Designer Blog #2

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Sprint 2

For this sprint, I was very pleased with my team's work and what they accomplished. The game is starting to take look and feel more like my vision and I feel we are on a good track. We nearly doubled our points this sprint and we were able to have a normal full sprint this time around.

PlayTest Feedback

For this sprint we had our first playtest. The first build was just an early electronic prototype and was still missing a lot of features, but we wanted to gather as much data as possible. However, I think there was a miscommunication on my end with the playtesters. I think many of them believed this was a game and since it's nowhere being complete, many found it bad. However, it is an electronic prototype, therefore we knew the game was not ready.

I should have been more clear with what this build was and what we were looking for. Specifying that this was not a game by any means yet. Despite this, I still gathered a lot of valuable data on the game. The main one is that the scanner mechanic needs some adjustments to make it more challenging and fun for the player. We also need to focus on some of the player's movement and shooting to make sure it feels more fluid. For the next playtest, I want to be able to have better-guided questions that will greatly help improve our game.

Programming

We got a lot of great mechanics implemented this sprint. We added the scanner goggles that highlight our lootable items. We also changed the enemy AI to react more realistically against the player. Finally, we added our contract system that allows players to collect contracts and get credits by selling those contracts.

Overall, we made a great amount of progress with programming and the team did an amazing job at making the mechanic feel smooth and intone with the game.

3D Models

We got a large amount of props completed this sprint. First, we got half of our resource props completed. These are the props that the players will be picking up as they scavenge the lootable items. Despite being a smaller prop, these needed to all look visually different and still be in tune with the game visuals.

We also completed one of our first lootable containers along with some environmental props. These props needed to feel stylized yet futuristic, in order to develop the world around the player better.

We also finished some of our workshop's main props and the player's weapon. We also have our first buildable robot, the robot dog. The workbench is crucial since it's where players will build their robots. The hologram board is where players collect their contracts. The pistol needed to be visually appealing since players will be seeing this up close a lot. Finally, the dog needed to have a modern visual so that players knew that they fully built that robot.

Finally, we have our first rouge bot 1 and our rouge bot 2. These will be an enemy type that the player will encounter. We had variations made for rouge bot 1 to help create variation in the world, despite having the same mechanics. Rouge Bot2 is distinctively visually different in order to show that this is an entirely different enemy with different mechanics. We made a great push in modeling this sprint and all of the work came out looking amazing.

2D Art

For our 2D art, we had our artist create the texture for a trash cube. These cubes will flood the majority of a level scene, so they need to appear visually appealing. After a few iterations, we nailed a design and were able to change its color and scaling to create multiple textures.

Level Design

For our level design, we got some annotated map progress that helped create a good player level. We designed another one of our combat zones and its respective exploration zones. Finally, we further refined the second level for the electronic build. This not only serves to help develop the level but also gather the first impressions for the overall flow of the level.