Dev BLOG
An Art Team Arrives
This month we actually managed to snag an art team to come along side us and contribute to the project. While there were a ton of things that we wanted to have them redesign we realized it was not practical being they had less than a month to get everything they would be working on finished. The biggest help they are doing is by redesigning our UI. The process of bringing them up to speed on the project and communicating our desires and how that matches with their abilities has been very intriguing. Even with the development side we all have differing opinions on how things should look but we all are able to agree and compromise so that what is ultimately included into the final project is what is best for the game. The whole process of building this game has been one of handling each members different opinions and finding ways to satisfy everyone and then fine tuning that decision so that it matches with the ability of each person building the asset. This is exactly the same process now with the art team. We have what we want the asset to look like but we also need to keep in mind the technical limitations of the art team as well. With the final deadline approaching some members of the team are starting to get frazzled and a little tunnel visioned wanting to cease development to ensure the deadline is met. I have been finding myself mediating this dilemma and urging the group to keep production going and not clocking out early because it’s safe and comfortable but rather double down our efforts to get things in and polished with enough breathing room left before the deadline so that we can deliver the best game that we can.
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All is fun in work and play
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Time flies by when you are doing something that you enjoy. This is a common occurrence in everybody’s life but few are able to experience that when it comes to their work. I had this happen recently to me. I was getting work done in my capstone project for school building out levels and performing overall level design for the game. I was having a really great time fleshing out the layout and feel of the level with the intent of making a great experience for the player. I managed to finish up the core of what I had to do, get the framework in to be built upon later, but I wanted to keep working on the level. I started adding detail and small nuances to better immerse the player. This is something that would be done later but I wanted to help the process along as far as possible plus I was having a great time doing it. I noticed it was around lunch time and that I should grab something to eat so I didn’t get too hungry later. I decided to keep working as I ate as to not break the creative flow I was in. I kept at it, altering things as I saw fit to make them fit better into the level as a whole. When I finally looked down at the time hours had passed by without me realizing it. I was so immersed in my work and having so much fun doing it, the time had flown by. The level itself benefitted greatly for it as well. I took a few screenshots and passed them along to my teammate and fellow level designer. He loved what he saw and said he was excited to get home and see the level as a whole. I am so glad I finally found a field of work that I truly enjoy.
Humbleness is a Virtue
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I am truly blessed I have a good team for my last project of school. Everyone is ambitious, agreeable, and insightful. Although we might always see eye to eye on everything no one is obstinate to a fault. My major role in the project is the level designer. My task is to get the framework built for the levels so that detail can then be added later. Originally the whole team concentrated on the first level as we were getting the various mechanics working. I had designed two levels to completion from the framework to asset placement. I had taken my direction from the GDD we all had worked on and agreed upon would be our basis for design implementation. As progress was made it quickly became apparent there was a limitation to the AI and movement of our enemies. While I was implementing the level design for the full implementation we had planned for the reality of the situation and the limitation to our enemies made the areas lack luster. I had made many iterations to the levels all the while hoping and expecting the problems with the enemies to be fixed. It became apparent to the entire team that the enemies were not going to meet the bar that we had set for them which meant a complete overhaul of the levels. At this point we were running the risk at falling behind on our timetable. The decision was made I was to start designing the next set of levels while another team member reconstructed the work I had done previously. The result was all the work I had done was scrapped. I will admit it did not feel great to not see my designs come to fruition but the game as a whole is a better for it. If I was to become obstinate and insist that I get my work set to an adequate state it would have set the whole project back and run the risk of not getting it finished by our deadline. I am confident that I could have gotten my designs with the new enemy constraints if we had more time but the fact of the matter is that there wasn’t enough time. The incident also forced me to rethink how I was designing the levels and focus outside the box for future implementations. I was able to engineer some really interesting levels all due to that fact I had to swallow my pride.