Finally the game is officially ready! I have spent around 20 hours non stop connecting the scenes together, adjusting transitinos and removing the bugs which I wasn’t attentive enough to spot before. Nothing much happened to document here. It’s just long manual work which is finally over.
A couple of words on sound design. I think that there is no need for many background sounds as title music makes it all to create the right mood. And I think I’ve found the ideal one. It’s light and sad, but gives you a bittresweet feeling. The one that I had when got the message that my friend made it home safe. I was happy that all went well, but at the same time we both were sad that the situation happended and there is more time (unknown amount of time) ahead of waiting till we can meet in person.
I also added simple titles at the very eng just to make the game look finished and deliberately omitted the start screen. I felt it right to make it similar to Journey, which starts right away without explaining anything. I don’t want people feel that it is a game. It’s just a small story which you can experience without getting ready for it.
As a little conclusion so far, this project exhausted me morally and physically (night shifts are becomig a habbit now). But I can’t say enough what a big leap forward for me it was in terms of game design and technical skills. Compared to all my previous games, that had only one simple mechanic and not a hint of narrative whatsoever. Here is the list of things I learned within this project only:
Timeline
Animation triggers
SetActive (true);
Spawning object in order with one button (lists and resourses folder)
Scene transitions
Particle system
Ragdoll mechanics
Sequence puzzle
Pong (and AI)
Custom cursor
Hide cursor command
Close application command
Yes, the game is not 100% polished. Apart from ragdoll, which is still a big issue, I’d work more on background assets and animations. But I can call the game complete and totally satisfied with it. It still has to undergo playtesting ( results of which, I guess, I’ll put in the report mainly) and a bit worried if playtesters understand the story, get the message and in general if they will like the game or not. Because I’ve spent so much effort here. And how will my friend react to it, because it was made due to and partly for him. But this 2 months experience I’m not likely to forget soon.
So I invite everyone to test it out yourselves or watch a walkthrough video below. Have fun and care for your loved ones.