A few of the kinks in the game’s story were hammered out today as the group had some great discussions about gameplay, environments, and dialogue. There is still some work to be done, but we’re getting closer to having a clear picture of what exactly will be taking place as the player navigates through each level.
The group divided into its smaller teams (visual artists and gameplay artists), and began to learn some of the more technical nitty-gritty: character modelling in Blender and level creation in Construct 2.
In only two hours, the visual artists had made a basic character using the box-modelling technique. They finished the technical drawings for the main characters in the story and have even begun modelling assets for the game! It was so exciting to see concepts we discussed only a couple of days ago materialise into 3D objects and characters. We can’t wait to see them all gussied up and animated!
The gameplay artists were ahead of the game. Not only were they two lessons ahead of schedule, they each made their own mini-game! Construct 2 has proven to be a winner so far in this workshop; it was easy to put together a basic level and incredibly satisfying to be able to play it right away. One of the levels, by participant Michael Morris, was almost like a minimalist “Operation” where you had to navigate through jagged barriers without touching them. It was as entertaining and frustrating as the children’s classic, old-school board game!
By the end of the day, we all had great stories to tell each other. Everyone was showing off their work–it was truly a proud day for all. As we came together to hash out a few more details in the script, we talked through some of the holes in the story and made suggestions about how to fill them in. Skawennati proposed a couple of solutions to the group, and everyone will come back on Monday with fresh eyes and ears to make a few more decisions.
All in all, this was an amazing week. How do you top it? We have a feeling we’ll find out next week…
