July 8 – 12

More Superhero in Training this week! Starting at the beginning of the seven levels I finished blocking out last week, I’ve gone through each one and done a pass adding structural pieces, such as pillars and pipes, to make the environment more interesting.

Even though the art style and environment concepts are much simpler than Spellshot, I found that doing this was much more of a challenge. One, the asset pack I’ve been given to use is made for large scale city environments, rather than large, high-detail indoor environments I’m using it for now. So to begin with, finding pieces that mesh together to block out an indoor scene was already difficult, but finding even more pieces that complement them, as well as fill out lots of space, is proving to be harder than I thought. The second reason why this is much more of a challenge is that the levels were already made and designed by Vince. I’m not saying his work is bad, but rather that I find it difficult to come up with ways to use these structural pieces within his designs. When I design a level, I think of not just how each room will be shaped, but I’ll also have a general idea of how they will be decorated. I don’t have this general idea for these Superhero in Training levels, so this task is definitely making me take a more ‘freestyle’ approach.

Even then, there are some parts that I can’t help but think would look better if the design of the room was slightly altered. After telling Vince this, we agreed that next week I should take some time to redesign these parts so I can decorate them better. I have finished all seven levels though, so these versions (before my redesigns) will be used for testing, dubbed prototype levels.