Matt Napolillo | Week 2: Micro, Macro, and Mono e mono

WEEKLY NARRATIVE

Another busy week full of meeting and designing goes by, this time with a clearer outlines. My focus this week, was to come up with an organization and design of the "Hospital" Area, and to finalize the design for the Center Wing. Last week, we discussed how much we'd want to accomplish by the end of the quarter. Since it seemed we wanted to try and finish the hospital, but only really have the scope for 2 large wings and a tutorial, I bought a sketchbook and got to work! I ended up with a layout and design focused on a compromise of those ideas, while also creating an interesting, enticing, and atmospheric start to the game. Though during the design meeting there was some conflict when discussing the lobby and how certain key locations should be organized, we were able to come to an agreement on the final layout of the Center Wing. 

This brings up one of the things some of us (including myself) need to work on as collaborators and creators, which is realizing when to stop deliberating over a design, and to try to come to a compromise faster. Being able to clearly explain thoughts about a design is important for quickly and clearly communicating your ideas, which is something I'm trying to improve upon myself. Still, different opinions beget opposition, and in that case compromise is key. That being said, no one is being malicious, there's just a lot of passion and creative discourse. All of that is great, but being able to realize when too much time is being spent on something is what we really need to get a handle on.

Along with the new design, the story was discussed further and finalized, as well as the methods we will be using to communicate certain story beats to the player without taking them out of the game. We also decided how the player will be obtaining certain abilities, as well as how they will be able to navigate and move throughout the environment. 

We've also decided as a team to use Trello instead of Hack 'n Plan, since Trello will give us more freedom and control over organization. Also, we made the move to Unity 2017.3, and got Rewired and Cinemachine integrated!

CONTENT WITH HOURS

• Design and Programming Meetings (8 hours)
• Level Design Research (2 hours)
• Level Design Session (3 hours)
• Level Design Self Work / Brainstorm (7 hours)
• Story / Design Meeting (4 hours)
• Art Meeting (2 hours)
• Mini GDD (1.5 hours)

WORKFLOW EXAMPLES

 

POSITIVE OUTCOMES

• Came up with a solid agreed upon design for the Center Wing and overall "Hospital" Layout
• Came to a lot of good decisions on how abilities are introduced, and how the story is portrayed
• Made a lot of important decisions about workflow and project management

NEGATIVE OUTCOMES

• Gotta get the meeting times down and try to come to compromises faster. Discussion is awesome but there's only so much time.
• Communication of which tasks were assigned to who was iffy this week.

NEXT TASKS

Next is to create finalized designs for the Lobby, X-Ray Room, and Tutorial Area. Also planning on creating a finalized layout in illustrator to show the basic map of the Center Wing. Finally, we'll be coming up with challenges/level layouts for the other two wings of the game.

TOTAL HOURS LOGGED THIS WEEK: 23.5  hours

TAGS

#{Matt Napolillo}

#{Week 2}

#{Level Design}
#{Art}
#{Story}