It seemed like entirely new territory for a game. It seemed risky and interesting. So we
decided to give it a try.
But how to do it? The ?¬? rst step was
to create a series of prototypes based
on the core mechanic of ?¬‚ ying and gathering
clouds. These prototypes were
implemented in using the Processing
development environment and were
iterated on over several generations,
starting in 2D and moving into crude 3D
to test control, camera, and gameplay
integration.
This core gameplay was tested by
the team and a number of playtesters,
and several conclusions were reached.
The ?¬? rst was that the 2D perspective,
while simple and practical, was not
emotional enough. Although the ?¬? nal
project had always been planned as
a 3D game, there had been an open
question of how to achieve a useable
player viewpoint, and whether or not it
made sense to use a 3D environment,
but to lock the play within that environment
to a two-dimensional plane within
the 3D world.
At this point, the team began to
sense that there was a con?¬‚ ict between
Figure 1 2D gathering clouds prototype for Cloud,
le , and control, camera, and rudimentary
gameplay prototype, right
Figure 2 Camera simulation prototype; le shows
camera zoomed out for view of entire sky,
right shows camera zoomed in to ?¬‚ y close to
the character
228 Chapter 8: Digital Prototyping
the desired clarity for gameplay (which called for a 2D playing ?¬? eld) and the equal desire for an emotional
sense of freedom in ?¬‚ ight (which called for freedom of movement within a 3D space).
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