Sprint 1 (Feb 8 - 13)

Our initial sprint, from February 8 to 13, concentrated on establishing the core mechanics. We wanted to implement drone controls that feel both intuitive and semi-realistic, striking a balance between challenge and accessibility. A key gameplay feature—the grabbing mechanic—was also introduced. This allows the drone to pick up and deliver food using a physics-based claw system, which adds depth and complexity to the player’s actions. Although we had some rough edges with the grabbing implementation (skewed pickup boxes, etc.), we were able to eventually refine it in the following weeks using the crucial playtest feedback we got. Additional tasks completed included the development of a basic flying NPC (bird), the integration of a game timer, the creation of a minimap to display delivery points, and initial work on the damage mechanic. We also began integrating art assets such as pizza models and early drone visuals.

We found that many people had difficulty flying this drone however. As the people who created the drone and had many hours of practice flying the drone, we didn't realize that it was so difficult. It came as a surprise when other people struggled to do even the most basic tasks in the game, which made it incredibly challenging and not fun. Thus, we decided to reduce the difficulty in a future sprint.

On the art side of things it's important to detail what was discussed between the initial demo and our first sprint. A lot of discussion went towards the emotions and themes we wanted the game to invoke. Ultimately after much discussion and brainstorming we decided to go for a colourful voxel art style, very much inspired by games like Crossy Road.  We had separated ourselves into specific roles, with someone in charge of the Drone, Environment, 2D Assets like UI and a technical artist to implement these all into the game as well as handle in engine stuff on the art side.

 While we explored different methods we could take to make the cityscape we settled on using a top down city generator and using it as a template for our assets. This system let use make a visually interesting city with sections that felt unique and distinguishable. By the end of the first sprint we had a small environment featuring a building, house and donut shop 3D model. We also had a 3D model for the pigeon enemy and a UI template set up for further development.