Designer_Devlog_2

Sprint Blog 2

After having completed our second sprint as a team working on Crop Undercover, I am very happy with the progress and changes our team has made this sprint. There was a significant improvement in our approach to this sprint and in the quality of the communication we had as a team. Everyone was synchronized on which tasks they needed to get done and why that task was important. We were able to make good progress in our modeling, our 2D art, our programming, and our level design.

Our first sprint was a little rougher when it came to assigning user stories and knowing what the most important things we could tackle would be. After properly pre-planning with my producer before this sprint, it was much easier for me as a designer to know exactly what to ask for in order to make the most significant progress in this sprint. I learned from how our first sprint played out and I was able to plan for this sprint so that the right tasks are getting done in order to make as much impactful progress as possible toward getting our core loop polished and our first prototypes ready for playtesting. I am much happier with how this sprint went and the progress that was made. It was much more clear who was working on what, which made it easier as a designer to know what was needed and what we would need from different developers next.

From a designers perspective, I am very happy with how the layout of the game is looking as of now and it is very easy for me to visualize the changes that I want so that the game can look closer and closer to my vision. I am very happy with how my modeling team is so effective in their communication. It is easy to meet and discuss what the models I need should look like and they are easy to talk to when I need a model changed to look more like the vision for the game. This has made it a very smooth process to start building up a collection of models that are ready for implementation and look just like how I envisioned to make the game as accurate as possible to the vision.

Our programmers have done a solid job of getting our core loop functioning and ready for playtesting. The interactions between farmer and crop have been implemented and it is getting harder and harder to tell players from AI, which is exactly what we are hoping for. With every iteration of the design, the player crops are able to blend in more and more, which allows them the ability to live longer and increases their chances of a proper escape from the farm. Our movement is getting smoother and the mechanics of interacting between crops and farmer are functioning as intended, only needing further iteration for quality of mechanics and responsiveness of control. 

For 2D art, I am very happy with the amazing progress that has been made regarding our UI design and our menu system. We have been getting fantastic work from our 2D artists that has led to some really impressive looking UI designs that are either just what I envisioned or an improvement. There are a lot of really compelling and creative ideas coming from our 2D art and I am very happy with the quality of work my team has been putting out. Every design is either exactly what I’m looking for or offers something more than what I had previously imagined.

Our playtests have begun gathering vital data about what works in our game and what doesn’t. It has been really interesting to watch people playtest the early version of the game I have been envisioning. Seeing how different people approach the gameplay and how they interact with each other has led to insightful new data and crucial changes to the game design with the intention of improving the quality of the game and how well it retains the player’s attention. Playtesting has allowed me to find necessary changes to the games rules and boundaries to try to improve how fun it is to the player. As expected, most of the fun that comes from the game comes from the players and how they interact with each other. The true fun in the game is the fact that you can mess with your friends and try to trick them. Seeing people playtest makes it very apparent, when new problems and scenarios arise purely because the players are creating them and being given the space to mess with their friends if that is what they want to do. I do not want the game to restrict the players from being able to tease and create their own dilemmas. In fact, a lot of the way I am choosing to design the game is with the specific intention of creating areas where players will be encouraged to create new problems for each other. A lot of the design behind the first map is specifically intended to force a chase between a farmer and crop into an area where they are looping around each other and having close calls in their chase. The more close calls the farmer has to harvesting a player crop and the more times a player might be very close to getting caught by the farmer, but still managing to escape, the more high adrenaline moments the players will have on a level to level basis. The goal of the design is to force player interactions with each other where they will be forced to make important decisions. Farmer players might corner a crop and start chasing them in a loop, crops might work together to blend in as a group to avoid the farmer, and the farmer might stun one crop while he chases another. All of these things will increase the players' interactivity in the game and allow them opportunities to create their own fun by messing with their friends. If our game can take these ideas and give the player as many opportunities to use them as possible then players will be able to find the fun in the game no matter what.

With all of these additions being implemented into our game, the real design is starting to take form. I am seeing the beginnings of the vision I have for the game starting to come to life and I am really happy with what I am seeing. It will be very interesting to see how we progress from here and how close the game ends up looking when compared to what I had pictured in my head before we ever began. I am really happy with how our team works and communicates, and I can tell that our progress is only getting smoother and faster as we go. Everyone is getting more comfortable with the process and better with how they communicate what they need. I am really happy with how my vision for the design of the game is coming to life. I cannot wait to see where this project goes and how the game turns out, but for now I am very proud of my team and the great work they have been doing. I hope we can maintain our work ethic and even improve in the quality and quantity of work we finish. If we do, Crop Undercover is sure to be a fun experience!