Weeks 1-2 Progress Update

Our first weeks of development were slower than expected, but still productive. Here's the recap:

Week 1 was mostly spent further itemising and assigning the tasks ahead, and also painfully organising the setup process of version control (file sharing) using Plastic SCM. Some members started level designs during this time, but unfortunately, one of our group's programmers resigned at the tail-end of this week, which required a small amount of task resceduling among the remaining three members.

Week 2 was where the main programming began. Firstly, placeholder models were created for: a basic single platform level, a coin collectable, and a goal plate. These models were implemented as childen of a common parent object, so they would all move and rotate in tandem. Next, scripts for controlling the models and camera rotation were written, having both working simultaneously and intuitively proved a challenge.

The pivoting platform and a new ball object were given Rigidbody and Collider components, and assigned bouncy physics materials, which finally introduced the main gameplay mechanics. Irritatingly, even after much effort, objects would phase through one another at high speeds close to the edges of the platform, as can be seen in the short section at the end of this GIF.

Lastly, some of the level outlines had been completed. These examples in particular get the player thinking more about the vertical elements instead of simply rolling through the levels, such as going over the walls in the zig-zag level, or to loop through the air in the funnel level. The naive "intended" path follows the first pink lines, where the creative "broken" path follows the last cyan lines.

Looking forward to Week 3, the next items of focus include the following: launching platform controls, level blocking-in, and goal and coin functionality. (All but one of the goal were finished! Read the full Week 3 devlog here)