# Weekly Studio Production Meeting

**Studio:** Lantern Fox Games  
**Date:** July 30, 2026  
**Time:** 10:00–11:05 a.m. ET  
**Location:** Discord — Production Room

## Attendees

- Maya Chen — Creative Director
- Owen Brooks — Lead Programmer
- Priya Nair — Art Director
- Luis Romero — Game Designer
- Hannah Park — Producer
- Theo Martin — Audio Designer
- Sam Okafor — Community and Marketing

**Absent:** Jules Bernard — QA Lead (playtest build validation)

## Agenda

1. Milestone progress and current blockers
2. Combat tutorial feedback
3. Environment art scope
4. Steam demo and festival timeline
5. Audio implementation
6. Community playtest planning

## Discussion Notes

### Milestone Progress

- The team remains on track for the August 14 internal vertical-slice deadline, but the schedule has little contingency.
- Save/load refactor is complete and awaiting regression testing.
- Controller remapping is behind schedule due to conflicts with the new input buffering system.
- The Harbor district is playable from start to finish, though several interiors still use blockout assets.
- Jules reported three high-priority issues before the meeting:
  - Rare soft lock after losing the lighthouse boss fight
  - Player inventory occasionally duplicating after loading an autosave
  - Missing collision near the Harbor elevator

### Combat Tutorial

- Recent testers understood basic attacks but frequently missed the stamina-break mechanic.
- The current tutorial text appears during combat and is often ignored.
- Luis proposed introducing stamina break through a short, low-pressure encounter before the first elite enemy.
- Priya noted that another bespoke tutorial room would add environment-art work.
- The team agreed to reuse the fish market alley and gate progression with an armored enemy.

### Environment Art Scope

- The original plan includes five accessible shop interiors in the Harbor district.
- Only the apothecary and pawn shop are relevant to quests.
- Completing all five interiors would likely require four additional art days plus lighting and collision passes.
- Background NPC variety is also below target, but recolors and accessory swaps can cover the demo.

### Steam Demo and Festival Timeline

- The target demo length is 35–45 minutes.
- A public demo candidate should be ready by September 4 to allow two weeks for QA and platform checks.
- The demo will end after the lighthouse boss and include a short teaser for the next district.
- Sam needs final key art and approved gameplay footage before preparing the Steam event page.
- The team discussed announcing the demo date only after the first external playtest.

### Audio

- Exploration music transitions are working in the Harbor district.
- Combat-to-exploration transitions still cut abruptly when enemies lose aggro.
- Theo requested an exposed cooldown value so audio can delay the transition without requiring a new music state.
- Several market props still lack interaction sounds; these are considered polish rather than milestone blockers.

### Community Playtest

- The first closed playtest will include 25–30 players from the mailing list and Discord.
- Testers will receive a feedback form covering onboarding, combat clarity, performance, and overall playtime.
- Crash logs and anonymized hardware specifications will be collected with explicit consent.
- Proposed session window: August 22–24.

## Decisions

- Keep the August 14 vertical-slice deadline.
- Replace the combat tutorial pop-up with a staged armored-enemy encounter in the existing fish market alley.
- Limit accessible Harbor shop interiors to the apothecary and pawn shop for the demo.
- Treat additional NPC variants and prop interaction sounds as polish tasks.
- End the public demo immediately after the lighthouse boss.
- Target September 4 for the public demo candidate.
- Do not announce the public demo date until closed-playtest results have been reviewed.
- Schedule the closed community playtest for August 22–24, pending build stability.

## Action Items

| Owner | Action | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Owen | Fix the lighthouse boss soft lock and inventory duplication bug | August 4 |
| Owen | Expose the combat music cooldown value to the audio system | August 5 |
| Jules | Run save/load regression testing and verify the Harbor elevator collision fix | August 6 |
| Luis | Revise the fish market encounter and remove the existing stamina tutorial pop-up | August 3 |
| Priya | Finalize the apothecary and pawn shop asset lists; move other interiors out of demo scope | August 1 |
| Priya | Deliver a key-art composition draft for review | August 7 |
| Theo | Tune combat-to-exploration transitions after the cooldown value is available | August 8 |
| Sam | Draft the closed-playtest invitation and consent language | August 7 |
| Sam | Prepare the playtest feedback form | August 10 |
| Hannah | Update the production schedule and milestone scope | August 1 |
| Hannah | Confirm August 22–24 playtest staffing and support coverage | August 8 |
| Maya | Review key-art draft and approve gameplay capture locations | August 10 |

## Risks and Blockers

- Controller remapping may slip beyond the vertical slice if input-system conflicts continue.
- The lighthouse boss soft lock must be resolved before external testing.
- The demo schedule has limited buffer for certification-like platform checks and regression testing.
- Marketing asset preparation depends on final Harbor lighting and stable capture performance.

## Next Meeting

**Date:** August 6, 2026  
**Focus:** Vertical-slice bug status, tutorial encounter review, and playtest readiness.