Task 5 - Pre-Production

Task 5 - Pre-Production

Update Log For my final major project.

	PROGRESS UPDATE	PLAN FOR NEXT MONTH / WEEK (Including Possible Contingency Plans If Problems Anticipated)
Mon W/B 05/01/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	Project Started. Saved the Project under the name “Project Stick Battles” and redirected the home folder for the project to my directory (12292646), this makes the project easier to find.	In the next week or so I want to add basic WASD controls to a character model and camera so the player can see, move around and understand the general FPS idea.
Mon W/B 12/01/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	Constructed a base for the player, includes gun, camera, hitbox and room for graphics if I get to that point later on. Began work on the Player Controller and Player Motor Scripts, this is done to declare player movement and the player’s Input e.g.: The keyboard controls. Started tweaking the scripts over the course of 2 days however it resulted in compiler errors due to a curly being out of place. A couple of curly brackets were out of place. This means a method is not complete and closed off. Because of this we know that	I would like to learn more of the C# scripts, this would be using the C# tutorials point website and then discovering more ways of formatting and improving my code.
Mon W/B 19/01/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	I didn’t edit my project during this as I have been learning some more C# tutorial, namely decision making and how to handle it efficiently.	In order to understand how unity works, I will be creating another script however not in Unity, then running a compiler to test if there is any errors, this will identify whether the bug is in unity or my game’s code. If it’s the game that is wrong,  I will further edit my code.
Mon W/B 26/01/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	I took a look at player Controller and player Motor Scripts and have tried solely implementing WASD movement on a keyboard, I’ve had the problem of not being able to move although I have seemingly no compiler errors and I’m working on a fix the fix I had in mind was to re-write my scripts in a different way and include different variables based on the Unity Base vector’s. These are Vector2 and Vector3. I tried implementing the WASD movement system again to find a compiler error. I didn’t edit my project during this as I have been learning some more C# tutorial, namely decision making and how to handle it efficiently. A started to learn decision making because It is a very important part of Unity programming and setting parameters on different things. I think this is one of the key functions in unity due to so many things need parameters and limits in my game.	I want to add a gun script to the player so they can wield, fire and reload a weapon with preferably unlimited ammo for now until I get the scripts working for capped ammo.
Mon W/B 02/02/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	This week, I was patiently waiting to move to Unity 5 (Allows for Networking and overall better maintenance etc.) This means my project will be handled better with Unity 5’s functions for my plan for multiplayer in the future.	As stated in the column to the right, I would like to work on a multiplayer lan connection as soon as possible, If this is not possible I may just work on singleplayer however It is core to my product that I focus on Multiplayer for now.
Mon W/B 09/02/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	I didn’t edit my project during this as I have been learning some more C# tutorial, namely decision making and how to handle it efficiently.	To make my game correctly, I would like to create a player model instead of it just being a sphere, This means that the whole idea of player height, jumping and height with correlation to the player will be solved. I also want a decent gun to model from. Right now I’m using a basic block and I think this would be solved with a decent gun look a like model.
Mon W/B 16/02/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	Created a Player format using a base for importable models and allows for alterations to the hitbox for later on in the project. Created 2 C# documents (Player Motor and Player Controller) grabbed the rigid body component through a “Require Component” function. They also have the function of Mono Develop meaning they can be developed in the “monos develop” software. Added a prototype for a gun within the FOV (camera) this allows the scene to actually be played from the player’s perspective. The player will shortly be able to move around in order to give the player a full FPS affect.	I want to declare some more variables so I can further Improve my code and add mechanics that could be added later on. For instance, the Headbob feature the unity controller defaultly has I would perhaps like to include because of its drastic change to the players perspective that the character is actually human. This will be something I will focus on.
Mon W/B 23/02/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	[04/03/2016] Declared variables and added basic initialization functions to the player Controller and Rigid Body scripts. This means that I was able to declare all of the other mechanics that I may want to add later. This means it could be possible for me to add more than just a standard FPS in terms of the way the game plays and the mechanics behind the game.	After declaring the set variables needed, I am now considering solving a lot of the compiler errors due to the game not running as well as it should, if at all. Fixing errors has been a big part of the project thus far and Is still relentless for halting my development time but that is to be expected. Failing to solve errors will result in me “borrowing” the code from the first person controller.
Mon W/B 02/03/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	After 1 Week of working on standard FPS controls I decided to use the standard unity FPS controller in Unity 5. This is because it has an in built controller which works well for my style of project; it also has a lot of the scripts written for me in a far better way. This won’t stop me looking for improvements I can make but it has also helped me learn how certain functions in Unity are handled.	I need to add a system that will make the gameplay unique to my game. For the most part the game is very standard and really doesn’t feel like I’ve (so far) developed anything special to it. I think my idea for this would be a lighting system or dynamic weather system of some kind. I would like a timer on this but I’m not sure how practical this is, As a contingency plan, I will try to make the multiplayer connections work correctly.
Mon W/B 09/03/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	Added a Lighting system it uses a simple transform motion in the “Update” method to rotate the lighting by the variable in the “Start” Method.  It utilizes the Time in order to rotate it so I can vary if I add a “random” variable. Added a day/night cycle on a 1 hour timer, the brightness and sun will rotate over a 360 degree axis.	I need to work on a decent menu system however a bunch of bugs have suddenly turned up due to horrible code and parenting between objects is not as good as it could be.  This should be fixed next week if I am focused and don’t get distracted.
Mon W/B 16/03/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary) Mon W/B 23/03/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	There was a bug with the way the parenting between objects worked; this made the arm fixed in position whilst the gun would still move. Whilst this is only 1 of many bugs, it took a while to fix as it wasn’t to do with programming and that is where I believed the bug would be originated from.	Since the bug is fixed now it is time to start working on a multiplayer system/Menu system. The menu system is a priority as of now, It will have multiple options for single and LAN multiplayer as well as the inbuilt unity GUI display that can connect to a local port.
Mon W/B 30/03/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	Started working on a menu system however I haven’t managed to get it working yet, this is something that will need improving. I believe I could improve this by altering the settings for the buttons.	The menu Isn’t quite there, I still need to work on this and I will focus on this as of now. I have been holding the multiplayer off for too long, I need to work on this ASAP for my project to be completed, After it is implemented, I can then work on the UI, Damage system, HP and weapon systems.
Mon W/B 06/04/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	Added a base for Single player and Multiplayer options. I’ve been thinking of introducing the 2 game modes for a while that the player would be able to select from. The single player itself will be the player traversing through a level, shooting things to open up other areas of the map (targets to Aim down sights at).The Multiplayer would be a battle arena which has Random number generated, or RNG, spawn points. This would mean it is fair for everyone. However I plan to introduce limits that players can spawn in correlation with each other. This would be determined by an X and Y limit that players are allowed to spawn near each other. For instance, players would only be able to spawn in a 600x600 X and Y location of each other meaning they will be at least 600 pixels apart.	Since the base for the single and multiplayer options has been added and adjusted to the game. I will continue to tweak it. I now need to work on a singleplayer and multiplayer scene. This is VERY important as the RNG spawning will not work on the same scene as the multiplayer one. If a player was to RNG spawn into a singleplayer game it can confuse new players to the game.
Mon W/B 13/04/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	Attempted to connect to a local connect on a Local host but this was unsuccessful. 2 Clients on different computers cannot connect as of yet.	After failing to connect to a LAN server, This will be my main focus for the rest of the project. I will add miscellaneous updates throughout. The game is still getting harder and harder to connect to as whenever I want to test it I have to re publish and executable file.
Mon W/B 20/04/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	Worked on a Torch system for when it’s too dark to make out objects anymore during the night cycle. So far there is no turning off the light as it is not functioning correctly, however for now it does the job and I will come back to it if it needs improving. This was created by adding a directional light to the perpendicular axis to the camera then narrowing the field of light that is projected. To give it a torch feel (the further away you are, the dimmer it gets) The light projected wasn’t that much.	If the Multiplayer does not start working soon, I might have to move onto another project, there isn’t much time left to focus on singleplayer and the multiplayer (even when fire walls were removed) just will not communicate to the server and ports at all. It was trying to connect to the local college IP however this was not enough.
Mon W/B 27/04/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	Started a new project due to connection limitations in the multiplayer project. I have decided to use the 2D game software construct 2 Instead of Unity 3D in order to make a 2D platformer. My reasoning behind this is because it will be slightly quicker since I only have roughly 2 weeks left to finish my project. The goals of the project have also changed as I will create a 2D sprite precision platformer.	I think I am going to need to thoroughly plan my game now despite having not much time left. This is because of the game needing to still be complete. The game Itself will obviously had much less content but to make up for this the content will be difficult so It will still be time consuming for the average and even seasoned platformer players. The tutorial is the first thing I would like to work on.
Mon W/B 04/05/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	The First part of my precision 2D platformer I made was the menu, this was very simple and went through multiple phases of features, However the final menu has just 2 options. “Settings” and “Play”. These buttons have multiple options once they are both clicked. For the “settings” I was supposed to add a lot more toggleable options for the player to customize the game, however this did not go as planned so I ended up just adding an “FPS” toggle which displays the FPS through-out the game.	In order to fix this project, I need to start from scratch on the 2D platform mechanics, and the overall design will be needed right away. I have still not delved into making a full-fledged tutorial. This would be a good idea as players new to platforming games will not have much idea on what they can do and how the mechanics of the game works. The tutorial is straight forward to develop and will be completed within the next week.
Mon W/B 11/05/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	The game should have save states if all goes well, however they are currently not working, there are options to load 3 saves or load a new game once you press the play button.  The “New game” Button will then load the next layout which will be a tutorial. All the “code” for this can be found in the 2 images below.	I plan to add the players mechanics as there is not much time left for my project, I probably should have focused on this section of my project first however I believe the menu was needed in order to traverse through settings and levels.
Mon W/B 18/05/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	All of the mechanics are now in the game, this includes shooting, facing left and right, moving left and right, Bullets and a bullet cap, variable jump height and firing when buttons are pressed. Also the game over screen now work, When the player collides with a spike, they are deleted then the game over screen appears, It is the same screen, however the text “Game over –Press ‘R’ to restart” will appear.	Now that the mechanics are complete, I should work on the level design, Since I plan this game to be extremely hard a lot of the jumps will need a lot of testing in order to complete. So for this, I’m planning to have some people in my class play the game then gather feedback on the game that way. If anything is “too hard” or does need to be changed I will adjust my game accordingly.
Mon W/B 25/05/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	A lot of this week was the people in my class testing the intricacies and detail of my  game, allowing me to fix tons of bugs in jumping, wall grabbing and hovering of the player when pushing into a wall (however some may still exist).	For the final week I plan to sort out the final bugs and major game breaking glitches that may exist and receive some feedback about the overall game.
Mon W/B 01/06/15 (Detailed Weekly Summary)	The final week I have focused a lot more on my survey and getting feedback of the overall game, I have now exported the project and the project is in a somewhat “finished” state. Although I am not happy with the state it’s at.	The project is finished.
	PROGRESS UPDATE	PLAN FOR NEXT MONTH / WEEK (Including Possible Contingency Plans)