projectportobello

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Update #13 - Lady Caprice’s Big Debut *(PROTOTYPE READY!)*

Hi all!

It’s an exciting day for us here, as the Portobello Circus Prototype is finally ready! This prototype will introduce the characters, and contain a short tutorial to get players used to the controls of the game. We’re super excited to share this, and have some sneak-preview screenshots for all you to glimpse over! 

Whilst of course we’re super happy to share our project with you, there are some things that we would want to change, develop, and fix when it comes to the real deal! Here are a list of them:

The No-Go zones (places where the player is stopped from entering) are slightly unclear, and there’s gaps in them. At the moment, we have quite a few spherical / box colliders as the game is an open landscape, filled with lots of tents which don’t actually have anything in them yet! This will be changed and developed after the prototype. 

The text, text boxes and on-screen messages aren’t visually perfect. They look slightly flat and 2D, and don’t have a suitable animation to transition them in and out. 

We would want the tutorial game to be slightly harder, with more opportunities to fail. Whilst it’s visually appealing, it’ also very easy at the moment! 

We would want to add actual voices to the characters to add more depth.

We would want to animate Ethel and the NPCs more, especially during conversation. 

Subtle sound effects would be important too, such as the crunching of shoes on the floor, or picking up an ‘Apple’ in the tutorial game. It’s very flat at the moment!

A deep and meaningful introduction to the game, which introduces the Plot and Story completely. The backstory for Portobello’s Circus plays such a main role in the main game, an introduction would be vital for the games core. 

We hope you all enjoy the prototype of Portobello’s Circus, and we can’t wait to see where it goes next!

Thanks for reading! - Louis :)

[projectportobello]

Update #12 - Ethel Takes a Dark Turn! (The Importance of Lights)

Hi all!

With the base game working in full swing, we are working hard to develop the tutorial game for you all - which will be included in our prototype! The set and visuals play a key part of Portobello’s Circus - yet they wouldn’t be what they are without our dear friend; light! As the base of the game so far has taken place outside in natural daylight, there hasn’t really been a need to focus on any light. Yet the tutorial game takes place inside a tent - a prime opportunity to develop the light and colour of the game. Circus tents are very much a theatrical platform, and light has the wonderful power to add, create and establish a mood within a scene. Here are sneak previews of the game, showing some before and afters to get you excited about Portobello's Circus! 

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Thanks for reading! - Louis :)

[projectportobello]

Update #11 - Story Plot Update *CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Hi All!

This is an updated Plot Layout of the game. It hasn’t differentiated too much, just mainly what’s included in the Prototype version of the game. 

Thanks for reading! - Louis :)

[projectportobello]

Update #10 - An Apple a Day to keep Lady Caprice away

Hello All!

Despite this being a more simulation-based game, it is necessary to create a Tutorial Game within the game to get players used to the functionality. This will also be a great way to introduce the game on our prototype!

We are currently developing the tutorial game of picking a certain amount of Apples for Portobello’s elephant, Jemima. A fun way to introduce the characters, and the mechanics of the game!

Some problems we encountered/fixed: 

General bugs, such as

Apples floating and rotating were being stretched within their rotation. This was resolved by erasing the data from the parent object. 

Characters falling through objects! Despite objects and furnishings having the ‘Mesh Collider’ or ‘Object Collider’ attached to them, we also realised they needed their object tag to be set on ‘Ground’

Apples not being picked up. This was a mistake on our behalf, as we had set the Apple’s collider to having a trigger.

Thanks for reading! - Louis :)

[projectportobello]

Update #9 - Funky Fonts and Other Updates

Quite a simple update today!

The UI (User Interface) got a much needed update today, with some brand new fonts - us and Lady Caprice much prefer it to simple Arial! 

Furthermore, the set of the world was built up more with props, with little details to make the world of Portobello’s Circus that bit more immersive! Here we have the simple touches of some ladders, crates, and a new circus tent in the background to make the horizon even more rich!

We used the concept of ‘Forced Perspective’, often used in Film and other media forms, to make Ethel seem so much smaller, subdue and venerable. And excellent tool to utilise when World Building in games, as you can see with our travelling trailers above. The trailers are roughly 1.5x bigger than Ethel to achieve this illusion. A subtle way to add more depth to a story! 

Thanks for reading! - Louis :) 

[projectportobello]

Update #8 - The Upside Down (Bugs & Stranger Things)

Hello all!

No, Ethel isn’t the newest member on Stranger Things... we’re just programming her to walk! Of course; this isn’t all plain-sailing, as she fell right through the ground. Although we’d love to blame it on bugs, it was definitely more issues on our side with our coding. 

Although, we are actually currently having some issues developing the dialogue system for the game, think Lady Caprice has scared them away! The dialogue boxes often disappear, or move location and we think it might be due to us inputting the new tutorial game. Or maybe we just offended Lady Caprice with this reference. Who knows!

We are currently working on:

Fixing the dialogue issues within the game. 

Setting up the tutorial game which will be used in the prototype.

Future things we will be working on after:

Adding voices to our characters.

Adding movement to our characters and NPC.

Thanks for reading! - Louis :) 

[projectportobello]

Update #7 - Introducing... Ethel!

I always appreciate the lead character in a film, game, theatrical production or book having an iconic look. Not necessarily what society deems as ‘pretty’, but someone that’s endearing, familiar, captivating and that you could get to know on a personable level. Creating the main character for Portobello’ s Circus was important to me, as it needed to hold these values without producing a generic character.

This is Ethel! And I’m proud that she will be the lead star of Portobello’s Circus.

- Louis :) 

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Update #6 - The Bed BUGS are BITING!

No... that isn’t a scarecrow. And Portobello Circus isn’t now a zombie apocalypse game. With the many highs of game creation, there obviously comes the lows. And bugs. 

This character was supposed to be Lady Caprice, one of the NPC characters in the game. Unfortunately, she didn’t take a good turn when being imported. With much research (and a few Oreos); I found that when the materials load into Unity from Mixamo / Fuse, they are sometimes imported as ‘transparent’ - with no option to change it. Thus meaning I had to manually create all the materials again and reapply them to our dear Lady Caprice. 

She’s looking much better now! (Although slightly vain with those self portraits behind her...)

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Update #5 - Programming Triggers

Hello! To add a real sense of abnormality to my game, it was important to utilise the use of the circus theme. One of my ideas was to create a tent in which the interior switches completely, only after the player speaks to a certain NPC (Non Playable Character). A subtle, yet magical touch; yet without relying too heavily on unrealistic fantasy or magic. 

Circus Interior 1:

Circus Interior 2, after the player leaves to speak to a NPC and returns:

To create this magic, I set up a script called SwitchTentInteriors.

1) The first step was to set up the Monobehaviour and name my script. Everything inside the main { } after MonoBehaviour would be accounted for. 

public class SwitchTentInteriors : MonoBehaviour {

2) The next step would be to set up GameObjects which would associate with the two different objects in Unity. The two different objects in this case would be the two different interiors of the tent. 

   public GameObject tentInterior1;    public GameObject tentInterior2;

I put public so that Unity would be able to access this information. GameObject as we are setting up something to associate with the actual Unity game, and I named them simply tentInterior1/2 for a clear name. 

3) I then created a large sphere in Unity. When the player enters this sphere, it would switch the tents. In my scenario, the Sphere would be the location of where the NPC is. The sphere is invisible to the player, and simply acts as a trigger region. I named the Sphere TentSwitchTrigger, and switched on the ‘Is Trigger’ option:

I added the following to my script:

  private void OnTriggerEnter(Collider objectCollidedWith)

“private” so that it’s not a variable that can be changed on Unity. “OnTriggerEnter(Collider objectCollideWith)” is a code in which will only trigger when something enters that object. 

4) 

   {        if(objectCollidedWith.tag == "Player")

This defines which tag will trigger the object. This is so a tree, piece of grass or an animal wouldn’t trigger the object accidentally, only an object with the tag Player will. 

5) 

{            tentInterior1.SetActive(false);            tentInterior2.SetActive(true);        }    } }

This means that tentInterior1 will not be active when the object is triggered. It also means that tentInterior2 will activate when the object is triggered. 

6) I then drag and drop the SwitchTentInterior script in Unity onto TentSwitchTrigger (the sphere). It adds this component to TentSwitchTrigger:

 I then drag and drop the Circus Tent Inner #1 object to the empty Tent Interior 2 attribute. And the same for Tent Interior 2. 

Easy! My script is loaded and ready to go! 

Now all I need to do is add my NPC, so the player has reason to enter the trigger.

Thanks for reading! - Louis :) 

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Update #4 - Portobello’s Plot (Contains Spoilers)

Thanks for reading! - Louis :) 

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Update #3 - Initial Set Decorations

Following on from building the terrain previously, it was now time to decorate the set with the initial props. Although, it was important not to spend too long on the decorations, and get the base of the game developed thoroughly which I shall be doing after this. 

As mentioned before, I’ll now be focusing on the main structure of the game. This will include the: 

Plot of the game - what actually happens?!

What will be happening in the prototype in relation to the plot of the game.

Hopefully this will make Project Portobello’s Circus a lot clearer for you all, and not just ideas in my head! 

Thanks for reading - Louis :) 

[projectportobello]

Update #2 - Building Doveport’s Terrain

Hello! Today using Unity, I have created the very first steps of the visual aspect of the game; the terrain where the game will take place, exciting! 

By using the Gaia from the Unity Asset store, I was able to begin the first steps in creating the land in which Doveport and the circus takes place in. By importing different hills, mountains, rocks, rivers and valleys into a ‘Stamper’, I could layer up the basic land structure. (See below)

Then, using the Spawner script, I was able to add Rocks, Small Farms, Trees, then finally grass and flowers. The Spawner script was important, as it only placed objects where was suitable and where they wouldn’t clash with other objects. The end result of using this was a scenery with depth, beauty and a real-to-life potential. Finally, I added the finishing touches, which included; the wind, sky, light, and a dummy character to walk around with for now. 

From my research; I wanted to hone in on the ‘nostalgic’ feel, thus meaning it has more potential for the gamer to be absorbed by the game, and therefore more disconcerted by the happenings of the circus! I feel Herdy Gerdy done a wonderful job at this, with its orange colour tones in the country side! By tweaking a few attributes of the Gaia system, I have been able to create an orange summer tone which I feel works well. Furthermore, as the game is set in the Victorian era, having a washed out orange affect gives a vintage tone to the game. See below for a picture! 

Some problems that occurred today: 

The scene is almost too orange and glowing, to the point it loses some clarity. Plus I'm still not satisfied with the sky.

The land and trees in the distance are completely white.

Things that I’ll be working on till the next update:

Create Ethel, the main character, and animate her to replace the current dummy character. 

Develop and plan what will happen for the whole game, with a focus on the 5 minute prototype.

Once that has been done, I will work my way from the start of the prototype making and sourcing the correct models to make the circus. (For example, if my prototype starts next to a signpost, then I will make the signpost my first priority)

Thanks for reading!

- Louis

[projectportobello]

Update #1 - The Backstory

Here we have the first creative update for the game - the first draft of the backstory. This will explain the basic premise of the game, main character and will give a closer reveal on what Project Portobello’s Circus will entail. 

Enjoy!

- Louis

Backstory

The story would be based on a 20-something female protagonist, Ethel, who has grown up in the small seaside town of Doveport with her twin sister. Their bond, like most twins, is beautifully inseparable and loving – for which they are known around the town for this.

The (apparently) world-renowned travelling circus - Portobello’s Circus – almost springs up overnight in the fields next to Doveport, an exciting event for a fairly quiet town. They attend the Circus, which Ethel finds slightly unnerving due to the extravagant and elaborate nature of the event. The next morning, Ethel’s sister is not to be found in her bed – something completely out of character. A couple of days go past and she does not return. The town searches with great devotion to find the girl, yet she is no-where to be seen. It is clear to Ethel that there is a strong correlation between her sister going missing, and Portobello’s Circus being in the town. It is due to leave that night, and Ethel is keen to take matters into her own hands and investigate. 

[projectportobello]

Hello and Welcome!

Welcome one and all to the official blog update page for the new game, Portobello’s Circus (name subject to change!). This blog will contain key updates, both technical and creative, regarding the game and its development. 

Enjoy!

- Louis