Journal Entry 1

Date: 25.03.2023

Activity: 

- Created the itch.io page for Project B.

- Created a new scene on the same Unity project as Homework 2, to be worked on later.

- Made the beginning part and the "parkour part" (right side of the level) first.

- Made the "bullet hell" part later.

- Partially wrote things in the journal during progression.

- Finalising the journal now.

Notes:

I first created the project page on itch.io at around 16:00. Then, I created a new project for Project B. However, setting it up ended up being really tedious, so I decided to use the same project file as Homework 2, since it has all the things set up already. This took 20 minutes. Then I took a break.

At 18:00, I started working on the level. I worked on the beginning part, and then the right side with the spikes. This took 40 minutes. It was straightforward.

Then, I continued working on the "parkour part" of the level. I finished the "destructible wall and moving platform" part. This part took 45 minutes.

Worked on the rest of the "parkour part" (the "pointless room" part), and finalized it in 1 hour. Note that the "pointless room" refers to the only part of the level where the "pass through platform" is used. I call it the "pointless room" because the correct way to go is just straight down, and the entire section is to confuse new players. Then I took a break. I don't know how long.

Finally, I started and finished the "bullet hell" part of the level at once, which took 80 minutes. The "bullet hell" part refers to the area with a lot of monsters. 

I had to make some changes to the actual level. In the picture above, it is said that the player was meant to be able to look down to see the danger below. However, since the design document isn't 100% up to scale, this part would have been impossible to do without significantly altering the enemy placements below. Hence, this part of the level is actually much higher in the game, which means that the player cannot see what lurks below. Oh well...

Another change is shown in the above picture. Again, since the design document isn't 100% up to scale, I had to add this extra bump (shown in red colour) in the actual level to make it so that the player doesn't get locked in that particular room. Note that this change is only done in the level. There is no change in the design document. The above picture was made separately to demonstrate the change in question.

Play tested the game for about 30 minutes. A quick glance at the design document says that the level is supposed to be hard. However, it ended up being harder than I expected. I definitely had to get back to the spawning point to try again. I managed to finish the level this way, but I never managed to finish the level without dying more than 5 times. I think it's possible to do it if I tried hard enough, but I couldn't be bothered. I had already play tested each section as I was making them, so I know it's possible. Anyway, the design document wills it to be this way, and it shall be so.

I must say, though. The scale of the design document was not 100%, but it was surprisingly "well up to scale". Apart from the two exceptions above, the actual in-game level almost matches the design document (Note that the author of this journal entry is not tooting his own horn).

Invested Hours:

- 20 minutes on creating the project, empty scene etc.

- 40 minutes on the beginning part, and the "spike level".

- 45 minutes on the "destructible wall and moving platform" part.

- 1 hour on the "pointless room" part.

- 10 - 15 minutes on the journal.

Outcome: Build (Project B, 25.03.2023).zip

(Note that  the actual .exe file is named "GameDevHW2Updated.exe" because I used the Homework 2's project as a basis)

EDIT: Added the text "(shown in red colour)".