BGP Fifth Post
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We are drawing nearer to the deadline of this project, something that many times reveals whether or not one has over-scoped or stayed within realistic margins. As it turns out we have over-scoped to some degree. Something that is made apparent due to our need to cut a feature from our game, that being the pliers. This decision was pushed by the coders and then agreed upon by the rest of us. From a practical perspective the choice is a good one at this point, at least as far as I can determine. From a designer perspective the choice is not as appealing however, seeing as it removes something that was considered rather important to the games aesthetic goal. It is however important to know when to ”kill your darling” as the saying goes, to know when it is wiser to abandon what could be a good idea for the benefit of a project as a whole. On the more animator oriented side of news, recent changes in the design of the game has resulted in the need for more animations for the orc character, the patient, than what was previously anticipated. This partially comes in the form of a new character, the orc war-boss that will act as the adviser during tutorial level in our game. Further decisions regarding what happens with the treated orcs resulted in even more animations being needed. It might appear a bit ironic that we cut off parts of the project only to add new ones but in the end it is often a question of how complex the task is rather than how many tasks one has that makes the most difference in my experience. Another topic that has gotten increasingly prominent on my working schedule is work towards our PR endeavors. What started out as little more than one of our group members finding himself with a fun idea and a bit of spare time has resulted in an increased amount of outwards aiming material being produced for the purpose of increasing the excitement and awareness of our project for those not taking part in it. What struck me was when the realization that what we had viewed as shenanigans on our part actually was a form of commercial kicked in. This was an exciting idea which has made the gaze of some group members turn towards the possibility of dedicating further effort into making sure that our work in this area reaches an audience bigger than those within our own class. Whether or not we find the time to go thru with this endeavor is a question that is unclear as of now however.  |