Rapid Level Prototyping
I was growing frustrated with the pace of development for Apocalypse Cow. I found I was spending too much time on a single level, trying to get it to an alpha or beta level ... even with stand-in assets. Then I found myself doing some "chrome plating" on the level. While this resulted in a few levels being pretty show-able, I'm still stuck knowing whether or not some of the later designs are even feasible, and what my total asset count is going to be.

So I decided to do some "rapid level prototyping," with a goal of actually having EVERY level roughed-in within about two weeks. It's probably too aggressive of a goal, but it's worth a shot. One of the things I'm trying to do with the game is to add some new challenge or gameplay element with every single level, so that keeps things... busy. There's a lot to do, but the sooner I get everything prototyped, the sooner I can know if some of these fuzzier ideas are actually going to work. There are some technological risks for later levels that this process forces me to deal with now instead of at the end of the project. Most importantly, at the end of the process, I should have the entire game integrated together and working, allowing me to look at and work with the game as a whole. Admittedly, a fairly UGLY looking whole.

We'll see how well this works. Once this phase is done, I should be able to generate a much more concrete "to do" list. I may also see a lot of ways to optimize elements and see what can be cut or combined. And I can make sure the story elements work, the gameflow logic is solid, saving / loading games work, and so forth. At least that's the theory.
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 11:30 PM (Permalink)