DEV Diary: Heisenberg Blog 1

Shop Development Blog 1

The customer is always right and with that in the back of my mind getting the in game shop right is absolute paramount, as it plays a very big part in the progression of Heisenberg. Although small part of the game, the shop will be where Heisenberg spends a lot of his time purchasing new weaponry, armour, perks and training to increase his stats.

The first iteration of the shop has Heisenberg trailing several screen lengths, which gave us the room to fit in all the different items available for unlocking, but after a few trips walking up and down this became very annoying. From fatigue gained travelling up and down we’ve ended up with the result seen in the video (Shop 2.0).

Shop 2.0 is more compact and uses scrolling lists, which allow for the same content but in a less cumbersome way. The player is still able to walk around as going to the left and right edge of the screen takes the player to the battlegrounds or the map selection.

With our menu being quite interactive, with many animations, the first shop felt quite laggy going through the different menu screens. To get around this with, and with the help of Unity 3D and its 3D environment, I made one screen and used a moving camera to give the illusion of multiple screens. This of course adds a slight initial load to the menu but navigation through the menu is ultimately seamless thus giving the player a better experience.

Well its not often I get to discuss my shopping habits , but hopefully using the Heisenberg in game shop will be a great experience for you the gamer, until my next blog remember the old saying ‘Shop Till You Drop.’