It's done! (ish)

Hello, this will be my last blog for my final year project, Reality Runner.

It has been a long and bumpy ride to this point, but I have definitely learnt a lot and am grateful for the experience.

Today, I finally used timeline to create some cutscenes for the win screen, the game over screen, the entry cutscene and the following cutscene.

I added the functionality for the portals that are at the end of each level (win state) and the death/game lose states. I originally had the functionality for the game win and lose states in the game manager (called game master in my project), but since the player is being loaded in using player prefs for some reason the states were not working correctly. In the end, I extended the heart system script and the time script for the death/game loss states. It's very simple, if there are no hearts left then the player death animation plays and the game over screen is loaded and the same goes for time, but it works if there is no time left. I also designed and coded a simple start screen that has a play button and an exit button so the player can exit out of the start screen. The start screen loads the character selection screen once the player presses the start button, which allows them to choose their character which is then saved throughout the game using player prefs.

Overall, I think this project was somewhat successful but there is a lot I could have done better and will do better when it comes to future projects. I think my project itself could have better organisation; I have a lot of folders but some of them are useless or were used in the past and I forgot to remove them. The assets section of my project is very chaotic as well, but is also somewhat organised. I had originally restarted my project because of the chaos in my folders, but I didn't manage to maintain the order that I had wanted to, which is a shame and I will definitely do better in the future. I also think I could have had better level designs. I had planned the majority of my levels beforehand, but I feel like my levels could have been a bit more creative and a bit longer too. I could have implemented some more obstacles rather than just having one. I also should have utilised the falling platform script that I made more, I only used it once, which is a bit silly since it does increase the difficulty of a level by quite a bit if used correctly.

In conclusion, I am somewhat proud of what I have created, I just wish I was able to implement all that I originally intended to. My final year project was a great learning experience and challenged my skills and also my belief in my abilities. I am definitely better prepared for another project in the future (I am thinking of making a cute mushroom game). I will definitely have a better game structure in the future and utilise a game manager better than I did, I am sure there is a way to figure out how to use a game manager with player prefs correctly, but my limited knowledge of player prefs and lack of research led me to alternative ways of implementing what I had intended.

Honourable mentions of some of the art that did not make it into the game or was not finished due to my lack of time:

That is all, thank you for reading my blogs and following the development of Reality Runner.

Dabrina, for the last time.