Welcome to our first developer log! In this blog post we will ask and answer some questions we have about our project. We will also explain things like our struggles during this early development stage and the things that have worked so far.

Q&A

1. Is our game interesting enough to be played for long periods of time?
   1. As of right now the game's main goals is to catch all the runners as a catcher and to destroy as much stuff and the oxygen tanks as a runner.
   2. We are worried that the game might end up to be a bit to the boring side after a couple of rounds. 
   3. Answer: N/A
2. Do we need to add other mechanics to support our base idea
   1. As explained in the question above we are worried that our current mechanics will not be sufficient enough to create a fun game. So we came up with a new mechanic. With this new mechanic we would use a conversion machine. When the catcher brings a monkey into the cage, it would be transformed into a catcher after a couple of seconds. This would make the game more interesting and would even out the disadvantage the catcher gets by being alone.
   2. Answer: N/A
3. Why do we use a from the side top view camera and not split screen?
   1. Camera angle used in FIFA games - Top/side view
   2. Camera angle used in Overcooked - Top view
   3. Split screen view in shooter games such as Halo - Split Screen
   4. Answer: We are making a couch co-op game, there will be so much stuff going on at the same time that we want every player to be looking at the same screen. Since the runners will have to work together you want the players to be looking at the same situation at the same angle to avoid confusion. Having 1 general camera just makes the game feel a lot more cozy.
4. What game engine are we going to use to create our game? Why?
   1. Answer: We will be using the Unity engine. We aren't going to be using any fancy shaders or PBR materials so we don't need a graphically advanced engine like Unreal. Our development process is going to be a lot faster with Unity, since we have limited experience in Unreal and debugging is a lot more straightforward in Unity. We tested out some implementations such as local multiplayer and come to the conclusion that this is all a lot easier with the new input system of Unity, compared to the system of Unreal. We also think that the Unity engine is a bit better when it comes to arcade-like games, in comparison ,Unreal is better when it comes to realistic games.
5. How many players will we support? Will there be a maximum? Why?
   1. Answer: As of right now we are thinking of a maximum of 4 players, 1 catcher and 3 runners. We think that if we are going to add more players that the game might become a bit too chaotic. Since we are developing for console, 4 players is the maximum amount you can connect at once on the PS4 so we have to take this limitation as a threshold. 
      1. Link 1: https://www.businessinsider.nl/how-many-controllers-can-connect-to-ps4?international=true&r=US 
      2. Link 2 :https://twinfinite.net/2018/12/controllers-connect-ps4-how-many/

Problems

1. Unreal
   1. When developing the local multiplayer in unreal, we stumbled upon a bunch of problems. First of all we had to figure out how c++ and Unreal worked together, this took longer than expected and delayed the development of the prototype. Secondly, figuring out how the multiplayer in unreal worked exactly also took quite some time to understand.

What worked, what didn't?

1. Unreal prototype
   1. We finally got multiplayer working in unreal. This prototype definitely helped us to understand c++ and Unreal a lot better. However, the amount of time this took was just way too long and we unfortunately don't have a lot of time to develop this game.  This is a reason why we will pick Unity to create our game. Adding the other mechanics such as catching and destroying stuff weren't too hard to implement but also took up quite some time.
2. Unity prototype
   1. For the unity project, we wanted to find out how we were gonna do the camera, the movement input and then find out if the game was fun to play. Making this prototype made it clear that movement input is easier than expected and that the game can be fun to play.
   2. In the prototype, you have 1 catcher and up to 3 monkeys. The monkeys can destroy blocks, and the catcher can destroy the monkeys.
      
      

About the artstyle

1. What style is the game going to be
   1. Answer: We are still exploring different possibilities for the art style. Regarding the characters we already quickly agreed that the catcher will be quite a lot bigger than the runner. In our minds the catcher is this huge "monster" running after little monkeys willing to destroy it all.
2. Environment and setting?
   1. Answer: Concerning the environment, we explored different Ideas. The original idea was for the game to happen in a zoo. Then we thought of different ways to frame the level into the screen. We wanted to go for a glass dome but we then decided to avoid circular shapes as it would mean a lot of loss space around the corners of the screen. That meant we would go for a more rectangular room probably a lab in a building.

Plans for next week

1. We want to answer the remaining questions.
2. We want to finish a playable prototype in Unity and test all of our mechanics. Here we will decide if the game is fun enough and if we should add additional mechanics or not.
3. Make prototypes with different blockouts since the level design will affect gameplay heavily.
4. We want to prototype:
   1. The catch mechanic + cage
   2. The point system
   3. What to do with the monkeys when caught
   4. UI
   5. Oxygen mechanic