Summary of the Week
This week we focused on reviewing the feedback we received from our playtest day and our SME playtest to see what we needed to change and where we needed to narrow our scope. We had a playtest with some of the faculty at the end of the week so that helped us to push to get the changes updated for this test.
Development
Through last week’s playtest, we realized that our current light attraction system did not work really informative — playtesters didn’t really feel like being pulled by the light when they were flying past it, control of bird turning is too slow to be noticed, and for the final moment of the bird flock in the light beam, playtesters weren’t mainly focused on the birds up their head so that they failed to understand what happens.Based on these feedback Targy redesigned light attraction system. Compared to previous implements, now the light was able to tell whether the player is approaching left or right and did the pulling behavior smarter.
For the turning behavior, we just simply made the turning offset much larger.
Finally, for the ending moment we adjusted the routing path. Now,the player would fly up towards the light beam and was able to see those trapped birds.
Besides, Harry started to work on the sound system and made some audio source mixer assets and added them to the game. Because we were thinking that music and sound could really help tell the story.
Art
This week, our artist, Anlan, created some billboard assets which we want to add to the downtown area in order to add more light sources in the downtown area and make the final level harder. These billboards were designed based on the night view of Pittsburgh, and were painted on to match our art style.
This week, Kai is implementing the map based on the feedback from last Friday’s playtest. We fixed the milky way according to Diane’s advice. We changed the shape of the milky way because she told us that the milky way is a curved disk instead of a slope. We were surprised by the fact that the galaxy should look like a curve.
We also changed the light color from a warm tone to a bit cold tone because we want to emphasize the light pollution in the city. We also add some buildings on the other side of the river so that the city feels less like an island.
What went well
Our team did a great job of breaking down the feedback and making a plan on how to refine our game. We added in more light clutter to help make it more difficult to navigate and to increase the tension. We were also able to implement the sound this week, which helped to bring an emotional element to the game that has been missing.
Next Steps
We need to find a better way to convey what the spotlight means at the end of the game. We are thinking about adding in a video or also showing some of the birds falling at the end for the guest to understand what is happening in the scene. We also need to start thinking about what our booth is going to look like for the festival and start gathering supplies to do a mockup in our project room.
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