MDM Log
MDM stands for "Method for Design Materialization." This is a way for us to track our progress across the project and better understand how our designs have progressed. This is accomplished through the timeline below, separated by key dates that highlight our work, including presentations, artist statements/journals, and pull requests.
For further exploration of each Pull Request, which by far was our primary documentation for the MDM (as demonstrated below), please view the closed Pull Request section of our repository here. These can also be found under the "Pull requests" tab along the top. This will provide a much more in-depth timeline that includes approvals, as well as a visual of the individual files we altered during the Pull Request. This is completely optional.
All dates are within the year 2025.
Our early work encompasses work to better prepare us for our project proposal on January 29th. Much of it is initialization of the project, adding in early assets, and overall testing. Much of the documentation is also for testing purposes or is lacking for initialization reasons.
Aden | 1 commit
The initial setup for the entire project.
Aden | 1 commit
Testing if repo works.
Tate | 1 commit
Contains text mesh pro and the Articy plugin, Tested by Aden
Dear Dr. Scheiding, I am writing this commit because I am scared. Scared that it will break the project, scared that I am not a good Untiy developer, and most scared that I am being dumb and overthinking it.
Tate | 1 commit
added a basic 3d movement script. Access in movement scene.
Probably should not be a direct transform call, but handled by the player movement component. Oh well.
Dear Dr. Scheiding, I chose this movement option because it is what popped up when I looked for a simple 3d movement script for Unity. We are trying to recreate the fixed camera found in PlayStation games like final fantasy, resident evil, and silent hill. Off topic: do you like sparkling water? I do. I am a big Topo Chico fan. Please let me know!
With love, Tate
Aden approval: This is really neat code work. I'll make sure to build off of this.
Aden comment: Tetsing comment for MDM purposes. (Documentation assignment for the course).
Aden | 2 commits
This provides a very initial description of the project for viewers while linking to a more in-depth overview in the wiki pages.
Commit 2: Fixed the link to the Home wiki page.
Tate comment: thanks for doing this aden! 😄
Aden | 1 commit
I reorganized a few files and created a handful of folders we will potentially need. Organization/specific directories create multiple, multiple merge conflicts, so I am trying to get ahead of that.
For the town testing, I created a scene and imported some Final Fantasy 9 background images that I will use to test player movement through towns. I hope to test scene transitions, camera movement, player movement vertically, and player resizing.
Tate approval: Wow this is a super cool first step!!!!
Tate | 1 commit
The character now turns to the direction they are walking, and there is now a interactable rectangle that turns green if you press space around it.
I am very tired right now. There was a bug with the new movement where it kept going after the button was pressed. I found the solution two hours ago. I did not realize that I had fixed it till 15 mins ago. I am happy that it works. That is all I have to say.
Tate comment: also a sprint is bound to the escape key
Aden | 3 commits
Commit 1: We want some scenes/areas to be long/tall, so I updated our PlayerMovement script to include camera movement alongside the player's. The camera is clamped so it does not go past the boundaries of the screen, and the player remains centered if they turn back from being past the camera boundaries so that the design can remain consistent. I have also started changing these boundaries regarding what plane (scene/area) the player is on. This will be expanded in the future once I get to test it more accurately following scene/area transitions.
Commit 2: We are going to have different planes/areas that the player will traverse within a single town, so I created a test for this. It involves trigger points and empty objects representing camera and player shots, which practically just teleports both onto the correlated empty object when the player collides with the correlated trigger point.
Commit 3: As previously referenced, this is an expanded tracking method for tracking plane numbers, so the PlayerMovement script can track what plane/area the player is currently on. This plane number will then be used to specify the camera's boundaries for that specific plane/area, which is already used for the 1st plane/area.
Tate comment: I think that this will work
Tate | 2 commits
This would add all the things I made
Aden closed this PR and commented: Closed due to merge conflicts regarding script organization and content.
Tate | 1 commit
This is just me adding my previous branch of npc interaction and collision to the camera shifting scene. Shot.cs throws an error still
no new design considerations
Aden approval: Merge conflict seems to be resolved.
Tate | 1 commit
This is adding all the Articy assets to the project. Implimiments First Eliza Scene
Aden | 3 commits
We decided to have the camera stationary to better emulate the style of Final Fantasy 9, which makes stationary NPCs feel stationary and not like they are shifting with the camera.
Tate approval: :) :) :) :)
Tate and Kaylah | 1 commit
This is the second scene with Eliza, Dinner with her and Melio written by Kaylah.
Kaylah | 3 commits
This is just an initial creation for what the dialogue box should look like. I wanted to incorporate warm colors with the tan and brown, and they will serve as complimentary colors for the pixelated text on top. I got these assetsfrom Canva, but because I don't have Premium, I had to screenshot these pngs and run them through remove.bg to make them transparent. This convoluted process made these images pixelated, so in my next rendition for these dialogue boxes, I might just make them myself on Procreate.
Also, that text is just placeholder text. Tate said he wants to use the text from Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.
Here is a link to the Canva: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGeEw5o5vE/OlM0ulTJMec2RrSCIYmi2g/edit?utm_content=DAGeEw5o5vE&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
Aden | 1 commit
We wanted a curved world that hides locales from the player, nudging them to explore the overworld. I found this shader that mimics Animal Crossing's curved world and used it for our overworld: https://alastaira.wordpress.com/2013/10/25/animal-crossing-curved-world-shader/
The shader curves anything that is attached to it along the camera. I also updated player controls specifically for the overworld and made them feel like Final Fantasy 9 tank controls to simulate that game's traversal.
Tate approval: this looks very cool, things to think about for further implementation:
- skybox
- rotating in all directions
- brown/yellow "fog" for distant objects
Arthur | 1 commit
Added the missing * to end of the .gitignore file so it actually ignores the stuff now
Aden | 1 commit
Commit 1: I found this free Skybox asset: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/shaders/free-skybox-extended-shader-107400. This is a good design for the overworld Skybox for multiple reasons.
- It is dynamic (the clouds move).
- We can adjust most settings, namely the color.
- We can add fog and adjust almost every aspect of it. This allows our world to rotate but not be unnatural by giving the player a lack of visibility. Commit 2: The traditional casted shadow provided by Unity did not translate well with the curved world. Because the curved world is not super smooth it looks like the player is making super long jumps with casted shadow. I made a drop shadow so the shadow stays with the player at all times.
Commit 3: Added 2 towns and a dock, all curved so they are immediately hidden from player view to simulate some exploration. Dock from: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/broken-wooden-dock-ps1-e9f17996ebde497f8841cc5f7037d6a0
Tate approval: big moves, keep grinding 🤑🤑🤑
Aden comment: In hindsight, I believe I may have removed the fog for testing and never put it back...
Tate | 3 commits
- changed character display names
- events now update character progression status
- global variables now contain names of events
Arthur approval: Expected changes to only Articy Files
Tate comment: This pr enables us to easily keep track of the events tied to each character, and pull whichever event we need depending on time, choices, and relationships.
Aden | 1 commit
Just put a temp txt file in folders to make them visible on github. Delete the files when things actually get added