# Weekly Studio Production Meeting

**Date:** July 30, 2026  
**Time:** 10:00–11:05 AM  
**Location:** Discord / Studio Voice  
**Facilitator:** Maya Chen  
**Note-taker:** Eli Navarro

## Attendees

- Maya Chen — Creative Director
- Owen Brooks — Lead Programmer
- Priya Shah — Art Director
- Eli Navarro — Producer
- Tessa Morgan — Narrative Designer
- Jordan Kim — Audio Designer
- Sam Ortiz — Community and Marketing

**Absent:** Leo Park — QA Lead (planned vacation)

## Agenda

1. Current milestone status
2. Combat and tutorial feedback
3. Art and audio production
4. Demo scope and release timing
5. Marketing plans for the August showcase
6. Risks, blockers, and next steps

## Discussion Notes

### Milestone Status

- The vertical-slice build is broadly on schedule, but controller rebinding and save migration are behind.
- All three demo areas are playable from start to finish.
- The marsh boss still has placeholder effects and an inconsistent second-phase trigger.
- Internal playtest completion time averaged 42 minutes, above the 25–30 minute target.
- Two crashes were reported. One appears related to changing scenes while dialogue is active; the other has not been reproduced.

### Combat and Tutorial

- Playtesters understood basic movement quickly but frequently missed the stamina-break mechanic.
- The team agreed that adding more tutorial text would interrupt the opening sequence.
- Priya suggested introducing an enemy with an exaggerated guard-break reaction before the first difficult encounter.
- Dash invulnerability feels inconsistent because the animation does not clearly communicate its active frames.
- Owen confirmed the mechanic is functioning as designed; the issue is likely visual and audio feedback rather than timing.

### Art and Audio

- Character portrait revisions are complete except for the merchant’s injured variant.
- The marsh environment needs another lighting pass to improve player navigation.
- Jordan has first-pass music for the boss encounter and will test a less abrupt transition into phase two.
- Footstep variations are implemented for stone and wood; mud and shallow water remain outstanding.
- The team wants to retain the hand-painted loading screens even though they add approximately 35 MB to the demo.

### Demo Scope and Timing

- The original demo endpoint included the full merchant side quest.
- Cutting the side quest would save testing time and bring the average session closer to the target length.
- Tessa noted that the quest provides important context for the protagonist but agreed it is not required for the demo.
- The public demo remains targeted for September 10, with a release-candidate build needed by September 2.

### Marketing and Community

- The August showcase submission requires a new trailer by August 18.
- Sam proposed focusing the trailer on exploration, the companion system, and the marsh boss rather than explaining the full story premise.
- Current store-page screenshots no longer reflect the updated lighting and UI.
- A closed community playtest is planned for August 14 with approximately 40 participants.

## Decisions

- Remove the merchant side quest from the public demo; keep its assets and implementation in the main game branch.
- Replace additional tutorial text with a short encounter designed to teach stamina breaks through enemy behavior and animation.
- Keep dash timing unchanged and improve visual and audio feedback around invulnerability frames.
- Retain the hand-painted loading screens in the demo despite the build-size increase.
- Target a 25–30 minute first-time demo playthrough.
- Keep September 10 as the public demo date and September 2 as the release-candidate deadline.
- Structure the showcase trailer around exploration, companionship, and combat, with minimal plot exposition.

## Action Items

- **Owen:** Fix the marsh boss phase-two trigger and investigate both reported crashes by August 5.
- **Owen:** Complete controller rebinding and confirm supported controller layouts by August 7.
- **Priya:** Design the stamina-break tutorial enemy and provide updated animations by August 6.
- **Priya:** Complete the marsh lighting pass and merchant portrait variant by August 8.
- **Jordan:** Add clearer dash feedback, finish mud and water footsteps, and revise the boss music transition by August 7.
- **Tessa:** Adjust dialogue and progression to remove the merchant side quest from the demo branch by August 4.
- **Eli:** Update the demo scope document, milestone schedule, and QA checklist by August 3.
- **Eli:** Coordinate the August 14 closed playtest and prepare the feedback survey by August 10.
- **Sam:** Draft the showcase trailer outline and capture list by August 4.
- **Sam:** Replace outdated store-page screenshots after the lighting pass is merged.
- **Maya:** Review and approve the trailer outline by August 6.

## Risks and Blockers

- Controller rebinding may affect the release-candidate schedule if implementation extends beyond August 7.
- The unresolved scene-transition crash could block the community playtest.
- Trailer capture depends on the marsh lighting pass and boss effects being stable.
- QA capacity is limited until Leo returns on August 3.

## Next Meeting

**Date:** August 6, 2026  
**Focus:** Crash status, controller support, tutorial encounter review, and trailer plan approval.