Cappin' Stones (11/2/2016) Part 4

The FUTURE! A terrifying prospect. What does it hold? Who can say, but the future of Rhythm of the Night is pretty solid.

We've been getting art assets in, and the game is starting to look like more of a game. There's more static art to be made, some variations to make things look a little less monotone, and animations to get in, but in terms of art, the game is getting to a solid spot. Gameplay wise, work needs to be done on the rhythm mechanic, and the security cameras need to be implemented, which is something that can definitely be done in the next few weeks.

And for things that I need to do? I need to give the sound another pass, and create actual levels. Every level in the game so far has been designed by programmers to test out systems and their level design pipeline. While these levels are great, having designer lead levels could go a long way to show what I'm thinking about systems. I have a bunch of ideas I'm excited to get to work on, including one that I've barred myself from making. Since everything moves to the beat, and you can move off beat, you can get "off synch" with the level, making levels more difficult. I've thought about a level that you intentionally have to get off synch in order to beat the level. After talking with various designers, I have come to the decision that this is a bad idea. At least, for the first semester vertical slice. We want people to buy into the rhythm mechanic, and that moving on beat is desirable. By having a level that teaches the opposite, we break cardinal rules of our own game. This level could be something added on in the second semester, but it would need some retooling. 

Speaking of the second semester: we have 3 weeks to challenge through 2 stages. And while I like to be an optimist, this might not be possible. We need to get 2 QA sessions for each stage, and both QA liasons also need to be testers for QA in order to not fail, so we need to think of a QA solution. Plus, the amount of work required for each stage is large enough that I estimate that this next stage requires a 2 week sprint in order to get through, leaving us only one week to get through Vertical Slice. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it at the very least seems impractical. 

I'm going to give it my all, and what happens happens. But that is what has been happening over the last month, in 4 acts. I really like the progress we've made on our game, and I'm excited/nervous to see what the future holds.