Skate & Grind

End of Sprint 5: 12/3/18

For the duration of sprint 5 the majority of my tasks revolved around polishing and making changes to my section of level two and the hub world, according to player feedback and the feedback of the team lead. All of the tasks I was able to complete without much issue. I did not have any tasks left in progress or tasks that were incomplete.

Overview of the updated Hubworld

The largest amount of my time during this sprint was bringing the Hubworld level up to par with levels 1 and 2. This involved many iterations of the level in order to get it to a place where I felt good about it. I added in all of the finished assets to date and will be continuing to add in more as they are completed. One of the issues that caused me to lose some time was having to work and rework the overall look and feel of the level because it didn’t feel appropriate.

Indoor skate park in the Hubworld

The rest of my time in this sprint was spent polishing and updating my section of level 2 with working grind prefabs and other completed assets. I also added in more platforming sections so that the area didn’t feel as flat. This also gave me a chance to move some of the collectibles that I previously had sitting on the ground, and place them at the end of these platforming sections as a reward for the player. One issue I had with this task was dealing with the waterfalls that I wanted to implement. I ultimately decided to use a particle effect that was created by another person on the team and adjust it to fit the size and area of the level.

 Overview of level 2 section 3 update

While creating the platforming sections I constantly had to play though the areas in order to make sure that the jumps were achievable and didn’t feel cheap or too difficult. While doing this I ran into an issue with some of my moving platforms that caused the player to bounce on them as they moved up and down. I made a mention of this issue to the lead and he was able to write a small script that would keep the player magnetized to rock. This fixed the issue and still allows the player to jump and move across the platforms without hindrance.

Landscape shot of level 2 section 3

I have one more 2 week sprint left in this development cycle and I am hoping to finish polishing both the Hubworld and my section of level 2. I have really enjoyed working on this project and I look forward to using the experience I gained on future projects..

End of Sprint 4: 11/6/18

For the third and fourth sprints I was given 7 tasks, the majority of which revolved around making changes and polishing my section of level 2. As a secondary assignment I was given the task of concepting and blocking out an overworld level that would be used as an interactive level select screen. The overworld would allow players to skate around and practice grinding and move from level to level through various doors in the level. I was able to complete all of the tasks given to me within these sprints in a timely fashion and subsequently did not have anything left in progress at the end of either sprint.

Overview of Level 2

The majority of my time was spent doing a complete overhaul of my section in level 2. I went through and added assets and textures to populate my section and give it a better look and feel. The biggest problem I encountered was Z-fighting amongst the ground planes and some of the planes that were used as panels in objects. The solution that I used to solve this problem was to adjust the Y value of each of the planes by plus or minus .001-.002. This allowed me to keep the terrain as flat as possible as well as eliminating the colliding textures which resulted in a better looking ground.

Closeup of my section in Level 2

I also encountered an issue that caused some of the collectibles in my section to orbit around their placement point. This was because the model had been moved but the collider had not and the parent object holding both of those was split so the model orbited around the parents transform position. I was able to fix this by resetting the transforms of the collider and the model and then ensuring that I moved them together by selecting the parented object, instead of each piece individually.

Overworld Blockout

The concept that I used for the overworld level was an indoor skatepark. I wanted it to feel very industrial so I will be making the building a warehouse. The exterior of the building will have a parking lot that has been repurposed as an outdoor extension of the indoor skatepark. The portals to the various levels will be inside of rooms behind roll up doors. Each room will contain various props and objects that can be found in the corresponding level so that players can get a sneak peak at the level they will be traveling to.

Asset List for the Overworld Level

I feel like I have made some great progress over the last 2 sprints, and I will be looking forward to making my section of level 2 and the overworld as polished and finalized as possible.

End of Sprint 2: 10/8/18

During the second sprint of Skate and Grind I was tasked with updating my section of level 2 with new assets as they became available, as well as updating the assets list for the modeling team and fixing any issues that arose out of the initial playtest. This primarily revolved around fixing playability of the level based on feedback provided by playtesters. I was able to go into my section and adjust various jumps and pathing to create a better experience for the player.

Overview of level 2 (pre-changes)

I was able to complete these tasks on time with very little blockage. The only road blocks i came across were waiting for the assets to be finished and given to us by the modeling department, also waiting for other members of my level design team to finish their part of the level and hand the package over to me. These were not very much of an issue though as they never coincided with each other to create a complete stop in my workflow.

Overview of my section (post changes)

I am currently working on continuing to refine and polish level 2 with assets as they become available, as well as starting work on the tasks that were assigned to me for sprint 3. As of now the only tasks that were not completed are those assigned to me for the duration of sprint 3.

Closeup of new assets in game

The major issue that I encountered during this sprint was fixing my level to enable a more user friendly experience. I had to take out somethings that I put in initially because they didn’t work well with the character controller and overall felt to difficult and challenging for players. I also had to rework some of the obstacles in my section because of the lack of fluidity to the area as testers played the level. The challenge for me was making decisions on what to change and how to change it. It was easy for me to justify the placement and difficulty of the obstacles in question but, at the end of the day I had to cut and change things for the betterment of the project. This required a lot of testing and tweaking on my part to ensure that the changes would be noticeable and impactful, as opposed to arbitrary and done simply to satisfy what was asked of me.

Updated asset list

As a bit of personal reflection I feel that this past sprint has given me a better insight into the iterative design process and the benefits that it yields in the development process. I am looking forward to reevaluating my work at the end of sprint 3 and tackling the challenges presented to me.

End of Sprint 1: 9/25/18

     For the duration of the first sprint I was tasked with working on the second level of Skate and Grind with two other level designers. We split the level into 3 sections and we were asked to create a paper prototype and an annotated map for each of our sections. We were then asked to create a blockout of our sections and splice them together to create an alpha pass of the second level. Along with these tasks we were also responsible for creating an Asset list with references for the modeling department.

Overview of the paper prototype for level 2

     I was able to complete each of the tasks given to me in a timely manner. Nothing had been blocking my progress so far and the synergy of the team is working well. My current tasks in progress are evaluating feedback from our playtest and fixing any issues that arise from our internal playtests. My only incomplete tasks are the ones given to me for the next sprint which are currently in progress.

Annotated map for my section of level 2

     One of the main issues that I encountered was after the splicing of the level sections into one level my section was vastly smaller than the rest of the level. I couldn’t figure out why this happened so we just scaled everything up to match the size and scale of the rest of the level. 

Overview of my section of level 2

     For the next sprint I will be using the notes and observations from our internal playtests to fix any bugs and make any changes that are necessary for my section of our level. I will also be adding in any assets that the modeling team finishes to continue improving the level. This also includes making changes to the physical layout of the level in order to better reflect the vision of the level

Overview of the entirety of level 2

     Overall I feel like the first sprint was very successful. I think the communication within the departments and the team as a whole is a huge part of the success. I am very excited to continue working on Skate and Grind and I look forward to seeing what my team comes up with next.