Tutorial Development - Working towards a small and complete level

Welcome to week 2 of the development of Scavenger Squad! This week I've been focusing on creating an intro or tutorial level. The point of this level is two things:

1. Introduce the player to the mechanics, the premise, and the story of the game.
2. Figure out and create the mechanics, the premise, and the story of the game.

That said, I've made some great progress. Let's dive in!

Dialog

To guide the player along the way, there is somebody talking to you over walkie talkies. I created a dialog box system and modeled a walkie talkie.

One thing that I really love and wanted to introduce somewhere into the game is 2D animation. So I tried my hand at drawing and animating a walkie talkie for the dialog box. Plus this helps tie the UI into the world.

Menus and Collecting

Half the fun of the game should be exploring and testing the limits of the level, trying to find secret area. I'm hiding the best collectibles in the hardest areas. To see what you've collected so far, I made a menu system to view each item up close.

I'm going to create a large collection of items, each with their own humorous description. I'm thinking, how would a raccoon interpret this item? For example, a Chinese takeout box is paper hat that smells like chicken.

Look and Feel

I've always been partial to a stylized look and feel to games. I'd define that as somewhere between realistic and cartoon. It features exaggerated colors and shapes. My process for modeling is:

1. Open Blender. Stare at the screen for at least 5 minutes until my brain re-enters the room.
2. Model based on reference photos images, simplifying and exaggerating detail where applicable.
3. Once my model is complete, I'll add a Lattice modifier and start to deform the model. It's really easy to get crazy when doing this, so I try to stick to slight bends. Parallel lines seems to help it feel grounded and believable so I try to have at least a couple.

For texturing I use Substance Painter. I'll use a mix of realistic materials and flat colors. I think is the best way to build my vision of "stylized".

Story Development

Apart from assets and tech development, I've been spending some time thinking about the world of Scavenger Squad. I knew early on that I wanted the "Raccoon Federation", a syndicate of raccoons intent of hoarding and protecting trash.

But to help propel the story and add interesting characters I wanted to add more. If you want to remain surprised and experience it when the game comes out, then skip over the spoiler panel below. If you simply must know then be my guest and open it up.

Steam Partner

Other big news this week is I've been approved as a Steam partner so I can sell on Steam! I've started the process of making a Steam page, but it's not up yet. I'm needing to build out some more of the visuals and screenshots first.

Thanks for reading and joining me on this journey!