Alright, so the first blog post of our current project! 

We are 4 students from Howest DAE, working on a small couch co-op game where you'll play in a team of astronauts who crashed on an alien planet. 

You will play as a group of astronauts, 2 to 4 players, that have crash landed on an alien planet. Due to the crash, all parts of the rocket ship flew off and scattered around the level. The astronauts need to run around, collecting and carrying back these lost part in oder to repair their ship and get off the planet. But there's danger lurking in the shadows of this place. Alien inhabitants will come running at you and attack you for disturbing their peace. You will need to work together as a team, since you need to protect your friends who are busy carrying back the parts. After all, you cannot carry heavy parts and shoot at enemies at the same time! Cooperation is key and without proper communication, you might leave your friends off to danger.

Last week, we spent a lot of time brainstorming, sketching and working out our ideas, so that this week we could start working on the first prototype.  The two important things we worked on were: the core  gameplay mechanics and the art style of the game.  

The mechanics that were implemented into the prototype are: local co-op, shooting/reloading, movement, camera tracking. Luckily, most of the programming so far has gone very smooth. No problems were yet encountered here! The mechanics are not fully optimized yet, but are functional. 

The important questions we tried to tackle were:

1. Is the camera angle working in our advantage?

2. Does the running and shooting feel satisfying enough?

3. Are the core mechanics balanced?

4. is the game fun to play?

As for the art of the game. For the design of the level, we had to come up with an interesting way to block off the edges of the level so that the players won't accidentally walk off the area. Since the camera is in a top-down angle and there is limited camera movement, we needed to come up with an interesting, natural way to block off the edges. Some of the ideas we came up with were: vegetation, rocks and cliffs, and water. These ideas were sketched out and will be further developed the upcoming week.

We also got started on the design of the main characters. The characters needed to stand out from the dangerous environment. We came up with the idea to use cute, round shapes and big heads. 

Our plans for the upcoming week: 

- fully finish the art bible, and have a clear image of that the game is going to look like

- Get the main mechanics into the prototype so we are ready to test if the game is fun and the cooperation aspects work.

- Create a simple blockout of the level, so the mechanics can be tested in a evironment that wil represent the final game.