Hello and welcome to another exciting update from our development journey!  Time passes so fast and we’re almost approaching half- presentation. This week, we’re excited to delve into the core of our design process.

To give you a clearer picture of how we approach this, we’ve developed a flow chart that outlines our iterative gameplay.

Programming

Our programming efforts this week were focused towards polishing the overall game experience. Our focus extended from enhancing the monster selection process to win conditions, ensuring a basic gameplay experience before our major milestone at ½ presentation.  

Art

3D Models

Artists have focused on creating the monster selection scene this week. We first worked on the monster’s card, which ties with the monster fantasy and creates a more immersive experience. The style of the cards is based on Hanafuda cards, a type of traditional Japanese playing cards.  

Following the cards’ creation, our team crafted the desks that display these cards within the game. A key focus was on hand-painting bounced light effects in mixed reality settings, a technique that not only enhances the visual appeal but also optimizes performance.

VFX

This week also saw the development of a new defense VFX. Our approach combines 3D modeling with  visual effects to create an engaging defensive gameplay mechanic.

User Interface

We’ve made further improvements to the in-game HP panel, iterating on its design to ensure it’s intuitive and informative based on the new game design, enhancing the player’s experience during gameplay.

Playtest

Our team conducts a playtest session, we have many useful feedback to iterate our game. Below are the findings we observed and collected:

• Safety risks
• Lack of onboarding:
  • Players confusion with hand gestures 
  • Interaction with the watch
• Overpowered defense system discourages player movement
• Excessive VFX and art assets lead to performance drop

What we plan to iterate:

• Intuitive Tutorial: A brief introduction of Fantasy, Hand Gestures, watch interaction
• Mixed reality Room setup: Unique game experience each time as well as keep the player avoid furniture that might costs danger
• Performance Optimization: control the duration of one session, and minimized art assets & VFX generated

Future Plan

Week 8

• Playable features complete

• Make project meaningful for GDC

Week 11：Playtest Day

• Tutorial implementation

• Full Game experience

Week 13： Soft

• Development complete 

• Documentation

• Stretch: Design Toward Tournament