Jody Briggs' Capstone Updates

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 10 (AKA, We’re Done!)

Hey, it’s been a while. And now, I can proudly announce that Blood to Ink is published*! After a really hard couple of weeks, it is tested and good to go. The senior show is tonight, and I’m super excited to show off all the work that I did for this project.

That said, there are definitely a couple things that I’d change looking back. So, here we go:

What Went Well:

Our game is done! It’s out! It works! I’m very excited about this. Our entire team worked very hard to make the dream that we had a reality, and it turned out well. I am immensely proud to have created a visual novel/puzzle game while at Champlain.

The artists worked well together by putting together a list of what needed to be done and sticking to it. We even finished earlier than anticipated, which gave me the chance to put together a special surprise for the team that made it into the game.

What Went Wrong:

We should have been doing more scrum and less agile. It didn’t come up until the process was nearly over, but it was more difficult than anticipated to put all the pieces that people had made together... like putting the puzzles with the art, or the mechanics with the story, or the UI in the build. We’d each worked really hard on our individual pieces, and hadn’t bothered to check to see if they’d work together. If I were to do this project again, I would want to have a playable build at the end of every week that we could send in for testing.

We also had trouble on the team during the last few weeks with prioritization. We were trying to get the build together and functional, and we ended up skipping out on some things that shouldn’t have been skipped-- like lighting. This left our lighting artist to pull a 48 hour workday, which was totally unacceptable.

What I Learned:

Visual novels are..... hard. There’s a lot to keep track of, and programming them is actually quite difficult.

I also learned a lot about scheduling, and maintaining a solid workflow the entire time. It felt really good to be on top of all of the artwork I needed to do, and I’ve become a lot more consistent in terms of the hours I worked in comparison to last semester.

What I Would Do Differently:

If I could start this project over, I would definitely make all of the characters vectors instead of rasterized. We kept having to scale them up and down, change their clothing, and stuff like that, and it would have been so much easier if we’d had them vectorized. There was even talk of getting a cardboard cutout, which would not have worked at all-- they’re too pixely.

On a wider scale, I would have definitely have done weekly builds instead of one big one at the end. I also would have tried to push for handpainted textures over flat ones, because lighting was so much of an issue.

*...kinda. It keeps getting added and then removed from the Google Play store for reasons that we are still determining.

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 9

Okay I know I just updated this, but I didn’t talk about what I was currently working on last time, and that sprint just ended, so now I can talk about it.

(I have a complicated relationship with this blog.)

As before, I spent this week going through the asset list and making all the art in order of priority. This week, I got to make another magazine!

Here we have Alfred, in the height of his fame and sexiness, lying blatantly about Craig Porter to the press. Love that.

I also made a newspaper clipping about a piano recital Margot participated in when she was in elementary school. Considering I’m an artist, I’ve been doing a lot of writing...

I don’t really like the amount of writing that I am doing for this game. I’m technically part of the narrative team, but I don’t feel comfortable coming up with some of this stuff and then not having it proofread. I don’t know every detail of canon that we’ve decided on, and that makes me worried that I’m going to writes something in that is contradicted by something else.

The most important thing that I worked on this week was Johnny’s journal. This is a two-week asset, because it’s got a lot of inside pages that need text and pictures. I’m really excited for players to find and read this one.

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 8

Last week was break, and I realized that I didn’t talk about anything I got done! I’ll fix that now.

I’m getting down to the bottom of the asset list now, so that means a lot of little details. These two photographs are going to be tucked into the frame of Beverly’s mirror-- and are evidence of the fact that her “affair” with Terrance might be more loving than it seems. I wanted to make it clear that the two of them are much happier than either of them had been without each other.

I also made a bunch of little items for AEC to have on her desk at the beginning of the game. She has an engraved pen, a notepad (for the UI), a photo of Elinor, and a newspaper that details Alfred’s death. I had a lot of fun making them, and I can’t wait to see them implemented!

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 7... and 8, and 9, kind of.

It’s been a long break for me. Two weeks ago was Spring Break, and this past week was GDC. I had a really fantastic time networking with people (and just making friends), but the best part was playing all of the other detective/mystery games that were there. I loved it.

That said, I missed some stuff-- last week, I was supposed to talk about my specific goals and how I feel like I’m fitting in with my team.

Overall, I feel like I’m a trusted team member. I do my work on time, and when disagreements arise, I work to make sure I listen to every side of the story and everyone stays on the same page.

As one of the lead artists, I contribute a number of important positive things to the game. I do all of the 2D art, and help make important decisions regarding the way the team runs. I also advise the other artists and give direction when necessary.

I conduct myself in a professional manner, and I think it’s important to read the room and match the mood that everyone else is exhibiting before speaking myself. While sometimes I do get off topic, I’m making an effort to be more relevant and help keep the team on track.

The art team is actually ahead of schedule, due mostly to Kirby and my’s attention to the asset list and quick pace. While the artwork isn’t completely finished, I am confident that we’ll be able to finish on time.

We’ve had trouble wrangling the technology into doing what we want it to, but we have managed to get around it in a variety of ways. We bought the shader that we’re currently using, we’ve created documents to teach various people how to use the engine (me included), and we’ve worked to make sure that we all agree on things before going forward, which has not always been the case.

I think I’m being both inclusive and supportive. I work hard to make sure that everyone is heard, even if I disagree with them, and I check in with people who seem to be upset and make sure that they’re doing alright.

My three goals moving forward are:

Become more efficient in putting my assets into the repository

Work more closely with Mish to see how the conversations and art are implemented

Go above and beyond to create extra art that isn’t on the asset list, but will help with the game’s atmosphere.

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 6

This week I got to keep doing more of the worldbuilding/flavor assets. That means that in addition to doing artwork, I also got to do some writing!

We needed a gossip magazine to talk about Beverly and Alfred’s marriage, so I made a parody of a specific 1950s tabloid for the game. The headline on the top is a reference to our original game prototype, which I also wrote.

I did some research and found out that in the 1940s, a lot of wedding photos were taken in the back seats of cars. I’m not entirely sure why, but I thought it was a cute detail to include.

We also wanted to have a magazine of Beverly showing her back when she was a model-- a little bit younger, just to show a side of her that we won’t see in the game. 

While I had a lot of fun on this assignment, I don’t think I’ll be able to do something like this again. It was a lot of work, and my tablet broke, which left me really pressured for time. I’m taking a much lighter workload next week.

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 5: People, people... and more people.

This week, I continued filling out the asset list. I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel of assets that we need (whoo!!), but that also means that I’m getting down to the really difficult assets that require a lot of time and don’t have much payoff. While they are important and will help the story, they’re the sort of thing that most players will skip over, because they won’t help with puzzles in any way. That said, I hope that they give a little bit more context and make the world seem more real.

We also decided to add a graphic for the intro scene. I took a page from a different noir-esque video game that I love-- A Case of Distrust.

This picture was important because I wanted to set up the tone of the story right off the bat, without giving too much away. Therefore, you don’t see Elinor or Oswald’s faces, or anything about them besides their silhouettes. The phone is also the only red thing in the scene, and it hints that you’re mainly going to be calling Elinor for the remainder of the game.

We’re really getting toward Alpha, and everyone else on the team is working really hard to make sure things are implemented on time. I’m more or less kicking back, because we were careful to prioritize.... go art!

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 4

This week we hit some issues as a team involving what things we are able to create and what things we aren’t. While we worked through them, I feel unsure about the progress we’ve made, and in a lot of ways, I feel like we’ve been set back.

That said, we’re working together to overcome it, and most importantly, make sure it doesn’t happen again.

This week we started working on the assets that aren’t exactly puzzles, but contain important information to help the player solve their way through the game. This includes things like notes and keys.

Margot’s new passport. It’s important that the player know that she not only has plans to leave the country, but also that she hasn’t ever done so before.

Plane ticket. I did a lot of research into 1950s airlines-- tickets used to be much more expensive, and flights much more luxurious. Even the tickets used to be handwritten.

It’s important to establish that Margot has plans to go to Europe... and doesn’t plan to come back.

A poster of Margot’s boyfriend’s band, Victor Fox and the Aces. He’s on tour in Europe at the time of the game, and Margot is his biggest fan... he’s supposed to be kind of a bad boy, and a true 1950s rock n’ roll star. May or may not be inspired by Conrad Birdie. ;)

Next week, I’m moving onto the low priority assets-- mostly things that establish story, but aren’t necessary to finish the main plot. Things that hint at character relationships and dynamics, and other little details that really immerse the player and make the story (and the world) seem real.

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 3

Sorry this week’s update comes a little bit late. I had a hectic weekend.

We finally got the shader stuff worked out (WHOOOO!) and so the 3D assets are coming along nicely. This week, I focused on the highest priority assets on the 2D art list-- and in this case, that means puzzles.

A bookcase that will have re-arrangable books.

A piano that will unlock a special compartment when you play a certain tune.

A watch that opens up and reveals a secret.

There were a few difficulties in the design to art request pipeline here-- firstly, we had to make sure that the 3D artist and I weren’t both working on the same thing at the same time, because then they wouldn’t match. Secondly, we had to make sure that the designers were finished with their documentation before we read it and started the art. An example of where this was a problem was when I showed the designers the completed bookcase, only to find out that they’d changed the puzzle completely and now the engravings made no sense.

That said, we learned our lesson: 1, always read the design doc as you’re doing the art, and 2, notify the artists when you make big changes.

As for this week, I’m working my way straight down the asset list and getting to some of the more plot-important items that aren’t necessarily puzzles themselves. Alfred’s ring, Margot’s diary, and other items that convey key information should be done by this Friday.

[jbriggscapstone]

Last week was a warmup, so this week we really got to work. We made an asset list so we know everything we have to do and... boy is it a lot.

The good news is that we officially hit greenlight! Nothing can stop us now!*

This week I worked on more characters, with an emphasis on creating Nancy and Elinor, as well as putting Craig into his prison clothes. I think that the final product looks pretty good. (Elinor is on the left, Nancy is in the middle, and Craig is on the right).

We debated a lot on the discord server about the color of Elinor’s dress, phone, and hair. Eventually, I put my foot down as an art lead and said that her dress would be white and she would have dark brown hair, not black. That’s not really something I’ve ever done before (I usually try and please everyone) but I think it turned out well, and she seems likeable enough.

This week, I’m going to be working on some props. I’ve already made a music box (for placement in Margot’s room) as well as the song that it will play-- a song that miiiiiiight be part of another puzzle... (it will be).

I’m going to have to frontload this week to make sure that the 2D drawings of some of the props are done in time for the 3D modeler to use as reference. I’m lucky that we decided to do the 2D versions first, and not the other way around-- I have a lot more creative freedom this way.

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 1... again.

Hello again! It’s actually week two of the semester, but the first week was sort of pre-sprint and I didn’t have much to say. That said, there’s a lot to say now!

Last week, I worked on the art bible and touched up the characters in the game. Last semester, we were crunched for time, and as a result, they came out a little bit flatter than intended. I had the chance to add some much-needed shading and change up the colors so the red isn’t so concentrated on the neck areas (yikes). All in all, I Margot got the most attention-- I changed her hairstyle, redrew her face, and gave her extra expressions so she can be something besides moderately sassy all the time.

Left: Margot last week. Right: Margot this week.

I’m worried that we’re not going to be able to get the shader working. It’s a programming problem, and we didn’t get any programmers during team selection. Our one programmer seems to think he can handle it, but it was supposed to be done this week, and it isn’t, which is worrying. I know he’s doing his best, but we do need to have it finished, and it’s starting to draw time away from other programming that needs to be done.

If we don’t get the shader working, our other option is handpainted textures. Kylie (the other art lead) and I assigned one of the new environment artists (Kirby) to work on a handpainted test. However, it doesn’t look like that’s going to be feasible for the final product. We have an entire mansion to furnish, and only 2 artists who will be working on it. I’d rather have a fully stocked mansion of non-textured objects than an empty, sad environment with some detailed objects inside.

This week, I’m planning on making some more sprites (and updating others) to meet our vision of the game. We debated a little bit about whether phone-only characters should have conversation sprites, but we decided that the phone calls felt too text-heavy without them. So, I’m going to make an Elinor this week, as well as updating Craig so he’s dressed more... casually. ;)

(It’s a joke. He’s in jail.)

All in all, I’m very excited about where the game is headed!

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 14 (Postmortem)

We did it, guys!

I’m happy to announce that Blood to Ink is going forward to next semester with a bigger and better team than ever before. I’m really excited about where this game is going to go in the next few months, but this is a postmortem, so I’m going to take a minute to look back at how the past few weeks were since I last posted.

What Went Well:

We made a really big effort in the last few weeks to meet with as many faculty members as possible to get their feedback. Champlain’s QA hadn’t been too helpful-- mostly because the average Champlain game major doesn’t like narrative-driven games that mostly rely on reading and processing written information. The faculty were much more helpful. We found that they were happy and excited about our narrative, but had trouble with the controls because they didn’t feel very intuitive-- which is important if you’re making a game for tablet.

At first, our programmer was loathe to change the controls-- after all, it was only supposed to be a working proof of concept prototype, meant to show what we could accomplish given the chance. However, after hearing from more of the teachers, he gave them another shot and made them much more fluid.

We also worked on cutting down the amount of text in the game. Mish wrote a bunch of in-depth letters that had a lot of nuance, but they were too wordy for most of the player base to pay attention to. I took them and cut them down so they were easier to skim, and incorporated more images to help people understand.

What Went Wrong:

Our build broke the day our Professor was supposed to make the final call about whether we could present at demo night... and our programmer wasn’t there. While that’s not inherently a team problem, we could have probably handled it better than we did-- instead of sitting there and panicking, we should have backed away from it and discussed the problem with our programmer more thoroughly. Instead, he messaged us the night before it was due saying that he wouldn’t be able to work on it because he had another huge assignment due. We quickly explained that if we didn’t get it working and polished by Friday, we’d be automatically cut, and he started working.

I also felt like over the course of the semester, the requirements for what we needed to do were constantly changing. We had a checklist to start with, but soon those things changed, and I was never quite sure what we were doing. I hope that this will change next semester, as we already discussed it with our professor.

What We Can Do Better:

Next semester, we’ll have a designer with programming skills to back up our main programmer, and a UI/UX artist to do the UI art, which is something that I struggled with.

We’re also working as a team to create more of a hierarchy, so when we have disagreements, we’ll know exactly who to turn to. 

Most of all, we have the roadmap for next semester worked out, so we won’t have to guess about what is due when.

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 10

The most important development that we came up with this week is that we now have a name for our game! This is now the development blog of one of the artists working on Blood to Ink. The title comes from a T.S. Eliot quote--  

 “The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.”

We thought the title was appropriate because the game is about a writer who is investigating a murder-- therefore, taking the story of blood, and using it in her book, which is printed in ink. It also focuses on the process of turning the blood into the ink, or synthesizing the facts presented (blood) and choosing what is printed and put on public record. After all, the moral dilemma of truth vs. justice is still the core conflict of our game.

Aside from that, we also started working on some of the assets that are going to be sitting around in the office. Some are meant to be puzzles, and others just hint at things to come-- for instance, we have the book pages that will give you the lockbox password, and then we have the photos that will be sitting on the mantelpiece that hint toward Johnny’s fatherly relationship to Margot.

The circled number at the bottom is the lockbox password.

At QA, most people were able to get the password. Still, in class, Amanda and the rest of the observers seemed unconvinced that our puzzle was easy enough for the average person to solve. We as a team are discussing whether we want to focus more on making a difficult game that requires critical thinking and logic, or making something that is a little bit easier and more accessible.

This photo not only shows that Johnny has been in Margot’s life for a long time, it shows that he potentially has a stronger relationship with her than her father does. It also foreshadows how music will play into the final game, as we intend to have at least one music-based puzzle.

This set of photographs of Margot hint that there’s something sinister happening regarding her. The player must find the photographs in order to complete Craig’s interrogation, which will signal the end of the quick vertical slice we are preparing for midmortem.

This coming week, I’m going to be working on the animatic, storyboarding and making sure it conveys the kind of game that we’re making. I’ll also be finishing off the asset list so everything can be implemented before Thanksgiving.

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 9

Last week I bit off a bit more than I could chew, so this week, I went with less. In retrospect, I probably could have taken on more, but I did have the chance to really catch up on some of my other classes, so maybe it’s better that I didn’t.

This week, we started work on the UI and the specific emotions for the characters we’re going to be interacting with. 

(Choose your fighter.)

Right now I’m focusing on the specific characters that you’ll be able to interact with in the 15-minute vertical slice we’re planning (Craig, Beverly, and Terrance). Out of those, I’m only giving each of them four emotions-- Neutral, happy, angry, and sad. Then, Mish will be able to string them together with the dialogue she’s writing to make the characters seem more real.

I also started working on 2D assets-- mainly starting to work on the UI elements, such as the address book that will allow the player to call people, and the main folder where all of the dialogue will go.

Calum finished the gameplay loop last week, which means that this time around, we’re going to get to take the art we’ve made, the dialogue we’ve written, and the prototype we’ve built and start to put all three of them together. While we’re definitely not going to finish anything this week, I’m excited to see our game come together in a way resembles the final product.

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 8

After getting everything nailed down last week, we were finally able to start working on the specific assets we need for the prototype.

As the 2D artist for the game, I’m in charge of making the objects that the player will get to investigate close-up and the characters that they will talk with. There’s not much to say about the process, but there are a lot of pictures:

(From left to right: Craig Porter (The Rival), Beverly Penny-Glen (The Ex), Terrance Cain (The Manager), Johnny Holland (The Best Friend), and Margot Glenn (The Daughter)).

I wanted to make sure that every character had at least one hint of red, but I’ll be switching around the colors a little bit before I start making different expressions for them. For instance, Beverly’s red accent (her lipstick) is hardly noticeable, so I’m planning on adding a statement necklace. It was also noted that there are three different characters with red neckwear, and it’s kind of odd. I think I’m going to change Johnny’s sweater so it’s burgundy, and maybe take the thicker stripes on Terrance’s suit and make them grey.

It was really important to me that you are able to look at the character and immediately understand certain things about them based on the way they look, stand, and dress. For instance, I put Johnny in a sweater because he’s a little bit less aggressive than the rest of the other characters. He’s standing with his arm in front of him because he’s trying to distance himself from the situation, whereas Margot is much more in-your-face. Craig is a famous actor, so he’s looking away from you, not even giving you the time of day.

I also worked on making the objects that the player is going to investigate during our 15-minute demo. I’m trying to make them as interchangeable as possible-- for instance, making a book with a blank cover and blank pages, so that Mish can write whatever she’d like on it and use it multiple times.

All the objects that the player is going to investigate are drawn orthographically, or without perspective, so it’s easier to add text and other details as needed. It’s difficult to convey things that way (making the lock box look 3D was difficult) but it will be easier to keep a consistent style and field of view that way, especially since I’m not the only artist on this team.

This was a really productive week for me, and I’m excited for the coming week as well.

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 7

This week was pretty light art-wise— we’re still working on getting out of phase 1 and into phase 2, when the real fun will begin.

That said, Kylie and I took time this week to work with Mish on solidifying the style board to make sure that we really know exactly what direction we’re going in, both in terms of characters and environments. We did this by making a Pinterest board (available here) that everyone on the team can add to. I made an individual board for every major character for style references, and Kylie worked on pinning down ideas for each room in the Glenn Mansion.

Some of the rooms are classy and tasteful, and some, like the one above, are cursed entities that haunt my soul. (Image link.)

But more importantly to my job, we also chose specific celebrities for each character’s appearance to be based on. This is a risky choice because it can lead to the audience recognizing the character as a person they know and becoming disengaged, but we decided it would be best for a number of reasons: firstly, it allows for the character to have a consistent appearance between artists, and it secondly, it gives a greater range of references for different emotions, poses, and expressions.

I haven’t heard this technique discussed much in class, but I know that several gaming companies (both indie and AAA) do their characters this way. Mass Effect specifically comes to mind, as does Bioshock Infinite.

Kaidan Alenko in Mass Effect was modeled to look like Luciano Costa, a Brazilian model. (Image link.)

The art for this game is going to be quite a challenge in terms of volume (needing different drawings of every character, as well as different emotion sprites for them) so I’m breaking it down and starting with the main characters’ neutral expressions this week.

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 6

This week I worked on solidifying a storyline and and making a mock-up. I’m really relieved that we worked out our storyline— now the real art can begin.

We decided that the best way to handle the investigation portions of the game would be to have a 3D environment that the player can look at from all angles— kind of like a diorama, or one of Frances Glessner Lee’s nutshells. The player will be able to use the touchscreen of their tablet to rotate, zoom in on, and interact with the scene.

We also wanted to make sure that players could investigate things close-up. When the player wants to look at something in particular, they will tap it, and a more detailed 2D version of it will pop up for them to look at.

The interview portions will have 2D characters drawn over the 3D environment, similar to Hotel Dusk or Paper Mario. I like this because it puts the characters in the environment without us having to worry about the limits that come with making low poly characters expressive.

The overall plot is going to be kept under wraps for now— we want to keep the mystery a mystery.

[jbriggscapstone]

Week 5

After my meeting with my discipline head last week, we realized that we had to really get moving on choosing a prototype to flesh out-- having three this late in the game had begun to become a disadvantage.

I wanted to make Paper as fleshed-out as possible, so I worked this week on adding artwork to it to make it easier for visual learners to navigate the space. Here’s some of the work I did:

People responded really well to the artwork in QA, which was encouraging for me. The pictures of Amelie and Margaret made it easier for people to draw the conclusion that they were the same person, and a lot of the puzzles that required remembering where things were became more solvable for people who aren’t great readers.

We presented for the first time this Tuesday, and that was really stressful for me. Professor Crispel keeps saying that everyone in our class is behind, but I feel like we were told to go at the pace that we’re currently at. It’s causing friction in our team because some of us who haven’t had as much to do want to go on to Stage 2, while those that have been busy need more time.

Out of our three prototypes, everyone seems to favor a different one. Calum likes Puppy because it shows concrete mechanics, Mish likes Police becaues it has more design work for her to do, and I like Paper because it has the most developed narrative. I feel like our team is experiencing some tensions because we all want something different out of the game that we’re making.

We voted on which prototype we’d like to pursue, but there’s still disagreement and we’re going to meet tomorrow and figure out a better solution. Whatever we decide, I’m really happy with the prototype that I created, and I’m glad that I got to work on it when I did.