Deadlines, Demo, Environment
Intro
Image from current iteration of Among the Hollow.
Hello everyone, another month, another game dev blog update. This last month we wanted better clarity on what to focus primarily on during the month. Deadlines came to mind, with a looming deadline it would be much clearer on what to focus on. Deadlines would also aid in keeping us accountable to some sort of timeline. What should be our first deadline then? A demo! Our focus going forward will be to building some level of a playable demo. While we have brainstormed a lot about what our game should look like we need to actually playtest it, hence the necessity of a demo. Last I would like to cover is our games environment, what it might look like and what biome will be completed for the demo. As always Very Good Video Games is appreciative of all feedback at these milestones so don’t hesitate to reach out. Thanks.
Deadline
Credit for image goes to Johnhain.
Deadlines can be scary and stressful. Deadlines are viewed rather negatively in the game development space. It always leads to more stress, game crunch, and Yerba Mates. Yes, while deadlines might be viewed this way I tend to try to view all things in a positive light. Deadlines to myself can help keep the team accountable, help everyone stay focused, on track, and also help identify potential issues. If no deadline is present when you begin work something that normally takes 2 months to complete takes 4 instead. Even if the timeline is set for 4 months out I still feel the pressure of that looming deadline and I want to relieve myself of that stress so, I become more focused and make a decision to finish the task. This also allows to see potential issues earlier. Lets say I finish the task earlier, it allows earlier review and iteration. Identifying larger tasks become easier as work begins it becomes clear which task will need more time and resources. Deadlines keep the team aware of each others workloads allow for better communication and overall better synergy. The first timeline VG2 will be setting for ourselves is having a unpolished, privately playable, demo by July 30th. It was time we set ourselves a goal and applied a little pressure.
Demo
Credit for image goes to ChristianaT
First and foremost I would like to present our readers with the title of our project “Among the Hollow”. My brother and I finally took the time to hash it out and nail down a final name for our project so we can graduate from. “I am working on the game” to “I am working on Among the Hollow”. Next step was, lets get a demo done. Throughout VG2’s development journey, the task to brainstorm, plan, and conceptualize, has always led to nothing tangible. It became clearer as time went one we needed some sort of demo to playtest and show various communities to figure out if Among the Hollow is fun. Our goal of the demo is to get 1 full gameplay loop in our hands, on 1 complete biome, with mostly completed enemies. Having this demo would allow us to start getting some solid feedback from ourselves, friends, and potential fans. This would also lead to the start of getting a solid Steam page up, quite possibly a Kickstarter to fund better artwork, and lead to better game because any fundamental issue will be identified early on.
Environment
Images from current build of the Among the Hollow.
The workload of the project has been split between my brother and I. I have been tasked with building out the environments for our players. The decision to make a playable demo within a set timeframe is one we made to keep us hyper focused on what needs to be done. Rather then try and finish one aspect 100% of the way such as all the environments. The goal of a demo does not require all environments 100% complete to playtest Among the Hollow. Ideally we just need enough of an environment completed to finish one full game loop. So, with that, I have focused on our games first level biome, a mountainous forest region of the abandoned campgrounds. Some tools and assets I am using to build the biome is Gaia pro and Nature Manufactures mountain and forest biome packs. These tool are huge time savers and will ultimately lead to higher quality scenes. Learning to use the tools has been fun as with every click I learn a new technique that gets our game looking better and better. In particular learning to create a custom biome spawner has been insightful and incredibly useful. The screen shots of “Among the Hollow” has been thanks to this technique of procedurally generating the world based on set rules I have implemented. While this will not be the final protect, it does get us quite close.
Outro
I wish you all a happy Juneteenth and 4th of July. Our team will be working hard to hopefully reach our demo deadline by July 30th. Among the Hollow’s first level is becoming more stunning each and every day. I personally can’t wait to see it with lighting and atmospheric affects to bring it all together and to conjure in my nightmares. As always comment below follow and like our socials and let the Yerba Mates flow and the game crunch begin.
“The difference between a dream and a goal is a deadline.”
