Post 25 - Midway Stretch

The rough presentations were complete, and we received feedback.

This was good and bad.

It was good, in that we were informed we did very badly. Aside from two presentation hiccups, with video and pausing, I don't believe the presentations were as poor as the professors described.

As for engineering tasks, regarding the structure of the games, I have been moved towards the Hostile Territory game, as the demo structure was complete for the Regenisis game. We have more than enough game structure ideas to complete multiple levels for a final build. We played with altering gravity as well, and are looking at additional features to include. We are not sure how the gravity alteration fits the game overall, but we'll see (maybe) in the coming future.

Hostile Territory is a third-person competitive shooter, where the environment is hazardous, shifting, and changing. There is nowhere to camp here. Be on your toes, or you are dead.

Regenisis is a third-person exploration game, involving digging and moving through piles of garbage to recover lost memories of yourself and the world. What awaits in the depths of trash? Dig, and ye shall find.

I think these short descriptions do some things our presentations did not. They directly describe the games in one to two sentences, and get right to the point. You have a sense of what is initially fun and has impact, and they describe why you would want to come back for more.

My hopes are shooting for the Hostile Territory game. I feel that the Regenisis game has take a step backwards, by focusing less on exploring through the pile of trash, and tried to move more into the platforming element of what the game appears to be. I think if we pushed forward with it, we would need to be prototyping more on the digging mechanic, and what is fun about it.

As for Hostile Territory, it is a level designer's dream and nightmare. We have multiple structures to play with, gravity to alter, environments to destroy, and different features to test out. We don't have different weapons, character classes, perks, or complete networking done. But, the prototype is damn fun.

We'll see what the feedback is provided by our industry panel on 3-3-2014. It is going to be great!