Devlog 5: Fighting Through

Welcome back to another Armadahex Devlog! This devlog is slightly late, and covers the events from Week 6 (3/29 - 4/5). Because I want to get straight to work this weekend, it'll also be lighter on the descriptions and heavier on the raw visuals. Let's get started!

Firstly, with the game nearing a more completed state, the end is actually visible! This enabled me to write out the entire roadmap for the rest of the project. While this doesn't include some extra stuff, like creating the final presentation, or anything the panel may request, it is going to serve as our guide for the last 3rd of the semester.

Armadahex development roadmap

Last week I was a little over-ambitious in what I thought we could get accomplished. This just means some todo items rolled over from last week. Additionally, Juniper was sick this week, and unfortunately didn't get to the in-game background music. Otherwise, the work that got done was very productive and good.

To start of strong, we have some big news! Kyle designed great VFX assets that can be directly put into the game.

Initial fog by Kyle

Better fog / smoke by Kyle

Basic explosion effect

Fire & fog effects

 Here they are in the game. The fog can be improved slightly (to look less like cotton balls), but this process is difficult because of performance reasons.

Fog VFX

Ship on fire VFX

To visually create the game, we must first create the logical foundation and representations that the game will grow from. To do this, we created elaborate data structures that describe each ship and its related information, such as types of attacks and attack patterns.

Game data structures in scripting

From here, using the missing textures that Paul found, we completed implementing the Aircraft Carrier. It actually looks really good, and I'm glad we went with this model instead of another one.

In-game aircraft carrier model

We added a way to interact with the game, a basic HUD with to display firing options. This all comes from a turn manager and attack/firing script. Networking still hasn't been added, but the foundation is now there.

Everything connected now

Speaking of networking, we are still using Photon's free cloud service, due to issues with FLCC's Windows servers. That's getting looked into, though.

Last but not least, Justin completed the laborious list of voice lines! They sound perfect, and can be directly applied into the game soon.