I finally got to stand in the shelter waiting room at the height I'll actually play the game. It's a different thing from looking at the furniture one piece at a time.
Production concept for the seated reader used as shelter reception dressing.
The image-led pipeline gave me furniture, dressing and figures to arrange. I composed the room in Unity and could judge the waiting woman, reader and resting animals in the scene rather than in isolation.
Those figures were static dressing at this stage. I tested live behavior separately by carrying Charlie into the shelter and putting him down after travel.
Charlie recognized the player and entered an escape state. The log also showed what I hadn’t authored yet: a goal or hiding place for a rat in that room.
The tools helped me get to a room I could judge quickly. Playing the room then told me what to ask for next, and what I still needed to author myself.