This closing week of the semester has been comprised mostly of gathering what we have to be handed in, so I'll be going over that plus a few other things for after the end of semester. It's been a pretty rushed last couple of weeks since deadlines have been fast approaching for all the modules but at the moment its a case of collecting everything for handing in for this class. About a week ago we discussed the project plan with the team and it was put forward that a good idea would be to implement a tutorial level for the game, just something basic to introduce the player to a couple of the key concepts of the game design. The tutorial level will be simple and as of just now it will basically be a room where the player is to move to the other side but their is a trap in the way which will kill him if he moves to fast. This tutorial will demonstrate one of the key approaches to this style of game, being to take things slow and bait out the traps and pitfalls to clear the way.
Since the last couple of weeks ended up being filled with work on the other modules the work on the game design got postponed a bit but myself and the other coder have made up a project plan for the tutorial level to be done before next semester starts up in February so we have something to get the ball rolling next semester. Work will begin early January but will mainly start after the 17th since that's when our exam will be out the way and we will have a couple of weeks to concentrate on the tutorial level.
For the hand in we need to gather up all the bits and pieces and compile them together so that is the top priority at the moment so tomorrow is going to be a busy day getting that sorted as quickly as possible since I'd rather not have it lingering too long since there's still my personal problem of having a project for another class that needs serious work. Can't be helped, just the way things go in finals week. All in all I think there should be a design document, a level design or two, possibly a few assets made up, the tutorial level project plan, and a couple other small things like a list of game influences and references to be used in the game. Will be getting a hold of everyone to gather it up tomorrow and will write up another blog if things go pear shaped or if anything major changes. Otherwise this will be it for this chunk of the blog covering this semester, will start it back up in January when work on the tutorial level begins and then properly for a week by week account of the second semester.
Thursday 15 December 2011
Tuesday 22 November 2011
Week 9
The group has moved forward in a few areas, specifically the way it has been organized has changed to a much better format. Finally having the various aspects of the development and implementation split across each member. Our group has been arranged into the roles of two designers, two coders and one animator. This is just general roles as there are specifics to each and encompass a few more things than the titles would imply. The designers are doing a level design each as well as designing all the assets and characters. The animator will be creating all the art assets to be implemented in Unity and animating them. The coders (myself being one), will be doing the bulk of the work inside Unity.
The plan is to take one of the level designs and have it implemented to some extent by the end of this semester, in time for the submission for marking. Though if it is lacking then time can be spent working to improve it over the holiday period. Since we don;t start back for the next semester until February. So January can be used to make ground on the first implementation. Leaving us second semester to work on the other and then see what else we can do with it.
We will be seeing the first level design to be implemented tomorrow at the group meeting and will beginning working on something in Unity for the following week. Though it will probably just be something very basic as the assets will need to be created. Need to make sure to balance the work load with the other modules as it is coming into the last four weeks of the semester. A couple of other projects and essays to work on. Though it should be fine.
Once I get some more details of the level design I will do a write up on here of what I think of it and post some initial thoughts on how I think myself and the other coder will go about it. Need to remind the group to post everything up on the Redmine server for easy access and version control. I'll post back in a few days.
The plan is to take one of the level designs and have it implemented to some extent by the end of this semester, in time for the submission for marking. Though if it is lacking then time can be spent working to improve it over the holiday period. Since we don;t start back for the next semester until February. So January can be used to make ground on the first implementation. Leaving us second semester to work on the other and then see what else we can do with it.
We will be seeing the first level design to be implemented tomorrow at the group meeting and will beginning working on something in Unity for the following week. Though it will probably just be something very basic as the assets will need to be created. Need to make sure to balance the work load with the other modules as it is coming into the last four weeks of the semester. A couple of other projects and essays to work on. Though it should be fine.
Once I get some more details of the level design I will do a write up on here of what I think of it and post some initial thoughts on how I think myself and the other coder will go about it. Need to remind the group to post everything up on the Redmine server for easy access and version control. I'll post back in a few days.
Wednesday 9 November 2011
Week 5 and 6
In week 5 myself and one other member where unable to attend the group meeting but where able to get in touch with the other group members via mobile and Steam chat. The group had met up and decided that they would assign each member to design one level for the following week.
Moving into week 6 only myself and two other members made it into the meeting so it was unfortunate to have two weeks in a row where various members were unable to make it in. I wanted to clarify a few things with the members that where there though so we were able to make decent ground in some regards. I wasn't a fan of the approach that seemed to be taken where the game design was being chopped up and spread amongst each members. Having made a point of mentioning in the first group meeting (which one other member made as well), I didn't particularly want to be involved in the game design. Instead focusing on the implementation in Unity. I personally feel like it has been a bit of an issue where no one has really taken a leadership role, or not even that but no one has put themselves forward and said I want to do A and B but don't want to be involved in C or D. I'm definitely all for the latter, as I have no interest to get involved in the game design and don't have any skills in art or animation so would much prefer to work on the coding and implementation in Unity. Between the group there's enough of us to spread the roles amongst one another and I don't think it is efficient to be dishing little bits of everything amongst everyone. So I will be bringing this up at the next meeting.
We were able to get a couple of other things done there and then at the last meeting between the three of us. We set up a group work space on Redmine which to be honest was a bit overdue and will be getting implemented for the last 5 weeks or so to try get things on track and the project coming to fruition. We decided we meet as well put a list of our two cents in regards to the game design since we didn't want to full on make a level design each but thought we would just compile some things we thought could be put in. Since the game design is in a way a tribute to the cliches of the FPS genre, we compiled a list of classic FPS games and thought about different key elements of those games which we could somehow reference and put into our gameplay in obscure or sense conflicting way. It didn't take long to compile a decent list with numerous games and some good ideas that could definitely get implemented.
I'll be doing a mid week blog next time since I'm hoping some substantial changes could be coming along at the next meeting that I can post up.
Moving into week 6 only myself and two other members made it into the meeting so it was unfortunate to have two weeks in a row where various members were unable to make it in. I wanted to clarify a few things with the members that where there though so we were able to make decent ground in some regards. I wasn't a fan of the approach that seemed to be taken where the game design was being chopped up and spread amongst each members. Having made a point of mentioning in the first group meeting (which one other member made as well), I didn't particularly want to be involved in the game design. Instead focusing on the implementation in Unity. I personally feel like it has been a bit of an issue where no one has really taken a leadership role, or not even that but no one has put themselves forward and said I want to do A and B but don't want to be involved in C or D. I'm definitely all for the latter, as I have no interest to get involved in the game design and don't have any skills in art or animation so would much prefer to work on the coding and implementation in Unity. Between the group there's enough of us to spread the roles amongst one another and I don't think it is efficient to be dishing little bits of everything amongst everyone. So I will be bringing this up at the next meeting.
We were able to get a couple of other things done there and then at the last meeting between the three of us. We set up a group work space on Redmine which to be honest was a bit overdue and will be getting implemented for the last 5 weeks or so to try get things on track and the project coming to fruition. We decided we meet as well put a list of our two cents in regards to the game design since we didn't want to full on make a level design each but thought we would just compile some things we thought could be put in. Since the game design is in a way a tribute to the cliches of the FPS genre, we compiled a list of classic FPS games and thought about different key elements of those games which we could somehow reference and put into our gameplay in obscure or sense conflicting way. It didn't take long to compile a decent list with numerous games and some good ideas that could definitely get implemented.
I'll be doing a mid week blog next time since I'm hoping some substantial changes could be coming along at the next meeting that I can post up.
Tuesday 25 October 2011
Week 4
This past week our group had a new member introduced into the group. Fortunately it was at a stage that it wasn't going to be a problem. We were able to catch him up with what had been going on over the last couple of weeks pretty quickly. We talked a bit about what his skill set was and what he could see himself doing in the project. He had similar circumstances as the rest of us in terms of previous experience with our target platform. He had a basic foundation in programming but hadn't worked with the Unity development environment before, like the rest of us. Unfortunately he said he didn't have any notable art/animation skills so we are still at the same position we were as last time in that department. We will just have to work around it.
At the last meeting one member was absent which didn't cause any real problems but he did assign looking into basic animation and asset creation to himself. He should be at the next group meeting so he can let us know how that went, which will influence the scope of the game design.
Myself and two of the other team members are still focusing on Unity tutorials and I'm hopefully we can make a start on some of the project in the next week or two. The game design will be getting finalized at the next meeting which means we can move forward in other areas.
After our last meeting we decided that we would move towards the Platformer game instead of the Mech Shooter game. So we began to talk a bit more about what we would want from the game and shared some ideas. It became apparent that I had confused the idea a little bit and in fact it wasn't initially pitched as being a Platformer game. The reference that was given as inspiration for the game was a Platformer game called "I Wanna Be The Guy". Described as being a "nail-rippingly difficult platform adventure.". The pitch that the member of our group made was to make a 3D FPS game called "I Wanna Shoot The Guy". Which would pay homage to the FPS genre in a similar way that "I Wanna Be The Guy" did with Platformer games. By taking a lot of the classic elements found in the FPS genre and turning them around to make an exceptionally difficult and frustrating FPS experience.
So it was my mistake as I got the reference of "I Wanna Be The Guy" mixed up with his twist on it for our possible game idea. I like the idea a lot an think it could be a lot of fun to develop so after a bit more talk about it we decided we would all have some final thoughts about it over the next week and come back for the next meeting with the intention of making the design document for the game next time. We were given a design document that had been written previously for it and we were to use that as a starting point and would start from there for our game design.
At the last meeting one member was absent which didn't cause any real problems but he did assign looking into basic animation and asset creation to himself. He should be at the next group meeting so he can let us know how that went, which will influence the scope of the game design.
Myself and two of the other team members are still focusing on Unity tutorials and I'm hopefully we can make a start on some of the project in the next week or two. The game design will be getting finalized at the next meeting which means we can move forward in other areas.
After our last meeting we decided that we would move towards the Platformer game instead of the Mech Shooter game. So we began to talk a bit more about what we would want from the game and shared some ideas. It became apparent that I had confused the idea a little bit and in fact it wasn't initially pitched as being a Platformer game. The reference that was given as inspiration for the game was a Platformer game called "I Wanna Be The Guy". Described as being a "nail-rippingly difficult platform adventure.". The pitch that the member of our group made was to make a 3D FPS game called "I Wanna Shoot The Guy". Which would pay homage to the FPS genre in a similar way that "I Wanna Be The Guy" did with Platformer games. By taking a lot of the classic elements found in the FPS genre and turning them around to make an exceptionally difficult and frustrating FPS experience.
So it was my mistake as I got the reference of "I Wanna Be The Guy" mixed up with his twist on it for our possible game idea. I like the idea a lot an think it could be a lot of fun to develop so after a bit more talk about it we decided we would all have some final thoughts about it over the next week and come back for the next meeting with the intention of making the design document for the game next time. We were given a design document that had been written previously for it and we were to use that as a starting point and would start from there for our game design.
Tuesday 18 October 2011
Week 3
Our group met for the first time as a whole (Four of us in total) and we where able to push some progress for the project and establish some of the ground we would be building up from. After some brief introductions and discussion which recapped our individual past experience, we quickly moved onto discussing game ideas and what environment would best suit us as a group. I'll go over what was discussed about our planned project environment first since we focused mainly on the game design.
After a very brief discussion, it was made quite clear that Unity looked to be our best option. Mainly since we had some Java experience across the group and felt it would be the most manageable option, considering the timescale we were looking at. The Unreal development (UDK) kit was brought up as a possible platform but weighing up the pros and the cons, Unity was a better option. Unity suited our initial design ideas better and we were advised that it would be much more manageable in terms of the time it would take to learn how to work with Unity compared to the UDK.
Moving onto what was covered for the game ideas, which was the focus of that weeks meetup. At first we took a round robin approach for pitching some ideas. Two of the team members put across two fairly detailed explanations of good game ideas which I liked and gave me some confidence for how the game design would turn out. Personally when it came to putting forward a game design I didn't really have much to put forward as game design is not my area of interest and coding is what I would prefer to focus on. A similar situation for the other member of the group. It wasn't to be a problem though as after talking a bit more about the two game ideas that had been put forward, it was clear we definitely had some workable ideas we could start to dissect. The one point I personally put out for the game wasn't so much a game design but more something that I thought would influence the game design. From talking about our previous experience it was clear that the group lacked an artistic or animation strength. I had already had this in mind but after this was made apparent it dawned on me that my suggestion would, in theory, hopefully down scale this problem. I had personally wanted to make a game in 3D but using the rendering technique of Cell Shading. So we then took the game ideas that had been put forward with a thought to them being cell shaded. Which could help to cover our weaknesses in art and modeling etc...
Both ideas are still being thought about but I will briefly describe them both. One is essentially a 3D (possibly 2D or 2.5D) platformer game but focuses on clever level design to appeal. It would be made with classic platformer cliches in mind but made non nonsensical and much more punishing towards the player. So the difficulty has to be higher than expected to be be the draw of the game, the challenge it presents and being able to overcome it. I don't want to get into all of the details that where described for it since it may not be the idea we go with. I personally liked this idea because it would give us a lot of flexibility in terms of the games actual design and could relieve some pressure on certain aspects of the game creation. Specifically things like model creation and scripting since a thought out level design is going to be the strong point of this game idea.
The other idea that was put forward was a top down mech (Mix between a tank and a robot) shooter that would allow the player to customize there mech before playing the game and different types of mech would give a different weapon set and attributes attached to it which would give a variety of play experience. In terms of the actual gameplay post mech customization, it would draw from elements of bullet hell games. Moving down a corridor having to destroy waves of enemies whilst avoiding enemy attacks to survive. This was the core of this game idea and there was some more to it but I'll leave it at that until we are settled on a design and it has been fleshed out more.
We all decided to have a think about it over the following week and would discuss it again at the next meeting and settle on an idea so we could start the production of a design document for the chosen game idea. Other than that personally we have each been told to keep looking up tutorials and generally studying how to use the Unity platform. One member has said they would look into our options for making models and animation for the project since it is a grey area for the group on the whole.
After a very brief discussion, it was made quite clear that Unity looked to be our best option. Mainly since we had some Java experience across the group and felt it would be the most manageable option, considering the timescale we were looking at. The Unreal development (UDK) kit was brought up as a possible platform but weighing up the pros and the cons, Unity was a better option. Unity suited our initial design ideas better and we were advised that it would be much more manageable in terms of the time it would take to learn how to work with Unity compared to the UDK.
Moving onto what was covered for the game ideas, which was the focus of that weeks meetup. At first we took a round robin approach for pitching some ideas. Two of the team members put across two fairly detailed explanations of good game ideas which I liked and gave me some confidence for how the game design would turn out. Personally when it came to putting forward a game design I didn't really have much to put forward as game design is not my area of interest and coding is what I would prefer to focus on. A similar situation for the other member of the group. It wasn't to be a problem though as after talking a bit more about the two game ideas that had been put forward, it was clear we definitely had some workable ideas we could start to dissect. The one point I personally put out for the game wasn't so much a game design but more something that I thought would influence the game design. From talking about our previous experience it was clear that the group lacked an artistic or animation strength. I had already had this in mind but after this was made apparent it dawned on me that my suggestion would, in theory, hopefully down scale this problem. I had personally wanted to make a game in 3D but using the rendering technique of Cell Shading. So we then took the game ideas that had been put forward with a thought to them being cell shaded. Which could help to cover our weaknesses in art and modeling etc...
Both ideas are still being thought about but I will briefly describe them both. One is essentially a 3D (possibly 2D or 2.5D) platformer game but focuses on clever level design to appeal. It would be made with classic platformer cliches in mind but made non nonsensical and much more punishing towards the player. So the difficulty has to be higher than expected to be be the draw of the game, the challenge it presents and being able to overcome it. I don't want to get into all of the details that where described for it since it may not be the idea we go with. I personally liked this idea because it would give us a lot of flexibility in terms of the games actual design and could relieve some pressure on certain aspects of the game creation. Specifically things like model creation and scripting since a thought out level design is going to be the strong point of this game idea.
The other idea that was put forward was a top down mech (Mix between a tank and a robot) shooter that would allow the player to customize there mech before playing the game and different types of mech would give a different weapon set and attributes attached to it which would give a variety of play experience. In terms of the actual gameplay post mech customization, it would draw from elements of bullet hell games. Moving down a corridor having to destroy waves of enemies whilst avoiding enemy attacks to survive. This was the core of this game idea and there was some more to it but I'll leave it at that until we are settled on a design and it has been fleshed out more.
We all decided to have a think about it over the following week and would discuss it again at the next meeting and settle on an idea so we could start the production of a design document for the chosen game idea. Other than that personally we have each been told to keep looking up tutorials and generally studying how to use the Unity platform. One member has said they would look into our options for making models and animation for the project since it is a grey area for the group on the whole.
Tuesday 11 October 2011
Week 1 and 2 Catchup
This is going to be a summary blog going over whats been happening with this module and my group thus far.
Originally myself and my brother where in a group in the Technology degree course but changed to the Development program by the next week so our group was finalized on the second week of the module (5th). Me and my brother are still in a group together along with two guys who where in the same scenario as us in that they also where changing from the Technology course to Development. This is more ideal since it means we are all more aware of our previous experience since we have all done the same modules from second year bar one.
In terms of what we discussed last week, one of the guys was absent but it wasn't such a problem since we were just really chatting about some possibilities for our project scope. It didn't take us to long to settle on Unity as our desired platform for making a project. Though the three of us that were present were all similar in that our experience with Unity was very little, we feel that the time available for us is plenty of time to learn the platform to a standard that we can develop a project by the end of the year.
We briefly discussed some game design ideas but since it was such an early stage we decided we would each go and think about a game design that we would like to do for the project. Then come back and discuss each others ideas in week three. We also each agreed at this stage that we should all be working individually on tutorials and looking at documentation for using Unity and start to learn the development kit.
Over the last week I have been reading up on using the Unity platform. Though whilst I have a very general idea as to what kind of game I would like to design, at this point the scale that would be realistic for our group project is still a bit blurred. I personally would like to develop a third person plat-former game at it's core but I'm currently still developing a proper design plan for it. As the weeks go by and my understanding of Unity grows, I will be able to pin point the scale of the design to something realistic for development in the year we have been given for this module.
I'd just like to put that I personally like to play very competitively and even though this is my personal preference for gaming, for this project I'd like to develop something that moved away from that and was more like the games I played growing up (Nintendo and Sega etc...) but also blend it's aesthetics and style with some of my favorite games. In particular Killer7. Hence why I would ideally like to develop a platformer game with a very defined style and setting. Though at this stage I'm still trying to find out if it is something that is realistic for this module. I'm aiming to post up some actual insight into the game design I have in mind on this blog for next week.
Originally myself and my brother where in a group in the Technology degree course but changed to the Development program by the next week so our group was finalized on the second week of the module (5th). Me and my brother are still in a group together along with two guys who where in the same scenario as us in that they also where changing from the Technology course to Development. This is more ideal since it means we are all more aware of our previous experience since we have all done the same modules from second year bar one.
In terms of what we discussed last week, one of the guys was absent but it wasn't such a problem since we were just really chatting about some possibilities for our project scope. It didn't take us to long to settle on Unity as our desired platform for making a project. Though the three of us that were present were all similar in that our experience with Unity was very little, we feel that the time available for us is plenty of time to learn the platform to a standard that we can develop a project by the end of the year.
We briefly discussed some game design ideas but since it was such an early stage we decided we would each go and think about a game design that we would like to do for the project. Then come back and discuss each others ideas in week three. We also each agreed at this stage that we should all be working individually on tutorials and looking at documentation for using Unity and start to learn the development kit.
Over the last week I have been reading up on using the Unity platform. Though whilst I have a very general idea as to what kind of game I would like to design, at this point the scale that would be realistic for our group project is still a bit blurred. I personally would like to develop a third person plat-former game at it's core but I'm currently still developing a proper design plan for it. As the weeks go by and my understanding of Unity grows, I will be able to pin point the scale of the design to something realistic for development in the year we have been given for this module.
I'd just like to put that I personally like to play very competitively and even though this is my personal preference for gaming, for this project I'd like to develop something that moved away from that and was more like the games I played growing up (Nintendo and Sega etc...) but also blend it's aesthetics and style with some of my favorite games. In particular Killer7. Hence why I would ideally like to develop a platformer game with a very defined style and setting. Though at this stage I'm still trying to find out if it is something that is realistic for this module. I'm aiming to post up some actual insight into the game design I have in mind on this blog for next week.
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