There is No "I" in "Team", or "Management" For That Matter

So today was our big post-holiday pow-wow. As our group was only able to keep in contact over the holidays via online updates it was good to see the guys again in person where we could discuss and plan efficiently. A progress overview to date shows that everything we plan on doing is still highly conceptual. The movement controls and core concepts at the moment are locked down, which is comforting to know. Having a solid base to build on makes things seem more stable. There is still lots to do of course, which can be generally labelled as such: obstacles/collectables/power-ups (all summed up delightfully by "colliding stuff"), boss battles, level design, sound design, menu screens, cutscenes, unlockables. These are all features. It goes without saying that testing and debugging will also consume a lot of time but that will be a consistent process opposed to a slot in the pipeline.
In our meeting today I wanted to widen the production pipeline as much as possible by divvying out individual and manageable tasks for everyone to have done by Monday. The most important task is under Andrew's care in solving the code for a collision with an obstacle and the player. With this code working we can essentially build the entire obstacle/soul/power-up features on top of it.
The rest of the team is more art focussed which suits the stage we are at at the moment. The three of us have until Monday to get as many conceptual sketches of characters, obstacles, bosses and environments as we can. Ideally, with a huge range of imagery to choose from we will be able to pick the best concepts and begin implementing them within photoshop to produce sprites for Stencyl to work with.
We also sorted out a lot of things that were originally rather vague, such as how tough the game was going to be on the player; whether they would have only one life and have to be highly reactive like in Super Hexagon, or if it will be more life-focussed where the player has a number of chances/opportunities to beat each level. Pretty much what we decided on after an excellent idea by Chris is that the player would be collecting souls so the level's fuel gauge decreases. Based on certain percentages the gauge has left the difficulty of the game changes e.g. the less the gauge has left the more chaotic things are for the player. Difficulty in Soul Furnace would be determined by how rapidly the screen is rotating, how fast obstacles are being spawned, how restrictive these obstacles ore of the player's movement, and how difficultly the souls are placed apart from one another. The less fuel the level has left, the higher percentage there is for more difficult obstacle combos to appear. Getting hit by an obstacle reduces the amount of souls you have, knocking them into the furnace and refuelling the level. This will cause everything to slow down again and become easier but costs the player progress. The only way for a player to die is to collide with an obstacle while holding no souls, which could end in a game over.
Another thing we settled in today's meeting was the method by which power-ups are made. If a player collects a fixed number of souls consecutively then the power-up appears and they are able to reap the benefits as long as they continuously collect souls. These power-ups would manifest as masks that the player's avatar puts on. Each mask would visually represent the power-up it provides. So far the power-ups are looking to be as follows;
- Forest level exclusive: Player channels the power of Earth to provide themselves with a shield that blocks one obstacle (player much recharge from beginning once expended)
- Oil refinery level exclusive: Player channels the power of Water to thin the level's fuel and deplete the gauge at an increased rate
- Engine level exclusive: Player channels the power of Air to keep himself afloat for an increased amount of time when jumping
- Power grid level exclusive: Player channels the power of Electricity to detect oncoming obstacles before they arrive, giving themselves plenty of warning before they are put in danger
The final level would contain each of these power-ups generated semi-randomly.
We set a deadline for our group to have a completed game to show for the critical interim. This gives us two weeks of "faffing about" where we can add all the bonus stuff we've been thinking of as well as give what we have some extra polish. It also means we have set deadlines to meet which will make work more consistent.