Goal for This Week (Nov 4 - Nov 8)
New mechanics, new art, new story. (failed)
Goal for Next Week (Nov 11 - Nov 15)[week off - too much travelling]
Half-Accomplished, or in other words, Failed:
New mechanics, new art, new story.
The good news is that I did a bit of all of the above, but not to my satisfactory 'completeness' level. Here are the specific sub-goals I laid out last week, and how much of them I had accomplished.
Controls: Switch over to mouse interface.
I did fully prototype this, actually. It turns out it's not as great an idea we all thought it would be. When I playtested mouse controls with my roommates again, it felt floaty and unnatural.
While mouse controls are more precise in position, they're not in timing. In hindsight, that makes sense. (as do most things in hindsight) The mouse was invented to point to specific coordinates on screen, but power users who need quick control always use the keyboard shortcuts.
Puzzles: Prototype a few new mechanics, settle on one.
I prototyped a few mechanics: lasers, mirrors, conveyor belts, doors, signalling Prisms, and decoys. In the end, I have decided to settle on a combination of what I thought were the deepest, most intertwined game mechanics. (Doors, Conveyor belts, and Signalling Prisms)
Art: Find new art direction, and re-skin the game with it.
After experimenting with a few art styles, I had narrowed down my choices to two: Corrupted Comic Book, or Flat Design 2.0.
I was torn. I loved the expressiveness and unique look of the Comic Book style, but Flat Design fit the world and gameplay far better. I reached out to my fans and community to help me decide which one to choose. Instead of framing it as a binary choice, I explicitly asked for their thoughts on each style, independent of the other.
Openness works. My fans and I had great discussions over the art styles, and in the end, they helped me decide on a mixture of both styles! The overall clean aesthetic of Flat Design, but with the expressiveness of the Comic Book style. I thought it wasn't possible! But my fans proved me wrong, by bringing up examples like Samurai Jack or LIMBO or Beat Sneak Bandit.
Here is the game's new art style - Expressive Flat.
So far, it seems I've accomplished all my goals, right? Well, here's where I start faltering. The above character isn't even animated yet. I haven't re-skinned her animations yet, let alone the rest of the game. And as for the story…
Story: Add narrative to the game.
I wrote one line of dialogue.
hi
That was my one line of dialogue.
Moving Forward.
Next Monday, I'll be coming back from the Under 20 Summit in NYC, then flying back to Vancouver for the holidays just a few days later. In-between all the packing and flying and family fattening me up because I'm finally back, I won't have much time left over to myself or to my work.
If I'm to be brutally honest with myself and you… With about two useable weeks left in the month, I'm not confident I can release my Commonly campaign for Nothing To Hide by the end of November. It's possible I can finish the demo by then, but not the demo and campaign site/video/copywriting.
At least, given my current plans for scope.
I was about to say that this would leave me with a difficult choice, but upon further reflection, there is no choice. I have only one option. Cut all the fat and fluff, really polish what's left, and release it to the world.
tiny + polished > huge + unfocused
And you know what? Maybe that one line of dialogue is all I need for the story.