The most notable things I’ve done this week are more related to team dynamics than actual content or design. I had a bit of revelation that we were not really on track to meet alpha. A lot of the work we’d been doing, while important to get done in the production process, was not getting us closer to being feature complete by the time we needed to. My perception was it was due to us doing our task planning individually, rather than as a group. I brought this up during our in class meeting, so we made a list of everything that needs to be done by alpha, broke them down into tasks, and allotted them over the next two weeks. It’s not as though we’re terrifically behind, and a lot of teammates dropping sick hasn’t helped. But I feel like we’re really on the path to righteousness now, and I’m glad I managed to bring it up in a way that didn’t come off as usurping any kind of authority.

I also initiated a conversation about design decisions when I noticed a few concerns in a teammate’s levels. There were a few  parts of the layout that I found confusing, so we all sat down as a group and reviewed each others levels and gave feedback. There was a consensus about the concerns that I had with the content, and I got some excellent pointers on my levels as well.

Given all of that, this week marks the actual, final touches on the structure of Florida’s golden path. Assuming enemies are done, players will at the end of this week be able to play through Florida from start to finish, with all the essential story content. The rest of the semester will likely be spent filling it with side areas and NPCs, really making it come alive like the sewers have.

These are all the essential areas of Florida. The early sections focus on one enemy, before all converging into a much more challenging section that uses them together. The player will have to go in a loop under the boardwalk to get the jump special, which means they will pass the roller coaster that they must use to get to the end game. NPCs will talk to the player about headlines they’ve read about Florida Man, never specifically referencing him as a person, but just remarking what crazy shenanigans people around here get up to. That’ll hopefully make Florida Man as a boss a funny reveal for people who haven’t heard the joke before.