Implementing Enemy art assets into the game

Right, this should be a brief blog post.

I have implemented the enemy into the game, but the enemy needs more refining. Initially I only had a grey box for place holder art.

After spending some time on the Unity Asset Store I found a free model with a reasonable poly count. The ship it self has a light coloured texture and a darker texture. I went with the lighter texture because many players commented it would be harder to see since my game is quite dark any way.

I down loaded the free model form the Unity Asset Store (Duane's, M. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/1807). The poly count for this model is 1256 polygons and comes with a 1K, TIFF, specular and normal maps in .jpg format. This has so far not hindered the performance of the game.

After implementing the ship into the game, it received many comments from different players during play testing sessions. I also added a particle system to the back of the ship to add to the immersion and to add a little to the realism. With the colouring of the exhaust flames I decided to colour them differently to the player ship. I did this to help the player differentiate between the different ships depending on what viewing angle the player is at. E.g. If the player is behind the ship, they will see the different colour flames. Also because the ship is larger than the player ship, the colour of the flame should be more intense in order to burn more fuel, e.g. closer to a white hot flame, than red hot.

The image below is the ship in the scene view.

The image below if from the player's in game view, where every thing is in action. The enemy ship is patrolling the glowing planet to the left.

Again when I tested this, the ship and the particle system both received positive reviews, also many people liked it because it has a light texture that contrasts with the dark background of the game. Therefore it's easier for players to sport whilst in the game. With this in mind I will keep this asset in the game.

For next iteration:

For the next iteration I will plan some level design, and increase the size of each planet and vary the different sizes to add to the realism a bit. After this I will fix any bugs caused by this adjustment, such as colliders, lights and so fourth.

After this I will go forward with the level design. Many players have pointed out how they became lost because the planet orientation was symmetrical and each planet is identical. I will try thins by initially makes each planet bigger by the power of two, each time, then I will try with tinting different textures.

I would also like to try and add some non interactive object into the game, since many players have connected on the game being a bit empty. I may introduce some asteroids into the game, but I will get the first two items sorted out first.