This week, we were mainly focusing on midterm preparation. The focus for this week was to try implementing the 2 players and finalize most of the art assets.
The task we’ve done:
Candice: start rigging (plan to get the start scene animation done before playtest day)
Alex: draw the storyboard for the start scene (Due Monday) and add a shader. After the break, we are going to paint the ground material, draw the background image, and add a shader.
Mike: Try 2 players, and if we have time, add stereo sound (for now, I cannot tell where the new mushrooms are by just hearing the sound effects).
Lydia: Keep working on game design & help Mike if needed.
Cici: Keep working on game design with Lydia, hold more playtests & gather feedback. Esther: WordPress update, slides update, record & edit the demo video (1~2 min).
Esther: working on the 1/2 presentation slides, keeping track of the tech, game design and art progress.
Tech & Game Design
Before Wednesday, we were trying hard to solve the laggy scene and testing the better camera angel for players. Also, we were finalizing the basic gameplay for 2 players.
On Wednesday, we successfully implemented the 2 players function. When they are separate apart, the screen will be splitted into 2 parts and each of them can see their side and interact with the mushrooms. When they move closer together, the view will be merged, and they can move forward by standing next to each other.
And based on our narrative design, we finalized the storyboard for the start animation.
The mole tribe is migrating with their fortress to another location for better living resources. The 2 players are little working moles in the mole tribe.
During the migrating journey, all moles should collect as much mushroom to be food as they can, so that when winter comes and tribes arrive, there will be no food shortage.
Here’s the demo video we edited to showcase the start animation (replaced by storyboard) and the first level.
Art
As for character art, since we designed the content for the start scene, we decided to finish the animation (storytelling/background story) before the playtest day, which is around week 10. Therefore, our goal for halves is to finish rigging the character, and start the animation after the fall break.
