Development Update - More intractable interactions
Maybe I've just played this game thousands of times during development. In-fact I know that's true. Every time I implement anything at all, I play test for at least 20 mins to make sure it works as intended. I was play testing something and I picked up one of the books in the game. It flips open to a page and you can rotate the book. It was okay but it didn't feel very natural, engaging or interesting to look at. That's right around the time I decided to make it a little more engaging. Now when you pick up a book, it flips open to a page I predetermine and you can leaf through a number of pages, It's currently limited to 12 pages but the limit is there because I don't have the time to write 50+ full size novels. This is nothing revolutionary but it's so much better than it was and I'm pleased with the results.
This then lead me to start looking around at other things I could include in this next level interaction. Obviously when you pick up a dinner plate, there isn't much you can do with it so some things remain static, but it also made me think of a few new things I could include.
This phone book was one of the first new ideas I had. You can move the selector and it will show you the correct page when you open it. I'm also happy with how this turned out but I have to say, creating all the textures for this one was somewhat labour intensive. This book also contains something the player will need if they want to 100% the game.
It's not just all books though. I have big plans for other interactions. Like the Viewfinder toy below.
This one allows me to drop slide images on to the object from the editor and it will display those images in order when the viewfinder is interacted with.
At the end of the day I get far more joy out of pushing the norm and creating something that will hopeful surprise the player. I hope you all get as much joy out of discovering this stuff as I did making it.
