For the ETC Halves presentation, we listed up important features that we need to implement in our first prototype and discussed how we can deliver our core idea effectively in a short video. We developed our player’s back story this week, but we were in the storyboarding stage, so we decided not to include this one in the prototype. Instead of showing the whole dialogue and storyline, we focused on developing the main game mechanic delivering items to NPCs and talking with them to get any information about this specific time period.
Our art team also updated the 2D background images of Aunt Ester’s house to make it more mythic and to show her character and personality. We are currently going through a process of iteration where the instructors, clients, and teams give feedback and we adapt that to our work.
In the dialogue, we were trying to reinforce Aunt Ester’s character as more mysterious and wiser. In the original plays, Aunt Ester is to practice healing and guides many people from their hardships. To keep Aunt Ester’s personality and power, we set Aunt Ester as our main NPC to guide our playable character.
Aunt Ester: Hello there… it seems you need help returning home… fortunately I can help you get back no problem. However, first, I need you to help me deliver some instructions to folks in town… the energy from their gratitude will help me get you home.
In our storyline, she already knew our playable character is time traveling now and how to get her back home. Plus, our player will collect “their gratitude” instead of collecting objects to fix the time machine to make this process more mystical.
Regarding the collectible items given by NPCs, we picked some iconic items for the specific time periods, for example, afro pick as part of the Black is Beautiful movement. We got some feedback that some objects (like ham) do not reflect that time, so we are planning to update it after Halves.
Next, as our main method to deliver the storyline is a dialogue box, our UI designer developed several versions of dialogues. The first design appeared on top of each character’s head, and it had a problem blocking the background image and covered the long text at once. So instead of that, we chose the bottom dialogue box which is more suitable for displaying long text.
Finally! Here is our 1st prototype video for Halves!
After Halves, we will iterate and finalize the 1969 story episode in a week based on the feedback and move on to the next time period!