Project Update & Weeks Ahead!

Greetings all from the Coven! Welcome to this long overdue update regarding my final major project since September 2022. For starters, apologies to for the delay in posting about this game as there was alot of external matters outside this project that took place for me to reach where I am now 6 months on. Originally I did start off with the first month of the project with an announcment of my initial idea and where this project would take me in terms of progression and long-term goals. For the main rundown, feel free to check out my past videos to have a recap as well as my project proposal (Kyle Cornwell, 2022) for more of an insight in visualising idea as a potential product. To speed up the time that has not been documented, I have constructed a pitch presentation that will give a better understanding in how Condemned: Souls of the Veil came to exist. Below also is a brief demonstration video of the first tested build, outlining the current progress and mechanics of the game.

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Figure 1: Condemend: Souls of the Veil Devlog 1 - Foundations & Research (Coven interactive, 2022)

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Figure 2: Condemned: Souls of the Veil First Test Build (Coven Interactive, 2023)

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So where does the project currently stand? I wish that question was rhetorical. It has taken alot of mental motivation to get to where I am, which is finally into the implementation and essentially a rapid prototyping stage which was a better place than being stuck in the analysis and conceptual stage. I measured the remainder weeks of development back at the start of February, which placed me exactly 12 weeks away from my submission deadline taking place 27th April. I setup a development plan which would represent a milestone every 4 weeks. This puts my game at the first week of milestone 2, consisiting of a Proof of Concept/Prototype iteration 1. At this point, it's looking more like an unfinished Proof of Concept due to still refining features and functionality that will reduce the scope of the game and still meet enough criteria for a Vertical Slice build as the finalised piece.

During this current milestone, I aim to have the game mechanics functioning to a playable, and most importantly testable state. These mechanics include an interactive polaroid camera for the player to screen capture items that relate to the story and build up an undiscovered character profile, an assistive computer UI system to act as a help guide for the player to progress further during gameplay, followed by an input system to test and represent the ending win/lose state that result in the acceptance (win) or denial (lose) of the player's uncovered depression. This will also enable me to link up a small pocket scene to represent the demon realm, also known as the Veil. Once these core mechanics have been implemented, I intend to add some more interactable elements through some content design using the 3D modelling software of Blender.

I have made the decision in only designing the content of the environment instead of the level itself due to the time it will take to model modular pieces of an apartment such as walls, windows and doors. The assistance of the Unity engines 3D objects will make it easier to represent the architecture of the apartment. Also, my chosen art style is minimalistic by design with the use of pixelated visuals to create a more immersive environment to improve the player experience. This will speed up the modelling of interactable and static objects due to the low-poly graphics. That's all in regards to the project's whereabouts. For further discussions on the project, feel free to watch my latest development log that involves the mentioned pitch document to where and how the games idea originated and developed. That's all for this week but stay tuned for another update of content during this rapidly prototyping milestone!

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Figure 3: Condemned: Souls of the Veil Devlogs - Project Update & Weeks Ahead! (Coven Interactive, 2023)

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Kyle Cornwell, 2022. GDO750 Project Proposal Kyle Cornwell. [Online] Available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mEEaZilu2vTAaE-kCjNK1PVi5KM191P0/view?usp=share_link [Last Accessed 12/03/2023]

Coven Interactive, 2022. Condemned: Souls of the Veil Devlog 1 - Foundations & Research! [last viewed 12/03/2023] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzWUfriQs5U