11/9 feedback:

• Next step: need to nail down basic mechanics and implement them on Unity side
  • How are pets going to interact with the user and how will that drive the game forward?
• What do the creatures idle and reaction states look like?
  • If they’re sitting, do they move a little? Do they move? Do they hop or worm?
  • What are their positive / negative reactions to an event?
  • What do they look like when they’re happy vs. distress?
• Journal/diary aspect can be stretch goal instead:
  • Will take a lot of time and writing for the thoughts of the different characters
  • Can be a stretch goal instead
  • It’s not too technical but takes a lot of time and thinking
• To note: we can use found assets all the way up until the final product (gray boxing is also ok for now)
  • If we’re using music, as long as it’s open license and we credit, we can use it
• Leo mentioned “Exhalation”
  • Because of cutesy elements, might interesting to confront some kind of dark element
• Maiia mentioned mix matching assets in Photoshop or something
• References:
  • Ted Chiang’s “Exhalation” book: the specific short story is the lifecycle of software objects
  • Doki Doki Literature Club (starts cute, gets meta)
  • DragonVale - check how the dragons are made
    • Modular pet design
• Pretty good progress so far!

11/12 changes:

• Working on making different pet customization options
• Working on pet idling animations and expressions
• Rough UI elements and bedroom background

11/16 feedback:

• Don’t worry too much about the narrative
  • If you like the theme about these pets being unwanted, it can be like you have a part time job and you gotta take care of these pets that no one wants
• Don’t worry too much about making the minigames very complex; simple is good
  • Doesn’t need to be a puzzle or quick time events; can rely more on the sim elements like feeding
  • Need to focus on a warm feeling of taking care of an animal
  • Focus more on the asset side than the complexity of the games to better evenly distribute the work
• Don’t worry too much about the visual aesthetics too much rn? Focus on getting the games working
  • It’s fine if the pets are in a pixel style - maybe the pets have been rejected bc they’re not smooth (like in the world we’re presenting)
    • Janice can also remake them in Illustrator (depending on what we want to do)
• Think of minigames that are more related to taking care of a pet, like feeding
  • Don’t necessarily have to be games, just something to interact with your pet
  • Can ask John about Unity tutorial about erasing stuff off of a pet + tracking time based on system time (which would be fine, even if you could change your in system time)
• Core is being able to take care of these animals and customize them
  • Put more focus on the customization side
  • Take assets and make the customizable part working
• Walking minigame can be a stretch goal
• Customization:
  • Rather than click and dragging the elements onto a base, use a left and right arrow to click through what types of eyes, mouth, etc. you want to put on the base
    • Reference Mii Maker
  • 8 customization options is a good start
• Focus on building the core so that people can play it in 2 weeks!

11/20 changes:

• Changed visual direction to be more smooth/vector
• Removing character creation aspect so we can divide work more evenly and focus more on the pet sim aspect
• Settled on mingames: feeding, dancing, and bathing minigames
• Developed opening story

11/30 feedback: 

• Bugs: 
  • Bathing minigame: 
    • Sometimes when you clean everything, the game doesn’t end even though there’s nothing left to clean
    • When cleaning too fast, it messes up the detection
    • After winning, the mouse disappears. Make sure to bring it back when you’re back in the menu
  • Dancing minigame:
    • Incorrect arrow keys sometimes increase the happiness meter on the top left?
    • Sometimes happiness starts at 1?
• General changes:
  • Make feedback more prominent so that player knows that they’re doing it right or wrong
    • Next class - need to focus on getting everything working
  • Text for the textboxes is hard to read (it’s mostly the ‘s’); would like to keep everything consistent to Nunito 
  • Change happiness icon to 1 that cycles (happy, normal, upset) (was confusing)
  • Change hearts to food for hunger
  • For minigames in general:
    • Provide feedback to the user that something has gone right or wrong
    • Make the timer bigger / more noticeable 
    • Give the user a couple of seconds to read the instructions before the game starts / let the user click to make the minigame start
    • For the dancing minigame, did not see the instructions immediately because it’s in the bottom left corner
    • After winning a minigame, it should reflect somehow in the pet status UI more clearly (maybe on the pet itself?)
  • Bathing minigame:
    • Doesn’t need a timer? Could just clean the pet + it doesn’t make much sense
  • Dancing minigame:
    • Confusing for people to use WASD when you’re showing arrows
    • Maybe increase the timer by 5 sec or reset the timer when you clear a round of arrows
    • Reshuffle the arrows each time
    • Need more rounds
      • 4 arrows to 8 too extreme; go from 4 > 6 > 8
    • End the round when you get an input wrong; reshuffle the arrows
    • Might make more sense to replace the happiness meter during the minigames with circle shapes:
      • Example: O O O      < 3 mistakes left     O O X       < 2 mistakes left
  • Keep the UI consistent across minigames (ie, number of mistakes left are always in top left, timer always on top, etc)
• Is there a screen where you choose a pet? How do you get more pets since you’re a pet caretaker?
• Points on the screen > shop incentive is good
  • Could use the points to buy decorations
  • Could also use the points to buy a bigger room, so you can have more room to get another pet
• When winning minigames, should have some kind of reward (points/cash, mystery box with more decorations/clothes, etc)
• Assets needed / revisions:
  • Hover states for buttons
  • Some of the expressions are too similar to each other / not clear that they’re unhappy
  • Backgrounds:
    • Title background
    • Main hub background
    • Dancing minigame background
    • Bathing minigame background
    • Kitchen for food minigame background
  • Activity icons (food, dance, bathing, walking(?))
  • Assets for the food minigame
  • Shop icon asset
  • Basic decorations for room / pets
  • Points assets
  • Low priority but also music (at least for the dancing game)

12/1 changes:

• More backgrounds created and UI replaced
• Change hearts to a hunger icon
• Made buttons for the activities/minigames
• UI has been made more clear to indicate mistakes
• Added instructions before the minigames
• Fonts all updated to be Nunito
• Included a pet choice menu at the start of the game

12/7 feedback: 

• Might need to make the real time tracking a stretch goal if can’t figure it out; might be worth fixing the bugs first
• Might be more natural to add the X close to an enter since you’re also using the arrow keys

12/10 changes:

• Visual assets all developed
• Bug fixing and tweaks
• Added background music and sound effects