The diagram below showcases where each item can be found – each section is not an environment or zone of its own, neither are the sections to scale. The diagram merely shows the order of the items’ appearances.

The diagram also displays the different layers – above ground, middle – these are holes the player can travel down – these do not go deep enough to enter the underground, underground.

This environment layout was created during the ‘environment layout design‘ discussion.

Frog

Frog Dialogue 1: (triggers when the player either walks past the frog or clicks on the frog)

Frog’s Speech = Not Underlined
Deer’s Speech = Underlined

Frog Dialogue 2: (triggers when player returns to complete the flies quest)

Frog Dialogue 3: (triggers when player returns to complete the plant quest)

Spider

Spider Dialogue: (triggers when the player interacts with the spider)

The table below shows the game’s assets and how the player can interact with them. For more details on how the player interacts with the assets, see Interactions 1.0.

Collectables = items the player can pick up
Dialogue = creatures the player can speak to
General = other things the player can interact with (that aren’t collectable or able to be spoken to)
* = the thing that must be triggered before the player can interact with/pick up the item
** = the thing that must be completed before the player can interact with/pick up the item

Collectables	Dialogue	General
Berries	Frog	Frog (kill)
Sticks	Spider	Log
Turtle Shell		Waterfall
Flowers		Seaweed (*snake quest)
Sakura (*spider quest)		Carnivores
Bird		Fallen Trees
Mushrooms		Burrow (**trees quest)
Spikes (**spike quest)		Wind Plant
Normal Sticks		Underground Entrance (**fog quest)
Eroded Sticks		Snake
Lotus Flower		Skunk
Lotus Lantern		Rhino
		Bell Flowers
		Grave
		Empty Plot of Land
		Underground Waterfall
		Swamp
		Crystals
		Spikes (fail)

My Task: Draw Muntjac Deer and Tiger according to Alicja’s Art Bible – document process, e.g. brushes used, colours, time taken, etc.
My Additional Task: If there’s a style you think would work better than Alicja’s style, draw the characters in that style and pitch it to the team
Deadline: Friday 7th February 2020

All of the drawings below were drawn in Clip Studio Paint using the following brushes:

Lineart: G-pen
Flat Colouring: Turnip Pen
Shading: Dense Watercolour
Blending: Dense Watercolour & Blend

Muntjac Deer

In Ala’s style:

Time Taken: 25 mins
Using Ala’s art bible on her blog as reference, I drew the muntjac deer in her style. During the process, I found the shading to be quite messy and the colours too dull throughout. This meant that the deer would struggle to stand out in a flourishing environment. The deer also seemed to mimic a normal deer more than a muntjac deer as it lacked any defined horns and its head lacked any markings that muntjac deer are known for possessing. As a result, I decided to change the design a bit and change the shading style to make it neater. The changes made are shown below.

With a change in design and shading style:

Time Taken: 25 mins
Here, I changed the design of the deer’s head to make it look more like a muntjac deer by adding horns, changing the eyes and adding ears. Giving the deer ears gives it a splash of brightness for a better sense of contrast in regards to the deer’s colour scheme. This makes the deer visually more interesting. I also changed the shading style to make it neater and harsher in order to better define the shadows and highlights. This helps the deer stand out more against backgrounds.

Tiger

In Ala’s style:

Time Taken: 30 mins
Using Ala’s art bible on her blog as reference, I drew the tiger in Ala’s style. During the process, I found that I quite disliked the shading style she used – the shading style she used was very messy and not well blended. So, I decided to change it. The changes made are shown below.

With a different shading style:

Time Taken: 25 mins
Here, I decided to make the shading more smooth and blended for a more polished look.

Muntjac Deer and Tiger in Environment

Muntjac Deer and Tiger in Ala’s style in environment:

After drawing the deer and tiger in Ala’s style, I decided to place them in the background I drew a while ago to see how they look in an environment. I found that the deer really struggles to stand out due to its dull colours and lack of contrast whilst the tiger has no issue standing out. However, its shading style does not suit the environment or the deer well.

Muntjac Deer and Tiger in a different style in environment:

After drawing the deer and tiger in a different style, I also placed them in the background I drew a while ago to see how they look in an environment. The results were a lot better than the previous attempt. The deer stood out more as it had harsher shading and more defined features whilst the tiger looked less out of place. However, I thought that the deer could still benefit from a change in colour scheme as whilst it stood out more now than before, it still seems to struggle to with being visually interesting.

Flies Quest:
The frog is old and has been around since before the rainforest mutated – it is in denial about its own mutated state. It doesn’t want to interact with the new mutated world and so refuses to leave the pond.
The spider doesn’t want to leave its web – its old web was destroyed by the tiger and it is afraid that if it leaves its web, the tiger will destroy it again. It wants the sakura because it likes flowers – they calm the spider down.

Hidden Passage Quest:
There are tiger claws on the trees – this indicates the tiger was the one who tore the trees down.
One of the trees has a hole in them – there are nuts falling out of the hole – this implies that it used to be a squirrel’s habitat.
In the burrow, there are bits of snake skin – this suggests that it used to be a snake’s habitat.

Snake Quest:
The snake’s habitat was destroyed so it is sleeping elsewhere.
The skunk is hiding because it is scared of the tiger – it is wounded. This implies that it was attacked.

Fog Quest:
An animal ate a fog plant – this emits small clouds of fog – and mutated to emit fog. It was sleeping and causing large amounts of fog. These fog plants will be scattered throughout the game – they will be shown to be surrounded by smalls wisps of fog.
The animal wakes up due to wind from wind plant and runs away.

Plant Quest:
The frog knows that the quest is impossible – it wants to trick the player to mess with them.
When the player completes the quest, the frog reluctantly apologises after feeling a bit guilty about their mean attitude. They are shocked that the player would go through such lengths to obtain the flower for them.

Bird Quest:
The bird is near a broken egg – it recently hatched.
Its nest was ruined when the branch broke – at the time, it hadn’t hatched yet and was abandoned by its family.

Rhino Quest:
There is a grave in the background – there is a bell flower lying in front of it.
The rhino is looking at the grave when the player finds them – they then turn around and begin trying to play the tune on the bell flowers – the tune used to be sung for the rhino by the their deceased friend.

Crystal Quest:
A few crystals are glowing dimly – they slowly fade until they are no longer glowing. This is due to the tiger previously trying to destroy the crystal cave.
The lotus lantern is in the pond – only its head is showing – it masks itself as a lotus flower.

Mushroom Farm Quest:
The carnivores have mutated to eat mushrooms – there is now too much demand for mushrooms and too little mushrooms to satisfy the demand – the ecosystem has been disrupted.
The carnivores are guarding the mushroom farm – small animals are hiding nearby and looking at the mushrooms forlornly. A small animals runs into a hole – this shows the player where they can replant mushrooms for the small animals.

Main Quests

Flies Quest:
Quest –
The frog asks you to get it some flies in exchange for helping the player reach the highest ledge – this is the entrance to the next level

Solution –
The player must find the spider and talk to it – it will ask for a flower from the sakura tree it resides on – it is too scared to leave its web
The player must ram the tree and a sakura will fall onto the web whilst another sakura falls to the ground – the player can pick this up to use in another quest
The spider gives the player some flies
The player returns to the frog and gives it the flies

Hidden Area Quest (optional):
Quest –
There are fallen trees off to the side of the path that the player can destroy

Solution –
The deer can eat the bark to find a burrow underneath
They can enter the burrow to discover an area beneath the path
In the area is a turtle shell
The player can pick the turtle shell up – this will unlock the option to kill the frog if used as a stepping stone to reach the frog

Snake Quest:
Quest –
Snake is blocking the main path – the player must move it to progress

Solution –
A skunk is hiding nearby – the player must scare the skunk so that its smell can lure the snake away from the path
The player must go to the waterfall and enter the water so that they’re covered in seaweed – this makes the deer look like they have stripes – similar to the tiger
The player must then bark at the skunk – this scares the skunk and the snake is lured away – the player can now progress

Fog Quest:
Quest –
There is a fog obscuring the entrance to the underground – the player must clear it to find the entrance to the underground area

Solution –
The player must find the wind plant – the plant is withering – it is seen weakly eating a berry
The player must find more berries and give them to the plant
The plant will then begin blowing wind and uproot itself – it begins walking – the player must bark to lead it to the fog
The wind plant clears the fog – this reveals a large plant on the ground – if the player steps onto the plant, it will tilt and slide the player into the underground area

Plant Quest:
Quest –
The frog will pretend to think that the player meant the lower ledge after it gets the flies – it will then ask the player to fetch it a special, one-of-a-kind flower

Good Solution –
The player must travel to the mountains – there they will see the flower on the side of a mountain – it is unreachable
The player must change the appearance of the sakura to make it replicate the special flower and fool the frog
The player can interact with the sakura – this triggers the deer to rip one of its petals off
The player must travel to the swamp and place the sakura near it – when the player walks past the swamp, a creature will spit blue saliva onto the sakura – the player can then pick the flower up
The player must also find three spikes – they will have to replace the spikes with something else to obtain them
The player must go to the waterfall to get three eroded sticks – they can then replace the spikes with the sticks to obtain the spikes – the player can then attach the spikes to the sakura
The player will then return to the frog and give it the fake flower
The frog helps the player reach the highest ledge and the player befriends the frog – the player moves onto the next level

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Bad Solution –
The player places the turtle shell on the pond – the player uses it as a stepping stone to reach the frog
The player kills and consumes the frog – the player would then mutate
The player can then jump to the highest ledge – the player moves onto the next level

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Smaller Quests

Bird Quest:
Quest –
The player finds a baby bird – it is lying near a broken branch with a ruined nest on it – the player must return it to its mother

Solution –
If the player interacts with it, it will fly onto the deer
The player must find its mother – she will be in a nest on a tree – the baby bird will then fly up to the nest

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Rhino Quest:
Quest –
The player finds a rhino – it is headbutting bell flowers too strongly and destroying the flowers – the player must help the rhino play the tune

Solution –
The player must interact with the flowers correctly and mimic the right tune – this tune will be played at certain points of the game – specific background birds make this tune
The rhino will then follow suit and gently headbutt the flowers – a musical sequence ensues

Crystal Quest:
Quest –
The player finds a crystal cave – most of the crystals are dim – a few are dimly lit and fading

Solution –
The player must find the lotus plant in the lotus pond
The player must then pick it up and place it in the cave – glow flies will come out from the lotus lantern and enter the crystals – an animation sequence of the crystals lighting up will ensue

Mushroom Farm Quest:
Quest –
The player finds a mushroom farm that’s been taken over by carnivores that have mutated to eat mushrooms – there are smaller, hungry animals cowering nearby – one of them runs down a hole
The player can follow the animal down the hole – in there is an empty plot of land – the player must help create a new mushroom farm

Solution –
The player can collect mushrooms throughout the game and use them to create a new mushroom farm for the smaller animals down the hole – as the farm grows, more animals will come there to eat
When the second mushroom farm is completed, a small animation sequence of many small animals coming to the farm to eat ensues

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Project Budgets – keep in mind who the budget is for – they should be tailored towards them

There are different methods of creating project budgets, one of which is Asset Triangulation. However, this is a very involved process that can be difficult for beginners to grasp so a simplified version of this method should be utilised instead.

There should be certain things that are assumed during the process of making a budget for this project.

List of assumptions
We are an independent studio
We have the means to publish our game – do not consider the costs for publishing the game – consider only the costs for the development of the game
Consider only the costs for making the vertical slice
We have basic hardware – e.g. PCs
All teammates have an annual income:

Programmer: £20116.14
3D Modeller: £16882.80
2D Artists: £17637.84
Team Leader: pick a role and x 1.5
Consultant: pick a role and x 3 (for the time they’re here – they’re normally external)

Consider marketing costs

Calculate the Risk Mitigation – this is about is about 7-12% of the total production costs (not including things like marketing) – this accounts for the financial impact of the project if major issues were to arise.

Calculate the Profit – the amount of profit that results from this project should allow for a new project to be made – we will use a simple approach. Multiply your budget by a percentage you need the project to return. Next, divide the value by the number of units you think your game will sell. The resulting value will be the amount of copies you have to sell for in order to meet your profit expectations.

According to the survey that will be taken at the arcade event, each person who says that they would buy your game will represent 100 sales.

Team Task: Make a project budget for your game

To begin with, Bernardo asked to see our tasks to verify their completion. Next, Shannon, Sharna, Natasza and I took turns to show him our drawings. After some consideration, he chose Shannon as art lead due to her exploration of different styles for the muntjac deer. She was then tasked with making the art bible. She was given two weeks to create it. During these two weeks, Sharna, Natasza and I were tasked with deciding the puzzles, narrative and environment design.

Becca and Bernardo then proceeded to share their notes on the GDD to see if they missed anything. Afterwards, they were both tasked with learning how to code in Unity for the next two weeks.

Written below are the tasks set along with their deadlines.

Tasks

Sharna, Natasza and My Tasks: Make Narrative, Puzzles/Interactions and Environment Layout
Deadline: Two Week Later

Shannon’s Task: Make Art Bible
Deadline: Two Weeks Later

Bernado and Becca’s Task: Learn Code in Unity
Deadline: Two Weeks Later

Afterwards, we discussed some of the details in regards to the tasks set. Written below are the notes from this discussion.

Notes

Make the deer’s style easier to animate than Alicja’s style – like Shannon’s style for the deer but make it more suited to the environment – add shading but make it simpler than Alicja’s style

Research into some free animation programs – research into Spine 2D, which is used by Anna Lepeshkina in her personal project – the program creates ‘floaty’ animations that could suit the environment but not the characters – the animations wouldn’t be crisp enough

Try researching about OpenToonz as an option – it is a free animation program used by Studio Ghibli

Make puzzles linked to the environment – make them shape the environment

Come up with a loose narrative that quests can be connected to – this makes them more cohesive and interesting

Should storyboard the quests for a clearer idea of the environment layout – have different layers so that the environment doesn’t become too long but still has many areas to explore – have an underground area

Shown below are the team members with their corresponding roles beside their names. The roles that are crossed out are roles that were initially assigned to the respective team member but were later either reassigned to someone else or deemed as unnecessary and discarded.

Bernado – Coding, Music
Becca – Coding Environment Designer/Artist
Shannon – Art Lead/Art Bible Creator, Environment Artist/Animator Character Designer, Prop Designer/Artist
Jenny (me) – Character Artist/Animator, Story Writer, Environment Designer
Sharna – Character Artist/Animator, Story Writer, Environment Designer
Natasza – Character Artist/Animator, Story Writer, Environment Designer

After the second team meeting, I further discussed ideas for puzzles with Becca and Shannon in order to get a better idea for how the environment should be designed. We decided that there should be main puzzles that are either necessary or important to the gameplay whilst the other puzzles would be smaller optional puzzles that help establish narrative and give the player a reason to explore the environment.

Firstly, we began by making an estimate for how many main puzzles were required. We decided that five main puzzles was a good amount – it was enough to provide an entertaining gameplay experience. However, we did not strictly stick to this amount as the puzzles may consist of several mini puzzles or we may feel the need to add or subtract puzzles during the process.

Next, we decided to have both environmental/physical puzzles and puzzles that involved animals. We initially chose to have two animal puzzles and three environmental puzzles but deviated from this as we found that some animals didn’t have to be spoken to in order to involve them in a puzzle. We also discussed that adding elements of narrative to each puzzle/having the puzzles be part of the environmental storytelling would help cohere the puzzles together.

Afterwards, we chose an animal to focus on. We decided that the frog would be most suited to the mushroom environment. It could be in an unreachable place, which prevents the player from killing it too soon, e.g. the frog is on a mushroom in the middle of a pond – the player would need an item to reach it. We pondered the idea of making the frog’s personality unlikable to give the player incentive to kill it, e.g. it taunts the player. However, we shouldn’t make the frog too unlikable as it may seem like the game is trying to push the player to kill it. I suggested that we make it so that the player finds out more about the frog through playing the game, which may explain its behaviour and make it more likeable, e.g. its family also got killed. We also theorised that giving the animals human noises as opposed to animal noises would give them more personality.

I proposed the idea of making the frog give the player the first quest but when the player returns to frog after completing it, it mocks the player and refuses to help them by stating that what they really wanted was something more difficult to achieve – this would be the last main quest. This gives the player incentive to explore the environment as well as giving them reason to initially dislike the frog. We decided that the frog would ask for flies as its initial request in return for obtaining an item for the player. However, we found that it made little sense for what the player could want that would help them progress to the next area.

Eventually, we settled on the player requiring the frog’s help getting to a high ledge that leads to the next area instead of obtaining an item as it made more sense. There would be two ledges – one lower and one higher – and the frog would pretend to think that the player meant the lower one and ask for more to help them get to the higher ledge.

Below is a diagram we made that shows how the quests could be distributed throughout the game (in between the 1st and 2nd quests are the other main quests).

We also decided that listing down some ideas for puzzles would be a good start to the ideation process. Below is the list we came up with.

List of Puzzle Ideas:

Snake – lure away
Tree – eat bark
Hidden Area (underground) – find
Fake End – get flies
Bat – help it get in cave
Spider – flower
Guard – blocks one of two paths – distract them
Real End – get plant

Next, we decided to expand on how each puzzle could be accomplished by the player whilst keeping in mind the game’s environment, narrative, the player’s enjoyment and gameplay time. During the process, we found that some quests were unnecessary and some didn’t make sense in terms of how it can be completed. Thus, many changes were made. Listed below are the changes made.

Changes made:
The guard quest was dismissed as being unnecessary as many of the quests already involved animals – this one was an optional quest that involved the player using the shell to distract the guard – travelling the blocked path would allow the player to get flies – this meant that the spider quest would then be rendered unnecessary – this was problematic as the player would have no way of knowing that they didn’t need to do this quest when they come across it

The snake quest was originally supposed to involve the player catching fish in the waterfall to lure the skunk out and scaring it by barking so that it would cause the fish to smell – the fish would then be thrown and the snake would be awoken by the stench and proceed to follow it – this was deemed nonsensical as there would be no need to stink up the fish when the skunk itself could act as a smell to lure the snake away – however, we still wanted to retain the involvement of the waterfall and decided to change it so that the player would have to disguise themselves in order to scare the skunk

The plant quest was originally supposed to involve the player giving an item to a large animal in exchange for their flower – however, this seemed too similar to other quests – thus, we decided to change it so that the flower would be in an unreachable place – like the side of a mountain – the player would have to fool the frog by replicating the flower through combining items – these items were undetermined

The tree quest was initially a quest on its own where two fallen trees would block the player’s path and the deer would have to eat the bark to get past – however, this was deemed too simple and too similar to other quests – it is something blocking the path – thus, it was combined with the hidden area quest as the quest’s visual indicator was undetermined

Shown below is the final list of main puzzles that resulted from this discussion.

Flies Quest:
The frog asks you to get it some flies so that it can help you reach the highest ledge – this is the entrance to the next level

The player must find the spider and talk to it – it will ask for a flower from the sakura tree it resides on – it is too scared to leave its web

The player must ram the tree and a sakura will fall onto the web whilst another sakura falls to the ground – the player can pick this up to use in another quest

The spider gives the player some flies

The player returns to the frog to give it the flies

Hidden Area Quest (optional):
There are fallen trees off to the side of the path

The deer can eat the bark to find a burrow underneath

They can enter the tunnel to discover an area beneath the path

In the area is a turtle shell

The player can pick the shell up – this will unlock the option to kill the frog if used as a stepping stone to reach the frog or it can be used in another quest

Snake Quest:
Snake is blocking the path – prevents player from progressing – the tiger destroyed its home so it is sleeping here

A skunk is hiding nearby due to the tiger chasing it (can show this through footprints) – the player must scare the skunk so that its smell can lure the snake away from the path

The player must go to the waterfall and enter the water so that they’re covered in seaweed – this makes the deer look mutated – like they have stripes – similar to the tiger

The player must then bark at the skunk – this scares the skunk and the snake is lured away – the skunk sees the deer and is reminded of the tiger – the player can now progress

Plant Quest:
The frog will pretend to think that the player meant the lower ledge after it gets the flies – it will then ask the player to fetch it an item – a special, one-of-a-kind flower

The player must travel to the mountains – there they will see the flower on the side of a mountain – it is unreachable

The player must then combine the sakura they have with other items in order to replicate that flower to fool the frog

The player will then return to the frog and give it the fake flower

The frog helps the player reach the highest ledge and the player gains the frog as a friend – the player moves onto the next level

Order

Below is an image of the order things will appear in:

Frog/Pond & Waterfall Area
Hidden Area Puzzle
Snake & Skunk Puzzle
Spider Puzzle
Plant Puzzle