Newsletter #11: April 3rd

• By vsangubh
• Posted in Uncategorized
• On April 4, 2015
• 1 Comment.

Overview:

This past week we setup to complete our design and start getting the content into our games. We also had a playtest on April 1st at Mountainview to test out our build from the previous week. Iteration on the various elements of UI and gameplay also began with the feedback from the playtest. At the same time we have been adding new art assets into our games.

Tasks Completed:

1. Updated Acacia Tree and Bromeliad game
2. Bug fixes
3. Playtest on April 1st
4. Art Update
5. Card Game initial implementation
6. Shrew Game initial implementation
7. Elephant Game initial implementation
8. List of Animals

 

Playtest and Findings:

On Wednesday (April 1st) we had our third playtest. This was a far more in-depth playtest with a smaller group of students and more time for our team to spend with the kids.

We learnt a lot from this test but also realized that more content needed to be added into the game in time for the next playtest as the playtest group had been saturated by the previous playtest.

A compiled version of our findings can be found below:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RRDk5oJcORjjN6dm0jXSqS3y036Xa9ajCl09_FSmuK8/edit#gid=0

 

Design:

At this stage we have completed all designs, with some additional tweaking needed on the journal publishing which is still being compiled for a complete flow. With this the designers can move into tweaking and optimizing the games. This means that a lot of their work will involve figuring out the best forms of feedback amongst other things. The designers have also been working to get feedback from the various faculty and other classmates about the designs.

 

Art:

With a completed list of all animals expected to be in the game the art team is working towards getting all the art assets completed:

Shrew Game initial assets:

UI assets:

Current (and Tentative) List of all expect animals for art:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11HGb0JHyGfTSpgh6swod4-_NNrD89T11Uj-feXWW3HQ/edit#gid=0

 

Programmers:

With the recognized need for the various mini-games to be implemented into our overall experience, the programmers have been hard at work created initial prototypes that can be iterated over the upcoming weeks. With initial implementations in place for the last two unique games and the re-skinnable card game. The programmers now have to squash bugs and work on tying the games together with the journal. Also art assets will have to updated as they come in from the artists and as the designers tweak and improve the games from all the feedback the programmers will have to work closely with them.

 

Moving Forward:

This upcoming week will be all about tweaking and integrating the various parts of our experience. This will be done in tune with preparing for a teacher led playtest the week of April 13th.

This means our efforts will be towards

• Bug Squashing
• Integration
• Art Update
• UI Updates
• Design Tweak
• Journal Publishing
• Preparing for teacher led playtest

We are also looking into maybe connecting with our Content Advisor IRL and seeing if we can get some feedback that may improve our games.

 

Important Deadlines and Dates:

Unconfirmed Date -Week of April 13th