Timeline:

• Thursday Feb 15th: Level prototype check-in with Karthik
• Sunday Feb 18th: Reading week game plan meeting (Art)
• Feb 19th - Feb 25th: Reading week
• Monday Feb 19th: Reading week game plan meeting (CS)
• Thursday Feb 22nd: Reading week game plan meeting (Music)
• Sunday Feb 25th: In-person meeting to work on some stuff
• Tuesday Feb 27th: Alpha demo presentation

Synopsis:

Over reading week, we juiced and polished the level prototype (which is Act 0 and Act 1 of the whole planned game). Linked is the Alpha build we presented at the end of the process, which we feel does a good job of encapsulating the experience and gameplay we want.

New or improved features:

• Improved/revamped music and audio SFX
• Colour grading on camera and Wish ambient SFX to emphasize POV difference
• Improved cutscene with videos, vignette, ‘next slide’ button and SFX
• Open-able notebook to view summary of cutscenes after the fact
• Environment (almost) fully textured
• Preliminary 3D sculpt of Jules (that rotates with movement), visible as Wish but invisible in first person view
• Environment populated with ‘flavour clutter’
• Starter hallway created with void tunnel, tutorial splash screen triggers and small camera cutscene for first POV switch
• Interactable objects have flavour text (which can differ between characters), and glow in Wish’s POV
• Added a couple more items to the first puzzle (broken chair, painting)

Next steps:

• Improve 3D character model for Jules - sculpt, rigging, animations
• Improve the puzzle - add more informative text, better indications for Wish, etc.
• Texture the ‘flavour clutter’ and add flavour text in a way that’s differentiated from puzzle-relevant text
• Code cleaning!!! Make it scalable, clearly labeled and organized
• Expand tutorialization - make object interactivity clearer, surface more information
• Playtest more!