Console Game Prototype: The Final Script & Investigating How To Make Cutscenes!
Bonjour à tous!
Let's skip the small talk and go straight into the main course today...
The Final Script
So last time, I displayed some of the script in a more visual-format to see if it would be of any use to the team vs. reading a straight Word doc. Turns out they weren't particularly fussed, and since I haven't had too much time this week, I haven't continued it to finish as I said I would. Sorry!
Should you still be curious to read the script, you can download a copy below:
Script with images
.pdf
Download PDF • 1.40MB
If you do check it out, then I hope you can envision how things might look and play out fairly easily and clearly! Happy reading!
Lights, Camera, Action!
Here's the real juicy bit of this post: looking into creating cutscenes!
As the cutscenes will play a really big role in the moment in the story we wish to create, I'll be taking a delve into how we can bring the moments to life - particularly with the camera movements, angles etc. This is completely new ground for me, so I've had to do quite a bit of research to see what tools I need to get the job done.
From what I've found out, there are 2 main plug-ins that users need: Cinemachine and Timelines. My first line of investigation took me down the Timelines route, and I've created a simple scene inside our Unity project for me to play around in. Using the script as a guide, I've tried to test all the main features that I believe we would need, which are:
Fading the scene into view
Changing between multiple cameras
Playing audio on cue (this will come into it's own when we bring in dialog later)
Displaying UI elements (such as fading in and fading out text)
Playing animations as and when we want them
Fortunately, a lot of this is quite straightforward to implement, with only a little bit of code needed to complete the ensemble. The final scene I've made can be viewed below!
Now, granted, there isn't anything particularly amazing going on in this little test scene - but its a start and I'm happy with it!
Closing Thoughts
Ok! That's the latest from me for this week's progress. I've been doing a fair bit of networking with people in the gaming industry via Discord and LinkedIn, which has been pretty sweet! They've also been kind enough to give me pointers on various things, which is incredibly kind of them, so I hope to not let them down!
The next thing I plan to look into is how to use Cinemachine. Alongside that, I need to ensure everyone in the team is keeping our Trello board updated, since that's what we are using as our project management platform (I know JIRA is a big thing, but its sometimes easiest to stick what you already know when time is precious!). So, as usual, I'm leading the charge with most elements of our group project - hopefully we can deliver it to the fullest!
Anyhow, I think it is time to wrap things up for today. So thanks once again for stopping by to read this post, stay safe, and I shall update you next week - buh bye! :)