Week 13 - Changing the format

This week we had a group meeting regarding the format of our vertical slice. As we are nearing the end of the project we were told that we were going to aim for more of a vertical slice approach as oppose to a full working and fluid (almost) demo. I completely understand this decision and it impacts other members of the group much more than me. My own work can be showcased and does not change too much so I'm relatively happy.

My plans haven't changed so I'm continuing this week to work on the animations. As there is only a couple weeks of the project left now I have made myself a timetable to be able to get everything done in a reasonable time period and to a high quality. I'm spending most days this week finishing the other 3 animations (skeletals, line art and colouring) so there isn't much to report.

There have also been further discussions around how the vertical slice will showcase everyone's individual work. My cutscenes work most effectively when the battle maps are used in between to show the flow of the gameplay. It has been decided that the maps wont be fully showcased in the narrative but rather there will be moving images of some description in between so the other members of the group can showcase their work elsewhere in the slice. This isn't how I had imagined it and personally I don't think this will be as effective as an experience but that is what the other team members have wanted. Instead, I intend to make a collectables screen for after the images of the battle appear so that the interactions within the animations do not look out of place. I have also said I will tidy up some of the UI we had discussed earlier in the project to act as a background for the main menu to the vertical slice (scenes like the town, the church and the sheriff's office).

It was also requested that I make some UI to frame the battle screens and perhaps develop some popups to make each phase in battle clearer so I will work on that over the next few days.