Polaroid Mechanic & Upcoming Features!
- Kyle Cornwell
- Apr 14, 2023
- 5 min read
Welcome back to another update to the project. Since my last post I have been constructing the ideal polaroid camera mechanics in order to carry out the neccessary playabilty and interaction through environmental storytelling. My last development video covered a recap in regards to where the project currently stands, as well as a brief demonstration video of the first tested build. Feel free to check out my last post covering the recap stage of the project consisting of a pitch document in how and where the games idea originated and developed. as well as outlining the remainder of the project towards the deadline taking place 27th April. I was originally going by my set milestones that put me at this point just over halfway of the final milestone. I am now just implementing each feature to the playable state it needs to, carry out the idea gameflow that reflects back on my research question and demonstrate the importance of depression and how it can be overcome.
Figure 1: Condemned: Souls of the Veil Devlogs - Project Update & Weeks Ahead! (Coven Interactive, 2023)
I booked some holiday from my full-time job so I could commit and solely focus on the main mechanics. It was a struggle in the first week to motivate as I had alot of doubts with how these mechanics were going to be achieved with the weeks I have left. Fortunately I managed to get a focus of energy to load up Unity and hope for the best. I first expriemented with printing a screencapture that would appear on an instantitated game object into the game scene. This would act as a physical polaroid print as if it was coming from a realistic camera. This was a positve result, which pondered the question 'How can I adapt this to my examine system?'. I followed a resourceful tutorial that enables the player to screencapture a polaroid using UI to represent a polaroid print, along with a flash animation and lighting effect (SpeedTutor, 2021). This worked to a smooth degree once i added further refinements such as the polaroid having a print animation once it has been viewed and leave the screen to go back to play mode.
Figure 2: Take PHOTOS in Unity (POLAROID Pictures Camera UI) (SpeedTutor, 2021)
Figure 3: Polaroid Test (Coven Interactive, 2023)
I decided to add further features once the integration with the examine system was solved as this made the pimary goal. I managed to piece together my examine script with the polaroid, give or take some refining with adding a UI element to represent the lense of a camera as if you were about to capture a photo. It did become fustrating as input controls were overlapping the different interaction modes. For example, left clicking onto the gameobject would be the start of examining an item (Picking object up from original position), followed by right clicking to exit examine mode (place object back to original state). This was updated with checking the a variety of boolean variables, as well as a toggle on/off mechanic to ensure that you could not capture a polaroid instantly without looking at the object which takes away the codes pirmary goal to examine before capture, otherwise this causes an instant polaroid print of an object with no undestanding as to why it is a vital piece.
Figure 4: Polaroid Test Update (Coven Interactive, 2023)
These mechanics will build the story elements as the items are around the apartment map. Once I had the examine and polaroid working to a smooth and playable state, I still need to add a physical gameobject of the captured polarid into the scene to make up what would be the detective wall in piecing together the importance of each item you examine and capture. Remember the first attempt of making the polaroid camera? This was also updated into the polaroid mechanics with instantiating the same screen capture onto a gameobject at a specific position with the use of spawn points on the wall. This would enable each polaroid capture to be spawned onto certain points to represent the printed version. I did encounter one of the most struggling issues developing this mechanic. This involved taking the first polaroid that would spawn correctly with the relevant screencapture via render texture, followed by the next polaroid replacing the previous screencapture and duplicating onto the old one, deleting my orignal photo.
This was not idea as each time a new polaroid has been captured, they would be the same. I used an assistive AI scripting tool that enabled me to break down my code to search for what was causing the error (OpenAI, 2022). It was not the most reliable tool but it was better than searching multiple lines of code on Youtube and getting lost in irelevant content. Like most of my issues making the polaroid, the resulting error was a change in the prefrab that is set to spawn the new polaroid print which was deleting and replacing a fresh screencapture. Typically it was one line of code and adjusting the set method to a new instance of the prefab and not using the same instance, avoiding any deletions of duplications of the polaroid captures. At this point, the polaroid mechanic was almost complete. It just needed some text to represent the description of the examine gameobjects. I added a text element which at first adopted the labelled name of the gameobjects instead of a set variable titled 'ItemName' which was a string enabling you to add the name of the object.
Figure 5: Polaroid Test Update 2 (Coven Interactive, 2023)
This was then used as reference to appear when examining objects. I fixed this by making examined object name equal to item name from the item script. I improved upon this so each time the polaroid was taken, the item name would be set to that polaroid print as the gameobject is set active to false in the scene since the photo as edvidence has been referenced into the printed polaroid. I tested a build of the polaroid to ensure the gameflow was consistent and smooth, which resulted in the behavior of both the examine and polaroid scripts functioning collectively and correctly. I was very proud with the primary mechanic finally implemented to create the ideal method in meeting the goal of environmental storytelling. I also have setup future functions known as spawn events to enable triggering the bedroom miriror to show the demon realm at certain stages (how many photos have been taken).
Figure 6: Polaroid Test Update 3 (Coven Interactive, 2023)
In order to continue on those features, I must have my email system as the interactive help tool to the player completed, as well as the input text dialogue for the win/lose state in the demon realm. These other mechanics will be underway after this post and I look forward to giving another breakthrough update when they are complete. It has been the most challenging part of the project but I have definitely learnt alot in relation to programming mechanic that can be used and refined further for future projects. for a further breakdown on how the polaroid mechanic works in terms of Unity and C#, feel free to watch my latest development log. Stay tuned with the upcoming features that I hope go as smooth this one!
Figure 7: Condemned: Souls of the Veil Devlogs - Polaroid Mechanic & Upcoming Features (Coven Interactive, 2023)
Coven Interactive, 2022. Condemned: Souls of the Veil Devlogs - Project Update & Weeks Ahead! [last viewed 14/04/2023] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9wCUiIVWto&t=44s
SpeedTutor, 2022. Take PHOTOS in Unity (POLAROID Pictures Camera UI) [last viewed 14/04/2023] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LrTtfZedOk&t=1193s
OpenAI, 2022. ChatGPT. [Online] Available at: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt [Last Accessed 14/04/2023]
Coven Interactive, 2023.Condemned: Souls of the Veil Devlogs - Polaroid Mechanic & Upcoming Features! [last viewed 14/04/2023[ Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udH9GV0B7d8
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