Draft:Chris Sorrell: Difference between revisions

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 I think you guys have discussed the Jabberwocky level on the forum and got it pretty much right - it was a chase section where Dan was pursued by the Jabberwocky that ultimately we see only in FMV. I did do a little work on this sequence myself (which was unusual because it was the only actual level programming that I did), and it wasn't really working out either in terms of fun gameplay or our ability to make a convincing looking forest chase within our tiny geometry budget so cutting this one was an easy choice (I think I'd been playing too much Crash Bandicoot!). The Halls of Illusion were going to feature lots of mirror based puzzles and doppelganger Dans that you'd have to fight. This was another one where the concept was a little more ambitious than our relatively humble tech could really accommodate without consuming way too much development time.
-===May 7, 2013<ref>http://sirdanielfortesque.proboards.com/post/12662</ref>===
+===May 7, 2013 - additional Q&A<ref>http://sirdanielfortesque.proboards.com/post/12662</ref>===
 ) An English disk of MediEvil 1 has been uploaded online in Spain, and this version is a full build of MediEvil 1 but contains several minor differences from the game we're familiar with. A main difference is that the battle-axe is obtainable during the first visit to the Hall of Heroes. Do you know if this was a beta version of the game? If so, would you have an idea of how it got to be in Spain?
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 CS - I don't think the image has any real significance - just a texture created by Jason to convey the feel of a worn away ancient mosaic. ...It seems to be a Roman centurion which doesn't make it an image that's especially 'true' to the MediEvil world, but then again we never really defined where (or when) the game is set... Since MediEvil 2 was in Victorian London, its fair to say that Gallowmere must have been a 'Dark Ages' realm somewhere in Europe and hence somewhere most likely ruled by the Roman empire a good while before that? :)
+===June 24, 2013<ref>http://sirdanielfortesque.proboards.com/post/12898</ref>===
+'''1)''' In one of the early builds of MediEvil, there is an item called the "Lake Key". What was this to be used for?
+'''CS''' - I believe that was for an area of The Lake that got reworked and the key was no longer required.
+'''2) '''On Jason Wilson's old website, it was written that:Underneath Gallowmere is an ancient land that Zarok seeks to plunder. Part of this ancient land is the sunken village. Each area of the ancient land contained a number of crystals that Dan must activate in order to cause the land to implode thus ending Zarok's plan of domination.
+'''CS''' - That's one you're better asking Jason! There are certainly aspects of the MediEvil universe that we never discussed and which weren't fully fleshed out at the time we made MediEvil 1. Different people, e.g. Jason or the MediEvil PSP team may have taken things in slightly different directions to the path I might have chosen. To me, Zarok's underground domain was really just The City of Madness which existed inside within a hollowed out mountain - the area seen in the panning shot after Dan falls down from The Entrance Hall.
+Also, the Lake is usually the penultimate level in level listings found in the game files.
+I think that's just a consequence of it being one of the later levels that we started working on (plus it didn't exist in the very first design documents).
+'''3)''' Was the Lake meant to play a larger role in the game?
+'''CS''' - No, I don't recall that being the case.
+'''4) '''Also, I have question about a character called "Uncle Mad" who can be found in Sleeping Village in the prototype;
+[[File:Uncle_Mad.png|left]]{{clear}}
+Why was this character cut from the game?
+'''CS''' - Another good question. I don't recall the exact answer but it was likely a combination of
+#We had to trim a few things to make best use of our time in the last months of development.
+#Any in game depiction of drugs, alcohol, etc used to be very frowned upon so a drunk looking character could have been a problem with QA regarding the quality/content checklists they have to follow.
+#He was a character rooted on the spot who threw bottles at you - i.e. very easy and not very interesting for the player to take out!
+===June 24, 2013 - additional Q&A<ref>http://sirdanielfortesque.proboards.com/post/13209</ref>===
+'''1)''' There is a level called the "Programmer's Playground" listed among the other levels in the code. What exactly was the purpose of this zone?
+'''CS '''- The Programmers Playground was a test level with geometry built to represent all of the different types of landscape seen across the game. By this I don't mean how the landscape looked - the PP was pretty ugly looking with just placeholder textures - but things like different slope gradients, platform spacing for jump height and length, that kind of thing.
+Most games feature a test environment of this sort. The advantage is that it allows the programmers to try stuff out, to work with designers to pin down the right player control dynamics, and to get these things right in a prototype form that the art team can then use as a reference as they build the real levels.
+Our PP also featured some areas where we would test out enemy AI. We had a few different 'pens' where we had different kinds of zombies mapped and another area where you could pick up one of each of the different weapon types to go shoot them - like fish in a barrel - when tuning things like weapon hit strengths or setting up hit effects.
+I wouldn't say this was a problem so much with the MediEvil team, but quite often programmers really don't like having to actually 'play' a game in order to test out features that they're working on - having a test environment allows them to jump right to the content they need (quite a time saving when you need to try out something many many times as you're hooking stuff up or trying to recreate a bug).
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