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My personal asset list:

1 - The tile map used

2 - The level design/layout (Revised in coding to better reflect the current state)

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Post mortem

In reflection, the group worked mostly well despite the setbacks and fall out - this was to be expected after the previous experience with group work. Certain people stepped up when others couldn’t and we overall supported each other when we were having issues, particularly Beka and Liam. The brief worked for us, particularly because we knew what was coming or what exactly we had in mind, if we hadn't been interrupted by covid-19 I feel our game would've been fully fledged/functioning with our aspirations realised. The aesthetic theme did not convey the overall story or the final product we have in mind.

The reality of the project amongst the different setbacks was a harsh wake-up to what could potentially go wrong in a real world environment but that's ok as it prepares us more for future projects and looking back in reflection shows me i could’ve dedicated more time and stepped up more to fill in other people's roles while they couldn’t contribute.

https://junkgamesandjunk.wixsite.com/mysite - The GDD for our group.

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Covid update

As the weeks progressed, with the adapted brief, Steph updated the group with the coding and progression as can be seen in the linked videos.

https://youtu.be/bP6Gs69-Ioo - 11th May

https://youtu.be/qp1v5-jXvV4 - 14th May

https://youtu.be/N_NR_NMvpR0 - 18th May (as seen above)

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Leaving for Covid-19 - March 14th

After the Covid-19 shut down packing and moving out of my accommodation near the university to go back home personally caused a lot of issues including mental health and family problems. Though not an excuse I do personally feel a lot of people could relate to me in the situation and fell out of contact with their teams and tutors. The first week was ok but as the weeks turned to months progress grinded almost to a halt and i didnt make the time needed with my group to work on the project, instead turning to my personal work and life.

After Steph addressed the group a month later we were instructed by her to not continue doing anything unless she asked us to due to the overall uncertainty. We were to only keep my level which served as a tutorial/tester and have everyone that was available to contribute. In the end this made limited roles left and ultimately mainly Steph, Luke and Liam contributed the final pieces with input from Thahera, Bekka and myself.

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By this week I had put my head down and just got on with submitting my tilemaps needed to fit the levels theme, a new background and a invested input on how the characters stance should be when idle. 

https://youtu.be/tMAhyKtkBrs

7th March - This is a demo by Steph on how the level and design mapped out actually worked

There were growing concerns about the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) and i had focused on my other project for the week as I scrapped my original idea and needed to start fresh - ultimately leading to less input from this point on.

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Week 5 - Calamity Week

During the lecture we were introduced to tilesets - the difference between advanced and basic. Basic tile maps looked like pre-made structures that could be slotted together and needed to be transparent in key areas but work within the style. Advanced ones would fit a certain shape but have a visible layer over it which would mimic the shape closely but look more dynamic than a flat surface. We were also directed to set up a website and personal journal (as seen here) to show our personal learning process.

This is the week a lot of people felt the tensions peaked due to stress and disagreements - I personally dubbed it the calamity week, a much-needed and cathartic process nonetheless. The lack of professionalism within the group from members did cause me to feel discouraged after working on a new background that better suited what I thought was being asked for, I came for constructive criticism but instead felt like the verbal punching bag. I wasn’t the only one targeted during this time and understood it came from a place of frustration but it showed a clear lack of professionalism in the way people were being spoken to and the massive issues with communication within the group. Tension had risen and people felt their weight needed to be lifted however this was not the way to do it. Confiding in Liam revealed he felt the same way and advised i just take a small step back before stepping back into a working mindset to ensure I gave my best instead of submitting something half-hearted due to unneeded and ultimately frustrating ‘feedback’; I responded as calmly as possible to remarks made and couldn’t praise Liam enough for how he de-escalated the situation. Luke finally gave a clearer brief of what he expected and DM’d me about what exactly they were looking for from my level.

I did personally feel like because my level was the intro I had a more limited design to submit as Steph and Luke had a very set idea of what they wanted for the beginning and ending levels, my initial brief for the background was a town to forest scenery when in actuality they meant a small village to forest scene which was the main discrepancy despite me previously asking if a town-like background was ok (as seen in week 3 and cleared as a good premise).

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Week 4

By week 4 the team has set up a scrumwise with almost no issue, this is a website/app that allows you to set up scrums and epics, see phases of the work with their progress and tick off tasks as you go along so your team knows your progress and doesn't repeat the process. This made it easier to assign tasks to each other however I personally found it more work to have to check this each stage of work to ensure I wasn't treading on others toes. We had however solidified our ideas and how the initial placeholder pieces would be designed for our levels.

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Week 3

After getting a discord sorted for the team to communicate outside of class we set up tasks that needed to be completed over the next few weeks. I had suggested for the user interface, since the game had a futuristic steampunk vibe, that we make it a holographic styled and make the pause menu/level select a holographic tablet. The story was left to Steph as she had a very clear vision of what she wanted for the game and the art style was decided by Luke - It was to be Steven universe inspired with painted backdrops and a solid foreground. 

During this week we also discussed 2D level design within the lecture, including what iterative design is, starting simple and testing as you go. A good example of this was gridlock, it introduces you to simple core mechanics of the game attributed to the genre, progressively getting more complex and adapting small parts of the existing design. Agile was re-introduced to us and set up scrums with mini epics which acted as small pushes to get these tasks done. 

Later this week I also submitted my first drafts for my level design concept and the backdrop. They were very reminiscent of neon/vaporwave aesthetics which wasn't quite what we wanted but indicated a good balance between the futuristic theme we wanted and the vibrancy we needed to ensure both the foreground and background stood out from one another. I made both plans for a 3000x1000px canvas as the tile set we were using were to be 256x256px - it turned out this backdrop sizing was not big enough in the long run.

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Week 1 & 2

For the first 2 weeks back we as a team were tasked with solidifying the ideas previously blue skied; as it was originally Steph and Luke’s idea they had a solid brief for the rest of us to work from, each of us would have a level to design respectively and then further duties would be delegated at a later date. 

Liam was the first to suggest a creative viable level idea, the dreaded water level with a mech-duck for a boss. He described a visually serene theme that could easily be adapted which would inspire the rest of us to work on our own levels such as: a chasing level (Beka’s idea of a generally flat level with difficult obstacles to avoid using the core mechanics), my introductory level (this would introduce the story and act as a tutorial) and one that utilised the swing mechanic (placed on roof tops, focusing on the pacing and letting the player develop a rhythm and greater feeling for our ninja bunny).

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Assumptions

Coming into this project I was confident in my teammates; knowing what was to come a rough plan had already been drawn up. I knew I personally should make a relaxed level showing the key mechanics of the game and after my previous experience making a board game, I wanted to take a more passive team player role as the group was much larger. After the first official lecture our team settled on a single-player 2D platformer with neon-steampunk undertones and animal and robotic based characters, we had a rough idea of the time scale we wanted to stick to and who would execute what.