Dev Blog

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DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB7008

Date 02/22/2022 08:48 PM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

To: The People

From: Tanner Fry

Subject: Lighting the Path

Complex Lighting With Normal Maps

    In our last article we talked about adding "Dynamic Shadows" for clouds. Today we will talk about dynamic lights and how the implementation works. With Unity, lighting and shading from lights can be introduced in many different ways but how we created it within a 2D space was through normal maps. Normal mapping is a texture mapping technique used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents and is an implementation of bump mapping. Many developers use normal mapping to add details without having to use more polygons for a given model. This increases detail without the performance hit from the extra polygons.

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DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB7007

Date 01/26/2022 09:58 PM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

To: The People

From: Tanner Fry

Subject: Dash of Love

Dynamic Cloud Shadows, Not Really

    Shadows are nice to have. Even in a 2D game the sense of depth is important. So, I've implemented "dynamic shadows" for my clouds in order to create a more realistic effect. However, it's very basic in its approach. There is no light source that is used to calculate where the shadow should be. Instead, cloud shadow placement is based on game clock time. Again, not really dynamic shadows, just some simple math to make them "dynamic" based on the time of day. 

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DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB7006

Date 12/20/2021 05:29 PM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

To: The People

From: Tanner Fry

Subject: Director/Agent Structure

Director Design

    The holidays hit different and that shows in the progress of the game. So... The Director. A fundamental person and component of AIA. Head honcho and the lead architect of operations for the intelligence agency, the Director is an extension of yourself while playing AIA.

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DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB7005

Date 11/21/2021 08:03 PM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

To: The People

From: Tanner Fry

Subject: Major Design Changes

Scale and Adding Depth

    Quite a few drastic changes have taken place over the past month. Some of them would be considered toss ups while others leave that uneasy feeling inside. The biggest decision being the scale of the art in AIA. A lot of thought has gone into whether more detail is needed or if the current designs and artwork will suffice. 

    For instance, our first approach doesn't allow game objects and buildings to express their details or animations as well as high resolution images but does add depth to the buildings.

SECRET

DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB7004

Date 10/10/2021 08:34PM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

To: The People

From: Tanner Fry

Subject: UI and Game Mechanics

UI Enhancements

    As mentioned in the our second dev update, the UI has received a major overhaul from a 1940s WWII color scheme to a more modern day design. It was very much needed in order to fit the general theme of the game, which we haven't really talked about yet. The new theme brings together a dark contrast from the in-game scenery, buildings, and map design while also allowing for a minimalist design.