Chrono Portals: A Journey Home file - Unity Games

Portfolio for all developers:

Yufan Wu: Umwyf.github.io

Xuteng Luo: Xttzjj.github.io

Yushi Li: Lysprinkle.github.io

Yinghui He: Ying-hui-he.github.io

Shufeng Chen: Shufengc.github.io

Gold:

(What’s New?) A list of what has changed this week (tweaked mechanics, added content, etc).

• Revamped endhome and starthome scenes with new animations.
• Fixed a bug with trees being placed too high.
• Improved the mechanics of item pickup to avoid overlapping items in the inventory.
• Adjusted the statues and portals for better gameplay and narrative integration.

(What’s the Motivation?) A discussion / summary of why you made these changes. Where is your project headed?

• Revamped endhome and starthome scenes with new animations

This is for creating a more immersive start and ending. And improve the smoothness of the transition between the final level and the ending.

• Fixed a bug with trees being placed too high.

This is a bug showing in the playtest and we change the original position of the boundaries of the scenes to ensure the trees will not lead to players’ leaving the screen, ensuring a more realistic environment and avoiding potential softlock.

• Improved the mechanics of item pickup to avoid overlapping items in the inventory.

This is a bug showing in the playtest and we want to make it easier to interact with objects. There should be a single collectible item right now and it will be highlighted to guide the player.

• Adjusted the statues and portals.

We aim to make the game world feel more natural and intuitive. Now the entering and exiting of each portal are integrated with more realistic animations. The portals cannot be placed overlapping to avoid constant transition between portals and potential softlock. The statues will be highlighted and showing text to inform the player of the result of the interaction.

(What’s Next?) What changes you plan to make for the next iteration.

• Refine the game's environment and mechanics.

We're exploring new ways to enrich the storyline and add depth to the character's journey. More environment settings will be introduced to provide the background story.

• More interactive and changeable items and possibly new levels.

Our focus remains on enhancing the overall experience, making each aspect of the game more engaging and rewarding for our players. We will add more changeable items with different states, with each state having unique functions for passing new levels.

• Collectible and shopping system

We will award players with collectibles in each level to encourage the player to explore more creative ways for passing each level. These collectibles will be used to buy new skins (appearances) and new pets (dogs, birds...) to increase the creativity and diversity of our game.

• Debugging and Optimization

Continuous efforts will be made to identify and fix bugs according to the new playtest and showcase.

Beta:

(What’s New?) A list of what has changed this week (tweaked mechanics, added content, etc).
1. Features for all age groups:
A new statue that only elderly characters can activate, including related guidance.
2. Improved item system:
Introducing steam, which players can use only once to jump to a high elevation.
Introduce seed, which players can use as the key for the final portal.
Fix bugs related to water and trees, and also make minor adjustments to ice blocks.
3. New Animation
Created new animations for both game start and level completion

(What’s the Motivation?) A discussion / summary of why you made these changes. Where is your project headed?
1. Features for all age groups:
The introduction of age-specific elements like the elderly-activated statue adds depth to the character interactions and game strategy. It is also the suggestion of one of our players in the playtest. He thought the elder player in the game does not have enough unique features.
2. Improved item system:
The steam mechanic introduces a new way to navigate and interact within the game, making the gameplay more exciting and creative.
The seed mechanic contributes to both the main story of our game as well as the completeness of our item system.
Debugging efforts are crucial for providing a seamless gaming experience, removing distractions in the movement of the player to help the player focus more on our mechanism.
3. New Animation
New animations are designed to enhance the game's visual appeal and create a more engaging and rewarding experience for the players, marking their progress with visually appealing milestones. It comes from a suggestion from one of our players saying the exit in each level is not consistent. Therefore, we add an animation of a player emitting from the same portal in the last level for each new level. This helps improve the consistency of each level.

(What’s Next?) What changes you plan to make for the next iteration.
Expand age-specific features.
We want to add more unique mechanisms for each age group. Now for the elderly, we only have a mechanism of activating the statue. We may add coded doors for the elderly to decipher.
Add character-specified animations
To further enhance the visual experience, we plan to introduce more sophisticated animations, possibly including character-specific animations that reflect different states or actions. We only have walking and jumping for each age group. We may add running for the young age group.
3. Further Debugging and Optimization
Continuous efforts will be made to identify and fix bugs according to the playtest.

Alpha:

(What’s New?) A list of what has changed this week (tweaked mechanics, added content, etc).

1. UI Inventory Implementation:

Introduced a new UI inventory system called ItemBoard, consisting of three blocks representing items’ different states including Young, Normal, Old, Withered. The relationships between states are shown by blue/red arrows.

We also implemented logic to dynamically update the UI inventory with sprites representing the different ages of a collectible item (e.g. a tree or iceburg). This system changes the displayed sprites based on the collected item's current state.

Another feature to highlight the current state of the item while graying out non-current states is also added

1. Key-pressing Guiding Enhancements:

When the player comes close to a collectable object, an animation of a key being pressed will show together with the highlighting of the object.

1. New Animation and Sound Effect

Some new animations regarding interaction with objects have been added. When placing steam (the third state of water) in the scene, a rising plume of hot air is generated to distinguish it from placing water. When climbing the tree, some leaves will fall and the tree will shake slightly with sound effects.

(What’s the Motivation?) A discussion / summary of why you made these changes. Where is your project headed?

1. UI Inventory Implementation:

The motivation behind these changes is to enhance player engagement and provide a clear, intuitive interface for managing collected items within the game. The dynamic visualization of item states through the ItemBoard also informs players of their progress and adds a layer of strategy to the gameplay. By understanding the current state of collected items, players can make more informed decisions on how to use or interact with these items within the game world.

1. Key-pressing Guiding Enhancements

The motivation for introducing the key-pressing guiding enhancements lies in improving user accessibility and providing an immediate, clear instruction for interaction. This is essential especially for new players.

The animation also adds a polished touch to the game, making the interaction not just functional but also visually pleasing.

1. New Animation and Sound Effect

As is mentioned in the playtest and by TAs, our game lacks sound effect and needs a juicier gameplay experience. Hence, more animations and sound effects should be added to give players more feedback when interacting with game objects. Previously, tree climbing involved a static tree sprite. Now, it provides a realistic climbing experience with dynamic visuals and immersive audio. Secondly, the player should be able to distinguish between water and steam, so I added a vapor effect when placing steam.

(What’s Next?) What changes you plan to make for the next iteration.

1. Compress the sprite sizes of all in-game objects. It aims to expand the camera's field of view and create a more intricate and content-rich environment within each level.
2. Add more juicy animations to our game as more objects and movements are created.