Scrum Weekly Work Journal

My task for this sprint was primarily to figure out a way to project a video asset onto an object, preferably using something like a decal projector. I found out very quickly that this would not be possible, and instead discovered the Video Player component that could be put on objects, such as planes and altered cubes. This allowed for an easy method to play a test video on a screen object (with some additional lights to allow the video to be seen properly), and then providing the finished version with the intended cutscene to the rest of the team to garner opinions and feedback.

The aim for this sprint in terms of velocity was to be consistently productive and get bug fixes and interactive narration implemented to further benefit the game. Unfortunately, as one team member went radio silent during this sprint, we had to divide this plan between 3 people rather than 4.

Motivation during this sprint ended up being at an all-time low, which resulted in long stretches of work not being done despite the plan agreed upon. We ended up needing to complete 20 hours of work within the 2 final days of the sprint. To add to this, the silent team member suddenly returned to add tasks to the sprint under their name a day before the sprint was due to be completed, marking them as completed as soon as they went in. This resulted in the burndown chart looking much more unorganised and hectic than it already had.

Due to the fact that we've ended up with so many tasks to complete within the final one-week sprint, motivation seems to have returned and hopefully this will spell a good result for our final release of the project. There's still a lot of work to be done between further bug fixes, testing and trailer creation, but the team is determined to come out on top at the end of this release and have a great game to show for it.

The work I did for this sprint related back to feedback received on what we had completed for the Production Release - we were given the idea to include some objects around the theater to make the environment feel more lived in and active. For this, I decided to create some extra models that would fit in on floors of any auditorium - popcorn buckets and soda cups.

Before I jumped into creating these models, I first researched vintage versions of each object to stay true to the 1930s style we're aiming for. I also wanted to include some extra common cinema objects like soda machines and speakers, so looked these up too. From my research, I found out that popcorn was originally sold in bags rather than the boxes we know today, and so I made separate models of a bag and bucket, to both keep the vintage feel and reinforce the more modernised elements of the theater as well.

Another interesting find was the ever first soda-dispensing machine created for Coca-Cola in 1933 - this design fit in perfectly with the vision I had for a vintage dispenser, and so I based the model of the drink dispenser off of this.

Another interesting discovery was the Speakers of the 1930s - the specific one that I found, a Super Power 6-volt S.P.6, ended up having a very simplistic design that could be broken down into primitive 3D objects, and so I started with a cylinder and a cube when making this model. I was very proud of the final result.

I've included a collage image of the other models I worked on during this sprint below - this includes singular popcorn buckets and soda cups to be used for cleaning tasks, and stacks of each to be used in the snack bar area of the Lobby.

References for Image Resources:

Popcorn Bag: https://generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk/cifr/2019/08/21/lets-all-go-to-the-lobby-how-concessions-shape-cinema/

Soda Machine: https://www.antiquetrader.com/collectibles/coca-cola-historic-dispenser

Speaker: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/baker_super_power_1930.html

Spent an extra evening reworking the lights in each scene, changing the lamps from having a light component to having two cone-shaped lights emitting from them instead to make it look like the light is actually coming from the lamp itself. Also reduced the number of light sources in some scenes and changed the mood of lights in the Hallway and MaintenanceRoom scenes.

All lights were changed from baked to mixed so that dynamic objects could still cast shadows and be lit by light sources - this works better for objects thrown around/moved by anomalies.

Spent the last couple of days adding baked lighting and light probes to the updated scenes of our game. I vouched for warm and cool white lights to both suit the era of the building and the types of lights being added (chandeliers, lamps, etc.). I also made this decision to make sure that the lights have the same intensity and feel in both colour and greyscale.