CAGD 377: Sprint 4
ePortfolio
Blog Post 4: Choices, Choices, Choices.
Publication - 3/28/26
The Goal
By the end of this semester in May, my team, L.F.G., will have developed a mobile game titled LightFall's Reign. The main requirement for this game is that it contains rougelite elements. Meaning that meta-progression is a must-have between rounds, like upgrades. The development cycle for this game will test my group's ability to follow the iterative design process using agile scrum.
Vision Statement
Forge your ship through increasingly perilous battles, risk it for greater power, and take down LightFall.
Game Summary
LightFall's Reign is a single-player sci-fi extraction shooter where players customize a ship, fight through enemy forces, and decide when to extract or risk everything for stronger rewards.
The Role
Within L.F.G., I am the team's lead designer. The significance of this role is that I introduced the idea of LightFall's Reign. Since I'm the only source for this game idea, my task is to clearly elaborate on and explain my ideas to the rest of my team. My producer must have a complete idea for the game to ensure he's able to create a lengthy backlog for each sprint, and to ensure we are on a production path that is feasible in the amount of time we are allocated. My programmer must understand all technical aspects of the game to plan how to implement the ideas into working technology. If there is any form of miscommunication or confusion in the team's overall idea for the game, there will certainly be situations that lead to a halt in development. To prevent the possibility of this, I ensure with my documentation that everything is clear and concise. If there are confusing areas, I make sure to clear them up immediately before they sink in. So far, I believe we are doing a good job since we've had no issues regarding vision, but that doesn't mean I'm allowed to stop my improvement process.
The Sprint
This sprint started off better than previous ones; the team mainly had leftover cards from the last sprint to finish, along with some new cards. We also had to remember that at the end of this sprint, we needed to prepare for our second in-class playtest. Spring break was placed within this sprint, so we had hopes that we could produce more work with that extra time. During this sprint, I worked on moving all my previously made assets into Unreal and worked on more ship models. I finished the boss ship I was assigned last sprint, and I worked on two new player ship variants.
Engine Asset Testing
Unreal Demo World
(Base Enemy Ship was repainted to match other enemy ships for continuity)
This is a collection of all assets I made before sprint 4 inside Unreal. All ship models appeared properly with vibrant textures; the weapons, however, had a paler complexion than intended. This issue will be further investigated in sprint 5, along with better optimization protocols for materials.
On Device
During playtesting, we observed that the textures on the player ship seemed compressed, which reduced the overall fidelity of the texture. This was odd as it only occurred while on the device; on the computer, emulating the game, it looked perfect. Currently, I am unsure why this happened, so I will be spending time during sprint 5 fixing this issue so it won't repeat again.
Boss Ship
To further expand on the content within our game, we decided to create a boss enemy to accompany the other enemy variants that I had created last sprint. The goal of this ship was to stand out and be imposing to the player, indicating that they were up against a real threat. I mainly drew inspiration from FTL's player ships as the basis for the boss.
Low Poly
This is the low-polygon model of the boss enemy ship with its reduced face count; it will be less taxing on the device when it appears on-screen mid-battle. As we'd like to avoid a large lag spike when it does enter the level.
This is the high-polygon variant of the boss enemy ship. The information from this model will be baked into the low-polygon model, offering great detail without increasing the rendering performance required. The details I added were mainly to increase the striping of the livery I was going to apply to it.
Textured
This is the final version of the boss ship, which incorporates the color scheme of the other enemy ships to retain its identity as an enemy craft. This model will appear around the same size as the player ship, which is significantly larger than the other enemy ships. Every other ship in this game so far has had engines implemented inside the ship's design; with this one, I wanted it to be unique. This ship has engines that appear outside the main section of the craft. This adds to the ship's uniqueness, which will catch the player's attention when it enters the field.
Player Ship Variants
The original ship model was perfect in its own right, but I wanted the players to have more of a customizable experience by choosing from a total of three ship models. With the goal of each one having distinct abilities tied to them. The abilities of these ships will be created during sprint 5, so I created these new ship models in advance.
Stealth Ship
Low Poly
This is the second player ship variant. I'm envisioning this ship to be stealth-based. The inspiration I used was the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, a retired U.S military stealth aircraft. The plane was futuristic-looking, which is what I was aiming for with a new player ship. I followed the basic ship, and I think it turned out pretty well.
For the high-polygon variant of this ship, I took a new and unique approach. Instead of relying on extrusions and beveling to create new topology, which would be baked onto the low-polygon model, I used lighting tricks that made lines on the topology of the model look sharper than they really were. Using this method of hardening the lines of the model created a similar appearance to the F-117, which is very jagged and not smooth to avoid radar detection.
The final look of the stealth ship is very satisfying to me. The new approach I used with the high poly was new, uncharted territory for me, so I had no idea how it would come out. During the bake phase, I did run into a few problems with some glitching between the two models' different topologies, but I was able to overcome them in the end. The overall look is better than I expected, with the jagged lines on the white section being apparent and bold like I envisioned. The color scheme of the player ships is also unified, like the enemy ships, creating simplicity.
Interceptor
Low Poly
This is the third player ship variant. I'm envisioning this one to be an interceptor type. The main inspiration I used for this ship type was the McDonnald Douglas F-15 Eagle, a U.S fighter jet. The F-15 is very sleek and follows the futuristic approach I was looking for. The rear of this ship is different from an F-15, as I took some creative liberties to ensure the width would stay the same as the other ships. Ensuring the width and length of these ships were all similar was tedious but important, as if they weren't similar, they'd be hard to place on screen without obscuring the UI.
Most of the high-polygon details of this ship are aimed towards the rear of the craft; this is due to my goal of preserving the appearance of a sleek craft that pierces through the inky depths of space. I believed adding too many details towards the front would ruin the design I was envisioning.
The finished version of the interceptor ship, I believe, came out well. The design does a good job, indicating that this craft is sleek compared to the other versions offered. This ship also offers engine bulges colored in titanium with emissive energy emanating from them, along with a "core" in the rear. The weapon slots on this craft are unique, with them being longer horizontally instead of vertically like the other variants. Overall, I think this variant was done well and will look great inside the game.
Second Electronic Playtest
The playtest that occurred during this print had a more complete version of our game. Graphically, it was improved with ship and background textures. The weapons and their ammunition weren't included as they needed to be corrected before implementation. Additionally, we were running a bit short on building the game, so some features were scrapped to build on time. The last-minute building created some shortcomings in quality, which produced a few problems that our playtesters faced. Due to time constraints, we had to wait on adding some new menu and UI additions that would have helped improve quality. We also added renders for the weapons, but these renders hid the rarity colored background, making it hard to select weapons in the inventory.
Overall, the playtest results were better than expected. The best news was that no bugs were found in this version. Most complaints or negative aspects were related to a lack of clarity. Players were unsure when they should extract or not, or how to equip the new weapons they got during a run. The bomb class lacked VFX, which made many playtesters believe there was a bug in the game. Players also did not notice our addition of manual aiming, as the auto-aiming was so good.
The data collected with the information provided by playtesters aligned with our internal development path indicating that we are on the right path. Most issues found in this version are due to be fixed within the next sprint. All issues from the previous playtest have been solved, indicating that we are doing a good job at listening to feedback. For these new issues, we've already created a roadmap for completion and are currently working on them.
The Wrap
At the end of sprint 4, I feel a bit underwhelmed. I didn't complete as much work as I thought I would. My last remaining task for this sprint was to create the hangar background. I was hoping to get this done over the break, but I wasn't able to. Now, that task has been delegated to my sprint 5 log.
The rest of my team also had reduced their workload, but I attribute this to us all yearning for spring break. Now that we're back after resting, I think we're gonna hit the ground harder and faster this time.
The Path Ahead
For the next sprint, I'll be working on the hangar background, some new weapon models, and most importantly, troubleshooting the texture errors that appear only on mobile. The models won't take too long, but I am worried about how long the troubleshooting process will be for the textures, as I don't have a clue, and neither do some of the instructors.
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