Sprint 3

 This week I worked on more sprites, including redoing some of the initial sprites, making the player sprite, and creating the background sprite. Learning from my previous mistakes, I  redid some of the art I previously made, and adjusted them to fit more of the theme we were going for this week. 

I decided to improve and begin animating some of the sprites, including the player, torches, and the enemies. The player needed to be animated to symbolize the direction the player would be walking, and when they were standing still. The torch was retouched and began the process of animating them to add some detail and realism to the game. 

Player Sprite

New Torch; partly animated

Similarly to last week, my tendency for perfectionism when working on art took over and again, made working on these sprites take longer than expected, especially when animating. It does work to my advantage at times though, as it made the sprites look much more pleasing and not rushed.

Player Walk (WIP)

For my player sprite, I used Stardew Valley sprites as reference for both the general shape of the player as well as the walking animation. I not only referenced official sprites for the game (namely the base player you get when beginning the game), but fan made sprites and mods. I felt that Stardew Valley's sprites had the right feeling I was going for, and the right shape even if the game is very different from Light the Way. In the future I will leave more time to detail the player more, as it feels a bit flat (even for a 2D game). For now, it will work for the prototype.

 In addition to these sprites, I was tasked with figuring out the consequences of the game. Last week we decided to add an HP bar and lives system - players would lose health when encountering certain obstacles like enemies. When that HP bar hits 0, they will die and respawn up to 3 times. This is their 3 lives. Next up on the list, we will work out what numbers would work for our game, and what players will encounter that will count as damage (i.e. falling in a pitfall, staying in the dark too long, etc.)

I also worked with Matthew and Amir to playtest the level to make sure it functions both when exported as a .unitypackage, and a playable executable file. It was an issue that came up during our last playtest session in class and I wanted to avoid that for the next playtest, so we agreed to playtest as Matthew worked on it so we could make sure we had a functional game to present to our playtesters.

Some issues I ran into was spending too much time on one thing, and not enough time on another. I think I could have split my time better and ended up with a better product in the end. Since the points system was implemented late into the sprint, I was unable to really gauge how much time a task will take me. Next sprint, I will utilize the point system to my advantage and delegate my time much better.

For my next sprint, I will begin to animate the rest of my sprites, and continue to update the sprites. I will also be adding a front and back views to the player sprite, so that players have a better idea of which direction they are facing. Additionally, I will discuss with my groupmates about implementing powerups and starting to create the concepts and designs for them.

Sprint 2

For this sprint, I was tasked with primarily "modeling" (creating sprites) for our game. This was actually a significant amount of work, as I typically do not work with pixel art, but I found a decent amount of fun in it.

Trello Board, Sprint 2

I was tasked with a handful of sprite drawings, which included: creating torches, enemies and obstacles, ropes and ladders, floor sprites, and the player sprite. In addition to these sprites, I was tasked with figuring out the consequences of the game - what would be considered "losing" when being left in the dark? Do they have an HP bar? 

I was able to complete several sprites during this sprite, but due to my tendency of being a perfectionist when it comes to art, it definitely took longer than expected. I referenced similarly-styled games like Terraria and Minecraft, and utilized their styles in my own sprites. 

Enemy sprite - while derpy, was inspired by a couple Minecraft mods 

Some other sprites I had to come up with on my own and did not reference much to create. One of those was the Pitfall obstacle. While I had a few ideas of what a pitfall might look like (i.e. pitfall seed Super Smash Bros style), I decided to go the hole-trap route with spikes at the bottom. I decided to go for a damp jungle/mossy cave vibe and used vines and other similar foliage in this obstacle as well as in some other sprites I created during this sprint. I was pleasantly surprised with what I came up with, and will build off of this style for future iterations of the sprites/new sprites.

Foliage Obstacle!

Pitfall Obstacle!

Currently the only cards I have left in progress are the player sprite, and the task of fine tuning the rules. I was unable to get myself out of a creativity block when it came specifically to the player, so I moved onto the obstacles and such instead. This is the only task assigned to me that I was unable to complete during this sprint.

 As for the rules task, it is an ongoing task that I will continue to have as we playtest. For now, I think we will play around with a few times, and use a health bar for running into hazards and enemies. Additionally, we will have a lives system that relies on the HP bar.

My main issues were always creativity blocks, as well as finding time in between other classes to focus my energy into making sprites. I was able to catch a break during this second week and really get into my tasks to complete this sprint, and was struck with some inspiration after browsing Google image search results.

Working with my team members was very beneficial, not only to our team's overall productivity and communication, but being able to form a single cohesive idea through these visualizations. Even though we already had rough sketches, and a basic idea of the game, it wasn't until now that we were able to fully realize what the game might look like in its final form.

I think this week I was able to complete a good chunk of work needed to reach a final product during this semester. While not essential to the core function of the game, these sprites are an extremely vital part of the visualization and playability of the game, and I am proud of what I was able to create during this sprint and look forward to the ways I can improve and build on the sprites, as well as flushing out all the little details of the game.