Our lovely new splash screen by Ainsley Johnston

Things didn't go according to plan this week. We worked hard to build an MVP for this Wednesday, but we ran into problems with integration and lots of things broke. The reception in class when we presented our buggy and busted prototype was pretty painful, that's all I'll say.

But we learned some things. We realized that our workflow as a team needs to be overhauled if we want to finish this game. We also learned that we didn't begin with nearly as clear or precise of a plan and an idea of what we were building as we thought we did. It became evident that we were all working from different mental images of what this thing was supposed to be.

This is good though. We learned about the problems really early in development, and we've already taken big steps to fix them. We've had extended meetings defining and redefining the art and the mechanics, making sure we're all working toward the same thing this time. I've added a section to our game design doc that serves as a team FAQ for resolving miscommunications and requests for clarity related to the design.

Anala sprite by Ainsley Johnston

We brainstormed some changes to help us "find the fun" in the game's concept. One thing we landed on was a change to the transformation mechanic, changing it from an at-will tactical device to a disruptor. Anala will progress toward a transformation with every second, and taking damage also pushes her to transform more quickly. She will still not be able to change back until she kills an enemy, and killing an enemy while in human form will "reset the clock." This works well with our other design goals because it will encourage players to move quickly and make risky moves in order to maintain their stealth. I'm personally really excited about this change. I think it will make the core play loop much more dynamic and enjoyable. I can't wait to play it!

One sticking point: our professor had a meeting with us on Friday. He was happy to hear that we were working through these issues, but tried really hard to get us to abandon the transformation mechanic. He was of the opinion that a stealth parkour game would be sufficiently distinct from pre-existing games. I have to disagree, and I believe the transformation mechanic will be a significant differnetiator for us, plus the theme and story of the game make heavy use of it. I'm not against cutting my favorite mechanic, but the rest of the team more or less agreed when we discussed on our own. We'll set the transformation mechanic aside until we get the movement and stealth settled, but we're not abandoning it.

Concept art for level one plus general cyberpunk gothic by Jake Gollub

Today's music inspiration is Toccata by OVERWERK.