Reflecting back on this week it has been a good start after the Easter Holidays especially over Easter which we took a break from the unit. As its given us time to rethink our game and come back to it with a fresh mind. With the start of the week we had a team meeting to discuss where we are at and where we should be at. Which has been difficult to workout as a team where we should be at with the game especially the circumstances of the lock down that has affected our workflow. As before the lock down we had a clear idea and understanding of where we should be at with the game. But now its gone out the window as we have lost track of where we should be at. As if we are carrying on as normal without the lock down we would be polishing the game in the means of assets and game play looking for bugs. As for me I would have been polishing the assets by improving the static mesh and working on the textures. However with this week we will re evaluate where we are at with the game and what we need to do with the game and set ourslevles targets that are achievable with this situation that we are all in.
With this in mind we had the usual team meeting at the start to see how everyone has been coping with the circumstances of the lock down over the Easter Holidays. Which most of us have been trying to do some work when ever we can. But everyone have been finding it difficult due to the new work schedule, certain situations of not having the right computers and software. Other than that we are managing to carry on with the game even with the hindrance of these circumstances. Within the meeting we reflected upon our game at where its at and the steps we should then take with it. With this myself and other members of the group brought up down scaling the game if we want to get a basic some what complete prototype. As with some of our ideas we have come up within our game are going to be cut due to the circumstances that have affected our output of work. Which is a shame that we have to cut out these ideas and quality of work as we are all on board with our game. However our game we are producing a prototype game which gives us some leeway with the game. Even with it being handed in, we can carry on with working on the game in our own time as a personal project which I wouldn’t mind working on as I am on board with the idea.
With this we talked about the methods of down grading the game which we have come up with a couple of ways. One way is to cut down on the ideas we were going to implement in game play mechanics. Which we have come up with a variety such as the city AI that is based in an interactive map, birds that take your items, weight of items that affect your balance and etc. These will be cut for now and if we have some spare time then we could implement them back in. Another area we have downgraded is the assets which they are already low poly which is a plus side however the textures are going to be plain basic colours which is disappointing. As I wanted to play around with stylising the textures as I haven’t tried it before so I wanted to play around with it. Another way is to refine the asset list by narrowing down the list to make it easier for us asset artists to focus on assets we need and polishing them.
With the team meeting sorted we now have a clear idea of where we are going with the game and the targets we have set for each sub group. Its still disappointing to downgrade the game but it needs to be done to get a some what finished playable prototype. So my targets are to go over the assets to work out what we need to keep and which ones need to be polished. From this I went over my all my assets again to check if they are good enough for the game. Which some weren’t as they were still in the block out stage. Due to these circumstances where I got to the point of not knowing what would happen with this unit. Which I took a break over Easter to clam down and rethink my work flow. So I started polishing my first asset which is a basic house I made which looked rather plain and flat so I decided to finish it off and rework the house. Which I adjusted the roof as some parts weren’t flat, added a door and some boarded up windows. For these I gathered reference images (Below) to fit in with the culture in Lisbon which we have based the game on in culture and location.
Re-working the house turned out rather well as I fixed a lot of issues with the design of the house by improving the static mesh of the house to reduce the poly count and improve the UV map. With this I used the quad draw tool to sort this issue out and the clean up tool. With this it also checks if I had extruded twice which I had in some areas. Also it sorted out the polygons by removing all the n-gons with the clean up tool. One draw back to this is that I had to redo the UV mapping for the house which I have already done. However I did make a variety of boarded up window assets that I can apply to other buildings. The reason for why I have created these is to give the effect that the buildings have been ruined and abandoned. As I want the player to get the feeling of an ere atmosphere of what happened to this city and what brought about its downfall.
Overall this week started off well but rather slow with polishing and finishing off assets. As I am trying to workout a new work flow as we have two online seminars a week on Wed and Thur. One difficulty is getting motivated as I have had some days where I am not motivated. But I think its down to having Easter off so its taking some time to get back into my work flow. With the revised submission and marking it has improved my motivation to carry on with the unit and game. As I feel like this unit is now achievable unlike before the Easter holidays where I was in the dark about how this was going to turn out. Also with these days I have been doing my written work and starting to sort out my planning folder which I am still unsure of. The reason for my uncertainty with this is how they would like to do this. So to solve this I will send an email to ask how they would like us to do the planning folder. Overall this has been a decent start to the term but I am going to up my productivity for my work. As my motivation has improved to carry on the best I can with the game as I don’t want to let down my team. Even though my team are quite relaxed with the way our game is turning out. The reason for this is I’ve mentioned before that we don’t want to stress ourselves and each other. As we want to enjoy making this game and not stressing ourselves out.
Thomas Morphew Games art 