With only a few weeks remaining, our focus at this point is direct toward polishing the vertical slice. While there may be some time for developing some additional functionality, or another Micro-Game, we first need to ensure that we can implement all art assets and design tweaks into the game to prepare it for presentation. Aside from this, we will also be filming, creating narration, and setting up a guideline for our pitch structure. Therefore, this week has primarily been composed of several work sessions aimed at tackling some of the game's polish bits.
Utilizing a black background and camera, Sam was able to begin testing lighting, angle, and other components for our eventual presentation video. We intend on structuring the demo of the game based on some of the older iPhone commercials. The iPhone will be held in front of the screen with nothing but the black background and hand gestures. The demo will portray a voice-over, discussing the intent of the game and its features. This will allow us an opportunity to convey gameplay close-ups and gesture reactions in an effective perspective.
So far, we've created some sample reels of older gameplay, and we have also begun constructing some of the narration dialogue that could potentially be utilized. Soon we will be tying it all together to create the finalized prototype video, which we then intend to bring in front of others to acquire feedback on the presentation pieces. This should allow us to refine it during the final recording.
We have also taken the time to implement many of the necessary art assets for games. Backgrounds, buttons, and icons have all been added to the game structure. Other pieces, such as a timer count-down, swipe-able objects, and call buttons have also begun development. We intend to add a few more features, but this sprint represents a major stride toward finalizing art assets for the vertical slice. The menu buttons still need to be completed, but those may wait until the follow week.
Although creating the art is not particularly within my abilities, the process of implementing and tweaking some of the functionalities was conducted this sprint. For instance, previously the timer was represented by a temporary text component, but now we have decided to utilize a bar countdown instead. Therefore, I needed to go about setting the feature into the game, as it was not there previously. Since I have delved into developing scaling bars before, it did not take too long, but this provides an example of some of the functionality pieces I added to gameplay over the sprint.
I also implemented a better sound system to allow for detecting whether a particular sound should reset on play. Since I added main menu music, I needed to make sure the music would begin on any of the menu states, only if it was not already playing. This feature was primarily a matter of providing a Boolean when created, and then using the toggle when the play function is called. I also adjusted some font types and colors, which allows the game to exhibit a much more unified layout.
The remaining parts of this sprint will continue to be spent on implementing available art and potentially improving the HUD design. In the upcoming sprint, it is likely that we will seek to fully create a draft for our presentation and video, continue implementing art and menu elements, and potentially seek to implement one more Micro-Game.