Pesci Politics Development Log - Core Mechanics and UI/UX
Official itch.io page: https://liw-jk.itch.io/pesci-politics
This project was a part of a university-set brief where we were tasked with creating a multiplayer social deduction game within a 10-week period in teams!
I was personally tasked with working on a majority of the core gameplay lop mechanics, as well as UI/UX within engine! Additionally I also worked on some extra tasks such as marketing, trailer editing, and a bunch of bug fixing!
This was an amazing experience to develop a bunch of my skill set as well learn some new skills along the way! And on top of that learn to work in a large team collaboratively across different specialisms!
Team Credits: (fully detailed on the itch page!)
Development:
Oliwia Jakubiak
Toby Holloway
Ilya Polyaev
Level Design:
Zara Peace
Asset Production:
Evelyn Peckham
Amy Gillings
Grace Phipps
Camille Hobeika
Concept Art:
Maddy Boldero
Georgie Ellis
Han Andrews
Evelyn Miller
Sofia S.P Trigo
Official trailer I personally worked on making using clips and videos recorded by the rest of the team :)
Parent Evidence Blueprint script for checking for empty hot bar before picking up and increasing or decreasing popularity based on child evidence values.
Called from parent evidence to player to the custom function in player for picking the slot in hot bar
An experiment in checking for arrays and setting accordingly dependent on what was picked up, I found errors in this script as the items were not set correctly within the hot bar and would either not appear, or would be able to be overwrote.
Checking and setting arrays dependent on picked up evidence within the player hot bar and calling widget blueprint
Within widget blueprint setting icon by switching once again dependent on the values of the picked up evidence.
Initial test with updating popularity bar dependent on what was picked up although the errors here would be that the bar would only update once.
Quick and simple solution was to create 2 separate functions to either increase or decrease and just call the corresponding one dependent on which you picked up.
The other decrease function
How these mechanics looked visually on screen in game whilst testing
Recording of the working picking up and inventory/hot bar system
Recording of the working popularity system with accordance to what's picked up
Initial experiments of creating a terminal where you upload evidence onto. Tried to create a custom script for holding and adjusting popularity once hold is complete. The errors found here would be that corresponding events were called but not fired.
Experimented with simplified version of the previous script although the same errors applied
Decided to rewrite and instead went with an enhance input action for holding that would then check through hot bar emptiness then call to upload through a loop when interacting
Called from terminal blueprint to player where the uploading logic fires within a loop as well
How the uploading mechanic looks visually within the final game product
Recording of the raw terminal mechanic working in testing
Initial layouts for the UI of the main menu, basing it off of logo concepts made by another team member
Once designs were made for different elements and were sent to me I create a final main menu UI with an additional how to print screen due to playtesting feedback on instructions needed for better player experience
How the main menu visually looks in-game
How the 'how to play' screen visually looks in-game
I additionally decided to experiment with making custom animations for a more dynamic, enhanced and polished UI. With some additional nodes added to fix some resolution errors for different screen resolutions.
Recording of the final main menu UI in-game with all animations finished and added
Initial layouts for the hot bar and icons whilst waiting on designs to be made
How the initial HUD looked like in game before final design and polishing
The HUD screen final design with all elements added and fonts cleaned up
I created an additional controls panel as well as similarly we had playtest feedback on confusion with movement and controls so an in game controls panel you can access at all times felt like the most effective solution to me.
How the final HUD visually looked like in game whilst testing
The final visual look of the hot bar with custom icons made for each evidence type
Similarly to the main menu I also experiment with some simple animations for the control panel to again polish the design a little more and for a cleaner user experience
Recording of the final HUD in game whilst testing
Initial voting screen layout before final designs, aiming for a blue underwater theme for cohesiveness with the game theme
Final voting screen design with all UI elements implemented. The only animations added here were the same dynamic button inputs from the main menu for simplicity and to not overwhelm this already busy screen
How the final voting screen looked like visually in game