Winds, Mountain, Lake (Unity Physics Engine Game/An Interactive Picture)
Aims and Objectives
While doing the Physics Engine prototype, I was interested in recording players trail on the scene so that they can have different experiences every time they play through the game. Thus, a Chinese ink painting background was settled as it’s more abstract with less colour which might provide players space to draw something with the trail. After the background was done, I realised it could be also suitable for An Interactive Picture. I was influenced by that realisation, and the category of this game by the end was to some extent at the middle of these two.
Processing
The disappearing of background and the control of wind zones functions were carried out by SetActive in scripts. I stuck by here for some time, before learning that if I added the scripts straightly to the objects themselves with setting SetActive to false at the Start part, the whole objects with their components wouldn’t be called again regardless of what was in the Update part, and the solution was adding the scripts to another object such as the main camera.
Playtest feedback and reflection
As it’s a Zen feeling game and there’s a thought “It’s fine to have something or not” in Zen, in the first version, I let the clouds only instruct where the winds directed. Players were required to try with the mindset of targetless to understand what would happen by pressing the “Space” button. As a result, the player felt confused while playtesting, which I thought mainly because the ink drop might not be at the wind zone while the player was pressing the button.
After that, my idea of adjusting was making the clouds collisionable and the ink drop could be influenced by both winds and clouds. Still, the player felt confused and started to guess whether the only controllable things are the clouds and have no idea about wind zones. I compromised for a while, tried to really let the clouds be only controllable, before realising it against the original intention of making a Zen feeling game to let the players try. I figured I should be able to keep my original version if I adjust the number, scale and position of the wind zones and put some guides at the beginning or when finding players struggling. In addition, I also learnt that the player wouldn’t actively try to draw something with the ink drop, for the reason that it is difficult to control, the “clouds instruction” is only a one-time show, and the player cannot see the specific location of the wind area. But good feedback was that the player did regard the experience be nice in the aesthetic aspect.
If I redo this prototype, I believe I’ll start it with An Interactive Picture. As the core thought of this prototype does not match Unity Physics Engine Game very well, and if sorting it into Interactive Picture, there should be some more interesting ways to interact.