This week was the final week to prepare for the beta playtest. For this we wanted to create a relatively bug-free experience and add in the relevant indicators to make playing intuitive. 

The first thing implemented was the revision of the lobby scene. We added in, cleaner UI and more readable UI and instructions to help players understand their goals. Additionally in the lobby we added a way to go back to the main menu, open the options menu, and refresh the lobby so players who join after the lobby was created could test out the controls. 

In terms of maps, the dark void was replaced by a luscious forest and mountain range to bring more realism to the world. It ties the level together more as the house is no longer floating in a void.

Additionally the main menu was changed to have a background scene instead of just being a black background. 

We also wanted to change the score text when destroying an object as it was unreadable in past builds. So we made it that when an object is broken the text will now face the camera making it much more readable how much score you collected. 

We also implemented a countdown so the game will pause before a round starts, countdown from 3 and then let the round continue. This will give players the opportunity to find their character and see the map before getting dumped into it. We also added player indicators so above each player will have a tag denoting what number they are. This way players know who they are and their points on the scoreboard. 

Finally, a lot of bugs were fixed this week. One bug that is persisting us is with the stun. When two players were stunned at the same time sometimes they would flip who they were controlling making it very disorienting. We ended up fixing this issue but the problem with players being able to slide while being stunned popped up again. More work was done and both of these issues were resolved resulting in a more robust stun system. 

Additionally more fine-tuning was done to the player controllers. We increased mom's movement speed in order to keep up with the kids easier. We also made her hitbox slightly thinner as sometimes you would get caught on objects and doorways. 

We also did lots of internal play testing to find these bugs and fine tune the balance. As we wanted to create a build that we were happy to be play tested so we can garner new feedback. 

In terms of work that needs to be done next week it'll really depend on how the play test goes. There are some things that linger like having all four player scores on screen when in game. As well as having character models and assets integrated into the environment. However future work on the game will be determined on the feedback we get from the beta play test and then we will act on it.

 Anyway, this wraps it up for this week. I will see you next week!