Sanctum Infernum - Week 2 Development Blog

Overview

During this week I will outline the following:

• Collaborative and agile AAA workflow (Scrum)

• Attempting to push card mechanic further

• Weapon demo list

• Basic attack and enemy documentation (Early stage)

• Targets for improvement next week

Collaborative and agile AAA workflow (Scrum)

As this was the first real week in which production of the game should begin, the only real task set for the design team, specifically mechanics based, was to continue conceptualizing ideas. Furthermore, this week initiated proper scrum workflow as the first scrum meeting took place and will continue to take place on Mondays. This call consisted of both designers and programmers, as we would work collaboratively throughout the entire production stage, balancing what would be viable to implement and what would be beyond the scope. During this call, attempts were made to push ideas from the Guildford side to Birmingham, as even at this early stage, it felt that they had more control over the entirety of the project, with most ideas needing confirmation through them and not the entirety (This is further outlined under the "Attempting to push card mechanic further" header).

Attempting to push card mechanic further

As mentioned previously, myself and another designer felt very strongly about implementing a card-based system into the game. We felt that it would make the game unique in comparison to similar titles that are more common to the indie genre. However, there seemed to be some distain towards the idea, with some members of the group claiming that it would be "too much work for the artists". Because of this, we felt that it would be important to fully outline how the mechanic would work, to both leads and also the rest of the group, to show that it could work and that it would in fact help push the game by being different from the stereotypical JRPG. Unfortunately, in the end we were not successful in getting the mechanic in the game as it seemed the majority either didn't like the idea or understand it. However, I believe that we were somewhat successful as it has been decided that the game will include a "page" mechanic which in every shape is the exact same as the card mechanic, while having a significant change in having a limited but set number placed throughout the level. I do feel that it is rather disingenuous to say that the idea is not practically the same or even inspired by our own, but some are still taking this stance, but in the end, if it works for the game, I will have no issue with it.

Weapon Demo List

The only task that I was officially provided for this week was to create a basic weapon demo list to show what sort of items the player and their companions could use during combat. This document would outline references for the artists to what the item should look like and also some very simple damage values which in reality will change when it comes down to getting it in the game. Upon reflection, whilst we got this done very efficiently, during the same day, in fact, I feel that more could have been done in order to progress further for the game as, although we were successful in completing the document, its content was very simple and would only contribute a little to the entire project.

Link to weapon demo link (Google Docs):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gp5cWaFfCzeHChkkHvJovTaNzzdG0kI7dbK9Obbr4Gw/edit?usp=sharing

Basic attack and enemy documentation (Early Stage)

As previously stated, I felt that the task that I was provided for this week was lacking in terms of what would be needed to push the project along for the week's scrum. Because of this, I took initiative and decided that I would go beyond what was expected of me and work on another document. This document would go more in depth, outlining the basic attacks and possible enemy stats (which were rather limited based on the fact that we had not specified what enemies would be in the vertical slice). I also got help from George M as I knew that he was also concerned about the amount of work that was set. Together we began coming up with ideas for the attacks and outlining the values that would come with them. Although we were not specifically set this task, I feel we were both efficient and successful in its creation as we developed a document that provides sufficient detail specifically for the basic attacks and is something that could be used as a guideline throughout the game's game's production.

Targets for improvement next week

Upon reflection of this week's sprint, I feel that given the amount of work that I was tasked with and the fact that I further developed the idea even when it wasn't required of me, I feel that I was successful in not only contributing to an agile workflow by keeping up to date with scrum but also showing Initiative to the product when I understand that it was discussed whether some of the developers were actually interested in the product. With regard to the upcoming week, I am going to push to get a task which would be more beneficial for the overall project as not only will it challenge me more as a designer, but it will also help the group by outlining what should be implemented. Furthermore, I will aim to keep the trajectory in which I am currently working at as if continued, I feel it would correlate into making a project that I am proud of.

Targets:

• Push for a more challenging and appropriate task.

• Stay on track (trajectory and workload) to stay in line with AAA.