Gold Standard Gameplay
Technical Summary:
Having conducted some playtesting, and reaching the final deadline for Gold Standard, we were at a point where we once again had to record the progress we had made throughout the past couple of weeks. Throughout Gold, our focus had been less on adding big new features, and instead working on enhancing the player experience, and adding the first-person perspective. Continuing the trend of recording each method, I recorded every method twice, showing the difference between third and first-person perspectives and how fun both views were. It also helped with finding bugs and changes we should make to the game to positively impact the overall experience (Crafting UI changes, Market Cost Fix, Market Balancing). What helped with these recordings, was that I was able to show off so many different features you didn't always get to see, such as Cantina Boxes, First Person, different sounds, and different places you can access in the two levels.
Reflection
Gold Standard proved to us just how much we had really accomplished in the previous phases and the small changes we needed to develop to make our game a lot more fun and enjoyable on the players side. Having only spent two weeks on this period, I was super happy with the several small changes we made to the overall game, keeping our communication and intentions to this period in mind. This period is a brilliant reflection on the significance of playtesting and receiving some really decent feedback, and how we can take the positive experience to benefit the future experiences people get through our game. It's truly spectacular to go back and look at what we ended Alpha with, and see the huge improvements and enhancements we've made across a couple of months.
Vertical Slice Trailer
Technical Summary:
As mentioned in the client brief, we had to produce a Vertical Slice Trailer, showing off the game we had spent the last 6 months developing. For this trailer, I took advantage of Unreal Engine's Sequencer to make some more cinematic and the ability to fabricate specific events for the trailer. I also used the First-Person perspective we'd recently added to give a certain charm to this trailer. For this trailer, I developed an outline for this trailer, following the steps mentioned when I did some research into how to make a good trailer, the steps really helped when working on this trailer allowing for me to be quite prepared for what I wanted to include.
Video used to help with this trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CSYA9R70R8
Reflection
This was such a fun trailer to develop, really leaning into something I haven't really done before. I think this trailer is a step up from the last, feeling a lot more cinematic in comparison, and helping to really show off a lot of the game, but in the same humorous way that the game is portrayed. I do feel like the first person footage does pull the trailer back, having it also be sped up since it wouldn't fit in the timeframe I wanted it to fit, but the moments that really shine is the back of the trailer, having that humour and suspense I wanted to build.