Devlog #3

Overall Progress:

Worked on the proof of concept. So far, we have also created a clearly defined game flow for Bo Kata and have set a clear goal for the upcoming weeks. The flight has been improved significantly while also having the game’s core mechanics incorporated.

Art Team:

Worked on creating a greybox for our open-world game idea with floating islands. Brainstorming various elements that would connect these islands and how would these aid progression. Moreover, we have created various iterations, sketches and prototypes for our NPC kites. Produced an asset list highlighting everyone’s roles and responsibilities. 

Music Team:

As using FMOD to implement audio assets was essential for the sake of not only course practice but also efficiency, we worked with the CS team to integrate FMOD to unity under the condition of GitHub. This was more than simply integrating FMOD to one single unity project on our own laptop like the previous assignment, so the process took us a longer duration of time across the week to eventually finalize all little aspects of FMOD, branches, etc.

CS Team:

This week, our primary focus remained on finalizing the core movement mechanics, as further progress on other aspects of the game depended on having a solid foundation for flight. To achieve this, we implemented aerodynamically accurate movement based on insights from Real-time Modeling of Agile Fixed-Wing UAV Aerodynamics (Khan & Nahon, 2015). This system introduced a physics-driven approach where height functioned as a resource, enforcing a natural conservation of energy in flight. The movement system was built around a Rigidbody-based controller, ensuring consistent physics behavior while allowing for future scalability.

Additionally, we experimented with an endless runner gameplay style but ultimately scrapped the idea early on, as it did not align with the immersive flight experience we wanted to create. We also worked extensively with Unity’s Cinemachine to refine camera behavior, ensuring it complemented the new flight mechanics while remaining fully automated, free from direct player input.

To facilitate smoother collaboration across disciplines, significant effort was dedicated to onboarding all team members onto version control. This ensured that the Art and Music teams could integrate their contributions seamlessly as the game continued to evolve.

Future Plans:

Producing a 3D model for our main character. Generating lots of 3D assets for our busy environment. Figure out the incorporating of combat along with exploration.