Pre-Production

Throughout January, me and my group began working on the Pre-Production stage of our game: Tactics, Tea, and Tentacles (TTT). In this period of time, we had to create a range of different documentations essential to the pre-production period in games designs. These pieces of evidence included: Games Design Document (GDD), Art Bible, Asset List, Finalised Schedule, Animatic or Paper Proto-type, and Client/Audience Research.

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Technical Summary:

As Team Lead, I took charge of the GDD and how the format of the document should be, but keeping it a live document that we could. The GDD was our starting point into working on this game, we used this as a basis to work out the assets and mechanics we would need to develop these features inside our Word document. As detailed in the Game Overview, TTT is a strategy game where the player needs to use the resources they gather to follow a laid out path to escape from the invading Redcoats. We took heavy inspiration from the Hitman games, giving the player lots of choices to complete the main objective, by finding random items and following other clues to figure out how you can escape the Redcoats.

We started by figuring out 5 different methods for the player to follow, and then expanding on how we could make them more risky and stressful to navigate while playing the game, this included areas highly populated with enemies, and finite stamina to force the player into this sense of unease.

This idea of stress and planning ahead stemmed from how we saw the initial beginnings of a refugee's journey. We wanted to get across the risks and chances that a refugee must take to survive, this included using any means possible, whether considered good or bad, to achieve their own safety.

Inside our GGD, we also included our client research, which helped us understand the client further and how our idea can connect with what they stand for. World Refugee Day celebrates the bravery that refugees must have to survive the dangers they must face, and we plan to mirror that by putting the player inside stressful situations that they must navigate and overcome. With such a heavy and powerful topic, we were very particular from the beginning about what we should and shouldn't include to not insult or hurt the people who have been effected by these circumstances. From the beginning of the Group Pitches, we were very clear in focusing the style, design, and events on a more cartoon and unrealistic style, feeling that expressing the harsh realities would be to much for the target audience of PEGI 7 we wanted to educate. We want this project to have less of an explicit message and keep it more tucked away in the back for a more older player to experience and understand instead.

Reflection:

The GDD works really well and is a solid guide for what we want to include and how we plan for it to function. We should keep this document as a live document so we can edit and change details for later reference as the project evolves and develops. As much as we discussed the GDD as a whole, I think it would have been good to let the others on my team edit and add details as they saw fit. They did have access to the developing document, but the document wouldn't update live which caused some issues leading us to only have me editing it, which did take more time in the long run. Although, the GDD was an effective document that helped clearly outline the gameplay loop and the significant mechanics that we intend to include. Similarly, this allows for team members working on an area they are unfamiliar with, or even other people seeking more information on the game to easily navigate and develop an understanding of our game.

Pre-Production Schedule

Alpha Production Schedule 1

Gold Standard Schedule

Pre-Production Schedule

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Technical Summary:

As Team Lead I took it upon myself to work a frame that would fit our project's scheduled time. The first challenge in working out the timeline of events was what needed to be included in the specific periods and when best to work on those items. For this, I created a Gannt Chart where we could easily outline events and milestones to follow which will allow for us to follow with the Agile Methodology to allow for iterative designs, as well as keeping in check where we are with each element.

For Pre-Production, it was a lot easier to outline these items because of how definitive they were, and we had already begun working on these so outlining when they would be completed helped us know what pace we would need to keep up to accomplish these. However, we managed to accomplish all aspects of the pre-production period a couple days early, allowing for us to begin working on the Alpha Production Period.

For the other phases of production, I looked at the several methods we had outlined and broke the timeframes up to include specific features relating to each method, as well as wanting to have a version of the game playable by the end of the Alpha Production and improve on those features throughout Beta and Gold Standard. I also wanted to ensure that everyone had something to work on everyday of the periods we were working, also including periods where not everyone would be working and have time to work on portfolios or work on a different skill such as Modelling and Programming.

As nice as all this scheduling is, the project will ultimately change and morph throughout the coming months, and we will adapt from what was originally set out. Equally, not all elements of what we have planned can fully be explored as to what we need and how necessary they are.

Reflection:

Alongside the GDD, I spent a lot of my time figuring out all the details inside the GDD and the elements we'd need to complete the specified elements. Although I've never created a schedule before, I think this was a good first attempt, outlining a large chunk of information along the way. I do feel that I have underestimated the efficiency of our team, by focusing on one task a day, which several could be completed in a day instead, but I chose to keep it as a singular piece every day to not overload us too much.

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General Art Direction

In-Game Art Style

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Technical Summary:

I assigned the Art Bible to Elliot, as our Art Specialist, and the one who proposed the retro-futurism style to us, I let him have a lot of free reign with how he went about the style and the art of our game, only suggesting details and expanding on ideas he had. As Team Lead I was shown and then would approve the art he created in relations to this. We also continued with the designs we previously created from the Group Pitch, but improving on the feedback we received, regarding the colour of the aliens suit and how similar that was to the Redcoats. We also reworked the Redcoat design to look like they adapted an old diving suit to work in the same ways an astronaut would work. The Art Bible helped us all visualise the designs of our main characters, and allowing for us to explore what might fit alongside each character and how different they are. We used the Art Bible to assist us in understanding how we wanted to adapt the drawings, following a more primitive shape, than real world proportions. As well as outlining a great deal with the actual level and how we could differentiate the two periods from each other.

Reflection:

I think the Art Bible is a brilliant development of ideas and designs over time, it would have been better to include more drawings in relation to the 3D assets we'd include not just the player and enemies, even pushing the designs of the overall level to help build it in the engine would definitely make this a more important and relevant document to observe. The Art Bible also served as a great understanding as to how we wanted to keep the style of the game. Early in development, I wasn't 100% tuned into the aesthetic and the basic flat colours we wanted to go for, adding a more realistic flare to the early models I created. The Art Bible served as a great way to understand how the model could be re-textured into something more fitting than the current design.

Technical Summary:

Finally, we all collaborated together to work on different elements of an animatic that simplified the main elements of our game so we could merge them together into a compilation showing the Sneaking Method and some aspects of the Mars Monkey Method. This helped us to easily explain several aspects of our games, but also help us understand how these mechanics were going to work when it came to creating them for the game. When developing this Animatic, we still wanted to show the basic outline of each method, that being gathering resources and escaping the map, but also including the different methods to help explain how middle section of the game can be flexible and up the players digression to follow along with.

Reflection:

The Animatic Compilation is a very simple collection of images to get across some of the mechanics included inside the game, but I think there is definitely a better way at expressing some of the features. It does show some of the more significant qualities of the game, but isn't all to clear on what is either happening or what some of it means. I also feel like the different pieces created for the animatic are clearly by three different people, which all vary in an opaque manner, so in future, it may be more beneficial for one person to be given this task and receive input on how to clearly spell out what each image means.

Overall Reflection:

As a whole, I am super happy with how we navigated the whole Production Period and where it left us in the end, we all worked well as a combined force, focusing on what needed to be done and how we could expand on our idea to make it more outstanding in comparison to other projects we have worked on.