Credit to Zoe Hammonds for her amazing art skills!

Sprint 1B Review

Sprint 1B was a fresh start. New game idea, same team, with rapid prototyping being the major point of momentum for the Production II course. The idea that the team decided to go with was a 3D bullet hell.

What went right?

Once the ball started rolling with how we wanted to theme our 3D bullet hell, the team was able to get straight to work. Communication between the programmer and the designers was much better. The mechanics of the game and how they would work was established early and was clear enough that the programmer knew exactly what to do. The artist was able to produce numerous high quality art assets in short time as well as proposing an intriguing art direction that involved medieval manuscript. The team’s producer kept everyone on task and committed to accomplish the weekly sprint.

What went wrong?

Initially, it was difficult to find a concept that everyone wanted to work with. The original idea that I proposed was that you were a form of malware, going through a computer trying to destroy as much of the innerworkings as possible while avoiding hazards like fire walls and anti-virus software. After this idea, it was suggested why not make it a bacteriophage trying to destroy a human body. The thoughts bounced back and forth on these two ideas before our producer suggested an angry man with shields deflecting the bullets. Everyone loved the idea and it was what we decided to go with, it just took us a while to get there.

What could have been done better?

Communication is always an area of continued improvement. While it was better this time around it could always be better. Meeting attendance was down on a couple occasions, but it did not provide too much of a detriment for the team.