This week we presented the state of our project to all of the ETC faculty and got feedback. We sent in a first draft of our media materials as well as having out team bonding dinner!
Quarters:
Quarters happens 1/4th through the semester and is where each project team showcases their idea for their project. The goal is to introduce your project to the faculty along with presenting any problem you need advise on.
For our Quarters presentation, we planned on showing the research that we have done on the IP as well as the story/level concept that we have settled on.
We imagine our level set in a game where the player is a Dhampir that has joined the Reid Rangers in order to get revenge on the Vampire Intelligence. At this point in the game, the player is tasked with infiltrating a temple where a map to the vampire intelligence is located and rescue some prisoners.
At this point in development we weere look for help answering these questions:
- How do we handle the expectations that come wih using a pre-existing IP?
- How do we play to our strength as a team without a designated programer?
- Since our level is set within a game, how do we catch the player up on relevant content and mechanics?
- How should we approach puzzle complexity now that we are developing the game ostacles.
In regard to the questions we presented, the professors gave us the following advice:
- If our audience isn’t going to be people that played the game, then we don’t have to battle with their precepetion of the game. We are more or so, introducing the game world to a newer audience. That means we can cultivate their interpretation of the world.
- Going with more of a stealth game is probably the better choice. Have the environment enrich the puzzle mechanisms and focus on gameplay. Identify the “verbs” or player actions in the game. What can the player do? What will they talk about after? What makes this experience unique?
- Start simple and work your way up. Introduce the main puzzle systems early and combine/build off of them as they go on.
Team Bonding:
After our Quarters presentation, the team needs to unwind and refocus. We went out for sushi and got to know each other on personal level.
Next Steps:
In the week to come, we will be listing out our verbs for the project, building the core game mechanics and level blockout. It will be a busy week, but QuestLine is excited and up for the challenge!