What’s up #Indies!
So we’ve just wrapped up our ninth production sprint and we’re deep in production for our game , Project Jith.
We introduced Project Jith in our previous blog post and how it’s an evolution from our previous project, The Debugger (that we collectively decided to abort). To put things simply, we decided on this change of direction for more clarity and focus in both our studio’s production and marketing efforts.
So let’s do quick recap of our previous sprint (Sprint #8).
Specifically, we were working on a new game map which entailed settling on specific technical and design aspects of the map – from the color palette of the environment, to the terrain generation engine, all the way to the prop/asset layouts – to accurately present the emotional theme of the map (and the game), which was our biggest challenge yet.
Since our game’s going to be based on the central theme of negative human emotions, it was an absolute priority to be able to nail down how we were going to portray each negative emotion, which is easier said than done.
As with any game design, there were numerous factors to take into account and combine together to build up the correct mood for players to experience – something that we were quite pleased to say that we accomplished 🙂
And so we’re pleased to have our first game map to build upon, for this production sprint #9.
What we did in Sprint #9…
It’s all about MONSTERS!
That’s right 🙂 Monsters!
So for sprint #9, we moved on to start working on our game monsters that will populate our first game map. We’re forecasting that this would occupy the bulk of our work for the next couple of weeks (and sprints), and couldn’t be more excited about getting to work on (arguably) one of the more interesting aspects of our game!
After all, monsters have always been one and the same with almost all video games, and they come in every shape and form. Monsters provide challenges and entertainment in (almost) all the games we play and ahve always been something we have been fascinated with (or scared of).
So before starting off to design the game monsters, it was important for us to set some context first – some guidelines to give us a framework for efficient ideation.
Turns out this was a great lesson for us as we sought to answer some fundamental questions in our game design for Project Jith…
First of all, what is the reason for having monsters?
What purpose do they serve? How did they come to be?
Are they obstacles in a story challenge? Why must we kill them?
What happens after we kill them?
And on and on…
So we debated and discussed amongst ourselves, fleshing out the details of each of Project Jith’s first game monsters – from the particular emotion it’s supposed to represent as part of the game map they’re found in, to the character’s components and effects, animation designs, attack styles, in-game behavior etc.
Making sure to keep with our game’s overall abstract and minimalist design, our greatest challenge thus far is to actually fully realize our ideas when in production. Every single little detail counts in design, animation and programming and is something that we always be working to improve upon on a daily basis. Being a small team with not much experience, our dreams often surpasses our reach (which is the case with any small team just starting out).
Not being discouraged in the least, we’re slowly making progress with endless checking & testing, asking for feedback whenever we have a chance, and always trying to prototype work quickly to fail fast, and (hopefully) be successful down the line.
As we move towards our first mini production milestone at the end of our next sprint (Sprint #10), we’re starting to feel some pressure on ourselves to deliver a playable and enjoyable game so we’ll be checking back with you soon to show-off some of our first monsters for Project Jith!
In summary
So this is where we’re at for our game development so far as we work to realize the monsters that will inhabit our first game map.
Stay tuned for more updates and thank you as always for your continued support!
#webuildwhatwewannaplay
