The prototype I created that week was a storyboard and what frames I had created so far for the animatic I planned to put at the very beginning of the game. This animatic would basically explain why the player character is starting at an entrance of a farm village at the start of the game. The flashback parts were drawn in b/w and the present-time parts were in color so that viewers can better tell what’s happening when. The basic gist of the animatic is that the main character compared himself to his friends and felt unready to be kicked out of the ‘teen circle’. From the anxiety he felt, he decided to act/become incredibly immature as if that’d slow down the process. What resulted was him barely graduating highschool and not getting accepted into a college. After receiving a scolding from both his teachers and parents, his parents tell him they’re sending him to his grandparents’ home for the duration of Summer in the hopes of him calming the heck down, maturing, and getting into a university.

What I had hoped to learn from this prototype was mainly if 1) they can tell what’s happening in the animatic/the story being told w/o me saying anything, 2) if the flow makes sense/feels right or if I should add/delete/change some frames, and 3) if the art-style of the animatic matched/went with the game’s art-style (sprites, bg, etc.).

I learned that people were able to tell the gist of what was happening without words being provided and that the art-style looked fine. But seeing as how I did a few timeskips in the animatic, it was recommended for me to make sure that the characters that aged looked the same throughout the ages/were easily recognizable (same clothes and hairstyle for example).