Weeks 7-10

Weeks 7 & 8

So, the first playtest is done, and the feedback has been collated. This process I’ve found exceptionally helpful as it’s really highlighted some flaws in almost every aspect of the game. In order to help address some of the issues before the next playtest. I’ve specialised most of the devs into working on a specific area of the game, for example Merlin’s working predominantly on character animations whilst Oakley is working on enemy programming. I think this has helped to keep the individual team members focused on their own work and allowed them to feel like they have ownership, and

I’m therefore keeping the leads as more generalist operators who can keep a bird’s eye view of their respective areas and help pick up the slack where needed. However, I'm well aware that overspecialising within the team can lead to the devs tunnel visioning on their own work. Thankfully, the show and tell aspect of the Monday meetings should counteract this and help keep everyone up to date on how the project is panning out as a whole.

Playtest version of the city and sewer areas

I’ve also decided to finally step up and keep good on my promise to the team to work on audio for the game. Whilst I’m relatively confident with music theory and basic audio principles, I’m getting the feeling that if I want to do this properly, it’s going to take a while. I’m currently working my way through the GameAudioLearning website, which was mentioned at the Guildford games fest, and whilst it’s very useful, there’s also an exceptional amount to learn before I can really get started.

Weeks 9 & 10

Lots to talk about this time, and it’s not all about the project. However, probably best to knock that out of the way first eh. I’m continuing my streak of Pre-empting Travis, and by extension the other teams by getting our second playtest done before Travis even had his chance to talk about doing the first. Due to us being ahead with that I also arranged the first shoot for the accompanying video. I wanted to get this out of the way so that Van & Michael, who are editing, could work on it over Easter which will hopefully take some of the pressure off as we near the looming deadline.

I’ve managed to narrow our permanently absent team members down to one as well. Perhaps it’s the threat of peer review or maybe my natural charisma has finally gotten through to him, but whatever the reason we now have a new programmer. Whether or not he sticks around through the upcoming easter break remains to be seen, but I’ve assigned some light tasks to him so that even if he vanishes it shouldn’t hamper the project. Progress on the project has naturally slowed down however due to the 3D modelling assignment which is preoccupying the minds of most of the team at the minute including my own. Whilst I’ve had some experience with 3D modelling software in the past It’s definitely not my forte. This assessment has therefore been a tad strenuous, especially at the start perhaps in part due to me missing a few too many of Matt’s lectures. After some catch up work though I’m confident I’ve got the process down and I’m making steady progress with it. Probably the toughest part was understanding when to use which tools that we’d been taught, as a frequent struggle for me was spending hours trying to force a nurbs surface to behave in the way that I wanted to, when I could’ve achieved the same effect in much less time using poly-edit.

Finally, I’m keeping busy with the sound design work. I’ve had to drop around £150 for equipment to do the work over easter at the quality that I want it to be at but hopefully it’ll have been worth it. Perhaps I’ll have to do a retrospective at some point on my perfectionist habits and how it affects some of my work but as this entry is getting quite long, I’ll probably save it for another time.