Ash Wolf

Just a quick shot of some of the shaders we have on a few objects in our background parallax. Also note, our flat shading is across everything now!

So as our Gold milestone looms ever closer.... I have been revising and testing... Revising and testing... Revising, and re-freakin’ testing everything I can for the level design itself. This is my first real foray into crafting a two player experience which revolves around sharing the exact same place and using that environment as a vessel to advance the state of the game - One could argue as an unlisted weapon. In Rock Candy Racer, player death occurs when one of the players has been knocked off the screen. This means effective use of the actual course layout can net some pretty awesome setups for a win. But it does not always go that smoothly. I have found due to my own bias, making something polished for a competitive, yet one could argue “Casual” experience is outrageously difficult. At least for me.... (I like hard games, and very competitive ones at that! *Cough!!!* Fighting Games....* Cough, Cough!!!*....) Where we are at right now, I think I have put in enough challenge for potential falls, and conflict zones. But only our next batch of user testing will help determine if that is the case, but that is going to be extremely limited for time.... So results may too themselves be highly skewed amongst other students. What I can say I have taken away from this is that while our overall level has not changed too much, even the slightest alteration at this point just shifts where the fulcrum of balance lies in challenge for the End User; through navigation of the level alone. And that’s not even going down the route of the pre-engineered competitive experience or fun factor yet.... Maybe I am worrying for nothing.... Time will tell I suppose. All I can say, is that tomorrow.... It’s coming too soon.

There is a reason I put up this glorious little strip. One, it’s of Spider-Man... Probably my favourite comic book hero of all time. Two, it illustrates the visual renditions of sound effects from some of Capcom’s fighting games, namely the “Versus” series and just how important sound effects are to making a game feel good. This, is now also my extra role in my team - Audio, but more so specifically Sound Effects. Although I admit, I am doing it digitally and with previous experience in sound at a professional level, working with sound comes pretty easily enough... However.....

Designing sound effects as a whole, at least in games is an extremely taxing affair. In a lot of ways, well specifically our game we needed to append much of the visual thematic before we could even touch the sound. But with that finally out of the way, we are progressing.  So that being said, I want to say, given my history and understanding of sound - Sound & Music gets way too little credit in games! There I said it. Don’t care what your opinion is, it is fact. Arguably the thing I have found most difficult, is matching the genre, and visual feel of a game to it’s audio. It is mind boggling hard at times. Sound can easily become a hot mess, a primordial soup of every sound out there and everything turns to an ear bleed very fast. I mean, we can all isolate a sound, or sound genre in our head...

As you will see, in it’s natural habitat, the Devil Ice-Cream Cat has a natural affinity to launch itself into space.

Due to the rapid evolution of this species, it is through humans and their various interactions with these cats, that have played a pivotal role in allowing these creatures to achieve space flight...

Obviously, these are bugs. Including the insane speeds coming out of our speed boost zones. Just figured I would share just how funny some bugs can be, even in simple games.

So I decided to post my thoughts on how my own journey to the Alpha milestone has gone.

Sadly it is nothing fancy, but I find it is important to speak about failures - As much as I don’t wish to, it is a great way to learn. Some might argue the best way.

But it is also important to note that it is not all about failure, reflection is a state of self analysis, and it is extremely important to ones self to build upon, what one has done well.

From my own point of view, I felt I crippled the team dealing with real world issues in my personal life (mainly health - Thanks body, guh!). But these and other issues were things that plagued me, whittled me down and ultimately took a toll on my mental health too.

Whether or not these were self projected negative values, the pangs of guilt, or burnout, or all of them - It is something I am going monitor in future closely.

I lost motivation, I stopped caring in a lot of ways about things that while not “Mission Critical” to the project, were of a greater whole importance to my future as a developer. In fact, at one point I figured I might even walk away from things it got that heavy - But I want to stress; This was an “Internal Conflict”, brought about by my own actions. (Mostly...)

Managing others, at least for me, is relatively easy - Managing myself and that brain of mine however, that’s a difficult beast to wrangle.

However, coming back into the fray, after being off kilter has been the boon I needed. Seeing a team in full production, communicating and surprisingly smashing scope out of the park was incredibly uplifting in ways I had completely forgotten. 

It’s been great, holding open discussion and brainstorming ideas, probably the one thing I am most proud of thus far is being open and malleable to other peoples ideas. There is a magic about allowing ideas and views to congeal into a greater kind of primordial soup. Once you get that right, stuff just seems to evolve and happen on it’s own without even really trying. And then you get Dinosaurs! Well in my case; Ice-Cream Cats!

For myself going forwards - I can definitely do better with regards balancing real world issues and game development to try and avoid both mental and physical burnout in the future. While some of it is unavoidable, I think I have a good plan of attack now for mitigating it in future.

End self analysis.

With the first morning meeting done with, we have already have most of our Beta scope done. Things are well underway to a good transition for the next sprint goal.

Things are still subject to slight tweaks of course, we are expecting to move into a very large round of testing, and the inevitable phrase of dread:

FEATURE LOCK.

So, after doing all the things, checking all the notes, ensuring all the equipment is ready I have now prepared for Alpha Deadline.

Given the fact tomorrow is a short day, we need to knock things out of the park. We have also prepared for some extra things if we have the time, mainly some A & B Testing rounds - But eh, we will see...

I can’t wait for this deadline to be done with, we have Artists chomping at the bit to make things pretty, and I personally can’t wait to see how we pull off our plans for parallax objects.

Hopefully, all the planning for a neat hierarchy should pay off when it comes to fast alterations!

Taking it all in as a Designer is a pretty big thing to do. I admit, I had completely forgotten what it is like to be in every camp at once - Especially when I am actually working with a team I can interact with in real time! 

(Ahh - I do not miss you remote access management! No sir I do not!)

It probably helps that I was fortunate enough to have a team so open to collaboration and communication as well. Everyone is willing to partake and try out new things so our team has been very flexible so far. Even with the problems that have crept up on us, we have handled them well. 

The biggest surprise for myself is, as someone who does not generally like the type of game I am helping design, I actually have had a blast testing it pre-alpha.

Just a quick shot of some upcoming, yet to be completed parallax art pieces. The rate things are going this should be a treat for eyes!

(Ugh I know it’s a bad pun, but I could not resist!)

This mesh is care of Holly, another of our artistic wizards. She has been smashing out a great portion of the scenes key features - And awesome Ice-Cream Cats which we are yet to reveal!

And Lo! - There were bubbles. And other stuff that makes thing pretty. Just showing off some of our upcoming particles from our visual wizards. This set is care of Kirsten! if you wanna check out her stuff, there are some links below!

(Will update with some demos in Part 2!)

Kirsten’s Artstation Profile:

https://www.artstation.com/kirstenyiannis

Kirsten’s SketchFab profile:

The team just has just become learned in the ways of Final Commits for the day. And that GitHub does not play fair. And that the power of optic fibre mains cannot pass. And that blehhhhh..... Pressure!