Arbiter - Monthly Recap - August 2023 (Patreon)

Howdy Gamers!

Just got back from FanExpo (which was fun) with con flu (which was less fun), so it's been a slower month than I would have liked. That said, FanExpo was great! I got to help my partner run her booth and bless her soul, she managed to do quite well for herself! I also snagged some prints and other goodies while I was there, so all in all it was a good time. I did however come home with a bit of a cold (thankfully not COVID) so I had to chill for a few days afterwards, BUT WE ARE SO FUCKING BACK.

My Life is a RectTransform

I've pretty much been spending the month exclusively on menu UI. It's been... fun? I guess? Honestly it's a lot of under-the-hood programming stuff right now so while there isn't that much to show, rest assured progress has been pretty consistent. 

I started out by finishing my concepts for the remaining sub-menus. I didn't bother conceptualizing everything, as some menus are just lists or generic modals, but I worked out how I wanted to handle the major menus and their more unique elements. This included stuff the Map, Abilities, and Skills menus, with the Journal and Options menus being something I'll tackle a bit later.

Afterwards, I started getting it all in-game! This meant a good chunk of time converting all of my conceptual PSDs into real PSDs that can actually be used in Unity. Then, I set it all up within Unity's Canvas/RectTransform system (called uGUI) so that it fit the game's aspect ratio and scaled properly with everything else. 

I've used uGUI before but never this extensively, so it was a bit of a learning process getting everything to fit properly. I also opted to use TextMeshPro as it basically solves text in Unity by streamlining pretty much every feature you'd need. Finally, I had to deepen my knowledge on Tweeners (I use DOTween) to make sure everything animated nicely too. 

GIFs a little choppy but it's smooth in-game, I swear!

All in all, lots of boring stuff that's hard to "show" but I do have a good chunk of it functional as of writing. I'm really trying to focus on clarity and speed when it comes to menus (on top of it not looking like shit, of course), as one of my BIGGEST pet peeves is slow UI. I want navigation to be as snappy and effortless as possible. 

Otherwise, the bulk of the work is mostly just getting everything working correctly. UI tends to interact with the game very differently, so it often requires some reformatting to make sure the relevant information is easily accessible. It may look a little barebones right now, but with the underlying systems in place I should be able to crank out the remaining menus a lot faster. Yippee!

Environmental Storytelling

Anyways while I'm nowhere near wrapped with UI, I'm gonna start slowly transitioning back to level design as I really need to start cooking on these levels again. It should be a bit easier this time around since I've got some concept art for the first level finished, but I do still have some stuff to figure out when it comes to the overall aesthetic. I'll probably be juggling the the two for the next little while; slowly chipping away at level design while making more consistent progress on UI, so look forward to progress on both in the coming months (hopefully).

On an unrelated note, I've also been doing some writing! I've had Arby's overall story planned out for years now, but only recently did I tie up some of the loose ends that had been bugging me for a while. Playing XVI really helped on that front because it reminded me about the importance of wrapping your story up in a cohesive, fulfilling way, and I don't think I was fully committed to doing that before. 

I think I originally had some KH inspiration left in me that wanted to play with those loose ends more and leave things a bit open, but honestly, I'm over it. I want Arbiter's story to be the complete package, no bullshit, so I've been spending some time here and there tying everything together in a nice loop that fully utilizes every character as best I can, and I'm pretty proud of what I've got cooking honestly! It's the kind of story I'd enjoy, and I think it'll be a fun time that people can walk away from satisfied. 

I'm in this industry for the storytelling as much as I am for the gameplay—both are equally important to me. Arbiter's taken up several years of my life now and I don't really have any desire to revisit it once I'm done, so I want to make sure I finish it without regret. Growing up on JRPGs and Square Enix in general has really solidified the importance of good storytelling for me, so I want to make sure I'm making something worthy of those inspirations. Having a story I believe in has also been the #1 motivator for finishing this thing, so it really does feel great to round off those rougher edges.

Anyways, that's it for me! I think I'm just about over my cold now so I should be back in full-swing next week. I'm gonna keep cracking away at UI and hopefully the level design isn't too painful now that I've got some concept art for it. In the meantime, thanks for your support as always everyone! 

Cheers,
Jordy