Week-3 Devlog

We're well into our allotted time for the MVM2023 game jam. A lot of time and effort since our last update has gone into the world of design and re-scoping of what we want to fit the jam. At the time of writing, we have a sketch for the full game map for the jam, a list of mechanics; upgrades; secrets; items; enemies, and little details for you to find. Unfortunately, we cannot share without spoiling what we've got in store.

Below, however, is some gifs highlighting works in progress that are pushing us toward the final product. If you're lucky, art and sound might share some more as they did in the last updates.

I'll leave you, again, to the disciplines ~Ben.

Audio / Design - Dan

This week I tackled the theme for Silver Burrow Village! Really happy with how it turned out. I've never made anything of the sort in the past so it was quite a challenge for me to reign it in and make something quaint. It also marks the first time I've used a 3/4 time signature which presented a couple of weirdnessess from a composition and from a technical point of view. Got there eventually though and the final song matches the vibe we are going for.

You can listen to it here:

On the design front we have started to implement the games rooms. Not much work has been done on this so far but the coming days should yield some quick results. The plan is to block out all the rooms of the first area so the artists can then go through and dress them up and make them look less like a minimal abstract art piece. One of the key challenges this week has been getting the player movement down though the dev team have been hard at work getting Hiro to feel and play right!

Art - Sarah

This week we spent time deciding on how to scale the levels and rooms. In the end we went by Screen size. I created a PSD that can visualise the area by size. So when an artist picks up a room they will have a rough guide on how big the canvas space needs to be.

With this being in place I started doing a mockup on the first area 'Silver Burrow' I wanted to see if we can get the ratio for a town/wilderness feel early so we could start getting artworks in place.

I made a start on the Clock tower which needs to be iconic. Similar to the clock tower in Majoras mask. You want it to stick in your mind and shape the theme of the game. Also I've worked up a little market stand. I dont think for the GameJam that this will be interactable. But in the future it will.

A new enemy appears! and not one for the faint of heart. We have spider enemies that create obstacles in Hiro's way. Whilst they hang they are fairly subdued. But once you destroy the webbing on which they hang from  they will pursue. Currently we are using temp art. once everything is finaliesed the legs will be duplicated so rest assured there will definitly be 8 legs.

We also have a health bar designed curtosy of Erika. Which fits the theme well. The design is elegant and dainty again a shape that we can use as an identity to the game itself. I made the suggestion on utilising the gems to represent lives in game. Which we are shelving for now but may work on in the future.
 

 

Another submission by Erika we have different value buttons for Hiro to pick up on his journey.  The Buttons themselves are a currency in Hiro's world.

Jak has been working on creating the 'Owl room' which again is great  very moody and assets are reusable for future rooms. It has been a busy week in the art room. Im sure we havent covered everything we have to show.  But for now Im confident the team has made great progress. And together the identity of Hiro as a whole is stitching together nicely.