Week 8
To prepare team meetings, I collected feedback from TA and Professor using my own time with Lab and Office Hour. I analyzed their critiques and attached pictures from their examples. I annotated, highlighted, and wrote a conclusion on what can we improve on. I formed a team meeting and shared the analysis with the team. I individually communicated with the teammate who did not have time to come to the meeting. I volunteered to do the feedback analysis because I think we need to listen to feedback and improve our game at this still beginning stage.
I mapped the tasks I think our team members should be doing in my mind, and created a GitHub task board. I wrote detailed tasks and assigned them to members. I followed the rubric of Alpha Code so I don't miss anything. I have completed all my work on it that the work I am assigned by PM. I am not the program manager in our team but I still did it because I want to improve our current non-existing task management.
I had a long argument with the team about some critical changes to the game about core gameplay. so now we have time drop to add extra time, and magic shard as the in-level small goal.
I bought Aseprite to draw pixel art for ikura and his 3 siblings. It's the first time I draw pixel art. I also drew 6 frame animations for each of them, and tobiko has two emotions. In addition, I made a sprite for candle hats and claw hats. I made 6-frame animation of 3 emotions magical. I am asked to do the artwork even if I am not the visual designer in our team but I still did it.
I first time using a blender. I learned from Youtube how to use a blender for the most basic operations. I made modelling, shaders and renders for magic shards. I made a model for time drop. I am asked to do the 3D even if I am not the 3D artist in our team but I still did it.
I finished level 0, the tutorial level. I designed the way that players gradually learn how to jump on boxes and jump over obstacles. I crafted pushable boxes and designed them at the beginning of the level so they know how to use them later. I am asked to do the tutorial level even if I am not the level designer in our team but I still did it because I want to improve our current levels.
I met two testers and had a 1.5h session with them. D is a professional game developer who has 17 years of industry experience and worked for Microsoft and Epic Games (Fortnite). D is a game producer who has been working for 10 years in the industry and now in EA. They both provided super in-depth analysis to our pre-alpha submission. I appreciate their feedback and very much agree with them on the flaws we have in the level design and programming. I complied the playtesting voice recording to a document with highlighting and composed a video of the playtesting session.