Devlog #3 | UI Basics

Meow-oh, deadlines are coming fast! I got hit in the face with a cold, so we’re going to have to push extra hard next week to try to wrap everything up;;

In July, We…

• Polishing the inventory system (see: so it doesn’t crash the game)

• Adding UI elements

• Finalizing home base artwork

• Finishing up city building + textures

Lighting it Up

We’ve decided having a realistic lighting system attached to the time doesn’t fit very well with the overall aesthetics of the game…so we’ve decided to have 4 times of day: morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. You know, the classic. This way, I have more control over baking the lighting, and having the world look a certain way. While having the directional light angle tied to the time made sense, some of the shadows casted were realistic, but didn’t look visually appealing. And, I mean, it’s a game about a cat growing carrots, so I don’t think realism is really an issue. Since this isn’t really on our DO THIS NOW priority list, keep an eye out in the future months for custom lighting scenarios and sky boxes!

U + I Don’t Go Together

It’s an understatement to say I get frustrated with UMG (Unreal’s UI system). I get very, very frustrated with it. I’m not exactly a graphic designer too, so most of the month has been me, making an icon, putting it in game, screaming, and redoing it. With the very recent addition to a magic/alchemy system, we’re not sure how to integrate those slots in, or if it should be apart of the slot inventory. For now, though, it’s got a pretty standard UI with menu tabs on the right hand side. The HP bar really, really needs to be redone…

Puzzle Mechanics

So now that we’re more or less done with the skeleton for the farming system, we have yet to touch the other half of this game: the puzzle dungeons. We bought a small Moleskin to scribble ideas down while out, since that seems to be the most common time for ideas to pop into our heads. Recursive has done some serious thinking about potential powers or puzzles, and according to him, this page is his favorite:

Nya – it is not clear what the use of this spell is

Essentially, it just puts cat ears on objects. I think he wrote it down as a joke, but I thought it’d be cute to have cat ears pop up on a boulder. For now, we’re shelving it away as a potential spell to make a decoy.

Moving Forward

The month of August is going to be quiet – asides from the fact that I’m still recovering from getting punched in the face by a cold, we’re leaving for China in a week to visit my family and attend my cousin’s wedding. Before we leave, though, I’d like to at least have a small part of a dungeon done, enough to show the idea of it. There are some polish artsy stuff still needed for the city, but I’m not as concerned about that as showing off the puzzle dungeon aspect of Snacko.

See you next month, nya!