Designer Blog 2

Hello and welcome back to Gobby’s Farm!

This is for sprint 2 and with it, we created our first prototype for the game! As a team, it is wonderful to see some of our work fully incorporated into this tiny build and see how the game loop will work for the first go around and what can be done to improve it and make it closer to what I’m looking for. We were able to incorporate the parts that mattered most for the game, that being movement, being able to look around, picking up produce as points and even a timer for the night time. Though we weren’t able to add everything I would’ve liked, this is a solid ground to start on and to build more and more into. We are getting models done and prepared to be moved into unity, along with our coders getting more things ready to be made and added to the game. If you want to see the work our lovely team has been doing along with our producer, Nolan Owens, see his blog! 

With the eleven downloads that happened, only 5 people responded to the forum but they gave valuable feedback on parts that needed to be answered. Overall, players were in the age range of 18-35+ years old, and most played RPG  games. 4 players were able to gather all 32 points present on the map while one only got about 20 points but was unaware they cost points. But all were unaware that there was a quota that players were supposed to meet. People were surprised that there was a crouching function but found no use for it. Many players had fallen out of the map on the block out areas 2 and 3, resulting in them having to restart entirely and close the game.  60% of the players felt the map was too big while 40% felt the map was too small, though that was based entirely on who went on top of the maze hedges and ran around there. There were multiple ways for the player to bypass the mazes in the first area, making their gameplay quick. One noted that the mazes were well done; challenging enough to want to continue and enjoyed the trial and error that went with it, though one does wish the first area’s maze was a little larger for traveling through it. 

It was noted that the sprint bar was also buggy, only moving down when the player was sprinting and jumping at the same time and requiring to stand still to start recharging the bar. Some players were unable to climb a section of the 3rd area’s tree without sprinting and jumping, taking away some enjoyment in it. Camera movement speed and camera all worked for players and didn’t feel too janky or incomplete. Overall, all of these can be fixed by next build by adding better ui elements on where the player’s supposed to go, what they’re able to do, inventory being added and traps being set up.

(For some reason, gifs will not upload. This will be rectified as soon as possible.)

For these few weeks, the exhaustion of work and other classes hit me hard and had me lagging behind for a few days. Being mainly a modeler more than a designer, there are a lot of things I am still unsure as to what I need to do and what needs to be prioritized. I know how I want my game to run but I’m also so unsure on where my game should be for the first prototype. Though I feel like we are in a great spot for how simple the gameplay is, we are still far from hitting the mark of having everything incorporated for the build. But this next build will add all the parts I want for my game. Our brilliant coder’s Tommy and Carlos have already finished an inventory system and the turrets function to be implemented into the game very soon! Jax completed Gobby’s hands and plans to rig them and Max is working on the model for the turret and some more environment pieces to start being added by our level designers Riley and Miguel. We also have UI art done by Samantha that we can start adding in to help players out from getting too lost on how much time they have, their sprint bar and their inventory as well.

I also did my fair share of work by writing scripts for voice acting, storyboarding the intro and endings for the game, along with drawing more concept art for my modelers and talking with my team to make sure they’re on the same level as me design wise with enemies, mechanics and the sort. I feel as though there are periods where we need to meet as a team more to make sure we’re all on the same page but it’s felt impossible in a way. I’m not sure what there is I can do to rectify that apart from being present and telling my team if they have any questions or want to meet with me one on one to please reach out and ask. I hope that is enough for now but I know our next build will be much better and more visually pleasing for players alike!