Kai awakens in a mysterious cavern and has no memories of their past except one thing: they have the ability to bend water at their will. Scattered throughout the land are remnants of an ancient civilization that harnessed the power of water. These remnants give Kai hope that they will discover more of who they are the more they learn about this civilization. The player must help Kai master their power over water!
Things that have changed this week in the game involve:
- the player movement behaving better on slopes
- camera adjustments
- adjusting the platforming aspects of the game
- adding a temple area
- changing how the raising platforms work
- adding background sounds other than music for ambience
- adjusting the UI for the water blast mechanic
- redoing the background art
- revamping the main menu/title screen and options menu
- player able to stay on horizontally moving platforms
- Added enemies (fire gecko) and animation for them
The changes made to the raising platforms were to address the softlocking issues that would occur in the areas that had them. There were also water spawners added to most water pools so that players would always have a reliable source of water to complete the puzzles. A lot of the thorn obstacles that the player had to jump over were removed because they ended up making the platforming too difficult or annoying. The update to the UI for the water blast mechanic was made so that the player would have an easier time figuring out where they would be launched after blasting the water and to indicate the strength of the recoil. All of the visual changes such as the addition of animations, the change in the background, and a revamp of the main menu/title screen and options menu are to make the game look more polished and more cohesive. The ambient sounds and mist were also added to make the environment feel more alive. The changes in player movement and dynamic camera zooming were to make the player experience feel more smooth and accommodate larger puzzle areas. The enemies were added so that the player can have fun with making the water interact with the fire from the enemies, while adding a little bit of a challenge as they progress through the game.
We decided to hone in on the puzzle aspect of the game and tone down the platforming aspect. We wanted the platforming sections to break up the puzzles a little, but not make them frustrating or too difficult for the player. Changes we want to make for the next iteration include adding cutscenes to the game, adding a credits cutscene at the end of the game, adding animations to the player character, improving on anything that we get direct feedback on from the next playtesting session, and adding our own music to the game by working with someone from a video game music course here at The University of Michigan.