Moving on from prototyping
Hello, Jamie here, and this week has been very much focused on updating the prototype build over to our core development version, building out the key game design principles we’ve now set out for Box Directive.
Andy has been hard at work with the blockout drawings, all while setting up his workflow for the future artwork, and this has given me the time to implement those assets and get a feel for how it’ll all work in game, as well as look at what space we have to play with. Basic placeholder Godot scenes have been dropped in for most areas and our menus and BoxOS computer screen are very much WIP right now, but this at least builds out the project ready for each area to be refined at a later stage.
With the pixel art locked in, we’ve firmed up the project resolution and I’ve been making the necessary adjustments to all existing scenes to bring them up to that standard. Although gameplay-wise, we’ve not moved on from our position last week, we have now set ourselves up to properly implement elements of the game going forward and smooth out how we add and finalise features.
While completing the above, I paused work on the station upgrade system, which I’d commenced previously, and for good reason: the blockout has allowed us to reevaluate the exact behaviour of each of the stations, their purpose in the box packing process and how the player interacts with them. This does mean that, going into next week, I need to adjust some parts of that system I’d already written, but that will then free me up to complete a full first pass based on this revised approach.
New additions and coming up next week
A couple of other notable changes: Contracts (more on those in the future) got its own player-interactable sprite, moving it from a simple button in the BoxOS computer to a position with easier access for monitoring and management on the go as well as keeping it visible to the player at any given time. The catalogue sprite was also added, which will be responsible for working alongside our consumable system as well as being key in unlocking your future Box Directive partner, which is something we will definitely explore in greater detail later on!
Going forward, as individual elements of the game become the weekly focus, I will do deeper dives into these systems and areas of the game so we can showcase the features of Box Directive and also document how we got there.
Next week I plan to jump back into the aforementioned upgrade system and bring this in line with the existing and new stations as well as the planned tiers we have for each one. More importantly, we will be locking down the game design and scope for our demo to see us through to our internal demo build later in the year.
Comments (0)