ones. 
- I added considerations about art and sound design.
I also planned for more planets, their properties, and how they would interact with the low-gravity mechanic.

André Sezões

Carlota Libreiro