Welcome to our 9th devlog for our game Wicked Warehouse!

This week we've been polishing, meaning we've been improving both our code and visuals to create the best experience possible with what we had. With a content-block in place, we are not producing any new mechanics or models anymore to truly focus on improving what we have.

So far our main focus has been improving the gameplay loop we've had in place, player feedback and our level's environment's overall visuals.

Code

This week we took a look at ways to randomly generate order, for more replayability.  We also made shaders for when our players aren't visible. While this still needs to be finished up, we managed to get a first draft out! Lastly we added more player feedback and particle systems, so our level truly feels alive!

Art

-Environment:

For the environment the greatest task at hand was to improve the lighting and post-processing. First off we had this combination of directional lights that brightly lit the scene. It definitely worked, but it didn't have much flair to it. Our goal was to give the space a more physical lighting overhaul. First starting off with adding a roof, adding ceiling lights where you'd expect them in such a warehouse, and then add a bit of flavor lights on top to make certain areas stand out more.

Here is how it used to be with the uniform lighting and post-processing.

And here a picture of a nice lighting and post processing treatment.


The HDRP pipeline sure helps certain parts pop. With easy access to volumetric lighting and fog we could subtly get some ray effects going on near the windows and back of the hall. With post processing we've added Ambient Occlusion which helped a lot. Besides that we've worked on color grading it so that our colors pop a bit more than before. We do however need to re-pick some colors to balance the scene a bit more.

-Player Feedback:

For player feedback we've finally created styled assets for our throwing bar to get rid of the unity standards.



Your classical smoke trail when you accelerate to max speed.