For Team Athena, the fourth week began with the faculty walk-around for the critique of the team poster, half sheet and logo which was outlined and drawn by the Ruchi and Luna. Jon Dessler and Shirley Yee provided valuable feedback regarding certain changes that were needed to be made to the poster which uses a stained-glass pattern to depict Goddess Athena. The team also discussed regarding the point system which needed to be implemented in the game since most of the demographic at Colonial School were really into high scores. The programming and design team also met up and discussed the first batch of art assets that were required from the artists for the final sprint before quarters and the playtest on Friday. The design brainstormed various specific details regarding the game with respect to UI, level design and in-depth analysis of various techniques of displaying a high score which came across to the children.
On Tuesday, the team also planned for the sprint before quarters with various tasks and deadlines set. The programmers were tasked with developing the working core of the game with AI and core gameplay a major priority. Luna and Milind integrated and merged their code and Kanishk worked on the sound manager and also the animation of exploding buildings. Unfortunately, we are still testing whether the iPad processing unit can handle so many game objects which need to be created while the building is being destroyed. The prototype was ready on Tuesday with placeholder assets and audio. Luna and Ruchi also worked on finalizing the poster and half sheet after feedback had been given on Monday. The team also talked to the client and filled them in on the progress of the project during the last few days.
On Wednesday, the first priority art assets were finalized by the design and programming team and Elaine and Ruchi started working on the voxel art style which had been finalized earlier. Elaine also completed her work on the buildings which were to be used in the game and the buildings were integrated into the prototype. The team also discussed on what plans they have for the team photo. The picture below gives us a rough look at how the characters and environment would look at the end of the production cycle:
On Thursday, Elaine, Ruchi and Kanishk prepared the documents and the team for the playtest which was to be conducted at the Colonial School on Friday. The programmers also added the final feature to the prototype to be shown at the playtest by working on the power-up functionality and integrating it into the game. The final working prototype was ported to the iPads. The designers also designed two additional levels for the game and Ruchi confirmed the final look of the poster and the half sheet. All the tasks planned for the week were included in our prototype which was great.
On Friday, Ruchi and Elaine also worked on the voxel art for the team photo. After the morning work, the team left for Colonial School where he had our playtest with some of the quieter and delayed kids in the demographic. The playtest was very useful as it brought the realities of working with a wide age and development range. The team first spent ten minutes observing the children playing and noted down their playing style as well as how they interacted and reacted to the games they were playing. After that, we made them play our game with mixed results. The younger children weren’t able to keep up with the game and felt lost. The older children instinctually beat the game but didn’t care for it. The team unpacked all the events that occurred during the playtest and discussed their ideas and opinions on the ride back home.
