Extended Practice: Complete Plan of Action

As I am completing this project with Sophie we wanted to come up with a complete plan of action for the entire project. We knew that we were taking on a lot with this project as a whole and had to be on top of everything that we did for it. This plan of action below talks through everything that I am going to be creating throughout the entire project and then below that we have come up with a schedule and a gant chart to show how we will monitor our time keeping throughout.

Research
- Game play mechanics and collectibles research: Looking specifically at Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Mario, Banjo-Kazooie, Tomb Raider, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, Looney Tune: Back in Action, Kao the Kangaroo, Emperor's New Groove, Gex and Monster Muppet Adventure
- Mini game layout examples
- Size and layout of levels: Looking specifically at Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and Super Mario

Location Research
- Create a mind map of ideas into locations
- Original research focusing on looking at the wonders of the world
- Final setting should be settled on and full research into the location carried out, looking at the layout of the location as well
- Research into other mediums to focus location idea, looking into different games, films and documentaries

Back Story
- Create a mind map of ideas for a story based around the seven wonders of the world
- Develop and finalise the story

Main Charter Design and Development
- Decide on the main idea of the character, based on an animal and create a mind map of ideas
- Look at the movement, habits and social interactions of that animal and learn about them as a whole
- Develop a full character bio for them
- Create characters initial ideas for look and costume design, develop them further and settle upon a final design
- Create concept art for finished character and develop character turn arounds

Location and Mini Game Layout, Design and Development
- Create floor plans and design and develop the initial layout of the level, focusing on size/scale
- Development and finalisation of the layout of the main level and mini game
- Create concept art for the final location, considering weather, lighting and colours used

Extra's 1
- Design and develop the main collectibles that will be scattered throughout the game
- Design and develop the mini game collectibles that will be based on the theme of the location
- Design and develop the health bar that will be used throughout the game and feature on screen

Prototyping 1
- Create a very basic mock up of the level, focusing on the layout but in pure shape form
- Add in the necessary scripts and look at how the level plays and how the basic character can interact with the environment and collectibles
- Ensure so far that the game works and is completeable

Hub World Design and Development
- Create designs for first ancient character, researching into the location they are from
- Create character bio for first ancient character and develop their clothing and style
- Create concept art and character turn arounds for first ancient character
- Create designs for second ancient character, researching into the location they are from
- Create character bio for second ancient character and develop their clothing and style
- Create concept art and character turn arounds for second ancient character
- Create the main area design and develop into the final look
- Create the designs for the portals to the different levels and ensure they reflect the location of the world inside
- Create floor plan designs and develop one further focusing on scale and the layout
- Create concept art for the final level including the portal designs

Prototyping 2
- Create a mock up of the hub world, including the portals, to ensure that they can be linked with the other prototyped location to ensure that they work and the character can move through them effectively

Character Creation (Main Character)
- Model the character in Maya
- UV map the character, focusing on getting the UV mapping to look as good as possible
- Texture the character using Photoshop and hand painted textures
- Rig the character
- Test animation the character, creating a walk/run/jump/idle cycles that can all be studied

Location Creation
- Model the location in Maya
- UV map the location
- Texture the location using Photoshop and hand painted textures
- Add in any necessary animations

Extra's 2
- Bring in health bar images
- Bring in the collectible counter
- Bring in the start menu
- Bring in the pause menu
- Model the main collectibles
- Model the mini game collectibles
- Bring them in and place them in the correct locations

Testing
- Bring the character into the environment and test that it works in the space and fits through doorways and works with the jumping puzzles and size of the environment - isn't too big

Character Animation Finalisation
- Finalise the character animations and bring them into Unity, matching them up to the movement patterns of what buttons the player presses.
 - Ensure that it is working smoothly in each environment and moves through the levels correctly without any game breaking glitches

Hub World Creation
- Create the portals relating to the chosen location - 2 each
- Create the additional characters that are going to be representing each location on that floor of the tree, model, UV map, texture and animate them
- Create the main hub section, 1 of us is making the main base, 1 is making the assets
- Connect all of the worlds together

Sound
- Add in music, created from an outside source, should loop throughout the level and there will be different music themed to each level
- Add in any additional sound effects which may be needed
- Create a script for the voice overs and for the cinematics that will feature throughout the game
- Record voice acting for the characters

Cinematics
- Create basic storyboards that refer to the script that we have created
- Create and record the cinematics using Maya and Unity for the 2 levels and hub worlds

Finalise Everything
- Ensure everything works!