Hey guys, I thought I'd pop in and give an update on some of TSLs progress. (Do I need an introduction? I'm not really forum active. )
I've cleaned up some of the logic since the last update so characters actually stay dead if get a game-over. That one has some
weird after-effects so it's good that we've fixed it now. Various other fixes here and there as we find anomalies so you can probably add another 1% to that logic completion.
As mentioned, TSL 5 is "playable" start to finish and I've actually done so without any "dev-hacks". We have a couple testers who are currently attempting to do the same. I didn't think this episode was
too devious, but I did have to write a concise walkthrough to help them out. Take that as you will.
Animations have been the most steadily progressing section, though it's not without issue. Graham needs to be reexported into unity to add a mount node he was missing but doing so makes his locomotion stop working. >_< He was already being stubborn and had decided to stop running (for no reason) and now he really isn't feeling like walking at all! Hmmph! Maybe he's mad that one of his animations makes him sink into the ground. I dunno.
Valanice had her rig fixed so animations will no longer make her hand tiny. Buuuuuut for that to work, we have to re-export the animations with the new rig (or she'll explode, like literally). Unfortunately, some of our animations are either ...misplaced or have been done in newer versions of maya, making re-exporting almost impossible. We
could open up the fbx animation files in a text editor, read what's there, and recreate the animations manually. But I don't think we're that crazy yet. I might have to just get one of my animators to export things for a month to sort that out...
Some other characters have capes. So that's fun.
The directors and I are not completely satisfied with some bits of the end game. It's been set up as it was written way back but...I dunno. Something doesn't quite feel right. And we know you guys would rather we avoid QTEs as much as possible. Rest assured that we'll do our best to make it satisfying and not annoying. But I will say that it looks
hilarious with some of the temp models we've dropped in. I'll have to take some dev pics to share after release. Can't show now 'cause spoilers.
Oh! The UI now has almost all the functionality as the UI in episodes 1-4. Translating that from torque took some doing but everything seems to be running smooth now. This includes the little skeleton Graham image you get when you game-over.
I could mention a few more things like but I won't. Because spoilers.
