WEEK 10 - 3rd May

Sound Design, Marketing, Scene Mockups/Testing, Unity

Monday 4th May

Unity Build with Kiera - full structure using platform islands, blossom trees and boxes to signal where each puzzle takes place.

WORK DUE THIS WEEK

Continuation with Sound Design and Marketing

Unity build with Kiera to guide the structure of the Vertical Slice

TO DO LIST

Continue with soundtrack research and composition
Continue posting on Anima Mundi Instagram Account
Marketing for 'Windie Games' and online arcade event
Mockups of each stage of vertical slice with finalised assets
Organise Team Blog - add information and images

MY TASK

Sitting with Team Leader (Kiera) to organise the structure of the full vertical slice. We will be doing this on Unity where Kiera has gathered and created the relevant scripts accordingly.

PLAN -

Use scene mockups and storyboards as reference for basic structure of platforms.

REQUIREMENTS

Five puzzles spread apart - allow space for player movement and to not keep puzzles within a close range, allow for exploration.
Scale trees to allow player to comfortably walk underneath them and space for lanterns to hang.
Platforms to be wide enough apart to allow player to both jump and fall.
Use variation of platform islands.

UNITY BUILD WITH KIERA

PROCESS

I have taken the platform islands provided and organised them in a suitable way for the vertical slice.
Kiera had formed the first scene herself and I used this as reference to further develop this.
We used White boxes to identify the placement for the puzzle interactions, allowing Kiera to know where to place assets and to code this accordingly.
I used a variation of platform islands at different heights and sizes to make traversing the environment more interesting for players.
Puzzles were evenly spaced to ensure players had room to explore and observe the environment as well as completing the puzzles. This allows room to showcase our beautiful asset designs!

SCALE

The scale in which Kiera set up was 1920 x 1080 mm which is the typical measurement for a Mobile Game. Throughout asset design we have been referring to this measurement to ensure our assets were made in the correct size! By doing so, this prevents having to scale assets in Unity and potentially decreasing the quality of them. All scene mockups were made to this scale which made it easier to advance with the Unity build.

Kiera and I plan to present this to the team tomorrow via a Slack call - Tuesday May 4th. During this conversation we will discuss our stage of development and what needs to be done next to create a functional virtual slice.

TUESDAY 4TH MAY: SLACK MEETING WITH TEAM

Presentation of full vertical slice structure/build in Unity and additional updates from team.

DISCUSSION

Kiera and I presented the full game structure and Kiera outlined where each puzzle interaction will take place and what needs to be sent to continue with this development. Members of the team also discussed their position in development and what they're working on this week.

NOTES FROM MEETING:

Team likes the full structure of the game.
Kiera to work on finalised background this week.
Molly discussed her knowledge for how we go about the lighting by using post-processing. Organising a discussion with Nerice to discuss this further. This should be completed once the final game structure is in. (Week 11-12)
Molly plans to forward us her boulder sprite sheet today.
Charisma shared her work via screen share to present her User Interface mockups - first set of experimentation for Play screen, Menu and Settings. Also voted for our favourite typeface!
Daniella plans to have the windmill in later this week, working on last refinements.

Typeface examples/options for us to choose from as well as Settings and Menu set up.

EVALUATION

We concluded on our favourite typeface and Menu appearance however Charisma is going to develop this further and send us more options in the next few days. I suggested having the Menu buttons appear further apart and less harsh, and also discussed my favourite typefaces being 'Tachi' and 'Karasha' because of the Japanese style which works well with the theme of our game and gives users insight as to how the game will look.

Using these Menu mockups I can create a detailed storyboard of how the game should appear as well as what should happen in each stage. This will assist Kiera in building the vertical slice structure in Unity.

MY TASK - Wednesday 5th May

Today I will be working on Sound Design and setting up the Blog for Anima Mundi. My week by week documentation of Sound Design and overall Marketing can be found on a separate page in my blog.

SOUND DESIGN - Sound Design

MARKETING - Marketing > Anima Mundi

THURSDAY 6TH MAY

Collecting final assets, update Asset list and continue with Marketing and Sound.

TUESDAY 4TH MAY: SLACK MEETING WITH TEAM AND JAMES

Progress check - Discussion of next steps, Kiera to outline plan for following week.

DISCUSSION

Kiera to continue with main development of the vertical slice and speak with James to clear up bugs/implications if needed.

Molly to discuss lighting with Nerice over next few days.

Charisma to continue with asset creation and UI mockups.

I will be continuing with sound design and marketing and collecting information needed from team for the Blog.

EVALUATION

I have used this meeting to evaluate the progress of the team. 2D artists are working on the last few assets and aim to have these in within the next week or two. In terms of our pipelines we are on path to complete and begin new tasks to have everything produced within the last few weeks. During this meeting James expressed his concern for the perspective of the game - The platform islands were designed at a slightly different angle in comparison to the other assets. As we are on Week 10, we do not have enough time to create a new design/variation of huts therefore must come up with another way to overcome this.

In addition to this, Molly has begun researching into Lighting to begin and complete lighting production within the next two weeks.

NOTES FROM MEETING:

2D artists working on finalising the last set of assets.
Daniella to hand in windmill by the end of today.
Charisma working on asset refinements, will also have them in by the end of today.
Charisma also shared her UI mockups and presented the look of the game to James.
James concerned about perspective in games - way to overcome this is to reduce size of platform islands.
Kiera has progressed with the Unity build and has scheduled a development session with James which will take place this week and next if necessary.
Molly to speak to Nerice today about Lighting and organise a meeting with her in order to undertake this.
Lighting is a big focal point of the game therefore need to put time into it. Also harder to implement as we are creating 2D game.
I am to continue with Sound Design and marketing. Will assist asset creators if they need and provide feedback using asset list.
Will create finalised scene mockups once all assets have been completed.

ISSUES THAT OCCURRED

James expressed his concern for the perspective of the platform islands in comparison to the perspective of other assets. We have 2 weeks until the hand-in and completion of the vertical slice therefore cannot make this a priority. However I have come up with a solution to adjust this in Unity.

SOLUTION

During the call I provided Kiera with a solution to adjust this in Unity however Kiera was aware that the result of this may affect her Box Colliders, however I have provided a diagram to suggest the idea regardless:

WHAT HAVE I LEARNED?

IMPROVEMENTS FOR NEXT TIME:

During review checks and scene testing, I should gather more feedback from external testers and those with no relation to the project. This is because they will provide an unbiased opinion towards the appearance of the game and as well as this, point things out that we may not have thought about! Exhibit A, the perspective of the islands and the consistency of this throughout!

THE TEAM - FINAL ASSETS

Team provided us with the final assets. Feedback was given and Asset List has been updated:

With these new asset additions I can mark them complete via our asset list and asset completion table.

PANPIPES/FEEDBACK

Charisma has sent over her final panpipe designs which were great. I have provided feedback based on making them separate PNG's to fulfill their purpose within the vertical slice.

PUZZLE INTERACTION

Players must be able to blow Gust into individual panpipes to play a tune. The coloured panpipes will correspond to the tune sung by the eagle during a previous scene of the vertical slice. In order for Kiera to code this into Unity the panpipes must be separate.

Charisma quickly separated these assets and has sent them through.

Daniella has sent through her final windmill design and animation, and most importantly as this was something she wasn't confident doing she has made both herself and the team proud! As this is something she isn't used to Daniella has done really well to produce this outcome in the time provided.

Aas we are scheduled to complete the vertical slice by 2 weeks time we have agreed to using this first concept in the final outcome.

UPDATED ASSET LIST/MARKING COMPLETION

MY TASK - Friday 7th May

Today I will be working on the Logo Design/Name generation for our Year 2 Studio and Online arcade event. The documentation of this can be found here:

MARKETING - Marketing > Windie Games

PROGRESS CHECK - Friday 7th May

I will be performing a progress check to ensure we as a team are on schedule to fulfill the expectations of the vertical slice.

I will be using our Project Scope in order to do this as well as the requirements of the vertical slice.

REQUIREMENTS

To demonstrate a slice of Anima Mundi:
User interface
Animation
Sprites/Models/Assets
Mechanics
Game Architecture
Client/server protocols

USER INTERFACE

Charisma is currently working on the user interface for the vertical slice. Referring to the original GDD, Josh involved the idea of using abilities and a staff charging bar. For the sake of the vertical slice we came to the conclusion to not include a staff charging bar, however will be incorporating Ability buttons into the UI. As well as this, Charisma will create a Home, Play and End Screen.

ANIMATION

Animation has been assigned to the individuals with the most expertise in this area however, myself and Daniella have also created animations for the project by providing ourselves with training in order to do so. We have the animations needed and can check this off our project scope list.

ASSETS

Most assets have been completed by our 2D artists, we are waiting on the last few bits to complete this area. We have conducted a series of tests to ensure these assets work well in the environment and fulfill their intentions, linking this to Josh's initial ideas at all times.

MECHANICS

Gameplay has been established - Kiera outlined the main mechanics and interactions within her gameplay overview, and all will be explained within the User Manual created by Daniella. This is scheduled to be handed in by next week.

END OF WEEK EVALUATION

PROJECT PIPELINE/MILESTONES

Still in the process of asset creation. Scene testing and evaluation of asset reviews has set us back as it's important we do this to the best of our ability, in order to achieve our team goals and intentions for the vertical slice.

Despite this, we still aim to have everything completed within the next two weeks:

ARE WE ON TRACK?

Although we have spent more time on asset creation than expected this will not the affect the production of our vertical slice. The last assets do not require much attention therefore can expect these handed-in by next week, final. Despite this, we have begun with our next tasks and are on track for playtesting by next week. (Week 11) This week we have also begun finalising the the game structure in Unity however, to complete this we need the final assets. If the team is able to produce what is needed by next week, we should be on schedule for completion by Week 12. I am certain we will be able to do this as we continue to work hard and overcome any issues that may occur.

SELF EVALUATION

This week I have begun producing the Soundtrack for Anima Mundi and will continue with this until I am happy with the result. I am to have this completed by the start of Week 12. This allows Kiera to implement the audio into Unity and complete our vertical slice.

I am beginning to feel the pressure and a little bit stressed because of the amount of responsibility I have but I am determined to complete everything to the best of my ability and by the given time frame! I can do this and so can the team :)

WEEK SUMMARY AND REFLECTION

This week I focused on creating the last few assets and performing tests to ensure these assets work in our final scene. Testing led to some quick changes but nothing that took longer than a few hours therefore I was able to make alterations and stick to our schedule. As well as this I continued to develop the soundtrack for our vertical slice.

We are now waiting on the last few assets to be made which the team are aware of. Kiera has updated each team member of their tasks for next week, most of which are to continue where we left off.

This week we kept each other updated on the position of our progress and handed in the work necessary for this week.

We are on schedule to fulfilling the requirements of the vertical slice within the given timeframe.

NEXT STEPS FOR TEAM

DANIELLA

Completion of Windmill

Assigned User Manual to create and hand-in by next week - how to use controls, explanation for user

CHARISMA

Scheduled to hand-in final assets next week (Clouds with new lighting)

Continue working on User Interface for vertical slice

MOLLY

Continue with lighting, discussions with Nerice and update team on this

KIERA

Kiera to continue with Unity Development

Hand-in final refined background next week

Another Unity build with me to finalise structure and make changes

EMILIA

Continue with sound design and marketing

Unity build with Kiera

Next week will be focusing on using finalised assets to mockup each stage of vertical slice to assist the next build in Unity.

How am I feeling?