Week Four
Week of Octorber 5th, 2020
This week we had a class exam, so our thoughts were on that until we finished it. As a team, we decided that our work in trying to create an isometric game as we had originally planned wasn't being met with much success. We met up and decided that we'd try to convert the game to a tower defense game to make full of use of Unity's 3D features. We're not sure if it was because of the assets we were using or our lack of planning in trying to convert our game style that caused it, but our initial attempts to make to make a tower defense version of our game just didn't feel right.
That weeekend we met as a group again and decided that converting our game style to a 2D platformer would be the best way to preserve the original feel of our game, maintain use of the art assets we had already made, and ensure our game was still fun and engaging. We were on a time crunch with our first playable presentation less than a week away, so we decided to move ahead in development temporarily using freely available online assets to work on game functionality.
State of the Game
Contributions
John
After much frustration with the isometric style, which was less documented online, we decided to force ourselves into a typical 2D or 3D space. We ended up meeting and deciding to explore a 2D platformer base because Oxygen Not Included, a game made by the same company as Don't Starve, was a platformer but more in the ant-farm visual and less about running around and there are no other levels just a large square map. This also allowed us to retain our original art style.
Will
This week was especially frustrating because when we realized the scope of our project was way over our heads, I had to scrap some of the progress I made on things that would only be relevant in that art style (like pillars and décor for the main hub area), and I just focused on getting side sprites for the character and some ground tile textures done. To be blunt, textures are my weak suit, so if you notice some similarities with some other textures going forward… don’t blame me for trying to reuse the good things I made in a smart way!
Quynh
Most of this week I spent studying for our first class exam. I met up with the others and pitched some ideas about our game design. I was pretty satisfied with the switch that we had decided.
Michaela
After the whole debacle this week of trying to decide which style of game we were switching to, I had to start thinking of UI designs. I was able to order a Huion drawing tablet from Amazon for relatively cheap. Once my tablet arrived, I sketched out a few of these ideas in Paint Tool SAI, including ideas for the speech bubbles and menu buttons. Our team was engaged in constant communication this week as we tried to figure out what mechanics and art assets needed to be amended to make the switch from an isometric game to a 2D platformer game.
Media
Art Assets
The 3x3 set of platform tiles we'll be using for the main hub area in our game, drawn by Will.
The finished turn-around for the player sprite, drawn by Will. This design goes on to be edited later to make the player sprite's overalls symmetrical to better compliment our 2D style.
The initial design of our first in-game monster, an innoncent little slime, drawn by Will. This design's lineart color, eyes, and general shape are later changed.
A veriation on the above slime design to include angry eyes, drawn by Will. We're thinking this variation may work well as a boss monster for the first adventuring area.
Sketches
A rough sketch of the dialogue bubble for when characters are speaking in-game, drawn by Michaela. A colored shadow will be added under these speech bubbles to indicate who in the game is talking, and the bubble will flip in their direction.
A concept sketch of the game menu button design, drawn by Michaela.
A concept sketch of the weapon we'll be using in game and how the aniamtions for it will function, when we were debating whether the main character's weapon should be a sword or spear, drawn by Will.
