For this set of sprints, I was refocused and ready to accomplish more than before. Life may have had other plans, but we’ll get there when we get there. In the beginning of the sprint, our team was completely retasked, since we realized we were not on the right path to complete the game within the allotted time for this class. Thus, I was given more jobs which involved asset implementation rather than asset creation. After all, we had taken on an artist, so why was the level designer creating art for the game?
Above on the left, you can see one original creation I produced for this game. I was asked to create placeholder art for the earth district background, since our artist was busy creating buttons and menus that sprint. We decided to pursue this background because we believed part of the reason the players did not like the fashion shows was because they did not have any visuals to set up the theater of imagination. Unfortunately we would not be able to realize that this was not the case until much later, and even when we did, we ended up having the artist redo the work anyway, so this work was simply placeholder. However, I am happy that I was able to create it, because I believe it helped the playtesters understand the ideas behind our game somewhat better, because they had some sort of visual to indicate our game’s themes.
Above on the right, you can see the first large implementation of something I had already created in a previous sprint, which was the dragon statistics page. Initially, the two circled elements were not included, but after speaking with the lead, we realized that they were necessary, and including them wasn’t much of an issue. By simply re-sizing certain elements, namely the title,the different statistics, and their backgrounds, we were able to incorporate the new items to the page. These items were important because they were part of the overhaul our game was receiving. We were switching from a string-based system to an integer-based system, which means we were switching from dragons having stats that were determined by words to having statistics being determined by numbers, and being able to be increased by numeric values rather than simply changing the string value. This was to create a sense of progression in the game. Next, I began implementing different sound files which I already compiled in previous sprints. This included the paper crinkling noise for when the player chooses the map, and the ambient sound mix I found for filler noise in the incubation chamber. For the rest of sprint 4, I was tasked with finding different sound files to implement in the next sprint. I found some, but they had to be scrapped later on, which I will explain in sprint 6.
When our lead was assigning work for Sprint 5, he wanted me to create a new page for fashion show results, he wanted me to implement a new sound file for ambient noise in the main menu and throughout the game, he wanted me to write the text of many tutorials throughout the game to save time for the programmer and the lead, and to create a new point allocation panel for the dragon stats screen that follows the artist’s style, which you can see below.
Writing the tutorials for the game was quite fun, as writing is something I really enjoy and the tutorial sections are something I wanted to try my hand at writing, since players said they could not understand what was going on and I had an idea of how to explain the mechanics well without losing attention span. In future sprints, we received less complaints about the lack of clarity with controls and such, which leads me to believe I was successful in my endeavors. We also had another issue by the end of the sprint. When somebody else had to redo their assets because they were not allowed to use downloaded assets, we realized it would be smart to make our assets from scratch. Luckily, my most recent sound effect of ambient noise was custom, taken from multiple bird recordings throughout the development process. However, all of my previous noises which were going to be implemented by my hand had to be scrapped, and I had to begin creating new noises to implement from scratch.
Unfortunately, I ran into a major problem in sprint 6. Over halloween weekend, I had my wallet stolen, along with a large amount of money from a bank account which I never received back after police investigation. This meant I could no longer drive due to a loss of a drivers’ license, and halted my development for a short time. Due to this, I was unable to complete much work for the game. There was little work for me to do anyhow, since my implementation of new sound files was simply superfluous at this stage of development. Thus, I was simply able to complete a from-scratch paper sound and a button clicking sound. This was challenging in its own way, since I simply taught myself how to use sound editing software and properly isolate the exact sound I wanted. For the final sprint, I was able to create our game information document which would be presented in the store. I wanted to implement more, and wish I could have had more time to implement a rhythm game so the player could earn their wins. I was unable to even get screenshots for the game, as for some reason the game would not run if it was on bluestacks, and I do not own an android phone so could not take screenshots of the game for the google play store. However, I am proud of one particular accomplishment when developing the end of the game. I took it upon myself to use my musical prowess and compose an original track for the background music of the game. I composed the basic chords in sprint 6, but will have completed an improved, more isolated-sounding track that will accompany the entire game.
Comments
Post a Comment