This week consisted of mainly making sure everyone on the team was reminded of what game we were making and the direction we intend to go. I will be creating a timeline (out of session) of how the level will play out and a timeline for the team on when we need parts of the game uploaded and working.
We started the session with a play test of the progress build as the only people to have played/know what the game looks like so far were myself and the tech team. The team pointed out many flaws of the build tech side but unfortunately I was unable to get feedback on the current level design as the modified designs were not in the progress build.
However, after talking, the level design needed to be changed again. We have currently been working with 2 planes however we were informed that there wasn’t enough going on in the second plane that made it worth using and should consider switching to using 1 plane. As the team was very set on having 2 planes we were told we needed to come up with other ways to use the second plane. I spent the rest of the lesson coming up with ideas with my junior on how we could accomplish this. After watching the feedback video for the progress build we also came up with another idea on how you switch between characters not just key binding but also visually which would fit nicely with our UI changes we plan to make.
The foxes abilities have also been changed. This is something I felt for a while that needed to be changed but the rest of the group was set on the idea therefore no changes were made until now. The arctic fox and the fennec fox had the same ability, they are now one ability on the arctic fox. She can hide and reveal hidden locations for the other foxes. The fennec fox now has the ability to slip through gaps the other foxes cannot.
New level designs compared to old designs-
Surgery Room-
Progress from prototype to present. The surgery room has changed the most out of all the areas and after receiving feedback on how to incorporate more gameplay elements on the two planes I decided to based upon the new fennec fox ability to add a vent in the room. You can only pass through this vent as the fennec fox which takes you into the waiting room. In the waiting room you will climb along a pipe and jump down onto the desk to press a button which will turn the door system online ready for the red fox to hack the door and make his way into the waiting room to progress with the level. When you first enter the waiting room the receptionist isn’t there and the room is more lit (due to a desk lamp so she can find her way back after going to the toilet). When you hack the door and walk through into the waiting room it is now much darker and the receptionist is at her desk. Later on in the game this feature could have a time limit between hitting the switch and reaching the door to unlock it.
Waiting Room- Added where the pipe will be, the switch and how the character will get back onto the desk to leave the room again. We also removed the chairs from the foreground, we decided to hardly use the foreground as it was just blocking the characters vision. It might come in use again later on in the outdoor areas.
Main Entrance – We removed the use of using the second plane in this area as using both planes would get repetitive and boring. Only certain areas at certain points will make use of the second plane.
Next session we will be finalizing designs for all of the UI, making mock designs, asking for feedback, testing it and have it implemented into the engine.
Chronicles of Kitchie 