Looking back on this week it has turned out rather well for the first week of this unit BA2b. As before this week I was dreading this unit as its the new unit BA2b which is creating a game as a group around a theme. The reason for this is the last unit I was knocked back due to my mental health and I still getting to grips with it even though I have started my cognitive therapy so I might be up and down at certain points of the unit. However I am going to do my best for this unit not just for myself but for my group as I don’t want to let my group down which is one of my biggest worries. Also I am worried about what is expect from this unit in our individual and group work with how the game should look.
The beginning of this week has turned out rather well as for the first day we spent the morning getting to know each other and work on a idea. Luckily for me I was put in a group that are friendly and cooperative in how we got to know each other by going around in a circle introducing ourselves and learning our strengths and weaknesses. In our group we have 1 concept artist, 3 asset artists and 3 developers. Which is ideal with making the game for assets and coding the game however it is going to be difficult for our concept artists to get the idea across for the game. However Roma one of our asset artists also does concept art solving this issue. With sorting out the work teams we decided on a leader for our group. This will help us organises our selves so that we can keep on target with our work and communicate on behalf of the group to the tutors. For our group leader we choose Roxi as shes very confident, well organised and communicates well with everyone.
After this we discussed our ideas for our game around the theme of Climate Change for this unit. We came up with a variety of ideas which we all chipped in with ideas and ways to improve them. Also with the ideas we discussed the pros and cons of each of them with the scoping to make sure that they are achievable within our time frame. On top of this we made sure every one is happy and on board with our final idea that we narrowed down. With the pros and cons we decided the style for the game which we have gone with a low poly style for the game. As it allows us to block out the game and then improve the assets. If we have enough time we can add even more detail if needed and extra Assets. Also another pro to this style is that we can get to work on sorting out the size of the level but also what other assets we could do with for the game. However I am worried about this style as I am unsure of how polished our game should be and if our style is alright.
The final idea for the game is that you play as a robot dog that cleans up the world after humanities extinction due to climate change where you clean up the planet but as you do it you slowly uncover the reason to humanities downfall. The end game for our game is to recycle rubbish and collect parts to repair the water purifier. With coming up with the game we have made a design document to cover the main features and a plan for our game. One of our Devs, John started off the document and we all participated in creating this document to give everyone in our group a clear idea of what we are doing with the game. With this document its on the google drive where we can all access it to remind ourselves what our tasks are. With this document it covers all the areas of our game from its plot, game play mechanics, references and audience. My contribution to this is the references and the art style for the game. With the references I looked at Low poly games and games styles for technology. Which will allow me to work out the style we want to go with but also I can communicate my ideas to the rest of the group.
With the idea and scoping sorted for the game we can focus on organising our groups tasks which we are using Trello to manage the tasks that need doing which we have split into three groups Concept art, Asset production and Games development. Even though we are split into Subgroups we always check on each other on where we should be at, giving feedback on each others work to see how we could improve. For me I sort of took charge with setting up the list of assets that we will need for our game. Which I got some help with from the Concept artists as we both need to communicate with creating the assets. With this we started gathering reference images of Lisbon to work out what assets we will need and the style of them.
With the trello board sorted we all met up every day that week to check up on each sub group to see where we are at and if we are meeting out targets for the week. But also to discuss any ideas on how we could improve the game and give feedback on each others work. On top of this we set up a Discord Channel to communicate with the different team areas. Another reason for this is that it can be used to help each other out if we get stuck or have any issues with the work.
By the end of this week I feel like I have done a decent amount of work yet I feel like I could have done more in the terms of the amount of assets. As I have created rough block outs of the most important assets. This will allow us to start blocking out the level (Assets above). But looking back on this week I think that this is a good start yet we still need to get the game play mechanics and the level sorted. To work out the size of the level and what game mechanics we need. For me I need to improve on working out a low poly style for the game. As I am still unsure what style we want to go for with the game but this is still early in the development of the game. Overall I think this is a good start to developing our game and I am glad that I am have been put with a hard working and friendly group.
Thomas Morphew Games art 