TIME MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATION

Time Management

As the project has progressed, I've found that there are an increasing amount of tasks for me to complete. At one point it became overwhelming until I listed each task that I had yet to complete. Having each task listed clearly helped to clear my head, and gave me clear objectives to focus on and complete.

I further improved on my organisation by creating a board where I could more easily visualise what needed. to be completed. I could stick post-it notes with tasks in various places around the board, and easily stick them and peel them off for quick organisation.

Week Beginning 6th December Transcription

Creatures (Yellow)
- Climate/Habitat
- Behaviours
- Likes
- Dislikes
- Orthographic/Perspective
Terrariums (Pink)
- Types
- Costs/Materials
- Soil types
- Material Icons
Exploration (Orange)
- Meadow
  - First person concept sketch
  - Asset concepts

Week Beginning 6th December Transcription (Cont.)

Player (Orange)
- Shrink Gun
(Green)
- Revise Gameplay Loops
- Finish Logo
- Do Reddit Feedback On Website

There is still a lot for me to work through, but having everything laid out in this way has helped me to better think about what has been completed, and what should be completed next.

Week Beginning 13th December Transcription

Creatures (Yellow)
- Climate/Habitat
- Behaviours
- Likes
- Dislikes
- Orthographic/Perspective
Terrariums (Pink)
- Types
- Costs/Materials
- Soil types
- Material Icons
Exploration (Orange)
- Meadow
- First person concept sketch
- Asset concepts
Player (Orange)
- Shrink Gun
- Bag
- (Concept of bag)
Green
- Revise Gameplay Loops
- Finish Logo
- Do Reddit Feedback On Website
- Climate Animatic
- Exploration Animatic
- Interaction Animatic

I have set more tasks for myself. I've been thinking about how I can best explain my ideas for my game, and I think making some animatics would be good to explain how different mechanics would work in the game. I've also thought more about who the player is playing as in the game. Whilst they will largely remain an invisible, "omnipotent" being, the first-person perspective when out in the environment means that some part (namely the hands) will need to be visible, so that the player can see that their character is aiming with their Shrink Gun.

Week Beginning 20th December Transcription

Creatures (Yellow)
- Climate/Habitat
- Behaviours
- Likes
- Dislikes
- Orthographic/Perspective
Terrariums (Pink)
- Types
- Costs/Materials
- Material Icons
Exploration (Orange)
- Meadow
  - Concept sketches

Week Beginning 20th December Transcription (Cont.)

Player (Orange)
- Player Base Concepts
- Shrink Gun
- Bag
Green
- Revise Gameplay Loops
- Climate Animatic
- Exploration Animatic
- Interaction Animatic

I completed some concept sketches for the Meadow environment last week, but I still have some more to finish. I also completed the asset concept sketches so modellers will be able to model different objects to go in the environment. I've also done some research into soil types and climate, to inform my decisions when making mechanics in the terrarium. I've also started creating some concepts for the player and their shrink gun, which I will go on to complete digitally. I also finished my logo design and wrote up some feedback in my Gameplay Development section.

Week Beginning 27th December Transcription

Creatures (Yellow)
- Climate/Habitat
- Behaviours
- Likes
- Dislikes
- Orthographic/Perspective
Terrariums (Pink)
- Types
- Costs/Materials
- Material Icons
Player (Orange)
Green
- Revise Gameplay Loops
- Map Controls
- Climate Animatic
- Exploration Animatic
- Interaction Animatic

Week Beginning 27th December Transcription (Cont.)

I have completed the concept environment pieces for the Meadow environment. I've also made a template for the environments in the game, including how they should be made from 3 distinct but cohesive parts, and also feature a Rare Occurrence at the end of the area. I've also made a template for creating creatures, with both a front-facing and side profile drawing for easier modelling, and also listing their likes and dislikes, and where they can be found. I also completed the digital concepts for the player's gun, as well as created some concepts for the player character. I'm not so concerned with finishing the whole player character. Rather, I will create a digital concept of their hands wielding the gun, as I intend for the exploration in the game to be in first person, so full character modelling isn't fully necessary. However, the player character can still be developed and produced for the final product, and can be used with various poses and animations in the hub world whilst the player is choosing which terrarium they're going to work on. I also created concepts for what the hub world will look like, as well as how the outside of the ship will look.

Week Beginning 3rd January Transcription

Creatures (Yellow)
- Orthographic/Perspective
Green
- Climate Animatic
- Exploration Animatic
- Interaction Animatic

I completed a lot this week. The concepts for the player character are done, as are the terrariums and all the information that has been developed alongside the sketches. Now I will be able to move onto making the animatics to hopefully illustrate how I'm thinking the gameplay will work. I also created some control schemes for different platforms, as well as revised the gameplay loops for my game idea briefly. I've also worked on creating these profiles for the different creatures I've designed. The information is brief for now, only listing about one like and

Week Beginning 3rd January Transcription (Cont.)

one dislike, but this should be enough to develop the concept for next semester. They're mainly to act as rough guidelines for the team to develop more creatures. I've yet to finish all the drawings for these profiles though, so I will need to work on those over the next couple of weeks too.

Week Beginning 10th January

I've now completed the final tasks on my board. There are just a few more tasks to complete before hand-in, namely creating a trailer, and then collecting all my work in a suitable format for the GDD.