Welcome back! Well at least for us. Last week was our fall break so develop was very slow. However, we happy to jump back into the project and continue with development.
What do we have left?
There were a lot of meetings this week with our project instructors, our SME and internal amongst the team. As we enter the rest of the semester we needs to envision our final product and plan out how we are going to get there. Here is a list of things we need to iterate on and how are plan on doing it.
Outdoor Scene
Right now, we are relying heavily on verbal communication to on board our playtesters. Ideally, we would want for the game to teach how to play itself without outside interference. Adding on outdoor scene where the player learns information about the world, their mission and basic movements is one of our solutions to this. This means we need to include:
- An intro cut scene
- A 3d model of the main temple
- An outdoor environment made with sand, rocks and some plants
- A ley line from the Rifts universe
- Multiple tutorial checkpoints that will show the player how to charge their weapon, walk, jump, and run
Entrance Level
After the player arrives at the temple, the scene will cut and transition to the entrance of the temple. We already have some puzzles in place here, but they aren’t fully developed. We need to:
- Finish designing the entrance puzzles
- Add dialogue to give the puzzels content
- Add other tutorial checkpoints that show the player how to shoot, crouch, interact with objects, and use their Sixth Sense ability
Floor 1
The first floor is where we need most of our work and playtesting during the first semester but we still need to:
- Add sound effects
- Iterate on the wild vampire AI
- Iterate on the level pacing
- Add more contrast to the scene
- Add more tutorial checkpoints that show the player how to use their shadow step ability
Floor 2
The second floor needs the most work. This is where we’re currently talking more with our SME on how to make this floor climatic. It is the final area and should be the most entertaining. Adding art and finalizing our level layout will be our top priority here.
Playtesting and More Playtesting
Even with our laundry list of things to do this week, we participated in a playtest this Friday with 13 highschoolers. Their general feedback was lack of instruction. This reaffirms our need for a tutorial. We are also looking into posting the mission objectives as part of the UI.
Next Steps:
We have another playtest with highschool students next Friday and are working towards our MVP before Playtest Day. Playtest day is where our department invite 50+ people to playtest all the projects. It is a crucial time to showcase your game and get feedback.