Lost Twins 2 News

Hi,

This week, we are excited to share an update on our new game environment zone - the enchanted forest which is inspired by an abandoned Chinese monastery and forest themes. Our team has been hard at work, meticulously crafting every detail to create an environment that exudes tranquility and natural beauty, transporting players to a world of warmth and joy.

For the forest zone, we were inspired by the architectural styles and layouts of Chinese monasteries, striving for a realistic representation that captures the feeling of untouched serenity. We paid attention to every detail, from the way vines wrap around pillars to the filtering of light through the leaves, to create an authentic environment that feels like it's been left untouched for years. As players progress through the game and complete the first zone, they will soon find themselves exiting through the twin doors and into an enchanting outdoor environment - a magical forest that captures the imagination and transports players to a realm of wonder and mystique.






Our goal was to create a bright, warm atmosphere that feels inviting and uplifting, incorporating an array of yellows and greens into the environment to give off a natural, sunny vibe. We chose autumn as the perfect season to achieve a harmony between the temple's decorative elements and the natural elements, creating a balance between the fallen leaves and dried-up grass tones and bringing out a feeling of familiarity after the cold environment of the previous zone. The autumn vibes create a lingering feeling of sadness of being away from home and yet a warmth and hope for new beginnings.






In this zone, we've focused on creating an environment that exudes a colorful and magical look and feel, featuring old structures, fireflies, giant mushrooms, and other items that evoke a sense of enchantment and whimsy. Players will encounter unique features as they explore the magical forest, each designed to add to the overall sense of adventure and awe. The puzzles in the zone also bring a new challenge. As players explore the environment zone, they will encounter different areas with unique features, from a peaceful courtyard with a fountain and gardens to a meditation room, where players can take a break and enjoy the serene ambiance.



Our team faced the challenge of creating a balance between the temple's decorative elements and the overgrowth of nature with temple ruins while avoiding any unnecessary distractions from gameplay. We've kept things minimal while still capturing the temple's essence, adding exciting features such as the dragonfly and mushrooms to add an element of adventure and fun to the serene environment.

We're confident that players will enjoy exploring this new environment zone, and we can't wait to share more updates in the near future.

Best regards,
Playdew team

Hi again!

We hope that everyone has had a productive and enjoyable week, and we're excited to share our latest insights and developments with you. As always, we're committed to sharing our experiences and helping to promote knowledge-sharing within the gaming community. So without further ado, let's jump right into our latest project and discuss how we approached various challenges throughout the development process.

At the beginning of our game development process, we envisioned a collaborative effort between our art and development teams. This approach allowed the art team to take the lead in designing the entire level, by creatively integrating various environmental elements to enhance its visual appeal.

To ensure that the play area was free from obstacles, the development team provided instructions to the art team, indicating the location of the characters and puzzle elements within the level.

After the level design was completed, the art team handed it over to the development team, who were responsible for creating the gameplay scripts, character controllers, and other necessary components required to make the level playable.

However, there were times when the level contained unwanted objects that could cause conflicts with our game architecture, such as colliders and additional cameras. To address this issue, we developed an editor script that automatically removes all unwanted objects, thereby ensuring that the level meets our game's requirements.



By utilising the editor script, we can now streamline the level integration process, which previously took up to 6-7 days, to a maximum of 1-2 days. The primary benefit of this approach is that it eliminates repetitive tasks, allowing the development team to focus on creating engaging gameplay mechanics and delivering high-quality game content.

We're always eager to hear from fellow game developers and enthusiasts, so please feel free to share your thoughts and feedback with us. Thank you for joining us on this journey and follow us on our socials.

Best regards,
Playdew team

Hi guys! We are back with another devlog. Today, we'll discuss the another puzzle element in the game -stone gates. These gates present an exciting challenge for players to solve. Let's dive in!

In the game, you will find various stone gates that features a remarkable force field located right at thecenter. When the gate is closed, the force field restricts passage, making it impossible for players to cross. To open the gate, players must first activate a pressure button. As they do, the gate begins to open, with the stones gradually collapsing and descending towards the ground. Simultaneously, the force field automatically deactivates, enabling players to pass through the gate. Here's an image of how we planned the concept of these stone gates.





In Unity, we utilized the Animator component to enable more flexible gate animations. However, we encountered a challenge where the gate could only move between fully opened or fully closed positions. This made it difficult to blend animations if the character disengages from the pressure button, as the gate would snap back to its previous position.

To address this issue, we introduced a parameter in the Animator controller that allowed us to adjust the gate's position progressively. By modifying the value of this parameter from 0 to 1, we were able to achieve smooth transitions in the gate animation, even if the player disengages from the button. This modification ensured that the gate would move to its final position based on its last known position, allowing for a seamless and immersive gameplay experience.

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Thank you for reading our devlog. We hope you found our insights and solutions helpful and informative for your own game development projects. Keep an eye out for more updates from our team as we continue to work on enhancing the gameplay experience. As always, we welcome your feedback and thoughts. Follow us on twitter.

Best regards,
Playdew team

Welcome to another entry in our game development log! In today's update, we'll be delving into the creation of one of another puzzle element - the rope. We'll walk you through our thought process, explain the technical aspects of our implementation, and discuss how we achieved the realistic physics and visual appearance of the rope.

In our development process, we explored various ways to implement ropes that could interact physically with characters and other interactive elements. We eventually settled on using Unity's Hinge Joints to simulate physics.

To achieve this, we connected a series of rigidbodies along the length of the rope, linked together by Hinge Joints. We were able to modify the length of each rigidbody piece, using an editor script, depending on the required length of the rope in a particular area of the game. To ensure the rope behaved realistically, we adjusted various attributes of the rigidbodies and hinge joints, while also clamping values to prevent the rope from behaving erratically.

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Once we had nailed down the physics, we moved on to the visual aspect of the rope. We used Unity's LineRenderer component to create the rope's visual representation. Initially, we used the edge positions of each rigidbody as the points for the LineRenderer. However, we noticed that this resulted in a blocky appearance, and increasing the number of rigidbodies affected performance. To address this issue, we used a parameterized Catmull-Rom spline to smooth out the rope's visual appearance. We then passed the smoothed out points to the LineRenderer component.

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We hope you enjoyed learning about the creation of our rope puzzle element, and gained some insight into the technical and creative aspects of game development. As always, we appreciate your support and feedback, and we can't wait to share more updates with you in the future.

Stay tuned for our next entry!

Best Regards,
Playdew Team

Hello again! In this devlog, we're thrilled to introduce another one of our gameplay elements - the boulder.

Initially, boulders might appear to be nothing more than an obstruction or hindrance to players, blocking their path and forcing them to find an alternate route. However, as players delve deeper into the game’s world, they'll quickly realize that these hefty stones possess hidden potential, allowing them to be used as tools to unlock secrets, activate mechanisms, and overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

At its core, the boulders featured are physics-based objects, which can be pushed, rolled, or otherwise manipulated by the player character. The boulders' physics simulation has been designed to be as realistic as possible, ensuring that players will need to apply force and momentum to move the boulder in the desired direction, taking into account the slope of the terrain and other environmental factors. For example, players can utilize boulders to trigger pressure-sensitive buttons, break through glass seals, and even smash through seemingly impassable barriers.

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We've put a lot of effort into designing the boulders' physics simulation to make sure that players can interact with them in a way that feels satisfying and intuitive. We can't wait for players to discover all the hidden potential that these stones hold!

Thanks for reading this devlog, and be sure to keep an eye out for more updates. Until then, happy boulder-pushing!