This sprint was the first one where my team and I were working on the digital prototype of the game, which was very different and, to be honest, much more exciting than working on the paper version. It was difficult to translate our idea to paper, so it was fun to be able to work on the digital version and try out my ideas in real-time. I would say the process these past two weeks has been different than previous team experiences in a negative way. My two other team members didn't contact me much, even when I reached out, which was upsetting. Our programmer didn't do much work, only finishing the basic movement, camera system, and jetpack function, which I was unable to test due to a compiler error. It was also finished very last minute, which was frustrating for me as I was hoping to periodically test the compatibility of the movement system with my map design. Also, my producer didn't work much at all on actual game implementation, and he didn't update our Trello board until the last minute, which was also frustrating for me, as it made me feel like I did less work than I really had. Overall, the work was finished, but it could've been done much better, and more could have been completed if everyone had pulled their weight. Hopefully, my future team experiences will be more positive and fulfilling, though I don't want to get my hopes up too much as I know that many people are like this.
an aerial view of the map in Unity
Besides the team issues, for this sprint, I worked mostly on level design and building the game's first level. I started by taking the map I had previously drawn for the paper prototype and adding bathymetric lines to figure out where I wanted different heights in the terrain. Then, I took this image and imported it into Unity onto a flat plane, which I then used as a reference to sculpt over with Unity terrain. That is how I built the actual landscape and shape of the map, using materials painted on top of it to represent various terrain types like grass, paths, and water. I then made two simple models, one for the player house and one for the wheat factory, so there was an adequate representation of each building without being too flushed out and detailed. After I implemented these models, I went through and placed collectibles in various locations and then used these locations as inspiration to build simple platforming sequences that the player would have to complete to obtain these collectibles. I tried to make it so that it started out very simple and gradually became more complex but still not too difficult as it is the first level. I even hid one secret collectible at the end of the level since that type of thing is one of my favorite things in games.
a view of the end of the level, including the wheat factory model
the skybox image that I created for the map
I also created a simple skybox for the map to tie the scenery together and give the level a little extra personality, it only took a few minutes to make and I think the result turned out really good for how simple it is. Besides building the level, I also made testing prefabs for the programmer to use so that they could better test the movement system they were creating. I made some simple tests like blocks that got wider apart to test the jump distance, ones that got taller to test the jump height, and two small areas made of materials set to be in other levels like ice and cheese. As of now, I should be done with the main level; I just have to add a separate map within the scene for the boss fight. From there, I have to work on the other three levels, and basic game assets like the buildings and collectibles. Hopefully, the remainder of this development will go smoothly!