It’s the end of the second week for Team POW and honestly, we could have done better. Despite the weekly schedule being posted on the Dropbox account, no one followed it. This led to clashes within the team that could have been avoided if we had all been more organised.
Kathryn was set to do the Garden Concept, Forest Concept, Storyboard and the New Full Map Concept. Whilst the Garden, Forest and Storyboard were drafted and started, half the images still require polishing. They remain, however, descriptive images that can be worked on. The New Full Map concept has been pushed back to week three as Kathryn decided to work on the character concepts instead.
Ayden was tasked to create a fully functioning whitebox for the level that the player could run through to test the length and path of the level. This has not been completed, but we do have a large amount of feature assets that were modelled for use in the garden section of the level. Ayden also learnt to use SpeedTree which we will be using to help us with random background tree generation in the forest area. He also worked on some game mechanics and visual effects.
Dan modelled most of the feature trees for the forest level but didn’t finish. This is alright though as we will be using SpeedTree to save time on modelling the background trees. He started to model feature pieces for the forest levels such as the broken bridge and crumbling walls along the side of the path. He also worked on some pruned trees that will be placed in the Garden level. The hedges and archways were also finished and were placed in the whitebox. All of the models that Dan made were unwrapped and can now be textured if needed.
The schedule for week three needs to be followed exactly in order for us to have all the concepting finished in time. Our aim is to have all our assets modelled and unwrapped before the Easter Holidays. During the holidays we will all be texturing and creating normal maps for the assets, leaving us three weeks after the holidays to work on getting the mechanics working, scene dressings, particle effects and atmospheric conditions. In order for this to work however, everyone needs to stick to the schedule instead of being distracted.
Overall, we’ve made good progress with our level, but we keep getting caught up in details instead of the overall game.