Roadmap

The current state of the project and my roadmap forward.

Current state of the project

Asset List: The asset list task is also the creation of the assets. I have postponed this task because I am still very busy with the design of the levels and the puzzles. Next milestone I will have the art direction and a few assets in Engine. 

SFX list: This task is again a list, but again, this also implies the creation of sound effect assets. I have postponed this task because it was not necessary at this point. Next milestone I will have several important sound effects in engine. 

Level Design Block-out - In-Progress

Goal: Level block-out is in-engine with correct sizes and a direction of where what type of puzzles will be. The level design should also contain a good difficulty curve and a semi-linear level design direction. The game contains multiple puzzle features and each level has a different set of them. I want players to progress with some decisions.

Result: A level design layout has been made and is implemented in Unreal with correct sizing. However, the block-outs of the levels are not in engine yet. I am satisfied with the level design progression in this layout and with the choices the player can make. However, I do think this layout is over-scoped and the changes of cutting out levels is very plausible. 

Level layout of Solveland

UI Design - In-Progress

Goal: The goal is to create a flowchart of the menu screens. It must contain all the important information that the game will need and what the player need to access. Some sketches of the menu layout and the flow will be needed.

Result: For the user interface design, I have created a flowchart sketch on paper, with the necessary menus that  will be needed in the game. I have not filled in all the options in the option menu, that is something I will need to work on in the up coming weeks. 

UI Functionality - In-Progress

Goal: Based on the UI design, I will make a simple flow between the menus. The purpose is to have the flow in engine, the visuals and design are not important at this point.

Result: Since this task is an dependency on the UI design, that means that this task is also postponed. The very basic UI functionality is in the latest build, but there is still some UI elements missing. 

Testing - Done

Goal: The goal is to test the latest build and upload it without major bugs or issues. 

Result: I have tested the latest build and everything seems to work fine. I came across some improvement points that I need to address later. 

Narrative Design - Done

Goal: The goal is to have a narrative direction that fits the project. This means the core features, my time frame and the production resources. The narrative design includes the story, the protagonist, the world, the goal, etc.

Result: During this production phase, I have looked into different narrative directions and made a moodboard for all of them. I had several questions written down that needed answers, and those answers need to be connected with the narrative direction, world direction and story. In the end, I went for  a narrative direction of floating islands. On those floating islands are ruins of an ancient city and a lost civilization. The protagonist is a history researchers, that went to this place to do research and collect samples. However, when doing this, the protagonist got lost and stuck in this place. It is up to the player to get out. 

Moodboard of the setting and direction

Puzzle Design - Done

Goal: Goal is to have a system in place in which I can create puzzles and levels. There are quite a few levels in the game and I need to work efficiency.

Result: I have created a Photoshop document wherein I can easily create puzzles. The document contains layers that I can use for all the puzzles that I need to create. Once I have several puzzles, I can combine them and that will be the level. In Unreal I will have to recreate the level layout. Because I have made my core features in a specific way, I can easily place the needed core feature in the puzzle and it is functional.

Level 3.2 of Solveland (WIP)

QA Structure Setup - Done

Goal: The goal is to setup a structure in which I can receive bug reports and feature requests, if needed. 

Result: For this task, I have created a google form that is public. Everyone can fill it in with either bugs or requests. I can collect all the data and react accordingly. This is the first version of the form.

Here is the QA form: https://forms.gle/EnzS2Q4nvP7xswom7

Concept Design one-pager - Done

Goal: This task was meant to be done last milestone, but got postponed to this milestone. The goal is to create a single page document, that is covering the important factors of the game. What are core features, genre, narrative direction, level direction, etc. 

Result: This task was nearly done last milestone, besides the fact that it was missing the narrative direction. This milestone I have finished the narrative direction, so I could finish this document as well. I believe this page is covering the important factors of the game. 

Concept Design One-Pager

Thank you

The reason why I am creating those devlog is to log my work publicly. To give a sense of pressure to myself. However, I am always open for feedback and constructed criticism. If you have a question or feedback, feel free to leave it below! Thank you again for reading!