2D art, interface, texturing
This week has been about refining assets and updating the interface to make it easier to understand or to reflect changes.
My big focus for the week was placed on updating the human instructions to add icons to their dash.This can act as an additional visual aid to let the humans know that the bottom instructions belong to them.
I added a gradient to the UFO to also help the humans feel more threatened when their spaceman approaches the enemy color.
The spaceman itself has an animation to allow him to look more panicked.
Positive Content
- Human players are represented by icons instead of number now
- UFO time bar implemented the green/pink seperation
- Human animation will add more panic to the time bar
Negative Content
- Finals are approaching. This will affect work for the remaining weeks.
Work and hours
Human Instruction screen update (1.5 hrs)
Instead of using P1 and P2, the players are now represented with a human icon with a number on his head. Visually, this is more interesting and will aid the player in knowing that these are human instructions.
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Time Bar Update (1 hrs)
UFO now now has a gradient. As the space man moves up he will approach the green. Because green is the color of the enemy for the humans, they will see this is a bad thing.
The space man has a "panic" animation now as well, to better convey the feeling of urgency.
Instructions Update (.5 hrs)
Just a general update on instructions that were needed for new games.
Alien Gets Emotional (.5 hr)
The alien has emotions to help convey when he has been hit or is about to perform an action.
Also makes the character more interesting.
Icon Update (.5 hrs)
Icons for a couple of new games. One is for a dance game and the other is for a crazy ball variant game.
Total Hours: 4 hrs
GDC Vault - Designing Without a Pitch: FTL Post-mortem
I chose to watch postmortem of an independent game for as a student, I find them more relatable to my own projects. FTL’s post-mortem was especially relatable as they chose to jump straight into the construction of the game without having a clear end goal in mind.
I felt this is a common approach for student projects, so it was interesting to see how Justin Ma and Matthew Davis managed their workflow and design process to find their way to their end product. They didn’t intend for FTL to be full-effort project, therefor I felt this was a good way to start for them. They note during the presentation that the project was harder than what they had anticipated, and I feel that their lack of initial planning may be to blame.
Alternatively, I felt this method of design also benefited the development of FTL. Because they had a loose image of what they wanted, they were more prone to experimenting and attempting alternative mechanics and features.
However, once they launched their kick starter and they had expectations to fulfill, it became more important for them to decide on an end state. During their kick starter they wasted time trying to get features to work that were not necessary, out of scope, or did not fit well with the design with the game. After they were faced with feature creep, they knew that they needed to solidify their ideas.
Overall I felt they handled the project well, especially considering they did not intend for it to be a commercial product. Personally, I value having a well-established vision before diving straight into a project, but this isn’t always possible when given time restraints. I feel some of the lessons learned through FTL’s post-mortem can be applied to my own projects.
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