The time has come! On Monday, October 7th, QuestLine present our Halves presentation. Halves is a mid-semester marking point where project team present to the entire faculty their progress. The main goal is to show the faculty that you’re on your way to delivering a product.
Our Presentation:
Since our project has a lot of background to cover we were facing a difficult challenge. Our project goal may seem like just making a level but their are actually additional steps before we can do that. We had to explain the Rifts TRPG concept, how we’re imagining that as a game and then we could dive into what is in the level.
Before getting into the meat of the level, we had to set the expectation for what we are going to build. At it’s core, our level is part of stealth game where the player uses learned to use Shadow Step in different ways.
We also wanted to emphasis that our team is very design and art heavy. Therefore, we have the compacity to develop the environment more than the average level design team. The expectation or final deliverable will highlight our environment art and VFX abilities just as much as it will show our game design.
After establishing why we’re making this level and what the goals are, we presented the components of the level that we are working on.
Most of the first halve of the semester was spent on getting the mechanics working as much as possible. That meant focusing on enemy AI, the shadow step ability and all the other skills meant to augment that ability such as Sixth sense and the shooting mechanism. We also had a section on how we’re creating opportunities for the player to use these skills such as puzzles and enemy patrols.
Another big part of our project is playtesting and prototyping. Level design requires constant feedback on what is working and what is confusing. We’re commited to playtesting as frequently as possible which includes weekly Tuesday Night Playtest on Carnegie Mellon’s main campus and sending builds toour subject matter exper Ketul.
Halves Feedback:
Overall, feedback from Halves was mixed. Our team was definitely pressed for time and the pacing throughout the presentation could have used some work. We were hit with some hard question about the environment interaction with the mechanics as well as our true understanding of stealth.
On a positive note, the visuals were able to shine in the presentation. Although there were many design questions, the fact that we have most if not all the mechanics working, means that we now have the time to invest in making the level satisfying.
Next Steps:
Next week is fall break. After an intense week of presentations, we’re happy to have a week of rest. When we comeback, we will be focusing on implementing more narrative pieces that will direct the player and explain the level objective.