HammerGirl Project: Week 2 - Building a Community

 

Building a Community

This week has been full steam ahead building an interesting world for players to interact with! After finalising the majority of mechanics last week, I have been focusing my attention on building levels and areas for the player to explore and progress within.

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I initially wanted to create a village with a few simple tasks for players to complete therefore allowing them to explore the area and get accustomed to the mechanics in a safer environment. I instead, however, gave them a single task within the village which involved breaking and collecting rocks to give to someone. I spread these rocks across the map a fair amount and allowed the player to fully explore the village.


Initial Village Sketch Design


The village itself was created with the idea of it being a coastal village surrounded by woodland, this meant I could limit the amount of space the players could walk off towards whilst still making it feel natural. I added a few of the building assets and maneuvered them around to create a lived-in feel, I also created a market square with a few NPCs for players to interact with.

Market Square Layout


The blacksmith is just off of the square and has a task for the player of collecting 10 rocks so he can build a new wall. This allows the player to explore the rest of the village with a task in mind, but they can take their time and look at any and all details around.

First Village Island Layout


At a later point, I want to add more NPCs for the player to talk to around the village to give the place more of a sense of a lived-in community.

Mine Initial Sketch Design

I have also begun work on an abandoned mine level which will have the player collecting gems from boxes left behind by the old workers. There will be a few hidden elements involving lighting the torch alters I mentioned creating in the last post, these will open up otherwise closed sections that contain more gems or a special reward for the players.

Mine Path Layout and Texturing

After receiving some feedback this week I will also be adding some verticality across both areas and making traversal more interesting by adding a few natural obstacles for the player to interact with (moveable boxes/hidden pathways/etc.)


My step next week will be to finalise the mine area and playtest a few times to check the world is fun to engage with. From there I will be tweaking aspects until I'm happy with them all.


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