Hello, I am back with another production update for our game Glass Castle.  I'm excited to talk about some of the work that we were able to complete during our third sprint. To recap, Glass Castle is a story driven Action-Adventure game with anime and fantasy inspired elements that pushes our player forward to solve the mystery of the Castle. This sprint we had a big focus on functionality for our level mechanics. We were able to meet most of our goals, but fell slightly short on the amount of models that we wanted ready by the end of the sprint. However, we were still able to increase our sprint velocity.

Electronic Prototype:

Our electronic prototype for this sprint focused on testing out some of the upcoming puzzle mechanics that we have planned in our game. This level was put together by our designer Chris, assisted by both of our programmers who helped implementation of the puzzles. We had planned to have more models for objects in this playtest build but instead needed to rely on placeholder assets until they were finished. Thankfully we were still able to test the puzzle mechanics and gather important player data. We have more information about this playtest over at our Designing Glass Castle blog created by our designer Brie. Go check it out!

2D Art:

This sprint, we were able to finally complete all essential spell icons and get them implemented into our player UI. Our artist Mel was able to get all of these icons matching aesthetically and they look amazing on the spell wheel icon on the player screen. Another huge addition made by our designer Brie is a controller guide image put together to explain the controls for the player. These assets bring a lot of visuals for the player to better identify what is happening during the game and give them a resource to check the control scheme. Our programmer Colin got these spell icons implemented into Unity over our spell wheel.

Modeling:

Our modelers had a large amount of models assigned, ranging from building variations, to smaller props we are going to need over the various worlds. We put a big focus on getting most of the assets for World 2 done this sprint, since the playable area in our playtest was to take part in an area in World 2. This included getting clay structural models, making them modular, and then getting assets done that would be needed in a marketplace. We also had a lot of mechanically important pieces created, including cell bars, pressure plates, pipes, and torches for our well area puzzles. While we were unable to get these into the playable build, we are very happy in how these assets are turning out. Finally, we also got a completed character model ready for our Glass Castle wizard himself, Zachariah. Liam put a lot of work and iteration by request on this model, and I think that its looking great.

Animation:

This sprint, we continued work on our wolf enemy, getting the run cycle fixed up by adjusting the legs, and then completing idle animations, and beginning work on an attack animation. Our animator Mel was in charge of getting these processes finished, I and think the work being done on our placeholder wolf model is going to work great when we move into our next sprint and start work on transferring the motion over to our model. I look forward to showing off more on our animated enemies as we have more to show. The remainder of our animation work was completed in-engine, and

Level Design:

Our level designers were pretty split by their responsibilities this sprint. We had Chris working on getting World 2 designed and fleshed out, and then creating the playable test area for our electronic prototype. He also worked on creating music for World 2's area. We had Davis spending more time fleshing out World 1, and then focusing on getting assets imported in to start work on building out playable areas in World 1. This included importing prefab objects as they came into our team drive and putting our Glass Castle assets into the hub scene. 

Programming:

Once again, the programmers took on a lot of work this sprint. Colin spent a lot of time this sprint hooking up our animation states within Unity and tying them to the different actions that our player has available to them. Colin was also tasked with starting work on our quest system and was readily available to help with any bug issues that sprang up. Our other programmer, Christian, worked on completing a series of water mechanic tasks, and puzzle interactions, including water buoyancy, torch switch interactions, and the ability to light torches. These two were very helpful in implementing these mechanics when putting together the playtest as well, offering advice and fixing bugs as they sprung up during implementation.

Sprint Statistics:

At the end of the sprint, our statistics showed that we assigned 139 story points this sprint, our team completed 109 story points, and 30 remained assigned but not completed. Our sprint velocity increased from 88 points to a new average velocity of 96 points. Next sprint we hope to have completed terrain work, as well as a playable hub area for the player to walk around in for the playtest.

I'll see you in our next post! Until then, I look forward to showing off more of the work being done on Glass Castle. Until next time!