Visegunne Main Menu Documentation
Table of Contents

This section details technical info on the “C1 – Select Game Data” GameObject.

> General Info

NOTE BEFORE STARTING THIS ONE:

You may want to first have the “MM – Movement Mode Menu” ready to go before tackling this menu since creating a save file first opens up the “Movement Mode Menu” as part of the save file creation procedure.

There’s more info about the “Movement Mode Menu” down below (LINK: Technical Info – SECTION X: “MM – Movement Mode Menu”)

Alright, so we’re on the “Select Game Data” menu. This is the menu we open when “Story Mode” is selected from the Main Menu. There are some special functions on this menu that don’t exist on other menus.

The player can choose a gamesave here, and each gamesave block displays information about the player’s current progress.

Gamesaves will need to be coded to recognize if data present, and if not, activate the gamesave assets “New Game” gameobject, to indicate that it can be saved to.

Additionally, the player can also choose to delete savedata here by selecting the “Erase Data File” button.

Once a gamefile is selected, it will proceed to the actual game.

> Startup

When this menu opens, it will play its “In” animation and stop on a “Wait” state, where the player can then make a selection. Based on the player’s actions and whether or not a gamesave is detected in a given slot, different things occur.

1. New Game – If DATA is not detected

Each gamesave will need to detect if data is present. If there is not data present, we activate the “New Game” gameobject inside each respective “Save Slot” object. This will make the save slot prominently display that the save is a “New Game” with no data saved in it.

2. Previous Save Data Detected –

If save data is detected we need to make sure we relay information about the save on the “Save Slot” prefab object. There are a bunch of assets that relay information and I’ll do my best to list them here:

Before we start, I just want to note. there are a few different panels that show information on this asset. “Box Left” corresponds to the left panel with the big number in it (and robot avatar). “Box Middle” is the center rectangle, and “Box Right” is a hidden panel that slides out with more information when savedata is detected. If you have any question about this setup, please contact me.

LEFT BOX

In the image below, the left box has our robot’s avatar in it and this should be palette swapped to the player’s current color palette. There are two images that cycle in the left box.

MIDDLE BOX

In the middle box there’s a line that says “NEXT: PROLOGUE” which a descriptor of the current phase (and task) the player has next. We should probably tie these to the phase # and just display text based on that. Still in the middle box, to the right is the date the file was last accessed. Additionally, there’s another little tiny robot in this box that should have its palettes swapped to match the currently equipped paint kit.

RIGHT BOX

Lastly, this box also has an image that we need to activate that corresponds to the current stage the player is on. In the box to the right, we have a bunch of information (progress, a CLEAR label finished games, playtime, wallet, and collection number). It’s important for me to noet that the right box’s information is hidden until the Save Slot button is highlighted. When it is not highlighted the right box with all its data is hidden and the image gets static over it.

Also, just want to note, when these files are -not- highlighted, the middle box’s information IS still visible… slightly anyway. You can see the “NEXT: PROLOGUE”, the last time the file was accessed, as well as an image of the level covered in static.

A. BOX RIGHT / Progress

“../Save Slot ## (Prefab)/Window/Box Right/Box Inner/Progress Assembly/TXT_Progress/”

01. Progress Percentage
Modified Value: “TXT_ProgressValue”

This is the overall progress percentage through the game. Each completing each level at every difficulty and collecting all the collectibles contribute to this value. We’ll need to determine the actual percentages at some point.

02. Clear
Activate “TXT_Clear”

This is a simple GameObject called “TXT_Clear” that we activate when the player clears the final mission on any difficulty.

B. BOX RIGHT / Playtime

“../Save Slot ## (Prefab)/Window/Box Right/Box Inner/Playtime Assembly”

03. Playtime
Modified Value: “TXT_PlaytimeValue”

This is the time this gamesave has been opened. We’ll need to log all time a gamesave has been open.

C. BOX RIGHT / Wallet

“../Save Slot ## (Prefab)/Window/Box right/Box Inner/Wallet Assembly”

04. Wallet Amount
Modified Value: “TXT_WalletValue”

This is how much cash the player currently has on hand.

D. BOX RIGHT / Collection

“../Save Slot ## (Prefab)/Window/Box Right/Box Inner/Collection Assembly”

5. Collection Number
Modified Value: “TXT_CollectionValue”

This is the number of weapons, paint kits, and mods the player has collected. For now, I’m just adding them all together.

E. BOX MIDDLE / Next Task

“../Save Slot ## (Prefab)/Window/Box Middle/Info – Top Bar/TXT_NextTask”

6. Next Task
Modified Value: “TXT_NextTask”

For this text, we’ll check the gamesave’s current phase numbers and provide a description that corresponds with that phase value.

F. BOX MIDDLE / Last Access Day

“../Save Slot ## (Prefab)/Window/Box Middle/Info – Top Bar/TXT_LastAccessDay”

7. Last Access Day
Modified Value: “TXT_LastAccessDay”

For this text, we’ll check the gamesave’s current phase numbers and provide a description that corresponds with that phase value.

G. BOX MIDDLE / Level Slide Image

“../Save Slot ## (Prefab)/Window/Box Middle/Info – Main/LevelSlide/”

8. Level Slide Image
Activate one of these GameObjects here, based on the gamesave’s current phase value.

We simply activate one of these GameObjects based on player’s current phase value.

H. BOX MIDDLE / Tiny Robot Sprite

“../Save Slot ## (Prefab)/Window/Box Middle/Info – Main/HV Small/”

9. Tiny Robot Sprite
This needs to match the player’s currently equipped palette

I. BOX LEFT / HV Pic 01

“../Save Slot ## (Prefab)/Window/Box Left/HV Pic 01″

10. HV Pic 01
This needs to match the player’s currently equipped palette.

11. HV Pic 02
This is another robot sprite. It also needs to match the player’s currently equipped palette.

> Setup and Highlighting Animations

So outside of making sure data is being shown on the Save Slot buttons themselves, how we highlight these objects is a little different depending on whether the Save Slot has data or not. In the GIF below, I demonstrate how New Game expands versus how a gamesave with data on it expands when its highlighted. It’s a little different and requires separate animations being triggered. There’s also a separate highlight animation for when we want to erase data, but more on that further down.

This is the animator controller for the Save Slot Prefab, and not “C1 – Select Game Data” which has its own separate animator. So this controller is used exclusively for manipulating the Save Slot buttons.

UI Animation Controller Location:
../Assets/Sprites/UI_Menu/Menus/Animation – Main Menu/SelectGameData.controller

> Basic Functionalities

A. Choosing a New Game

We are going to select an empty save slot to start a new game. The “Save Slot” prefab is highlighted with its animation state “Highlight_NewGame” by activating the boolean parameter “HighlightNewGame” (default false).

Once the player selects the “Save Slot”, before a new game is actually created, we need the player to first select their desired Movement Mode. This will open the “MM – Movement Mode Menu” (LINK BELOW, Section X, I have not included the details of that procedure in this section, so please check out Section X for more details how these interact). Once the player selects their desired movement mode, the Movement Mode Menu will open one its confirmation windows, and then close out, returning the player back to the “Select Game Data” menu.

Once the player has returned to the “Select Game Data” menu, a Popup Confirmation Window “C1 – Data Created” (located in the hierarchy at “UI Canvas/C1 – Select Game Data/Confirmation Windows/C1 – Data Created”) will open confirming data was created. This is where we should actually create the save file. Simultaneously, as the confirmation window opens, we also need to deactivate the “New Game” object on the respective “Save Slot” prefab object (since this save slot now has data saved to it). Additionally, we’ll need assigning basic starting information to the save slot’s various objects that show the savefile’s information since it’s now an active save file (for the “Box Right” object: play time is “000:00”, wallet is “0”, collection is “0”, progress is “00%”. For the “Box Middle” object: the next task should be set to its phase tag for phase=0000, we also set the current date, and we also need to enable “LevelSlide/Stage00”).

We now have data in that save slot. Once the Confirmation Window is confirmed, we will then return the player to the “Select Game Data” menu so they can now select their freshly created save data. The file should now be highlighted with the animation “Highlight_ActiveSave” since we will have set the boolean parameter “HighlightActiveSave” to true. This animation not only highlights the save slot, but also expands the “Box Right” object which has a bunch of save file info/stats tucked away (play time, wallet, progress, collection).

B. Choosing an Active Save

We are going to now select a game with active save data. By navigating to the correct save file, it will be highlighted with the animation “Highlight_ActiveSave” using the boolean parameter “HighlightActiveSave”.

Upon press the CONFIRM button (keyboard default “J”), the boolean animation parameter “GameStart” will be set true, and the save slot’s animation will immediately transition to “Highlight_GameStart”. There should be a slight delay to ensure it’s visually clear the slot has been selected.

Then, we will open a Popup Confirmation Window “C1 – Data Created” (located in the hierarchy at “UI Canvas/C1 – Select Game Data/Confirmation Windows/C1 – Confirm Selection”) will open asking for a final confirmation before we enter the game.

Once the player has confirmed the confirmation window. Once the window exits out, the parent menu, “C1 – Select Game Data”, will then change its animation parameter boolean to either “Slot1Chosen” = true, Slot2Chosen”, or “Slot3Chosen” depending on which slot was selected by the player. Once the ensuing animation has completed, the screen will fade to black and we can begin the game.

At any time, the player can back out and it will return the player to a normal highlighted selection.

C. Deleting a Save

So we have a save file that we want to delete. By navigating to the “Erase Date File” button and selecting it, it will force the cursor back to “Save Slot 01” but use a new highlight animation on the save slot using the save slot’s animator boolean parameter “HighlightDelete”. In this phase, the player should ONLY be able to highlight Save Slots. Whenever a save slot is highlighted, we use its “HighlightDelete” boolean to make sure its obvious what is being targeted for deletion.

When a save slot is navigated away from, we just set all Save Slot animator booleans back to false, which should return the Save Slot back to its non-highlighted state.

Upon finally selecting a save slot for deletion, the player will receive a Popup Confirmation Window called “C1 – Delete file” (located in the hierarchy at “UI Canvas/C1 – Select Game Data/Confirmation Windows/C1 – Delete File”). If the player confirms this window, the file should be cleared, but we also play an animation on the “Save Slot” by flipping a boolean on called “DataDeleted”. When this occurs, we need to immediately reactivate the “New Game” objects on the Save Slot because a deletion animation will start playing that expects it to be active once its finishes. Once the animation has ended, the animation will conclude by transitioning to highlight a new game. We then throw the player one more Popup Confirmation Window called “C1 – Data Deleted” (located in the hierarchy at “UI Canvas/C1 – Select Game Data/Confirmation Windows/C1 – Data Deleted”) just to confirm the data has in fact been deleted. After they confirm this window, we return control to the player.

D. Backing Out and Canceling to the Previous Menu

If the player hits the CANCEL key (keyboard default “k”) OR if the player chooses the standard button at the bottom of the menu that says “Back to Main Menu”, the “C1 – Select Game Data” object will set its animation to “SelectGameData_BackOut”. Because the main menu is still active underneath this particular menu, this menu will gracefully transition back to the Main Menu. Once this the Game Save menu’s “OUT” animation has completed, it can be deactivated.

E. Special Note on Canceling out of Property Boxes

If the player has chosen to Delete/Erase Data (and is in the middle of highlighting data to delete) but then presses the CANCEL key (keyboard default “k”), this will back out of the deletion selection phase and return the player back to the “Erase Data File” button, highlighting it instead.

> End of Phase

If a gamesave data file was selected and the player proceeds to start a game, then no further action is needed.

If the player backs out of this menu to return back to the Main Menu, then we change the selected animation on “C1 – Select Game Data” to “SelectGameData_BackOut” in its animator controller. Once this animation completes, “C1 – Select Game Data” can be safely deactivated.