Kilan Larsen
470 Blog Post 4
For this sprint I improved upon the guard control system that I created last sprint, fixed some issues we noticed during the playtest, added the audio sensor security measure, and implemented an upgrades system for the different security measures. Here are the tasks that I was assigned and completed:
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As a player, I want a notice that will ensure I do not enter the night with 0 active guards so that I don't start in a game over scenario
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During the playtest, I noticed a player begin the Night Watch phase without any guards, and more than one player began the Night Watch phase without setting up any patrol routes. These are rather keys systems in the game, so to make sure the player doesn't skip these steps I prevented the night watch button from being pressed without a guard, and added a warning if there is a guard with no patrol route set.
This system worked nicely enough, but I realized that it may not be clear as to WHY the button couldn't be clicked, so I needed to also add a tooltip system to give extra information to the player as needed.
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As a player, I need a hover over tooltip so that I can hover over an item to read what it does
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In the above gif, you can see that both the button and the different security measures have a tooltip when hovering over them, and the location of the tooltip adjusts based on the mouse position so that the text does not run off-screen where the player could not read it.
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Next, I wanted to address the issues that players had with controlling a guard during the night:
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As a player I need a guard UI so that I don't have to fight to get control of the guard as it moves around the map
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I knew that I wanted to move the guard control buttons onto the HUD for easier access, but I wasn't sure how this UI should look, so I began by prototyping a few designs:
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Version 1:
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This UI doesn't look too bad in my opinion, but it can only comfortably fit 5 guards at a time and has a lot of buttons cluttering the screen at once. Good, but not great.
Version 2:
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Displaying the buttons horizontally allowed for up to 8 guards to be displayed at once, but as a result is even more cluttered with buttons than the first version is.
Version 3:
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To remove the button clutter, I opted for only displaying the portrait for the color of each guard and the text for what behavior that guard is doing. The control buttons appear at the bottom center of the screen only when a guard is selected.
I showed these UI versions to my team and we agreed that version 3 looks the cleanest and will work well for the game. I then added the ability to select a guard by clicking on its portrait, and added the hotkeys 1,2,3,4 in order to allow players to toggle the control buttons instead of clicking them if desired. Finally, I added an automatic camera follow when a guard is selected, so that it is easier to find a selected guard and watch them patrol around the building.
Next up, the audio sensors! This was rather straightforward, as the setup was extremely similar to the camera and lasers that I've already set up.
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As a player, I need to be able to use Audio Detection Sensors so that I can have an additional way to track thieves
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As a player, I need audio sensor alerts to appear on screen so that I can track thieves with it
Each audio sensor has a circle around it to indication its detection range, and will send an alert very similar to the laser sensor when a thief walks within the detection area. I also designed the alert icon shown to the right here.
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The benefit of these audio sensors is that they can detect through walls, which neither the camera or laser can do, but you are given less information as to the precise location of the thief as they could be anywhere within the circle.
The last things that I worked on for this sprint were all related to the upgrade system of the security measures. I designed how the upgrade panel would appear, how it would look to the player, and also how to add more upgrades to the panel as a programmer/designer.
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As a player, I need a panel where I can upgrade my security devices so that I can ensure top quality equipment
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As a player, I want to be able to upgrade the range of my cameras so that they can see further
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As a player, I want to have a guard flashlight upgrade so that the guards can see further​
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As a player, I want the audio sensor to have a radius upgrade so that I can have a wider range for detection
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As a player, I want to have security measure hacking defense so that it is harder for thieves to hack my security measures
In the gif above, you can see that the upgrade panel appears above a security measure when selected, and on it are different buttons for the various upgrades that each security measure has. The field of view or detection ranges of the camera, guard, and audio sensor can all be upgraded by clicking the upgrade button.
After getting the range increase upgrades to work, I then added an upgrade for the player to increase the hack defense ability of the security measure. In later levels, thieves will be more skilled and may hack and disable your security measures, so this upgrade is one method to help prevent that from happening, at a cost of course.
In the next sprint I am planning on implementing more advanced upgrade options for each security measure, as well as flushing out the game's tutorial system so that we are ready to begin playtesting the beta build of the game. The tasks that I will be working on are:
- Camera Upgrades: Facial Recognition, Auto-Rotation
- Laser Upgrade: Pinpoint Alert
- Audio Sensor Upgrade: Directional Signal
- Guard Upgrades: Taser, Better Pay (Speed and Efficiency improvement),
- Guard Upkeep Costs per Night
- Tutorial System Improvements
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Since I took on a bit too many points on this sprint, a few of those will be carrying over into the next Sprint, but that's alright. It's better to take the extra time to make sure my tasks are done right the first time, rather than flying through them and then bug-fixing more later!
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Thanks for reading, we'll see how this all turns out next time!