Dev Blog #2: Planning
Sprints 2 & 3 1/22/20 - 2/4/20
Over the course of the two previous sprints the Camera Shy team has taken much time to carefully plan for our entire 12 week production cycle. During this planning phase the team officially decided on three level types: a hub room, a re-designed version of the existing kitchen, and the witch’s hut. With clear goals in-mind for the future of Camera Shy’s level development I was able to charge straight forward in my level development work.
Much of my work during the development of these three level concepts has been very independent. I have been working in steps, and at the end of each step I present my ideas to the appropriate discipline team for review. For example, when beginning the level concept process I concept out 3 potential directions and then meet with either just the art team or both the art and design team. Together the teams and myself discuss the most appropriate concept, usually combining elements of more than one. After the concept is chosen I then go off and produce an initial 2D layout rough sketch, a list of potential interactions, and a list of assets. After this stage all products are then reviewed and discussed by myself and the appropriate teams; and then this process is repeated until the level design document is completely populated and more-or-less decided upon.
In the case of Witch Hut systems there was a lot of time spent in discussion with the programming team and the design team. The Witch Hut is the largest of Camera Shy’s levels and also the most complex, with a unique gravity mechanic in its upper level. This required careful planning and lots of communication across the entire team to ensure everyone was on board with the concept.
Below you may view the three level design documents that I have produced over the last 2 sprints.