Letters from Circe's Island #10 | Final Capstone Production Notes by Angelina Grace McCormack

From our first to our last dev log, to the end of our Senior Capstone showcase, and finally uploading our vertical slice on Itch, where is Aiaia? Additionally, how did the presentation go, and where do we plan to go from here?

Where is Aiaia?

Within our adjusted and planned scope, we accomplished almost everything that we sought out to do. A huge shoutout to my co-lead Victoria Farrell for changing plans on the spot and getting us on track to where we needed to be every step of the way. From losing coders and concept artists, to revising plans to focus on certain aspects of the game, she blew planning out of the park and is one of the main reasons we have what we do on our Itch today.

Currently, we have our working Inventory, Dialogue, Enemy AI, Event Management, and Collectable systems, on top of five sprite sheets that our level and environmental designer Jonah Howell was able to implement despite a limited choice of assets. Our palace is completely explorable based upon our beginning narrative parameters, as well as the path to the harbor and an extended take on the tutorial forest. Additionally, this includes a first pass at parallax implementation which will be expanded upon more once we kick up development again after the New Year.

Additionally, a huge shoutout to teammate Anna Stevenson for their music work. You can tell the love and time they put into integrating research with the creation of music; using every excuse they could to find primary sources, talking to professors at our university, and even recording live instruments for some of the melodies. Between the Transformation of Picus track to our Trailer opening, to the Looping music that plays throughout the duration of the game, they absolutely smashed it and deserve all the love imaginable.

How was Showcase?

While feeling like we got set up due to being scheduled last for the night, it couldn't have been a better outcome. We were able to show off all of our research, including everything from narrative to music to Mediterranean ecology to art. As our professor Chris Totten put it, "This is what a Capstone is supposed to be," and following the 27-page research paper we did at the beginning of the semester, I truly hope that was the case!

Victoria was able to focus on introducing the project and going into the narrative and classical research that was the structural base of our game. With that, she was able to share our thesis on cultivating a discussion about the role of women in classical literature, and how that idea is still applicable to modern day media with Gail Simone's term of "Fridging Women." Women should be given a primary role that isn't reduced to furthering a male protagonist, thus leaning into our focus of giving Circe and other classical era women a developed character. You can understand more of her process in this development log here! I cannot express enough how lucky I was to have her as my co-lead; we balance each other perfectly and when one of us struggles, the other picks up and is assertive. From Game Prototyping class in 2023 to Capstone, we've grown so much as a team, and I couldn't be more proud of the person you've become. Here's to many more memories and projects with you love!

Additionally, big shoutout to our professor Chris Totten for posting about this mention on Threads, to which Simone actually replied and acknowledged us!

Recognition from Gail Simone following our presentation. Thanks Chris!

From there, Anna was able to showcase the research mentioned above for their music making process to integrate ancient Greek sounds into a contemporary game. I truly recommend looking at their development log where they go into much more detail than I could ever articulate, since it is quite literally their baby. I'm extremely lucky to have had them as a part of this team; they've always been someone I looked up to in the major due to their multidisciplinary abilities in music, code, art, and much more, and to work with them and see them shine through Aiaia has been an absolute delight. I adore you man!

After this (and me forgetting the order of things so I started yapping), Ty was able to go into his process of recording and editing SFX for the game, as well as drawing mockups for the UI. While he wasn't able to touch on the UI in his development log, I highly suggest seeing what he did for some of his SFX work! Also I need to point out that the boar onesie was a lovely addition to the presentation, since it matched the mini 3D boars I had him pass out in the lobby after the showcase wrapped up. He was able to bring a lot of fun and whimsy to this project and I'm extremely grateful.

From here, Isa was able to talk about the research that went into environmental concepting, something both she and Ty worked on during our pre-production phase. This included finding geographically accurate flora and applying it to the in-game landscape which provides a realistic and grounded in-game environment despite the magical setting. After this, she able to showcase the team's execution of assets based on the style guide I provided at the beginning of the semester. To see more of her process, you can also check out her development log, of which I updated with some images from our Pre-Production! I want to also thank Isa for being able to keep up with my crazy art ramblings, it isn't easy to quickly emulate a style, but she was able to absolutely slay everything. Additionally, she's always been a great teammate and friend since we got to know each other back in what is now called Games for Impact, I couldn't be more lucky to have her in my life!

Jonah, while being a peer I hadn't known before this class, was one of the most integral members of the project, and is perhaps one of the best people I've worked with in a long time. He was able to discuss the level and environmental design work that went into creating Aiaia, all of which 35 seconds couldn't do justice, so I heavily recommend checking out his development log to see more of the hard work he's put into the project. He put an immense amount of detail into designing levels that we had to cut back on due to time constraints, but it will be something that we're able to explore post-graduation. Thank you again for being apart of our team, none of this would've been possible without him, and I'm infinitely grateful.

Second to but certainly not last, Cam was able to showcase the systems that we were able to handcraft during the select few months of semester development. While juggling four showcase classes and some unfortunate life events, he was still able to set up a major event system, on top of many other things that turn a playable narrative into a mechanical game. You can check out more of these systems on his development log to understand the process better! Additionally, I've known this guy since my first semester due to D&D at Kent State, and I need to extend my thanks to him for sticking with this idea until the end when I first proposed it at the previous showcase. Much love!

Finally, a few of the things I mentioned at showcase included a defense of our choice of Greek Mythology due to a correlation of time constraints, pop culture relevancy, and pre-existing knowledge due to my love of it since I was around six years old. Additionally, I explored the research that went into the design process for characters, clothing, and props, including art museums, classes, and understand the difference between Archaic Greek sculpture and later art movements. Victoria and I were able to wrap with mentioning some future ideas, but that will be explored later in this post!

Group photo including the Capstone members, team member Logan Jackson, and professors Chris Totten and Tim Fritz.

While they weren't all at Showcase except for Logan, I can't end this section without giving heartfelt thanks to our external help throughout this process. For art, a huge thanks for Issy Strick, Cirrus Reynolds, and Lara El Khouly for making assets, character concepts, and UI designs that tremendously helped us with pushing forward out of our Pre-Production timeline. For code, so much thanks for Dawson Turska for setting the bones for our movement, dialogue, inventory, and room systems, and Kevin McGhee for creating our Enemy AI, petal effects, helping me with setting up the Blend Trees, and the beautifully done Pause/Map menu. For voice acting, thank you to Alex Aleman for playing Hermes and Picus, Brody Blueter for playing Helios, and Jordan Heard for playing our wonderful Circe. Additionally, a huge thank you to Logan Jackson for helping us last minute with blocking out the trailer in Premiere, which allowed me to focus on making assets for the video. All of this couldn't have been done without you guys, as well as the countless friends who hyped us up in the process and will be helping us in the upcoming Playtesting stage before we continue development. It means everything to me.

What's Next?

First off, a break for everyone. Almost all of us are graduating next Saturday, so between that and final in-class debriefs it's time to acknowledge what we've accomplished and decompress!

But for now, we already have the bones for expansion due to our original scope: level designs thanks to Jonah, character designs including Jason and Medea, as well as exploration of sprites and systems for player actions including climbing and attacks. Some additional features that Victoria has ideated include Vine Summoning, Healing Potions, a Gardening mechanic, a Chaos meter that will develop into dialogue choices and multiple endings, a Potion-Making Minigame, and exploration of Microtonal music for Anna.

Original level design before we cut back scope.

For now, Aiaia will be taking notes from play testers, alongside taking a break for a month or two. I once again cannot articulate how thankful I am to everyone who helped on this project, and even more so for those that are to come. Thank you so much guys!

Team Circe, out.