Winter 2014 Week 3

Last week, we started on making assets for Level 1 Chapter 1. Instead of five chapters per level, we will now have three chapters per level. We are constantly keeping an eye on the deadline and limiting the amount of assets we need to create so the project doesn't get out of hand. This week we will be working on art and design for Chapters 2 and 3.

Our Level Designer is currently blocking out Level 1 Chapter 2 and the concept art for it is in progress. Models and textures for Chapter 1 are also in progress.

Here's a piece of concept art from each of our 2D artists:

Assorted props by Nicole S.

Grass concepts by Tian C.

Chapter 2 preview by Brice P.

Winter 2014 Week 2

For this week,  we ended up reworking a couple of the backlogs and asset list for the our game's goal this quarter.  Our first week back, we revised a couple of the game play issues.  We felt like the original first level had too much content in it and was too short for how much was needed.  This was because we had a beach, a lake, and a tree house all in one level map.  The puzzle and actual game play was too short for how much scope we needed.  Instead, we have resolved our problem to focus on 3 different levels, and each level will have 5 chapters.  Also, we had an issue with not having anxiety in our game.  We solved this out but including "time".  Instead of a number representing time, we will have a shadow around the player's HUD so "darkness" represents as time that is closing in on the player.  The goal is to go to the crystal shards, and light them up to brighten the level.  The shards will also make the timer go back up, so it will represent as a safe zone for the player.  We might implement buffs later on, but that is out of our scope right now.

Playtest allowed us to see that there were issues with the map being too short for what it offered.  There wasn't enough activity, but we did see a change in where people felt anxiety, which is our goal for this level.

Here is the level layout:
Some things will change, like the platforms, but right now we are modeling out the environment props that will fill the negative space in the map.  Our theme for Beach Level 1 Chapter 1 is dead maritime items.
We have other chapter themes settled for this beach level, but we will elaborate more when we reach that part in our development process.