Sprint 5 Blog
CAGD 470 - Producer/Designer - I'M FREE!
Hello everyone and welcome to another sprint review from the producer's perspective. That's me! (I'm the producer hehe). My name is Dylan Levy-Gantt and I'm excited to share the progress the team has made on the latest build of our game. This sprint was a tough one due to the fact that most people on the team were attempting new workflows and ways to get their work done. Brandon had a new experience rigging and animating, Chase had a new experience messing with camera angles and implementing randomly generating tiles, Zoe got down and dirty with some particle effects, and Atley created animated VFX for us to use in game. These yielded some really cool results but on this blog I will just be highlighting my work these past two weeks.
First, the sprint statistics and burndown chart. Below you will see the burndown chart for the past two weeks.
Overall I'm really happy with our direction because we will be working up until the deadline with features coming in every sprint. There was some fat we needed to trim like the possibility of multiple characters and color swaps but at this rate we are on a great pace to make a feature complete game with a bunch of fun for players. I'm super excited about this project and I am grateful for my amazing team.
As for this sprint, what did I do?
There are many things in this gif that came together on my end to ensure the game runs smoothly and to my standard. There are now finely tuned point values on EVERY item that you can break which took a load of time. There is a change in the power for the player from last time so items don't get hit so hard they fly through the wall. There are improved colliders on every item so they don't clip into each other. And there are improved walls that don't hide the player when you go through the levels for easier visibility. Overall, a LOT of quality of life stuff that I've been waiting to get to.
I was finally able to nail down all of my cards I needed for this sprint and here they are! I'm really happy I find time to complete the cards from last sprint I couldn't get to. This allowed me to stay on track with the team and help them all I can.
COMPLETE CARDS
- Implement Point values
- Check every levels wall colliders
- Tuned the point values to better match the item
- Playtest the game
- Tune the player values
INCOMPLETE CARDS
- None
Aaaaaaand that's all for sprint 5 everyone! A lot of awesome work was done this sprint so make sure to go check out everyone else's page to see it! Again, I'm super proud of the team for always pushing themselves to make better and better work and I'm just here for the ride. I'm glad I'm in a position to lead them into a polished project that they would be proud to show off to friends and family.
That's it! I'm out! Till next time!
Sprint 4 Blog
CAGD 470 - Producer/Designer - I'M FREE!
Hello everybody and welcome to another sprint review from the perspective of your's truly, me! My name is Dylan Levy-Gantt and I am the designer/producer on our game entitled, "I'M FREE!", an infinite runner roguelike where you play as a beast that has broken out of a science lab and needs to destroy everything in sight to gain points and reach a high score before you inevitably fall. This sprint in particular was an important one because we were able to get in some more key features and start working on the VFX for the game to give it an extra "pop". I can't wait to show you our progress and what I specifically did on the project to help my team succeed and progress.
First, let's talk about the sprint burndown for this development cycle of two weeks. Below you will see our progress over time and our average point value throughout the sprints.
This sprint was a tad behind because we were coming back from spring break which involves a couple extra days where we aren't supposed to be working so that lagged us behind a tad. However, the material that was worked on and created this sprint was amazing and fundamental to the game like an enemy type and more levels.
As for me this sprint, what did I do?
First up, I got feedback for our game! Overall people loved flinging stuff around and they loved how it looked which is great! However, they didn't understand what to do so understandably there was some confusion. This was a great sign though and we love to hear the direction is going well.
Next, I was able to get my hands dirty and create some assets for the game.
To be able to help my team get on track and keep the game moving at a good pace, I needed to alleviate some of the pressure from Brandon and get into some modeling for some quick assets to help the tone of the zoo level. I also made a particle effect that will play when the main character smacks something with their fist to gain score and knock things over.
Complete Cards
- Cactus and sand dune assets.
- Brush assets.
- Particle system.
- Check player stats
- Check map colliders
- Play through the game to ensure that it's all working as intended.
That wraps up our sprint 4 blog and I want to give a huge shoutout to the team for their awesome work. Brandon especially since he is in charge of the character modeling which is a big step for him. Everyone is doing an amazing job and I can't wait to see the progress in the coming weeks.
Thank you from Team Beast!
Sprint 3 Blog
CAGD 470 - Producer/Designer - I'M FREE!
Hello everyone and welcome back to yet another sprint blog update with your favorite producer, me! Dylan! This sprint was especially exciting because we did our playtest so we were able to get the game in the hands of an audience to get valuable feedback. Finally getting the core of the game into the hands of friends and family feels amazing because we finally can show off our hard work in fun and real way!
Sprint 3 was a hustle for sure because we needed a bit of crunch for the build. This was a great test of the team's potential because in comes a strict deadline that we need to hit and we hit it! With quick work on every discipline, we came out on top with a solid beta build. We even got some friends to play it so that was nice to see. I can't wait to share this progress update from my end and highlight our work.
Here is our sprint chart where we had an awesome sprint with a little less work but the value of the work was higher because it had to do with implementation and game feel rather than random assets and stuff we need down the line. I want to give a huge shout out to my team this sprint because they worked their butts off and we have a great result to show for it.
Anyway, what did I do this sprint?
COLLIDERS!! Yes, this sprint I went into every model we have and added colliders so our main character can knock them all over the place. This was a necessary addition given the game gets it's fun from tossing around everything in sight.
Complete Cards
- New playtest questionnaire.
- Made a slideshow for our work
- Revisit that backlog
Incomplete Cards
- Build multiple shrubs for the zoo level.
- Build multiple cacti for the zoo level.
- Create a "POW" particle effect that pops up whenever something is hit.
That wraps up our sprint 3 momentum and I can't wait to see where the game takes us. The trajectory of the sprints and the points all center in a great direction that will result in the team working until the very end of development which is a great sign to see.
Thank you from Team Beast!
Sprint 2 Blog
CAGD 470 - Producer/Designer - I'M FREE!
Hello everyone and welcome back to sprint blog time! This time we are peering into the world of sprint 2, one of the most influential sprints that set up the speed of the remainder sprints and the general tone of the game. This sprint, we get even more assets on the board so we can start collecting our thoughts and move in a solid direction.
Sprint 2 was more energy than sprint 1 because we are starting to wrap our heads around the development cycle and tone of the game. Now that everyone knows what sort of game we are working on, it allows the rest of development to go smoothly because we're all on the same page. I can't wait to share our progress this time around and more specifically what I was able to help out in.
Above is all the things I was involved in in sprint 2. This time around I'm patching up holes in the development cycle and laying the groundwork for our playtesting and iteration process, as well as helping chase out with the menu system and how it all connects with each other.
This was one of the questions from the playtest form. I underlined significant phrases as these are the ones I want the player to feel when playing the game. The paper prototype was just spinning a coin on a piece of paper to symbolize play area and health, as well as placing structures around the paper that represented objects the player will have to destroy to get a high score. This went clearly very well as most people who were interested and played it got that sense of satisfying fun from destroying things. Overall great sprint for progress and we killed so many cards I'm in amazement.
Complete Cards
- UI flowchart
- Put together a test world that tests the mechanics of the entire game.
- Create a slideshow
- Create a playtest report
- Revisit that backlog
Incomplete Cards
- None
This sprint was flawless with progress and developing key features for the game to work and I can't wait for the next one due to the speed of this sprint.
See you next blog for another amazing update from Team Beast!
Sprint 1 Blog
CAGD 470 - Producer/Designer - I'M FREE!
Hello everyone! My name is Dylan Levy-Gantt and I'm the Producer/Designer on "I'M FREE", a rogue-like infinite runner where the player must continue to cause destruction to gain score and gain a bit more of life.
I pitched this style game because I love roguelikes that challenge the player to throw themselves at the game and use precision and wit to see if they can make it out or increase their high score. I'm also a big fan of the Hades third person view that allows the player to see just enough information to be able to maneuver the map and come out on top. Thus, "I'M FREE!" was born.
In "I'M FREE!" you play as a beast that has broken out of the pod you have been born and tortured in. Finally this is your day to fight back. Cause destruction at every turn to increase score and get justice on those who have done you wrong.
Since I'm the designer as well as the producer, most of my work on paper involves doing sprint review sheets, creating the itch.io page for the game, and general upkeep of the backlog.
Above, you will see all tasks assigned to me this sprint.
If I could show the whole backlog I would because that is essentially where I live. The backlog is constantly being updated and reprioritized depending on the requirements of the project so that's all me.
Completed Cards
- UI Flowchart
- Itch.io page creation
- Sort the backlog
- Making a sprint review slideshow
Incomplete Card
- Creating a test world for mechanics and feature completion
I was not able to create a test world this sprint because of the lack of physical assets we have to start testing. Now that we have more mechanics, I have the ability to create a test world that will be the base of all testing for the future.
There were no problems this sprint other than a modeling card that can be split into multiple parts rather than just one and we are moving rather quickly so development is going great!
See you next blog for some more updates!
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