Week 5: 2/7-2/13 – Quarters Sit Downs

This week, True North presented our project’s progress during the ¼ walk faculty walk arounds and ¼ sit down meetings.  Faculty feedback was mostly positive, and we encountered many of the same questions as we proceeded through the eight different sessions.  Specifically, our comparison to the previous MP project – Decisions that Matter, user relatability to the material, international student “ignorance of law” and narrative engagement.  During our sit down discussions, we talked about violations from the professor’s perspective as well as how best to approach developing a transformational game.  In looking at the Schell Games Transformational field guide as a starting point, we’ll be framing our development with key elements such as identifying our “barriers”.  In addition to addressing these with our faculty during quarters, we met with the client during the class time on Thursday (2/11) to review story structure, content accuracy and experience goals.  Splitting the class into pipeline “focus” areas (Interaction, Art and Story) has allowed us to narrow in on a direction for the experience.  The class will be focused on exploring paper playtesting, environment concepts and storyboards. Looking ahead, we will be refining the current story structure, implementing design refinements into the prototype (quantifying integrity score e.g.), and continuing to produce character emotions and environments.

Design / Story

IMG_7588
Tim’s notes on transition / “asides” between scenes
  • 4th draft of story
  • Revised story structure road map
  • Morality Play Draft 4 Structure
  • Continued iteration with Sarah G, Storyboards started
    • To do: TB with Ralph / Chris on table read
    • TB with Client on story content / violation feedback
  • Updated 1page designs for features, story, and mechanics
  • Paper playtesting with MP class (date tbd)

Production

  • ¼ Reviews, ¼ sit down meetings
  • Thursday class progress meeting with Client
  • Tentative playtest schedule
  • Broke out into focus groups in the MP class
    • Art, Interaction, Story
  • Playtest to Refine workshop (next week)

Programming

  • Cleaned up hacky codes for 0.25
  • Implemented Flow (Simpler way to describe what is happening on scene, define animation, dialogs and choices)
  • Implemented Interactable Objects
  • Textbox supports multi-line
  • Implemented choose location interaction
new ryan- happy jpg
Art by Ross Houston, redesign of “Ryan”

Art

  • 2 completed looks per character (e.g. Happy, Neutral)
  • 2 character redesigns – Ryan and Professor
  • 1 environment location, additional environment concepts
    • MP classstarting on the environment assistance

      sweeney-happy jpg
      Art by Ross Houston, Prof redesign