Oof. A few days late. It has been a long week. I'll upload another video post at my regularly scheduled Thursday.
This week a few things happened:
- Had an interview with a VR startup that went pretty well. I got to check out a demo and then have an extensive conversation where I launched into a critical analysis of everything I thought the project was lacking and how I would approach it differently. That's how interviews are supposed to work, right? You tell folks they need a producer an creative director and then they hire you do to those things, right? Well, they've scheduled a follow up so we'll see what happens.
- Met with a collective working on um well I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about it so let's just say Really Cool Stuff with GearVR. Uhhh, yeah, super super good conversations and ridiculous tech that really opens up the door for all kinds of possibilities, the specifics of which I've been invited to come up with. Thoughts are still marinating but I'm thinking about site-specific performance as well as potential activist applications.
- I also casually stumbled into a rather serendipitous meeting with a business and marketing advisor who wants to work with me to launch one of my previous projects. We spoke a lot about what my short and long term goals are, and what I'll need in terms of building a creative ecosystem with VRGN. Gonna hold off on that to focus on Launch Pad, but definitely excited for what's on the horizon.
- I made a pig! It's grey and sad and its back leg is a little wonky, but it's mine. I need to figure out some techniques for painting it, whether that's a texture atlas or a UV map or something else entirely. I called a good friend of mine who is a phenomenal artist and she gave me somewhat of an overview so I could understand my options.
5. I came up with a solid project idea that could incorporate all the things I'd learned or made. Wrote it out. Started sketching, had a random, unrelated thought that I promptly forgot about. While talking out the project with a friend I realized the random thought was actually the Golden Ticket I've been looking for. Promptly abandoned all other ideas...and I'll talk about this more in my next video update.
Where I'm at now
I have a much clearer idea of what I want to make and what to work on, although I have half as much time to make anything as when I started. On one hand, six weeks isn't a lot of time, on another, I've been in game jams where we churned out solid projects, and definitely solid demos in 3 days. I'm better at working under pressure with a clear goal than having a lot of time and being uncertain of the outcome - I think I can do it.
Goals for Week 7
- Mock up the level design in Unity.
- Include all mechanic dependent elements
- Make sure the the camera is placed correctly and working in Gear.
- Texture the pig.
- Collect reference images for the feel and visual tone of the game.
- Code and implement a timed event system
- Code and implement button press action(s)
Lastly, I think I'm going to ramp up my journal entries closer to daily. We have a short deadline and now that I have some specific goals I think it will help me squeeze the most out of these short days.
By the end of the month I want an ugly but fully playable demo with all the mechanics in effect. Finish the room and the code. Finish the room. Finish the code.
I got this.
