Hi there. This is Dragos, your Cohort Mentor. I've written out some feedback for you, split into the categories that the sprint was being judged on. Feel free to reach out if you think I've misunderstood anything, or want to chat further through some of these points.
Playability
- Currently there is no playable prototype. Especially considering the very large and impressive scale of the project, I am concerned that due to the varied mechanics listed in the design document, the majority of the prototype submission is composed of other elements. These includes: a section of an even larger proposed map, a lot of concept art, and some demos of the gliding and wind tunnel mechanic. This does not address the optional rhythm game mechanics intended, nor some of the other platforming, flying and diving.
Promising Idea
- At face value, the concept of storm chasers tied into a platformer where you embody the wind is promising. Moving further into that idea, the execution of it is the primary purpose and concern. The inspiration from Sky is obvious, and valuable, but the theming of that game is more subtle and fits the floating/flying more than an active disaster/storm chaser. I am open to how you would pair these together, but the current prototype does not serve to demonstrate this.
Use of themes
- The game is founded on a good link to "Natural and Unnatural Disasters". I am not seeing much of the unnatural part yet, but I think there is good material to work with. An important aspect is to discuss more of the dynamic impact that a storm has, rather than simply the voyeuristic act of flying after/into a storm. This can be done through the memory fragments, though this has to be carefully and skilfully written out to avoid trivialising the victims of the storm. This ties into the Call to Action section, namely the lack of action
Call to Action
- I understand the philosophical angle of the game, serving the powerlessness of the victims to change the future. The game (currently) seems to propose that the goal is to reach the eye of the storm, where it all ends. This does not give any actionable call to any real individual or community, therefore not fulfilling this category. There are plenty of ways to remediate this, though again, these have to be carefully considered in weighing with the rest of the scope. An example would be to engage survivors of the storm, which are the people giving energy/power/progress the fight against the storm.
Reasonable Scope
- In my personal opinion, for this game jam, the game is scoped too far out. I understand you have a large team, and this can feel like a lot of progress can be made in a short amount of time, however, as you get closer to the deadline, a lot of critical choices have to be made to maintain the theming and purpose of the game, which can be difficult to coordinate across a wide team. Additionally, any one of you, especially the programmers in this early stage with no prototype, serve as a bottleneck to the rest of the game, which can significantly slow down your process. This isn't to say that the game isn't achievable on a timeline outside of this event. Please consider what is critical to the delivery of your game, and what could be a future expansion on the concept.
Well Planned Production
- You did not mention any planners or production pipelines in the way that you work. If you use these, you can ignore this part of the feedback. If not, I think it is again quite dangerous for a large team, since production timelines can vary from person to person. The lack of a bug-tracking and even task-management system can hinder the process considerably, and could be incredibly helpful to you in managing the large and impressive scope. Highly recommend sitting down and producing a plan for the remaining time of the game jam.