May 2022 - Week 140 - Bath Time

Summary

• Water sounds
• Illnesses
• Loneliness
• Planning good

Detail

Saturday and Monday are for finishing off the Hygiene Need; editing the water sound recordings with Audacity and combining them into sound effects in FMOD. On reflection, they last a little too long.

I don't make much progress on Illnesses on Monday. I'm conflicted by how similar they are to Behaviours (Irritable, Dehydrated, Malnourished) and wonder if the two should be combined. On Tuesday I conclude they should be, rename and add the elements I have for the Stomach Bug like infectiousness and mortality rate.

Wednesday through Friday I finish off the Hygiene need and Illness tasks. Pulling in the Social Need on Friday afternoon, I finish it in a couple of hours.

It definitely feels like development on the Needs has accelerated because I planned it. Identifying all the illnesses that can result from extreme needs encouraged a data-driven design. Adding Irritable took several days whereas Lonely took only a couple of hours.

Athena has finished test-plans for the tools and is continuing with the user-interface. For the next week I will be doing the Joy Need and then doing some play-testing and balancing. Once Athena is happy with the stability of the build she has been testing I will be making a release. This release won't include the Needs work but will be a stable build to work forwards from.