On Monday we had Dan Emmerson give us a talk on The Game Art Pipeline as someone who had been working in games animation for 15 years, and multiple shipper titles to his name.
Start small with functioning assets before spending time creating finished pieces, so grey boxing which is way faster to make and run.
Triage & Priorities
Focus on things the player will actually be focusing on, and a tip for production is also to keep some assets “vague” to make them re-usable.
Exporting
The names of files should be specific to the asset since the person putting them in the game will not know the difference between Rock_A or Rock_B. should be named something like Rock_Large_Mossy if multiple rock assets exist, and Rock_10m_Moss is even better when they vary in size. This is communication and it makes it easier to work in a team. Also, spelling is very important.
2D & sprites
Sprite sheets should be packed into a singular texture
Importing
Implementation is not linear and it’s rare that anything will actually be done and finished without requiring adjustments along the way.
They should also be saved in sensical manner with appropriate folder names so anyone can know where to look for the assets.
This talk was very useful as an artist!
The guest then came around to talk to us and gave us some ideas for the mechanic. E.g. Words moving around by themselves and having to catch them. Characters changing their question or the direction of the conversation mid answer. I really liked these ideas as they added some fluidity and immersion to the gameplay!
We then talked as a group and scrapped the tone puzzles and decided to keep the game simple as in only the important context pieces matter when forming an answer and they will hold the points.
In preparation for the playtesting, I finished the classroom background and the cafeteria, which are two of the scenes from Cindy’s script which she wrote so we could have an updated prototype for Thursday, however they were not put into the game before Playtesting started.
Feedback and notes from play testers:
Play tester 1
- Wondered if she needed to use all the words given
- Hard to understand if they must say yes or no in response to certain dialogue
- no should be an answer
- not very enjoyable, maybe give player the chance to learn something like Duolingo
Play tester 2
- Should specify what ASD stands for
- At first didn’t know she had to fill slots completely
- Likes the concept
- Need to make sure the game coveys the message properly, for example make sure players don’t walk away believing that ASD is something that other people don’t have to account for and putting all the responsibility on individuals with ASD
Play tester 3
- Frustrating
- Enjoyed the mechanic
Play tester 4
- Tried to disagree as an answer but the game responded with the implication that what was said didn’t make any sense. Need to add alternate responses for Tyler
- Objective not clear
Play tester 5
- Added yeah at the end of the sentence instead of the beginning and it made the answer “wrong”
- Likes how the words slide over when you remove a piece
Play tester 6
- Like the gameplay
- Didn’t know to press enter on keyboard as there’s nothing saying to on the screen
Play tester 7
- Didn’t know to press enter
- Likes the smooth gameplay like the words sliding over
- Suggests adding an enter button on the screen
Play tester 8
- Brutal and too unfair because the answers are too specific so if you arrange slightly differently its still considered completely wrong
Takeaway:
Most people put in the right answers just slightly differently giving them a negative response which made the gameplay frustrating. Additionally, players didn’t know to press enter as it wasn’t anywhere on the screen. Some believed that the answers they were putting in were wrong because there was no enter button, making them assume it would automatically go when the correct answer was entered, so they rearranged their correct answers a few times for no reason.