As Luke mentioned, a lot of time went in to preparing the project for our final submission and polishing. This semester we got to do more user testing, which was a fantastic way for us to nail down some additional bugs or issues we were missing. As a level designer I've learned a lot from this project, and see a lot of value in pre-planning and sketching, as well as the challenge of making open world titles.
Onto the changes I've made since the last blog post! I've gutted Inventory Pro from our project to account for the lack of ability to create an in-game economy in the remaining time we had left. While it sucks we had to cut plans, it helped us refocus our goals for the semester. I switched to a more Dark Souls health potion system, with Luke creating the save points called shrines. Stamina potions and health potions are the primary resource for the player. To restock potions, players must get more health potions at shrines while stamina potions are sometimes found in chests throughout the world. The chests also contain relics, which are collectibles to reward exploration.
Luke also mentioned that we got the grapple hook much smoother, and it was quite the labor of love getting it to work properly with much back and forth work done on it. Additionally cinematic cut scenes were implemented for specific actions such as activating switches or opening the boss room door. The game also now has a conclusion to it, while it is much shorter than our ambitious goals, the player goes to a credits scene once they beat the boss!
I really enjoyed working on this project, and it was an incredible journey sticking with this game for the year. This is my most proud piece of work in my portfolio. While I wish I could stick with it more, as we graduate college we have to let go in order to pursue bigger dreams. Thanks for reading!
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