Updated Environmental Art

I decided the environmental art needed to be simplified and better match the feel of the goo.  Below is a test of my  new assets:

I also experimented with adding a glow to the meltable items.  The color of the glow will indicate to the player what type of goo is created when that object is melted:

In one of our meetings we talked about possibly creating 70's themed wallpaper as a background.  Here's what I came up with:

The problem with these two is that the backgrounds are too busy and distracting from the foreground.  Part of the difficulty I've been having has been trying to make that distinction.  I think that the first two relate to the player what is interactive and what is background.

Level Design

On Sunday we all designed levels and then played through them.  This way we were able to see what was fun and what wasn't.  It was interesting to see how many different play modes everyone came up with, using the same assets and mechanics.  We also used that opportunity to make sure everyone was on the same page and had the same vision for the game.  We came up with a razor and description so if ever any of us forget, we can remind ourselves.

We also got our website and facebook page updated, so go check them out!  http://www.melterman.net/

Play Testing

I had a bunch of the guys at React! Games SLC play through our demo.  They game me some really good advice and feedback.  Specifically I need to differentiate between the background and the foreground, and need to make the art more cohesive.  They thought the core game mechanics were interesting and have a lot of potential, but that as a starting level, the demo was hard to complete and at times frustrating.

Art Progress

So we finally have the t-poses done for the two main characters.  The modelers have started on them.  In the mean time we decided to place free Miximo models in the game as place holders so the programmers can get a feel for how the finished characters will work in the game.

First Build!!

We now have a playable web build!  The art is place holder and temporary, but we're starting to develop the feel we want for the environment.  Check out and play the demo here:

http://eng.utah.edu/~tigran/melterman/melterman.html

Still a lot of refining and play testing to do, but we're pretty excited about where we are now!

Screen shot: