Alpha Presentation -> Beta Presentation
- Nathan Robinson (lead artist)
- Jan 17, 2018
- 3 min read
Will wanted the game to be finished before the showcase (after beta presentation) but asked me to fully complete the first few levels to show off the game, without placeholder art and bug fixed for the beta presentation.
Due to an issue with another group member there was only Will and I in the group. This meant that the VR had to be started from scratch, as the other group member was tasked to make a head start on the VR experience in the early stages. I felt exceedingly pressured and worried that we would not have enough time to get the ‘realistic’ landscape we wanted for the VR and that a sacrifice would have to be made (within the VR or the game) to get both products finished to schedule. As a group we felt that the concept of our VR - a treasure hunt that reveals information on the water cycle - fits in with the educational, yet fun requirement set by the client.
I created the backgrounds for level 1 and 2, made the waterdrop death animation and altered an enemy within the first level. I also created the idea for our VR experience (a storyboard) and created some assets to be used within VR.
The level 1 background placeholder had an appealing style (a sunken ship) but did not fit in with the pixel art style that was already in the game, I tried to take the style of the placeholder and recreate it in my own pixel art way.
I was happy with the death animation as the outcome worked and would appeal to the target audience, as the death appears ‘comical’ in a Looney Tunes way. I also think that the clam enemy I created for level 1 was one of the best visual enemies and shows how far my sprites have progressed.
As we were approaching the last stages of the development we were happy with the quality of the game. However, with the issues that occurred during the VR development this was, in my opinion, a disaster due to the previously planned scope, size and realism that the original group had planned. This was the biggest challenge that Will and I faced and we decided that we would have to rethink the whole plan for the VR again.
On reflection and with the benefit of hindsight Will and I should have ensured that work was completed by the third group member more often and not just relying on the individual to complete milestones. We did use project management software, JIRA to check progress and ask for physical evidence but contact attempts were unsuccessful.
Before the presentation I also asked a few people in the class what they thought of the background (Level 1) and they felt like the size of the ship I created looked like it was ‘jumping’ with the player. As the game uses a parallax background then any of the sprites that standout from the background need to be large enough to mitigate the effect and the ship would appear not to jump. My research showed that making the ship considerably larger than the sprites will get rid of this problem.
In conclusion if I had more time I would have researched other art styles for the VR experience, possibly finding an art style that would fit the “pixel art” style of the game. I would also have slowed down the progress of the game to improve the look of the VR as we did have two more milestones to finish the game.
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