This was the first sprint where we got to implement some art assets into the prototypes that we are planning on challenging with, and it was very exciting to really see how our art pipeline and development will flow together. Additionally, I worked exclusively on two of the final three prototypes for this sprint and was able to make the general design idea into a playable and fun prototype.
The first prototype that I continued to iterate with was the Shadows Shooter game where the player must fend off against their ‘demon’s (for now that implies grey capsules) by staying away from the shadows and shooting back. The prototype has a FEAR bar as well as a HEALTH bar to indicate the amount of control the character (and player) has in the situation as well as the player’s eventual lose state. The environment was created with modular assets by Colton and I was able to make the small environment seen in the Gif above. The benefits of continuing with this game would be the interesting idea of having shadows as the enemy as well as being able to truly innovate with weapon choices. However the downsides for our team include the vast amount of art that would be needed as well as me having to work on level design much more heavily than any other prototype.
The second prototype that I worked on was the Twin Stick Toybox Shooter where the players must work together with limited bullets to clear out a level in very limited time. However the bullets do bounce throughout the environment/off the enemy bullets and eachother making the game have many WOW moments as well as crucial spots for teamwork. This prototype and game idea is my personal favorite as it would allow me to be fully creative with common game types (Twin stick shooter) but adding very unique game elements to add innovation. Some ideas that have already been implemented are the fact that enemies can only be killed by a specific player, making the teamwork crucial, as well as a dash that can be used through walls, the ability to pick up bullets that have not hit an enemy and different enemy types that test the players mobility as well as quick decision making skills. Most of the team members also see this game as our best chance to really put together our skill-sets and provide a fulfilling vertical slice, so I am very interested to hear back from professors and other students about their opinions on the game prototypes-.
Ethan Loewald 