itch.io

Week 7
For this week, my main focus was to improve some of the previous levels. Firstly I worked on completely texturing all of the second level. While texturing it, I also added some other elements for it to look better. I created several textures with a different art style to the first level since my teammates favored that type of texture more. I also went back to the first level to add more visual elements, such as small torches and fire animations. The fire animations are not final; I still need to work on them to make them look better. Lastly, I worked on finalizing some of the puzzles for the third level; however, there is still work to be done at that level. 

Week 6

For this week, my main focus was on the third level. Firstly I designed the level and explored several ideas of how we could make the levels more engaging while at the same time making the difficulty a bit more interesting. I also started exploring ideas on how to start making puzzles that would require the player to use the different hats and mechanics that we plan to add to our game. I divided the level into four paths. Each one of these paths will consist of a different puzzle that escalates in difficulty from the last one. One of these puzzles will be the one that needs the mechanics. It was designed so that it does not matter which mechanic the player picks up first it can be accomplished with it. I then created the level on our game engine. I added almost all of the puzzles. There is only one puzzle missing that needs some coding to make it work.

Week 5

For this week, my main focus was on fixing several issues that were happening on the first level. These issues included solving bugs or fixing some puzzles to make them easier for the player. Later I focused on creating textures for all of the elements of this level. I made all of the textures by hand or with simple unity materials in order to make the level look as closely as possible to what we had envisioned beforehand. After this, I created the main hub for the game and also textured this environment in order to get them ready for the first playable. This part took most of my time. Lastly, I started the production for the third level creating several of the puzzles. However, it's not completed at this stage.

Week 4

For this week's work, I focused on improving the first level while at the same time advancing the second level. For the first level, I had to go back to fix and better some aspects and puzzles. However, these simple changes made it so that the level was better made to show the game mechanics to the player.  I added some walls and changed the height of some items to fit the overall goal better. For the second level, I wanted the challenge to be different; this time around, the challenge is based on moving platforms that the player needs to take in order to reach other areas. I created several puzzles for the second level, but I still have not finished them just yet. I, alongside some of my teammates, planned out what we wanted the next levels to look like to have a clearer view moving along.

I also worked on a small level on the textures for the game, precisely the texture of Ikura. I added different features to make our main character more distinct. I also changed the texture that was placed on the items since it was too similar to the one of the main characters.

Week 3

For this week's work, I continued to focus on the development of the first/test level. I playtested it to see what needed to be changed, and also what was already working well. After several iterations of playtesting, I changed some small aspects of each of the simple puzzles located on this test level. However, there were some problems that were also found. One of these problems had to do with the visibility of the player. It mainly happens when the player when underneath the elevated path. To fix this what I did was add some invisible walls around this area to limit the capabilities of the player to go below the elevated paths. This, as a result, makes it so that it's almost impossible for the player to go to a section where they will lose track of where they are and where they are going.

I also started working on some designs as to how the actual character will be modeled and rigged. I didn't move much in this area since it's not a priority at the moment though.

Lastly this week I also started with some designs and small prototypes of another level for our game. The new design will have a different look from the previous level. It will also include some harder to do puzzles however they will still be relatively easy. At this time I have only designed two of the puzzles for the level. I just started implementing the first one on the game engine.

Week 2

For this week the main thing I worked on was creating a mock-up of one of the levels. After having a visual representation of what we were thinking regarding how the levels would look we moved on to the actual design of levels. I created some ideas on how levels can be created and how they can be laid out in order to help in our gameplay.

I also worked for a bit with some other members in order to see what could be the best solution in terms of including our rouge-like element to the levels. We explored several ideas and ended up with the idea of having base-level designs where the randomization aspect would involve having segments of the level that could be changed and randomized. This would allow for levels to work and be playable while at the same time having the ability to randomize it making several runs different and exciting.

Later on, in the week, I continued to work on ideas on how to create the levels and how the levels could look. I didn't advance that much on these ideas however since some members are still fleshing out the narrative and background for the game. So I didn't advance too much in this regard until we have a clear vision of the story and place.

Lastly, I did some tests and ideas on how to make some puzzles better or easier to understand/see in our current game view. However, there was no breakthrough on this part. Most of it is still in a sketch-like version just to see what works and what does not work.

For this first week, me and my team were entirely focused on coming up with the idea for our game. I helped thinking and brainstorming different ideas of what our game could be about and how we would go accomplishing each idea looking to see if it was doable in our scope. My initial idea where to create an exploratory open-world game that had realistic-looking graphics. Me and my team played around with the idea, and we decided to change it into something different and more unique since we faced the idea of it becoming quite generic. After my other teammates came up with the current idea, I helped flesh out the idea in order to make it better. Most of my comments were related to who to make the gameplay more interesting/enticing. After that, I also helped with the ideation of the story that we could find in the game. Me and some of my team members fleshed out the main points of the story and the main reasoning behind what is going on in the game and why the player is doing what they are doing.  After this I created some sketches and many ups of what the items could look like, providing simple ideas of what they should look like and providing reasoning for making them that way. Finally, at our last meeting, I created some sketches/rough drafts of what a level could look like and created some simple ideas of puzzles we could create and how the flow of the level could go. Moving forward I will work on creating better-level designs that come closer to what we will actually model and use in our game.