Week 07

Arr maties, here we are again, sailing steadily toward our final destination! This week marked the start of our second big production sprint, and the excitement is definitely in the air. With every passing day, our pirate world is becoming richer, livelier, and much closer to the grand adventure we set out to create.

The team has been hard at work across all departments, from art to code to sound, breathing more life into our game. We tackled some major features this week, some that you'll see right away, and others that are setting the foundation for even bigger updates just around the corner.

From polishing our seas and shores to crafting new mechanics like swimming, digging, and cannonball battles, we're pulling out all the stops. And let’s not forget: our band of PiRats is finally ready to set sail, personalities and all!

Art

Model Updates 

We're still fully workin on sprucing up the game area, now with the exciting addition of two cliff faces that act as borders, to make sure you don't sail right off the world! We've also completed the geometry of our boats, complete with a giant canon you'll be able to use to blow your enemies away! 

Visual Fixes 

After some investigation, we've fixed distant meshes popping into view! Part of the problem was nanite being enabled by default on the new meshes. That along with a bounds increase makes sure everything now runs smoothly.

Character Selection

Even more particles have been created this week. However way more importantly ? What good are multiple characters if there is not a way to choose which of them to play. This week we came up with a few possible designs for a character selection screen and decided on a clear favorite. What better way than to have our pirate mateys walk the plank. The implementation should be done by the next high tide.

Character Creation

The gang is here everyone! We've finally finished texturing our unique PiRats. We know how much you love picking your favorite characters so we're giving you 4 different personalities to choose from!

We also started working on character portraits to accompany you during the game in the HUD! You better not get hit or you'll see your precious character having a bad time...

Code

More Player Movement

What’s a pirate game without swimming? We decided that all our pirates should start taking swimming classes! This turned out to be quite a bit of work, since our pirates didn’t have any logic for swimming at all. Our programmers agreed that we needed to make some changes under the hood. Previously, a pirate always assumed they were on land and could just walk around. Now, we had to introduce proper player states to handle different types of movement. This also gave us a great opportunity to start setting up the necessary code for animations. Hopefully, we’ll start seeing these animations implemented over the next few weeks!

Digging

Our digging mechanic is now fully implemented and working!
Players can head to designated dig spots and unearth treasure. Every dig rewards a treasure chest, and when opened, a some coins spills out!
Be quick though, any player can grab the coins, so keep a sharp eye before another pirate steals your hard-earned loot.

Projectiles

We’ve also started working on the projectile system for the game. Right now, we’re focusing on two types: cannonballs and nets.

• Cannonballs: Hitting an opponent with a cannonball stuns them for a short time, leaving them unable to move.

• Nets: Nets are used to steal loot from enemy ships. If you successfully hit an opponent's ship, a chest containing some of their loot drops into the water and it’s up for grabs by anyone nearby!

Player Wacking 

The player wacking is also on its way! This mechanic will be used by the player to push away their opponents. It is currently still a work in progress as the mechanic has a few pesky bugs in it...

Sound

We are finally at the stage where we can add music and sound effects to our project!

Since none of us are sound designers, we’re sourcing free audio online and having the programmers integrate it into the project.
Here’s a sneak peek at some of the sounds we’ve already added