Good day!

Today in this topic, I will be explaining a bit more about the current stage in Submarine Explorer and what I have been working on.

Development

We’re already on our third week on this project which is just unbelievable on just how fast time flies by! Last week, I have been preparing a lot of things for the future. such as: Quest Manager, Quest Descriptions (Dialogues for every quest), controller schemes and 3D models.

Quest manager

I made a Quest manager that can create new quests. You can type in different text boxes to make a new quest. Fun fact: I made this by accident. When I had a meeting with the group. I was tasked to make a Quest Descriptor that has all the dialogues on every mission. My thought was that I now had to make a Quest Manager that can create quests by typing in the dialogues and every other values.

When I was done, we all had a little laugh since my mission was to just write dialogues and created a Quest Manager instead. But hey. I’m positive about it. Now that a Quest Manager is created, our programmers don’t have to do one which will save them some time.

Quest Descriptor

The Quest Descriptor was the one that took most of my time making this. Since one of the core mechanics in Submarine Explorer is to explore the ocean and discover new creatures. There should at least be lots of creatures. The Quest Descriptor is made by typing in a new creature and then type in the dialogue about it.

Together with my group and a couple of friends in school, the Quest Descriptor is a little over eight pages of just descriptions! This was a very funny task to do. Coming up with an idea of a fish and then type the dialogue. Discussing new creatures with friends is one of my favourite things to do when making quests. You will hear lots of funny ideas.

Controller scheme

Since my goal is to make the game adapted to people with disabilities, I need to research the controllers and make a scheme that has every type of gameplay in order to have it as open and adapted as it can be.

Me and one of my coworker has been researching the controllers and test out different ways to play the game. We managed to get six different Controller Schemes.

1, The first if of course playing with the HTC Vive headset and both Vive controllers. If you want to experience the game in VR and interact with the Vive controllers. This method should be a good choice.

2, The second is by playing with the HTC Vive and only one Vive controller. This shouldn’t be a big difference by playing with both Vive controllers. If a player only has one arm and still want to play in VR. This should be as easy to interact in the game as if playing it with both controllers. Or someone just wants to play with only one controller.

3, The third is by having the HTC Vive headset and a regular controller such as a Xbox 360 controller. What if you want to play it in VR but don’t want to play with the Vive controllers?

4, The fourth is by using the HTC Vive headset and a keyboard. What if you don’t have a Xbox 360 controller? and don’t want to play with the Vive controllers? Using the keyboard should be just fine.

5, The fifth way to play is by just using a keyboard and mouse. What if you don’t want to play the game in VR? What if you even don’t have the HTC Vive set? Playing it the regular way is also a possibility.

6, The sixth and last way to play is by only using a Xbox 360 controller. You don’t want to play with the keyboard and mouse, or don’t want/ have the HTC Vive set. Playing with a Xbox 360 controller should be just fine.

3D models

Lastly, I have been creating 3D models. I must say that creating 3D models with no experience in Blender made this task much more difficult. So far I have created two creatures for Submarine Explorer. Even though I have only a couple of days’ worth of experience using Blender, it’s really fun to just experiment with everything and try to make 3D models.

Here´s a creature that I have created in just two days. It’s a boomerang fish. When it moves forward, it starts to spin just like a boomerang. Sometimes, even I start to wonder if you can call it a fish or even a living creature from time to time. I also drew the texture.

I thought it would be funny to draw the boomerang from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. There’s one problem that I can think of which is that the boomerang in The Legend of Zelda is copyrighted. I might have to change the texture in the future, but I will take care of that later. Even though I have years’ worth of experience drawing 2D art, drawing in 3D models is harder than thought.

This will be the end of this topic today. Thank you all very much for reading. Have a good day and we will see you again next time!

Your Regards
Tim