We’re releasing the Alpha today! 

Obstacles/Challenges

1. Designing the first level based on the level's music
2. Figuring out a new MIDI implementation that reads notes sequentially
3. Deciding whether to switch the cat model to be more realistic

Feedback

• Most players did not notice how the level was tied to the music
• One player did recommend we place the cat’s shadow directly underneath the cat since it could help with predicting the cat’s location after jumping.
• Camera could be more top-down so that we can see the platform edges better and makes it easier to judge distance too
• Score could be a fish icon instead of text
• Lives UI need to be bigger

Changes

• New Mechanic & Platform Placement: 
  • We’ve implemented our first level! 
  • As for the level song, we have a new version of it which is much longer.
  • Our platforms now spawn as the player progresses along the level, and their positions are based on the MIDI file of our level's song.  Now the player's jumps and movements are synced with the song, and so the player's jumps correlate to beats in the song.
  • This is our main mechanic for the game, where the player has to pay attention to the rhythm of the song and try to jump on the beat.

• Level Decorations:
  • With our complete level, we've also added assets all around the platforms to decorate the level based on the City Theme of our first level. 
• Cat Model and Animations:
  • We've added in our new cat model! The cat is no longer shaped like a sphere. Its new model makes it look more agile and fits the low-poly theme of our assets better.
  • The cat also now has walking and jumping animations.

• Settings Menu:
  • We've added a settings menu for our game, which can be accessed from the Main Menu screen or from within the game, in the Pause Menu. With these settings, players can now customize some aspects of the game. Below are the options:
    • Full screen -> A checkbox that is on by default, but can be turned off for a windowed view.
    • Quality -> Can modify the quality of the graphics in the game, listed from highest to lowest quality.
    • Music Volume -> The music volume can be turned up or down based on preference.
    • Sound Effects Volume -> The sound effects volume can also be adjusted.
• Pause Screen:
  • Our pause screen has new buttons! Below are the additions:
    • Settings (as described above)
    • Restart -> Restart the level
    • Main Menu -> Go back to the main menu
• Camera Angle:
  • We've adjusted the camera angle based on feedback we received during the UI/UX session last week.  The player's position in the screen used to be slightly above the center of the screen, which players didn't find ideal. We've now moved the player's position, the cat is a bit more lower in the screen.

• Game UI Fixes:
  • During playtesting, the player lives weren't noticeable, so we've made the lives UI and icon a lot bigger.
  • We've also made changes to the Fish treat collectible UI:
    • It used to be marked as a "Score" on the top left, but that wasn't really intuitive as to what it represents.
    • We now have a Fish Icon under the Lives UI on the top right, with a number next to it that indicates the count of fish treats collected. The UI elements are more noticeable now and consistent with each other.
• Polishing & Bug Fixes:
  • We've moved the cat's shadow to be directly underneath it.
  • We fixed a bug that allowed players to jump on a fish treat/checkpoint if they landed right on top of it.
  • We had a bug with our invisible Respawn Platforms, which players could land on and lose a life. This is now fixed.
  • We've added a prompt on the main menu for when a player isn't using controller, which says "Press Enter to select".