- Kara Laumann
Journal Pages pt. 2
On my student team project I am working on a new system of journal pages. We have 12 pages in entire game. Players don't have to collect all of them, but in doing so they get to experience more of the world and have a laugh. In my last post I talked about how I created the journal menu. The menu was a bit static coming in and it could use more life to it. I also only had it accessible through the pause menu. To help with the immersion I now have it accessible if the player just presses TAB. That way the player doesn't have to go through the pause menu to see all of their collected journals. My last big addition for the journal pages was the HUD feedback. When the player firsts collects a journal they get a prompt telling them where to find the pages. A journal page also appears with a number that tells how many total pages have been collected.
On my second pass of the journal menu I wanted the pages to fall into place instead of all coming up at once. This makes the page feel more dynamic and the pages now feel more separate rather than being connected. The shadows now move separate from the pages. When the background comes in the shadows then fade in. Each shadow represents the empty slot from the pages, so having them separate lets the pages fill in afterwards taking up those empty slots. Doing this helps the slots feel less like the pages as they did before when they all moved together. Like how they fall in the pages also fall out when the menu is closed. My goal was to be consistent in opening and closing the menu. Currently closing feels a bit slow. I will conduct some testing before I speed it up. The current audio clips also sound a bit mechanical and need to be updated.
The HUD animation for picking up a journal is quite simple. It comes in from the top left, the number comes out and pulses before going back. I chose the top left because the player is looking at the right side to solve the puzzles. The bottom left is where the flame's UI is so using the top right keeps the HUD elements on the same side and doesn't negatively impact the player when they're looking on the right side. The slight pulse will help draw attention to the increased number without being too distracting. The HUD element lasts for a few seconds before it goes off the screen.
