By the end of last week already we had worked through our list of major bugs, but playtests over the weekend, as well as monday, showed some more flaws that we immediately put onto a to-fix list for monday.
We worked through these last changes as well. Tonight, I will be running one last playtest before the submission. My most reliable playtester will likely find something else for us to fix.
My job for the rest of the week is to cut and edit the video submission, whilst Cian can work on last bug fixes that might be needed. He has also started working on technological documentation for the report, as there are a lot of important scripts to work through.
In terms of assets, there is little new this or last week. I added an animation to the icicles crushing the player in the freezer and put up a few more decorations here and there, but overall, the front end was mostly completed already.
We added the final cutscenes that finally open the front door of the mansion and allow the player to walk out into an endlessly scrolling hallway. The only way to end the game is by giving up and turning back to return to Orpheus. When the player walks into the light flooding the hallway from the entrance hall, the game fades to white and end credits roll!
New playtesters are now taking about an hour to complete the game. We are very happy with that, as that means a good amount of content to submit.
Here's a recap of the last one and a half weeks:
What I did:
- three playtests, revealing last unexpected bugs. (1 male, 2 female)
- added sound to freezer and library
- added paintings with hints towards the chess room solution into various rooms
- designed a custom Icon for the game application.
- added dialogue with the "Man with Bowtie" to Orpheus' bedroom. The ghost that haunts the paintings in the house can now be talked to, and comes with his own portrait.
- added scene in beginning. Player now has to steal a few items before he can leave the first room, and will then walk into the intro cutscene where Orpheus shoots him. This scene will hopefully clarify why the player entered the house in the first place, and why he is shot by Orpheus in the following scene. The cutscene in this opening scene also includes more detailed and readable control instructions.
- completed this scene with cutscene, sounds and flavour text
- styled endlessly scrolling hallway
- styled and edited credits
- decorative spiderwebs are now permanently removed after the library is cleared
- added two more portraits to Orpheus and the servant and implemented these in the game
- - I edited the pause menu to include a "return to bedroom" button instead of a "main menu" button. Returning to the main menu would mean either quitting the game or going through the entire intro sequence again - it served little purpose for players at this stage and would only be useful in the future if game saves or options were introduced. What we did use the main menu for however was to reset the player to the start room in case he got stuck during a playtest. Now this can be done by just resetting straight to the start room.
This is primarily an emergency-fix.
- Designed and coded cutscenes for entering Eurydice's bedroom and opening the entrance door. I also finalized the piano cutscene to work smoothly now and added a short, sudden cutscene into the basement.
- we made the reading lamp in the living room static.
- arrow that indicates the book in the servant quarters now turns off when being interacted with and remains off when the first stage has concluded.
- minor fixes around the house: Fixing alignment issues, editing hitboxes, setting light priorities, adding small interactons, proof reading, etc.
And what Cian did (amongst other things):
- fixed confusing issue where dark monsters would spawn ontop of safe lights in the basement. They now flicker somewhat across the center of the room, but it should be easier now for players to understand when they are safe and when they are not.
- added death to the freezer room with icicles crushing the player.
- fixed issues with the knife in the library. It would previously not interact with objects other than the spiders, and would often even fail to stab the spiders in the built version of the game.
- Fixed various stage issues where dialogue or positioning would be wrong and interfere with the correct execution of cut scenes. He also now sorted all remaining issues with the keyholder opening and locking doors, meaning it should now be impossible to sequence break the game.
- made two logical solutions possible in the chess room. (this was a response to the playtest I conducted over the weekend.)
- Made it so the player can now scroll through items left and right, using Q and R
- fixed issue where player would move quicker when moving diagonally.
- chess statue will now present the tuning key and remain opened when the player returns. The checkmate situation will also remain unmoveable and static. Finally, the chess guardian displays different dialogue after the tuning key has been removed.
So this is it!
We have nearly reached the end of our beloved project.
Hopefully we will be able to expand the game a little over the holidays and add more rooms in the future. We still have many plans for this project, but we are satisfied with the completion of a roughly one hour long game that can be played smoothly from start to finish.
All that is left to do is see if we can discover and final-final bugs, editing the game play video, and submitting the House of Orpheus.
