Adjusting the Cutscene Editor for Team Members
Work on the custom Cutscene Editor continued since last Dev Log. This time, the focus on the Cutscene Editor was making it as easy to use as possible for the narrative team and art team. To accomplish this, I’ve asked the narrative team and art team to try implementing a Cutscene using the editor, and make comments on how they felt making a Cutscene in the editor along with any features they feel is missing in the editor. Included with the Cutscene editor came with an instruction manual to help guide the team to making their own Cutscene; in this instruction manual, I’ve also been keeping track of what changes have been made to the editor over time.
(Note: throughout this dev log, I will be referring to Scenes in a different fashion than how Unity refers to Scenes. Scenes referred to in this dev log, and the Cutscene Editor, are similar to a page in a comic book.)
A Preview of the Cutscene Editor after “Update #2”; This also displays how Scenes work in the Cutscene Editor
Update #1
One of the members of the narrative team got to be one of the first people to try out the Cutscene editor. While the overall reaction was positive, there were some changes that needed to be done. The biggest aspect that needed to be updated was some guidelines for where to put the panels in Scenes; the team wanted the panels to be no closer than an inch around the edge of the screen. To fix this, I added a UI image to would have the border in editor mode and disappear when the Cutscene is in Play mode. There was also some miscommunication from the naming conventions of the functions so I asked the member how they wish to call the functions and named the functions after that. I also coded it so that, when a panel is made, it would automatically be selected in the Hierarchy.
A member of the art team looked at the Cutscene Editor briefly and asked for there to be a better transition between scenes. Previously, the Scenes would swap instantly, which the Art Team disliked since they envisioned more motion between scenes. To fix this, I added the option for the user to choose their choice of transition between scenes (whether it be the default instant, a swipe, or a flash of light).
Update #2
At this point, the narrative team just finished a meeting where they came up with a new narrative function that would impact the Cutscene Editor: consequences. The consequence function means that certain choices the player makes in-game would change the dialogue and events that would occur in the game’s narrative. To add this, I added the ability to add consequences and save how the panel would behave if that consequence were in effect.
Before anyone could test it, I realized that testing the Cutscene with consequence would be impossible unless an override script was in play. Thus, I added a UI Element, that the user could add, that would override what consequence was in play along with warning the user that the consequence override was in play.
Update #3
While the narrative team was testing the Cutscene Editor, they noticed that there were no ways to add additional audio (other than voice overs who had a specific script) to the panel. This would be problematic in the future given that certain panels can be slapped (thus a slap sound would be needed) and certain panels may wish to start with a foley (such as someone slamming their fists on a desk). Thus I quickly added in the ability to add Audio to the panel in the Editor.
While I was adding the ability to add Audio, a member of the art team brought to my attention another crucial element that was not coded into the Cutscene Editor: the ability to have more than one text box in one panel. At this point, the panel was coded so that only one character can talk at a time in one panel; this went against the vision of both the narrative team and art team. Due to how crucial this element was, and the unfortunate nature of how the Cutscene Editor was coded, I had to uproot the entire code for the Editor so that more than one character can talk in a panel at a time. This took a day and a half to complete but it benefit the team in the long run. This function also came with the ability to add and remove text boxes with ease, using a slider.
Update #4
The UI designer took a look at the Cutscene Editor and asked for one small change. Originally, the Cutscene Editor had no indicator of when to slap since the panels are static images and I thought the indicators could be added into the panel through the use of Photoshop. The UI designer pointed out that the slap indicators would be blinking while the panels themselves would be static. To fix this, I adjusted the cutscene editor so that a blinking Slap Indicator would be added automatically to a panel GameObject when the player had the ability to slap along with the ability to move, scale, and rotate it anywhere on the panel.
How the Cutscene Editor currently looks
Future Updates
While the Cutscene Editor has been proven to now be easy for any team member to use along with giving them the ability to be free to control the Cutscene however they wish, there are two more small things to be added to the editor in the future. One is an element I wish to add and the other is one requested by multiple team members. The one requested by multiple team members is to change how the camera moves while the Cutscene is playing; currently, the entire camera moves back overtime and jumps back when a new panel appears. The team felt this was a jerky motion and requested that instead, only the active panel zooms in and zooms out slowly when it’s inactive. The slight movement is to make the player aware that the game is still active and haven’t crashed.
The feature I wish to add to the Cutscene Editor in the future is the ability to have music play in the background along with letting panels change the current music track playing when they are activated (in order to change moods).
