Hello again readers,
The last week has seen a good amount of continued progress on my team’s project! Last time we talked I had been working on the combination chest using meshes created and imported from Blender. Since then I found more meshes for the canopic jars, columns, and Egyptian busts too! This is quite exciting as I had been having difficulty finding exactly what I needed for these objects which would mean I would have to create them from scratch in Blender. After about a day of looking online though, I did find a bust of Anubis and a couple of canopic jar meshes that I bought. Both were very cheap and well worth the small amount of money. I got more practice in Blender too, as there were only three jars downloaded so I modified one of them to look like the final Egyptian god I needed. With the importing of the meshes for the jars, columns, and busts, all the placeholders have been replaced by the meshes that will be in the final version of my level. I even placed a mummy in the sarcophagus, which brings me to my next endeavor in the project.
Between this week and last, I placed a skeletal mesh of a mummy inside the sarcophagus in my level. I even made it interactable in the sense that the player can click the set interact key while facing the mummy and it prints ‘hello’ into the console. This functionality is basic but leaves the door open for further expansion of interactivity with the mummy NPC. Right now I am thinking of implementing some kind of dialogue system where perhaps the mummy will guard the exit door and present the player with 3 riddles they must answer correctly in order to escape. I am putting this on the backburner until the next steps of the project plan are complete though. For me, these are making the main menu and pause screens. I created very basic versions of both of these user interfaces that we can possibly expand later if we have time. After this, next up for me will be level testing and adding SFX and music. At this point in time, as far as the level progression and functionality of the puzzles goes, they are both completed for my level! With less than a month left of my final course at OSU, it is an exciting time indeed.
As the end of my time at OSU draws near, I have been planning for what comes next. I am continuing to apply to all entry level software engineering jobs that I see openings posted for. I do work hard and have an excellent GPA and am hoping that if I can land the first job, it will give me a foothold by which I can hopefully transition to a game developer job later down the line. In any case, at this point in my life I am feeling quite proud of myself for achieving this degree and overcoming the many challenges that I faced along the way. There were certainly many times I wondered if I had the creativity and intelligence to master the course material and assignments. I will keep you posted about any companies that give me a reply to the many applications I’ve put out there. In the more immediate future however, I am planning to travel with family once the term ends. It has been years since I’ve traveled and I do miss it very much. We are thinking to avoid air travel and perhaps take a road trip from California where I reside and sightsee around the surrounding states. I will let you know what the plan develops to be.
Until next time readers,
-Navine
