Finally, exams are finished! I completed my final two, which were make-ups from when I missed school (the covid chronicles). Although they took up a portion of my week, I still got some classroom days to work. Mostly I spent time gathering various textures for where needed, however I also made this Row 3 logo to be used in the game. We’re pretty much in the final stretches and this will be the last check-in of the year. Aside from this weekend, time to work has come to a close. Ultimately I think we accomplished the necessities and bare minimum, but came to realize how grand of a scope Mountainheart was in the first place. We’re certainly turning in an abridged version of the original concept and gameplay, and it is not as polished as we may have hoped. Between covid and exam interruptions, we haven’t had much face to face time these last few weeks which has made this more difficult; there also hasn’t been much communication outside of class. Regardless, I think we accomplished enough to call it a working game, and even more important is that we have learned a lot throughout development. Summary:
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This last week for me has been focused on AP testing. Wednesday, this week, will mark the end of my exams. I hope to get further on track after that, but for the time being I am focused wholeheartedly on using my time in preparation. As for this class, I worked on grabbing some inspiration. I want to create a mascot for Cliffside that will add to its vibe. I like how the hotdog man stands out and I think the cartoony aspect juxtaposes nicely with the dilapidated horror of the Cliffside facility. I could make something similar, such as a crystal or a cloud that would go with the Cliffside logo. On the right is a Macindows UI I saw on Dribbble. I really like the humor in it, though some may be a bit much. However, it feels very alive and confrontational, as if the system has a mind of its own. I also like the design itself. I can use these images for inspiration during this coming week. TLDR:
Overall, I have enjoyed this year of Game Design. I appreciate the independence and leadership positions we have been given; although it would be nice to have a little bit more incentive here and there. I have enjoyed getting to work with and rely on other people, albeit some people make that a bit more difficult. It is super fun getting to come up with ideas an then work with others to actually bring them to life, and to have other’s bring their own ideas to the table. It can be like trading gifts or playing White Elephant; there is an excitement in having multiple sources of creativity and creation itself. I do, however, wish we had the entire year to make our games. The development process being squashed/crammed into a small period and with all the wrenches that have been thrown in the path, has made it difficult to truly put in the ideal time and standard to our projects, to a point where’s its demotivating. It seems like a fools errand almost, or like BS’ing our way through just to get something on its feet. Striving for “good enough” feels closer to a waste of time than a productive and proud effort. We may continue working over summer, but I doubt it. Right now we are in crunch time and it has been hard to organize when only two members are available at a time. I don’t see it coming to fruition in time, but hopefully it works out. I will do my part, I have to hope everyone else doesn’t drop off the face of the earth when exams are finished. Overall it has been both a fun and hectic experience, and one I am happy I was there for. Summation:
I was out the entirety of the week with covid and with AP exams rolling by, I have been bogged down on two different fronts. I haven’t found a significant amount of time to set aside for this class or to prioritize our game, especially since it seems like it may not come to fruition in time. In the time I did work, I continued with what I had been working on before; graphics and UI adjustments. I ran into some roadblocks with using Procreate to lay out pieces of the UI and may instead convert to Photoshop. Photoshop is more precise with placements and is better for this type of work such as positioning pieces. I need to work on my time management and hopefully having class time can help boost my contributions. Overall, the game is coming along but it may not be on its feet in time. There was a covid outbreak following prom at school, and AP exams are popping up. It’s crunch time. As you may know, I missed most of the week, feeling ill. Unfortunately it came back positive for Covid-19 and I am still quarantined here in my room, bedridden. I accomplished some work from home and in my meager 2 days in class, but it isn’t a lot to show. I know this is crunch time and hopefully I can finish up my contributions between exams, however these weeks will be packed full of cramming for all sorts of things, so I am unsure how much time I will have. I hope that my team can continue making progress and we can at least get this project standing on its feet. All-in-all:
Between missing school and having Friday off as a holiday, I was only at school one day this week. I didn’t have much time to accomplish work in the classroom but I was able to work from home a bit when I was feeling better. I continued with the UI that I had begun earlier. I’m happy with where it’s at. I still need to figure out how to make it pop a bit more and give some depth along the edges. Otherwise, I like the general aesthetic. I can’t say much about how the team has been progressing besides that everyone is doing their part. The only setback for me was not feeling well and being at school only one day. Next week I hope to utilize class time to get back on track and finish this UI once and for all. TLDR:
As the lead 2D Artist for my team, I am currently working on the UI that the player will interact with by the endgame of our development. I wasn’t given a reference for the intended design, so I decided to go based upon my own feel of the game. Mountainheart takes place in an older facility, which led me to the idea of doing something diegetic and fitting with both the time and theme, which brought me to my inspiration: the World Wide Web (the original internet browser) UI, and subsequently the original Microsoft operating system as well. Cliffside is a research facility so it should be sort of tech-y. And it’s oddly advanced for the time period. It is also a horror game so I didn’t want it to pop too much, to where it stands out from the rest of what’s going on. Rather than copy the blue, white, and grey of the Microsoft classic theme, I decided to stick with muted colors that share the same red undertones. This is because Mountainheart, naturally, strikes me that way and it felt right given the name. Mountain + Heart; beige and red. It also does not distract from the game’s horror elements, rather adding to the immersion. I imported a pixelated font to convey the older operating system and UI, and have been working down to the pixel to add onto that effect elsewhere in the design. It has been a struggle making it look pixelated and low resolution, like an older computer screen, but also clean and friendly to users. I still have features to add and right now its mostly the bare layout; highlights will help it standout, and more buttons will add functionality and fill in the blank space, which I can add after I consult with my team. Right now it is a bit flat and stiff. I need to add the finishing touches and then draw in some dimension, like I said. Overall I think our team has really gotten on track, and I am happy I have had more time to focus on 2D artist things. I would also like to do 3D models in the future, but first the UI is my priority. The settings menu will probably take this week to finish and I may be able to get a jumpstart on the cassette inventory from there, hopefully utilizing some of what I have already made. I have made sure to work with layers so that the design is modular, customizable, and correctable. I look forward to finishing this and am really excited to see how the UI works in game. On the need to know:
This last week has been focused on reorganizing the team and getting back on track. As team lead, I did not feel a sense of authority over an idea that I originally had no input in creating. Although I chimed in on the concept as it was being written and left many ideas on the metaphorical table, ultimately the entire project outline was already set in place before anybody could put other ideas or commentary forth. That vision for Mountainheart has remained unaccomodating and resilient to change. My fellow teamates have tried to get involved regardless and make it work, but none of us have felt the connection to become truly engrossed or passionate in our work. As leader, I was unable to dish out inspiration or enforce a particular vision of a concept that was foreign to me. I felt somewhat detached and unknowledgeable of Mountainheart, whereas a leader should be the one that knows the game inside and out. As the artist, this became more apparent, as I was constantly corrected on how certain designs should look and that it would “suffice for now” without any clear direction from Xander, our creative director. I was only told what I did wrong after I finished and was pressured to correct or redo it after already putting in the entire class' worth of time. Being productive as the team’s artist and trying to adhere to Xanders vision did not balance well with trying to find time to set others on track. I also realized based on the number of corrections I received while making art assets, that I really didn’t have a solid enough clue as to what Xander expects and that trying to set people in line would often interfere or conflict with what he wanted them to be doing. Therefore it would make more sense for the creative director and team lead to be the same person/position. However, now Cameron has assumed the lead and is working in conjunction with Xander. I’m not sure how this change will affect the team or if it will make any difference. I don’t think it hits the root of the issue. In my opinion, it is essential for a team to all be on board and to feel heard. We came here to create games we enjoy, not to be minions. This objective has been made difficult especially since our team wasn’t in full effect from day one, and without knowing the extent of what Xander had already created. And now it’s too late. Perhaps Cameron will have more success, especially considering he can be more direct and confrontational than I feel comfortable with among friends and peers. I think it is an important trait to have as a leader, and unfortunately, I lacked it. His looser fill-in-the-gaps role also allows him more time to look over the shoulders of everyone. He is also more stringent in his organization and deadlines. I hope that this change works out and we can get a working game up soon. As a class, we all missed a day from the Durham piping issue, and I also felt under the weather so missed an additional day. The other days were spent trying to revive the team and make leadership work. I also played around with the cassette design further and we have decided on having a cassette player as the permanent UI with several different cassette tapes that are placed into it. The tapes will have different designs and serialized numbers. This week I played around with the design and for now, I have a provisional cassette player for Unity until the fully polished design is flushed out. I like the idea of letting the player be able to visualize which tape is currently playing and for them to have distinct designs. I do worry about animating in the future and that the cassette player may look confusing on its own. A realistic cassette player look may be too complicated for the style of UI I envisioned, so I like the minimalistic and pseudo-cartoony design. However, I think it needs more details and a more defined bevel around where the tape is inserted. Overall, this week was scrambled both in terms of time at school and the workflow. We need to get back on our feet and hopefully, the changes will be conducive to more productivity and clarity. From here on out, we should all be on the same page, at last. The fate and realization of our game depend on it. As the artist, I will continue working with the cassette design and will also finish the inventory UI I have started as shown above. After that will be the settings and main navigation screen. Everyone else has roles to be doing as well. Hopefully, we can all get them done and have more definitive results at the end of next week for the following project check. Main points:
This week I have focused on my responsibilities as the primary and lead artist of my group. Xander and I have worked on the conceptualization of the UI design together, while I have been putting it together in Illustrator. Rather than a play-head button, we decided to do something more unique and have an actual cassette on the player's screen. This adds to the immersion of the game and will more strongly engage the player. It also increases the functionality by having several buttons available, such as the eject and rewind/fast-forward buttons, as would a real-life cassette player. We plan to animate it as well so that the player can visualize the tape's progression as well as swap the individual tapes in and out of the player. This way it would mirror a real cassette tape and player. We may also change the design of each different tape, or number them according to their serial so that the player can differentiate them easily. As for the actual design, since Mountainheart takes place in a facility from the 60s, we decided to do a similar color theme as demonstrated by the muted beige background highlighted with the vibrant pastel lines. Because it's a UI component, and for the sake of remaining cohesive, I decided to go the route of making the tape simple and somewhat cartoony. Not only was this easier to make from scratch, but it also gave necessary leeway for the design to be modular and customizable. However, because Mountainheart is a horror game and takes place in a dilapidated facility, I decided to touch it up in Photoshop by adding a texture to help convey the more rustic and eerie ambience; a fine compromise between hyper-realistic and overly cartoony. Since I used a modular approach to designing the tape, and because its a vector designed in Illustrator, we can always make edits and nitpicks. As for now, I am very happy with how the simplistic design meshes with the texture. It definitely encapsulates what I was going for without any shortcuts, and it is definitely the feel we were going for. Xander is still experimenting and wants to try a pixel based UI as well, which may be something else we test out. I also need to work on the other components of the UI, but this is the focal piece. From here, we plan to animate the cassette as well as begin integrating into Unity while I finish the rest of the UI. As for my responsibilities as team lead, the project is on track although a few of my peers have been stagnant in their work this week. I can't always be watching over their shoulder, especially when I'm actively working on important pieces for the game. I incentivize them whenever and wherever I can, but there are limits to my power and time. There is a lot to get done and not only am I actively working in class the most, I also have to organize the team which is even harder than it sounds. Overall:
This week my team has been efficient in our accomplishments. Each member is on track and understanding of their duties I updated the Trello and added extra functionality so it was easier to navigate, such as connecting it with Google Drive folders and directly attaching files. I also used features such as the checklists to give my team specific tasks to accomplish. This way it is clear-cut and easily understandable what specifically they are supposed to do; far more conducive to them getting tasks checked off. Outside of delegating roles and detailing everybody's tasks, I have been working on the UI. This has primarily been in the form of research, so I do not have much to show yet; there is a lot to take into consideration such as what program to design a UI in, the file size and type, resolution, how to integrate the designs into Unity, and other things that could potentially be obstacles, before jumping right in. I also have needed to brush up on my Illustrator skills so that I can make a visually appealing design because this is what will constantly be displayed on the players' screen. I do have some pieces of the design together, which I will polish and also make into vector graphics. Overall, my team has worked together well this week, with minimal internal setbacks as was before. Aside from me being out the last two days of the week from dislocating my knee, it has been primarily smooth sailing and the Trello board has been a good mediator between me and my group for keeping people on task. Xander has also filled in, taking on the role of making sure people are being efficient in the classroom. As far as the game goes, we have finished whiteboxing and Cameron is working on publishing it and sharing the file with Pranav and Liam because it is pertinent to their roles. Xander has been writing and recording audiotapes while also gathering inspiration for other group members to use, as Creative Director. Liam and Pranav have been compiling basic scripts and sound assets. The greatest accomplishment as a group was mitigating the confusion and internal conflicts from before with responsibilities, and getting everybody in a position where they are comfortable and not loafing. Next week will we continue working on whatever is leftover from this last week and the main focus will be on finishing the UI, as well as working out the basic character controls in Unity. All-in-all:
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AuthorMy name is Quinn Peterson! I will be reflecting about my art work in this blog! Archives
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