Hello! It’s been a while, so I might as well start again before I lose all motivation. The reason why I haven’t posted in a while is because there hasn’t been much to report on. We have just spent our time on wrapping up loose ends from the previous semester before starting on the continuation courses which began at the start of last week.
Much of the focus has once again shifted to design as my group from the design project must now construct a working game under a ten month period. We settled on a concept involving a Victorian gentleman battling hordes of insects in a miniature environment, aptly named “Suit ‘Em Up”. So far things have been going well as we’re well into the planning stages which started exactly a week ago at the time of writing. A major emphasis during planning has been put on the SCRUM method, as it is called, of organising work hours with estimated time of completion and level of importance applied to each individual component of the game. Whether it be AI and executable animations to simple sound files. We are bound to make errors in our calculations, but it’s simply part of learning how to use this system. Our next work involving the usage of these tools will undoubtedly fare better. For now we just have to come to understand our own capabilities.
After settling on a concept that we mostly liked we began contemplating on the general properties of the game as well as its look and feel, mostly figuring out the dynamics and mechanical elements while coming to terms with the aesthetics. At first we felt comfortable with the artwork and concepts provided by the design document, however we soon decided to move on to a more distinct art style more resembling of 1920s cartoons, details of which are still being delved upon as I write this. As for the mechanics the plan has been a simple, straight shoot ‘em up with multi-directional movement. The dynamics are so far fairly simple as well, involving a small number of different enemies that engage the player in different types of challenges. Should we find the time we plan on adding enemies that provide internal conflict to the player. Such as advancing to a specific enemy type quickly will greatly help the player achieving his long term goal of protecting the environment but make him vulnerable to unknown enemies nearby that could in turn put his short term goal, survival, in jeopardy. The various enemy types should also help with providing tactical depth to the experience. Special attacks to be utilised by the player in order counter these opponents have also been planned out.
Of course, the majority of this will only begin to be produced and actually put into the game once we’ve made all the essential components for the experience to work without incident. We must prioritise the foundations before starting on the furniture!
Apart from that other work has been slow. I haven’t even nearly done as many sketches and drawing practice as I should have (mainly due to having get hold of a new grip pen), and I haven’t touched a book in over four days.
That’s it for this week. I look forward getting started again!
Björn Erik Berndtsson. Graphics and Game Design.
bjornberndtsson 