Wk 7 and 8:

Key Creative and Technical Showcases and Decisions.

Tech Art

This fortnight our tech artist Charlee worked on fleshing out the post-processing volume, cell shader, and a new puddle shader; as well as adding in a particle effect for rain. The puddles were the main struggle here, as they relied a lot on the directional light in the art-corner that the cel shader bypassed.

The cel shader allows for customisation of each light band, night colouring, as well as rim lights and antrosopy. Additionally, we've made it so that the albedo of the model it is placed onto can be used underneath the cel shader. This new version of the older cel shader allows for the 3D artists to texture their models in substance painter and then render the shader over the top in Unreal.

The puddle shader can be applied on top of the cel shader -- which is what has been done. It calls upon multiple different material functions in order to create a rippling effect. This shader has gone through many iterations; the biggest struggle was trying to have the low roughness look good with the cell shader. Moving forward, Charlee wants to have the ripples be caused by a particle collision, rather than just a constant animation.

And finally, the rain. This is done by having a collision event triggered from one particle hitting the ground. This then triggers the response particle (the splash). The result is still a work in progress, but for the moment it does create a really convincing, stylised rain effect.

Adding rain to the environment significantly alters the mood and really helps achieve the gloomy aesthetic we are going for. In the coming weeks we really want to refine the weather and environment to display a lot more of a claustrophobic feel to really push that narrative across and allow for the ending (which will be in colour) to become a lot more earned and contrasted to the beginning.

ArtCorner -- No Shaders. Rain Particle Effect

ArtCorner -- Cel Shader. Rain Particle Effect.

ArtCorner -- Cel Shader. Black and White Shader. Rain Particle Effect.

3D

To get ahead of where we left off last fortnight, we decided to start getting 3D assets done for the art corner. We started adding bids to our Flow so that we can properly track time on each and get it properly implemented into our workflow. In terms of decisions we've made for 3D, we want to have the majority as modular; giving us the ability to interchange bits and pieces within the levels. This will be extremely important in following weeks.

Above is a wonderful example for how the modular and interchangeable assets will work. With different light fixtures able to be attached to the same pole, the model becomes a lot more reusable.

Oliver Hocking, 2026

Charlee McDonough, 2026

Oliver Hocking, 2026

Different Camera Views -- Mockups and Builds:

During play testing and critiques, we had received feedback from our peers about our camera view not fitting the direction of our game. This brought back the discussion on camera angles.

After receiving approval to change our camera view back to third person, we needed to choose exactly how we wanted the movement to feel. Morgan, our lead programmer worked on building several different options for us to try. We also had our concept artists create mock-ups of multiple different options as well.

Showcase of the prototyped camera angles.

Isometric Mock ups

Third Person Mock ups

Player controller - climbing

The player can now have the ability to climb objects. This is to give the player more mobility during levels and open pathways enemies can't traverse. This was done by tracing a line in front of the player while they're jumping then aligning them to the wall and only allowing them to move up and down using the movement keys. The climb only ends once the player lets go of the jump input or the draw line to the wall returns a no hit which then the player is placed on top of the wall. As of now there are still issues to be solved with the climbing such as the player clipping under the map.

Social, Cultural and Ethical Considerations (update) -- The Evolving Narrative

As we've progressed with development, our considerations on certain ethical implications surrounding representations of an endangered species, and animal poaching have evolved. We don't want to have our game be too dark, however we also don't want to gloss over any terminology or story-lines that could bring awareness to such topics.

As such, our narrative designer Chudi has been working hard to have our game be both entertaining, and ethically informed -- portraying our main character as a creature negatively affected by poaching and bring awareness to the victims as such. This helps prevent any glorification of the topic, as well as giving a reason for the chosen perspective.

The most significant achievement these two weeks was completing the Narrative Document. By clearly defining narrative design across all major sections including worldbuilding, character backstory, environmental storytelling systems, gameplay, narrative integration, tone, and thematic boundaries, we established clear constraints for scriptwriting. Rather than open-ended creation without direction, setting boundaries within a given theme proved far more efficient and productive. This also greatly improved communication between narrative and other disciplines.

Production Highlights and Challenges:

The biggest challenge so far has been deciding on a camera angle. We were all fairly set on a 3rd-person free-cam, however after numerous conversations with tutors it was recommended we try isometric.

The isometric view just doesn't work for our creative vision though. The exploration pillar that Waybound relies on isn't portrayed correctly, the city loses the claustrophobic atmosphere we wanted, and the level and story design centred around a small critter lost a lot of weight due to the audience losing the unique, low-angled perspective.

As a result, we organised a meeting with the tutors and came to a final decision; we are switching back to 3rd person. While we wanted to take the isometric view as a challenge to learn and overcome, the design requirements ended up outweighing the former. We are all confident that this will significantly boost morale, as well as allow us to communicate our vision a lot stronger.

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