GameJam Week 6(Final)

With everything coming together I began work on the final puzzle designs that had yet to be implemented. For the final puzzle we wanted something that incorporated all the mechanics that we had used so far as well as the additional mechanic of colour coded blocks and pressure pads. For this I designed a preliminary puzzle just before the final puzzle that would introduce these colour based mechanics to the player.



This initial design was to large and complex for the area so we had to simplify it. 



Our general idea that we had come up with for the final design was to have a sequencer puzzle in the centre made up of different coloured blocks which would be funnelled into it by four separate puzzles. To ramp up the difficulty I placed standard blocks in the middle of each puzzles which the player would have to navigate around in order to complete the puzzle. Sadly we could not get the sequencer working in this area so we decided just to have the four puzzles instead as we knew we could get it working.



Size was also an issue with this design as the area we had designated for it was not large enough. I re-drafted the design to compress and streamline it. As we no longer needed a sequencer in the centre we could just have four pressure pads instead, saving a lot of space. Along with this I made a bunch of small adjustments and rearrangements to the rest of the design uuntil we had something that we were all happy with.

GameJam Week 5

With the majority of level plans drawn out I focused this week on making some 2D assets and looking towards strengthening my research report proposal. 

We had long ponds across the main entrance hall of the first level so I made some lily pads and lotus sprites to populate the area. I also made an ivy vine sprite to show degredation on the walls.

We are nearing the end of development on the prototype now and everything is starting to take shape albeit with several large changes made to streamline production. We decided that we should change the camera from 3rd person to 1st person as Scott was having difficulty animating the character model to what was needed and mechanically the puzzles would behave the exact same way from a 1st person perspective. While we had to disregard a lot of work for this it was a necessary decision to make sure we would finish on time.



Despite this the game is coming together, all the interior walls are textured alongside all the interactable objects, all that is left now is to implement the puzzles into their designated areas and make sure that the blueprints we have continue to work in practise.

Personal Studies

GameJam Week 4

After three weeks Easter holiday off we are all back at Uni all of us having done at the least a small amount of work for the game which is good. I had down a re-design of the character as an exercise and given it a few colour iterations while the others had done more work on the level and assets.

I then began outlining the core designs of the puzzles as we needed a clear set structure to each room of the level.

Here is a complex version of the slider puzzle from earlier. It use a combination of stationary and movable rails that the player has to navigate through in order to get the block from the beginning to the end.

This is a sequence puzzle. On the wall in front of a 3x3 square a sequence of shapes that the player must mimic in order to progress. The catch here is that there will be a pressure plate on the 3x3 that must have a block on it at all times otherwise the puzzle will not function.

An expanded sequence puzzle starting with 3 blocks building up to 5 blocks.

Sequence puzzle using sliders to expand the sequence shapes.

GameJam Week 3

This week the main focus was getting working mechanics and creating assets, both of which I am not particularly good at so while the rest of the group took the brunt of that work I started devising more updates to the puzzle and level layouts. 
The others had already put together a basic blockout of the level at this point using modular wall pieces that Scott had made. I began applying the design from last week to it and altering the main hall so it be shorter as the previous version took too long to traverse. I also added a collapsed wall and a larger tutorial area.



With these adjustments made I went onto drafting some puzzle ideas. The team had decided that we wanted to have block moving and sequencing puzzles. Initially we had also planned to put to implement timers and platforming elements to the puzzles but I thought that this would detract and work against the player's puzzle solving so we decided to segment the platforming to outside the puzzle rooms and remove timers all together. This is because puzzle solving is meditative and slowly paced as apposed to platforming and timed events which are active and would put unnecessary pressure on the player.

Scott also wanted to include a luger pistol model that he had made previously into the player model on a holster. I that this would be unnecessary as we do not plan to have any shooting mechanics at all so showing a weapon on the character would give false expectation. However I did suggest that instead we could incorporate bits of the luger into the robot arm with a bit of kit bashing giving the character a worn mechanical aesthetic.

GameJam Week 2

After the interchange week we got back to work on the game and with most of the preliminary concept art done I started work on the level layout and giving art direction to the others in my group focusing on 3D assets.

The first level plan I proposed was to designed to imply that a full version of the game had more to offer. Initially I wanted the player to start in a smaller tower/island which would have a tutorial inside. Upon completion the player would have to journey across a bridge showing them the next tower and multiple future towers (that would not be in the prototype). This would give the player a sense of scale and expectation for the rest of the game. However we ultimately decided that this would not be a good idea moving forward as the others would have to model the outside aw well the inside so we decided instead to have a decorated interior hall to wow the player in place of the bridge.

I then started working on the inner layout of the level regarding puzzle room placement alongside the platforming sections. The rest of group wanted a sense of upward progression so I thought that the best way to achieve this would be having the puzzle rooms rotate up around the core of the tower, separated by platforming sections.

I then began work on some alpha patterns that can be used for normal and emissive maps alongside providing extra concept art for boxes and debris that had been requested.

Interchange

This week was the Universities interchange week where we had a range of activities to choose from as well as a collaborative project with fine art. This week was to encourage branching out skills and trying something new. The activity I chose was to create a single page graphic novel from sketching around Norwich.

I did my graphic on pigeons flying around the market, having the market itself in the background and picking out the pigeons actions in small boxes.