Angry Mango

Monday 14 June 2010

1 Week Down, Art Style Down, Zune Problems

So our first week of Dare to be Digital has come and gone. It hasn't been as all-out intense as I had anticipated and we seem to be pacing ourselves quite well. The dreaded Zune HD device has given us an avalanche of problems, from lack of 3D support (the physics needed it despite being 2D) to the glitchy coordinate system in the Jello Physics library.

The art side of things have trundled along quite nicely. We now have three style boards that really sum up the feel of our levels:


Angry Level Theme

Sad Level Concept

Early Environment Concept

One thing I've noticed about a lot of the other teams is that they don't have games designers which I'm struggling to comprehend. It seems things like gameplay design, pacing and harmonisation are being treated as finickity non-essential additions that anyone can decide at any stage of development. Our team is very much the opposite so far - we've meticulously planned sub-narratives, sociopolitical intertextualities, visual and ludological harmonisation as well as the really core essentials like pacing, progressive disclosure and timing. I think our University course has really helped us take a more comprehensive approach of games design and it may hopefully give us an edge.

Personally I'm really struggling with the early mornings and it's kind of grinding away at my work ethic. I'm used to working tirelessly through the night but so far have had to get to bed early, not really wake up until mid-afternoon and then go to bed early again. I seem to be down by about 6 hours which isn't really ideal. Hopefully routine may eventually kick in.

The last week has been really fantastic for industry feedback. We had a good chat with the guys from Rare who are now helping us get our hands on a development model of the Windows Phone 7 and were able to really help out in the art and design side of things.

Here's everyone hard at work:


Ahmed

Matt

Greg

Kate

Henry

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