Sprint 6 - PermaCheck

For the second to last sprint of the project, I worked on creating a main menu background, the second half of the modifier icons, beginning an update to the UI design, creating a new wall tower model, and adding in a few more sound effects. The easiest of the tasks in my opinion was creating the wall tower model. The game was having a visual issue rendering in the previous models we were using, causing odd blinking and disappearing meshes. To fix this, the producer sent over some new models, but the designer wanted a wall model that completely filled out a square on the board. So, I quickly made one that was a cube at its base with some smaller cubic decorations on top to make it more closely resemble a castle wall. This was pretty easy to UV since it was all square, and I didn't have to worry about texturing it because the designer opted to use flat color textures. I did throw a quick render out from Substance Painter to best demonstrate it's dimensions, so that is what I'm including below.

Another easier task I did was sourcing sound effects for placing pieces on the board, when a piece dies, and for when the wave is complete. The placing sound was pretty easy, I just searched for a foley sound effect of a wooden object being placed down and edited it to give it a little more oomph. For the dying sound, I searched for foley sounds of wood being broken and crumbled, then spliced them together to create one continuous sound. Lastly, for the wave end sound I used a horn sound effect that I think fit the medieval-esque theme and indicated the victory over a set of enemies. I had help from the programmer so that I could understand where I needed to place the nodes to play each sound, which was extremely helpful because I have very little coding experience, especially in Unreal 5. Once I knew where to put them, I just had to indicate which sound file I wanted to be played and that was that.

One of the things I'm most proud of that I worked on is the main menu background. I wanted to make something simple but visually interesting, and I think I did a pretty good job of hitting that goal. I started with a simple black and white grid, going with the theme of chess, then rotated it at an angle. I then used tools to distort the grid and make it appear that the explosion from the games logo was continuing outward and effecting the menu itself, causing ripples and distortion to the background. I also added a slight screen tone effect to give it a little bit more depth and variety to the eye. I think it came out pretty cool and I'm happy with the result.

I've also begun updating some of the UI elements like buttons and other graphics, changing their shapes, colors, and text, as well as adding some drop shadows. I also added in all of my completed icons for various buttons. On this note, I completed the second half of the modifier icons this sprint. I made icons for Relentless Assault, High Risk Strikes, and Execution Protocol, as well as Reinforced Units, and Emergency Repairs. My workflow for these was pretty much the same as last time, and it was easier because I was able to reuse some of my previous drawings of the pieces and modify them to fit each unique icon.

Overall, I am very happy with the work that I completed for this sprint, as well as the number of cards I was able to finish. I'm looking forward to finishing the project off strong and polishing the game up to make it look as good as possible!