Vertical Slice
For this week, my group challenged for vertical slice. In order to challenge, we had to run two QA sessions, complete our research, finish our market and cultural analysis, as well as answer the questions that were posed for our presentation. My personal work included: making the QA plans, forms, and reports; finishing market, sound, design and culture research; completing the market and cultural analysis; fine-tuning the waves, lighting, and sound effects in the build; as well as building the skeletal structure of the presentation and answering the questions posed by the checklist.
QA this week was a roller coaster. Feedback on our first session was not inherently negative, but it wasn't where we wanted to be at this point in development. We believed that we should have been farther along in the development of mechanics then where our testers believed we were. Players, for whatever reason, were not communicating during this session and that had a direct impact on the amount of fun that they were having in game. In the next session, however, players communicated more and the positive feedback for our game was much higher. Players also gave incredibly positive feedback on our aesthetics, which reassured our vision for them. Based off the feedback, though, we will be looking to try and rectify the gameplay situation by adding in a vial station and environmental hazards. The thought behind this is that players will need to work together in order to deal with these new problems.
Most of my work this week was in production and is not something I am incredibly fond of. I do it because it is necessary and I tend to be a leader in my team and understand our game the best, but it is not something I yearn to do. Organizing PowerPoints, coordinating the team to be effective, and managing our marketing and cultural understanding is vital, but I know I am not great at it, and merely try to do my best. Similarly with sound design. I love music and the impact of sound effects, but I am not what you could call good or skilled at them. I have made several sound heavy games before, and I never have really been able to make them do quite what I wanted, so it is difficult to have to do all of the sound for our game as well as the production and not doing any design.