Sprint 6 of Release 0 was once again focused around allowing Game Players to be able to customize their environment and clubs. In previous sprints, we added the ability to place props (static meshes) in a map/level and then save the modified map with their own custom name. This way they could customize their clubs, houses, etc with props that were in the game. This would be a lot like the Sims or a lot of other games that have crafting as they can’t yet bring in their custom meshes, but can use in game resources and mod the maps to be customized. The props like the maps will still be created by Music Oasis Artists at this point.
With last sprint you could place the props from your inventory into the map while playing the game. This sprint was about having a way for players to get prop items into their inventory so they could use the props in their custom maps they created. How this will work is, Music Oasis Artists will build 3d models which they will import into builds they are doing for myMO using the Template Editor. These Unreal Assets (Static Meshes) will be handed off to the development team to turn into props. Basically, this is nothing more than including the Static Mesh Asset in the Game Build and adding an entry to an AWS Database that keeps track of things for gameplay. At some point, we will try to automate this into the Template that Artists use so that the Artist will not have to hand off files to the Development Team, but, at this point that is the work flow.
In addition, to merging the asset into the main game build and creating an entry in the AWS database for the prop, the Development Team will place the prop in a “Store” Map. This is a map that players can go to while playing the game and by clicking the item in the game (let’s say a piece of furniture), they are presented with a pop-up menu that they can decide if they want to add the prop to their inventory. This idea of shopping in a store is much like shopping in Stores in a game like the Sims or other games with in-game shopping or backpacks. At this point, all the items will be freebies, but, the structure is there to either tie the availability of the prop to some aspect in the game (like a questing system or achievement system) so that players may be able to not get all items as “freebies, but would have to do something in the game to earn them. Also, if we want to monetize this system the in game programming to make this happen is there, but we would have to have some type of system to accept payment that is integrated within the game. This will be something for much later this year.
We have talked about implementing the first Store in the Music Oasis Plaza that is being built. But, until then here is a video showing a player getting in edit, going to a Test store, “buying” a freebie prop, then getting into a map and placing the prop in the map and saving the resulting map with the new prop in it as a Player Custom Map. This required quite a bit of back end API integration with Amazon Web Services and the underlying Databases during the sprint. This move to putting inventory into an external database is a big step forward for the game and making it modifiable.
