DevLog 2 - Game White Boxing

Project Details and Introduction

I have spent these past few weeks developing Flour & Fortune, creating a game white box. This has involved setting up areas of the game world, ingredient interactions, and starting work on the systems that will be in the final game.

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Setting up the Environment and Camera

One of the most critical aspects of early game development is getting a basic sense of the scale and shape of the buildings and locations in the game world. Using primitive shapes (cubes of different dimensions and colours), I made a ‘3D sketch’ of the game world. This ‘sketch’ should improve the gameplay experience for early testing and will give me a good reference when I create the final environment models. I also took some time to set up the camera in variable positions to get a proper feel of how the game screens should look in the final game.

Figure 1: Outside Bakery (Clicking on the Signpost [right] takes the Player to Market / Orchard) 

Figure 2: Inside Bakery (Shelving [top] / Fridge [right] will hold Ingredients, Recipe Book [left]) 

Figure 3: Rightmost Section Inside Bakery (Rewards and Unlockables including Paintings, Achievements, and Plants), (Blue Door leads into Alleyway)

Figure 4: Alleyway Vendor (Vigore as Placeholder for Trashy)

Figure 5: Outside Community Center (Center Records Information about the Player’s Statistics) (Orange Sign offers Daily Quests and Narrative Elements)

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Ingredient Interaction

As this is a baking game, interacting with ingredients is quite an important element. The current controls are right-click to pick up and left-click to pour. The ingredient interaction system stores all ingredient information on each separate item, and when added to a mixture, it transfers its data. Ingredient data includes:

1. Max Capacity (i.e., how much the bag/container can hold)
2. Current Capacity (i.e., how much the bag/container is holding)
3. Dryness & Wetness of the Ingredient
4. Ingredient Density (i.e. mass to volume ratio)

Figure 6: Current Interactable Ingredients

Figure 7: Section of Script which Converts Ingredient Rotation & Current Capacity: Max Capacity Ratio into Ingredient Pour Speed

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Mixture/Dough Recorder Data

This system records the information about the mixture - such as its mass, size, smoothness, and consistency. The computer works out these pieces of information through the interaction with the ingredient scripts, which record how much of each item is in the mixture. Importantly, I have designed it so each separate dough/mixture visually changes - the higher the liquid content - the mixture looks softer and more shiny,

Figure 8: Current Interactable Ingredients

Figure 9: Material Shader Difference Between Different Dough/Mixture Modules

That’s all for now! The next devlog is coming on 1st December 2024.

- Stephen Rockett