Trent's Weekly Blog 3

I did a bunch this week, compared to last week. Our game is really ramping up and starting to improve, moving from an idea to a full fledged game. Albeit a game that sucks at the moment, but potential is there.
What I did:
~Worked on gravity and created the currently used version
~Threw all the things we had together and built a playtest then set up instructions on how to use it, how to playtest with it, and sent it out.
~Conducted two Playtests with my friend and one of my roommates.
~Created Transitions between Menu Screen to Play screen to a Win Screen
~Created a (very poor) Win Screen
~Spent a buncha time trying to make gravity better, right now it sucks but it's workable, I want it to be better, more smooth, more realistic.
~Imported Frank's menu screen to our game from the demo project it was in
~Applauded as Charlie did a buncha the programming for things (Go Charlie!)
~Helped Frank solve perforce issues a bunch
~Researched and learned more about Unity scripting and Javascript
~Solved a few other perforce issues, that program is not very user friendly, but is very powerful
~Maybe other stuff that I'm forgetting, and I had help on some of the stuff I did

What I want to do next (In order of Importance generally):
~Import what we currently have, a buncha mixed up random stuff in random places, into a clean and organized project, which works (we're having issues atm), and then move forward from there.
~Identify other areas that need to be implemented and do them or make sure someone else is doing them
~Make gravity work better!
~Continue to help solve issues
~Learn Unity/Javascript more
~Other things that I'm currently forgetting.

Things I Think We All Need To Do Next: (With area designations)
~Collisions with planets (Programming, or design can figure out how to use unity to do it)
~Restart option (Think Charlie already got this, just not in the playtest)
~Reflect on the Playtests we all do (Everyone, make sure its in your notes, Adam who will write a report, my big things are right here)
~Start position for Gravman (Programming or Design, likely programming)
~Arrows or ghosting to get sample trajectory on GravMan (Programming)
~Instructions screen (Design)
~GravMan Model (Art, I think andy already has one just not in the playtest)
~Better planet Models (Art, little bit design)
~Background stuff or noise, suggestion from my playtesters, to make it look more interesting like space or something (Art, design)
~Placement of planets (Programming, Design to figure out how exactly we'll do it)
~Having more planets/obstacles for our next playtest (Programming, Design)
~New level for our next Playtest (Design, Art, programming)
~More communication and help! We've done good on this so far, emailing seems to generate response, texting worked atleast between Adam and I, skype can be good too be on that If you're working on stuff, Just check the blog more and keep us updated on what you're doing and how you're doing (Everyone)

Ending notes, I'm super proud of having a working play test with stuff in it that plays. That's always the first step of a game. I know it kinda sucks at the moment (I think so at least, my playtesters didn't say as much but they appeared frustrated) but we had like nothing good before yesterday, so continue with this rapid improvement and we'll have a kick ass game in no time. I expect a lot more productivity as we learn perforce (MVP for time slaying) and Unity better so we'll only get better from here. Seem to be on track to a good game, no major issues in design or programming so far that I can see. We should be able to handle and achieve what we set out for, One Minute of Awesomeness we we come!

Log Entry 3 - Frank

Past Week:

I created a menu screen and a win screen. Creating buttons with a script that enables another scene when clicked.

This week:

Create levels and/or some models. Whatever the team needs me to do I'll do it.
Also play test the prototype.

Playtest Time!

I made a simple exe of our game build. It's in the zipped folder on perfoce. Grab a flash drive and stick it on there, or bring people to your computer. Can't email the .exe through google, so find it in perforce. Playtest ATLEAST one person each. Do more if you can! More feedback always helps! We know our game sucks, but try and get constructive feedback anyways. Don't accept anything they say if you hear "its awesome".

Remember we need this done by wednesday. Adam, our lovely producer, has to write a report so make sure to do it in a timely fashion for his benefit.

Adam make sure to do that survey soon. Everyone else make sure to refer people to that survey after they playtest.

Go Play!

Note: This is the same as an email I sent out.

Gravity

I got simple gravity that rotates! I emailed charlie about it, and i set notes in the script if anyone else gets curious. I'll show yall tomorrow in class and we can tweak it to make it more what we want.

Adam Blog 2

This week was mostly me attempting to learn Unity while brainstorming some new ideas for levels. A result of this has been the prototype for a level one now on the server, though I think it will be used only for planning or prototyping purposes. I came to this conclusion because 1. It is crap and 2. The professor suggested that we get all of the basic tutorial information that we would have used that level for in to some splash screens. Which makes more sense on the minute of awesome scheme of things.

Other than that there has been coordinating work, responding to emails, and skyping to make sure that everything is running on schedule. I'm hoping that we can get enough done that we can have a somewhat reviewable prototype by wednesday.

Charlie Checks in for Week 2

WTF have I been doing for the past 7 days:

Over the past week, I have attempted to learn enough about unity and javascript to throw together a passable gravity script in order to have playability in our upcoming prototypes. That said, there have been many rough patches and speed bumps along the road. While we do have a scene with gravity and rotation, it was coded in a short amount of time at like 3am, and thus has extremely limited potential to be used moving forward due to its design. That noted, Trent suggested a much better way of organizing the scripts. Under Trent's design I re-imagined the gravity code, but as of now have been unable to truly replicate what I made the first time, mostly due to how objects are trying to reference each other and the differences between vector2's and vector3's in unity.

WTF will I be doing in the next 7 days:

This is get it done week for our group in many ways. Trent and I (mostly me I assume, as he will be doing UI things) need to hammer out this gravity problem. With that checked off the list we can move on to UI coding problems and worry about tweaking gravity later.

TL;DR: Wrote bad gravity with terrible design, scrapped it. Wrote even worse gravity with better design, need to make it work properly.

Log Entry 2 - Frank

Past week:

I played games that are somewhat related to ours and sketched up a few levels.

This Week:

I hope to do as much as possible in getting our playtest up and running, whether that be levels or any design/art help.

Playtesting...again

I would suggest everyone look at the assignment for next week, because its a lot to do. If we are going to satisfy all of the requirements, we need a few things:

1. A workable prototype: This means that we will not only need gravity to be in a somewhat workable state, but also a point and place planet system. I know this is a lot to do, so Charlie and Trent, if any of us can help you in any way to get this done, do not hesitate to let us know. I believe you both should have my number, or if not my skype is open pretty much anytime. Andy, a usable GravMan model would be nice, as well as some better looking planets. Frank (and Andy), we should start working on getting a splash screen up and a couple of simple buttons working to start the game and restart a level.

2. 5 people who are not us: Frank mentioned that he may have one person and a camera so that helps. If you guys have roommates or friends who would be willing to show up, get their schedules from them so that we can figure out when to do this. I'll be asking around amongst the people I know.

3: Figure out when to do this: My schedule is fairly open for the weekend with the exception of a friend's birthday party on Sunday (time details to come later, don't know offhand.) So post when you all would be free and we can figure this out. Or if it would be easier we can get on a quick skype chat.

4: Figure out where to do this: the CDM building has some rooms that could be used to do this. I'm guessing we could find something in the student center as well. Best option would probably be asking the professor about options and then figuring out what would work best with all our people. I'll email him after I'm done with this.

5: A short report to be posted on the blog afterwards. Shouldn't be hard at all.

It might help if we all met in the CDM building and have a straight work time. Check your schedules.
-Adam

Trent's Weekly Blog 2

I realize in the description it says we're supposed to do these on Monday's, so I'm slowly going to move my post there. This week I've not done as much as I should have, I was gone from thursday night till monday morning back to my home state so I didn't have much opportunity. I did watch a few videos on unity tutorials though, I've been in contact with Charlie some to make sure our programming is on track, I made the unity file and showed everyone how to use it with perforce, I put all our old files we were emailing about in a nice folder on perforce, and I'm now going to check Charlies code to help get as close to a play test as we can. Checking the code was hard because I have not programmed in java script before, nor do I have much experience with C# and none with boo, so Charlies suggestion of .js stuck, so I'll have to learn that some more but I'm fine doing that, it's easy to google stuff and the unity community was actually really good with helping I've already found. Next week I'm going to ensure our gravity play test is ready, get started on making a placement function to move around planets and place them in game (I have ideas already), and learn to use the unity toolbox and script better. On to productivity now.

Playtesting

Next week will have to have a playable prototype as well as results from a playtest. As such we should finding some people who we believe would be good playtesters. Also, I don't think that it would hurt to have a camera to record our playtests and the feedback we get. Post comments here if you have people in mind or if you have a camera on hand. If not we'll probably have to get one from the Cage.

Also, for playtesting: http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/playtesting
Would suggest watching this show as well as other episodes from the extra credits series. Makes for better game developers in my opinion.

-Adam

Trent's Weekly Blog 1

I'm sure yall have been super excited to hear my reflections. Big updates for sure. I have installed Unity and made a test scene (with nothing in it) and gotten it set up in perforce and shown people how to use that. I have experience with perforce from another class, so feel free to direct questions to me if you're having issues, its a really powerful, REALLY complicated tool, but if we can nail down its uses we can excel at our wonderful GravMan project.

I plan to watch a ton of tutorials and then getting a level or two into unity, so we can just play around with it and see if it works. I'll figure out the exacts of our pipeline too so Andy can just hand off art pieces to be put in, or put it in himself if its easy enough.

I like the brainstorming we've been having too. Space bunnies and sheep, natural enemies of course, seem like a great idea for a speed up, slow down type mechanic. That, or things like that, can easily be the "noise" our wonderful Professor was talking about to prevent infinite loops. Basically I want to see a lot of random crazy things going on so that when you hit shoot its NEVER the same thing. The whole double hit box make the player feel "lucky" is a great way to implement this as well.

I really see our (or my as the programmer) main tasks to be:
Step One. Figure out the Unity toolbox, once learned it should be easy to add any number of crazy things.
Step Two. Get Gravy right (Charlie is working on this wonderfully, I'd be glad to help or assist if you need) This is important as its a gravity game.
Step Three. Get the "feel" of the game right, this will be the hardest part because it draws from all areas, sound, graphics, play, everything.
Step Four. Add all sorts of crazy shit that the designers come up with in order to flesh out our game and make it AWESOME.

So I'm gonna go watch some tutorials and figure out unity then start just making stuff, I don't know if we'll use it or not but I'll just create to learn! Always a fun technique.

Skype notes

Andy will be bringing in some models for review on Monday so we can figure out what kind of art style would work best for what we are doing.

If possible, another few music tracks to be looked over would be great.

Trent and Charlie should aim to be able to start prototyping a very basic scene on Monday just to see if we can get things to work correctly.

I'll be scrolling through a lot of Unity tutorials so I can get myself up to speed on this fun.

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMWhtKjUr10

                www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_home.php

Frank should work on getting any new ideas down on paper, so that we can run them by the programmers on Monday. 

New ideas from the meeting: Space Sheep to speed you up, rabbits to slow you down. Meteors of death.

Let me know if you have any questions,

-Adam

AG Log 1

I've been focusing on searching through many of the old games that I enjoyed and trying to figure out what about them made me enjoy them so much. I looked through which parts of the gameplay, the story, or the mechanics that really made like the game. I've also been checking out gravity games from multiple sources, figuring out what works and what doesn't.

I'm looking forward to prototyping next week. It will be good to start getting things down in code and files so we can really see whats happening with our ideas and what we can realistically get done. It'll be good to get the iterative process going as early as possible, so we have enough time to make things work.

Personal Game Pitch

I didn't put this up before and Brian asked me to, so here it is:

My idea for a game, called City Race, is a game where you have to get from one place in the city to another as fast as you can. You can use any means you can find, but you have no money. So you can steal bikes, jump the gate thing at the subway and try not to get stopped by CTA personnel, push your way through the crowds, jay-walk to your heart's content(while trying not to be hit by cars), etc. One way to think of it is like a "get from A to B" version of GTA but without cars.

Log entry 1

Frank here giving my weekly update:

This week I will play many gravity based games and try to find a feel for levels that are fun. As the week draws to an end I hope to have a definite thought as to a good formula for a level. With that formula I will sketch some levels and hopefully the rest of QFASA will have constructive criticism to give on them.

In the next week I will probably continue some level sketches and work towards a more concrete look and feel for the game. I want to get a prototype out as soon as possible.

End.

The Game Begins!

So... Week Zero(?) progress update, as far as I am concerned at least:

I have toyed around with unity a little bit this past week trying to figure out the general layout of things and how to use it in general since I never have before. Played around with a few sample games in unity and played the other suggested playing materials from the emails for ideas.

Potentially more importantly, I have been researching how to get the whole gravity problem sorted out. I have found multiple leads ranging from scripting tutorials to full blown point gravity simulation programs that have done very similar things to that which we are trying to accomplish. Hopefully, this will pan out well and we can hammer out a rough prototype sooner than later.

Moving forward this week, I will hopefully find the time to really get my nose into unity and get cracking on the basic gravity script so we can start playing with some stuff.

1/16 Notes

Design Notes:
We need to find some level designs that can draw in the player and quickly teach them the mechanics of the game so that they can have their one minute of awesomeness. Build some paper prototypes that can be shown to the programmers so that they can better form the gravity system.
New developments/ideas:
1.Defense satellites around the target planet. These force the player to reach the planet from a certain angle, increasing the difficulty. These satellites will have a 90 degree angle of fire, effectively creating a wall on one side of the planet. If the player were to enter the firing range, they will die.
2. We also came up with some simple designs for levels one and two, with the aim to help the player get used to the system before a grand level.


Programming Notes:
Figuring out Unity should be the priority. If anyone finds any cool Unity tutorials that could be helpful to the programmers (or the group in general), then feel free to post them up on the blog. Focus should be on both gravity simulation and 2D games.

Art Notes:
Research needs to be done on possible art styles to imitate/steal/blend/whatever. The professor mentioned looking to media such as Monty Python, Adventure Time, or Tim & Eric for crazy styles in shows. For games, I would suggest looking to Jmtb02 games (http://jmtb02.com/games/) for simple yet effective 2D art styles. Bring in/post a few different possible styles and sources that you think the group should look at. Some concept art should be in the works in the near future.

General Notes:
I don't think that it would hurt for everyone to be more familiar with the Unity Engine. As mentioned before, if people find good tutorials for the program, post them on the blog. Our aim should be to start prototyping things as soon as we can, but keep thinking of new ideas and quirky gimmicks that we can work with.
Also, I know that Andy cannot meet after class, but it would be nice if we could meet with the professor sometime to just bounce ideas off of him and just hear his thoughts. I talked to some people from last quarter and they say he's a big help. I think the earlier (brainstorm/early prototype stage) would be better than later.

Feel free to email me with questions on anything.

-Adam

Orbit-
http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/Kill_some_hours_with_this_addictive_gravity_based_game
Planets are blue balls (heh...) and their size determines their gravitational pull.
The comet is just a small orange ball with a trail whose size is dependent on the comet's speed.

Galactic Gravity Golf-
http://www.gameshot.org/?id=83
Space golf game. The movement feels a little too fast. Nice replayability, though.
More complex art. 3D look to the planets with shading and textures.

SKYPE

As per our skype conversation, email Skype names to each other. Skype meeting will be on Wednesday at 9:00pm.

Schedule

1/23: Focus on brainstorming any extra ideas, and come up with a more finalized schedule. Play games, read things, just get new ideas, and get them on paper. Toy around with Unity.
1/30: All ideas should be more or less finalized by now. Work on prototyping essential parts of the game. The gravity mechanic will be the main focus here, making sure that we can get things to attract/repulse correctly and mesh together in a usable fashion. The style of art should be chosen at this point, and some prototype art should being worked on.
2/13: Revising prototypes, making sure that these parts can work functionally. Begin adding some new material. Gravity needs to be in serious progress by this point. Level designs/puzzle ideas in the works, depending on what has happened with gravity.
2/20:Adding in new material, making the game quirky and fun to play.
2/27: Essential mechanics should be finished by this point, anything else should be labeled as choppable should we need to. Begin seeking out possible play testers. The more critiques we can get the better, so we have time to be able to change things if needed. Art should be in full swing by now.
3/5: Playtesting and responding to critiques. Begin debugging and try to finalize any new material. Alpha phase.
3/12: Playtesting and finalizing everything. Bug fixes should be the focus. Beta phase.
3/19: Finish everything. All things must be done, as this is the end of the quarter. Possible party/celebration thing afterwards.

Scheduling and Game Quirks

So the schedule looks fine to me, just one question: "1." corresponds to the week starting with 1/16, "2." to the week of 1/23, and so on?

Aside from that, I've been thinking about more game quirks/things to add that can be placed by GravMan or are already present in the levels. Here is a preliminary list:

Asteroids - "ass"teroids (jk, we're PG)

Comet - think comet cleanser

Meteor - "meat-ier"

Orbit - gum

Shooting Star - a little star guy with a gun. Can shoot at GravMan maybe?

White Dwarf - like a little person who is all white.

Sensor Satellite - Censor Satellite

So there's that, in addition to the other ones from the pitch presentation like the worm hole etc. Also, I have downloaded gimp today and I'm going to start doodling with that so I can use it to start working on the game art.

That's about it. Stay cool.

~Andy

Scheduling

Everyone needs to check your emails about the schedule. Send me feedback, so I can get a good idea for what would work best before I post anything official here. Sorry about the lateness of this, but Google derped. Everything is explained in the email. Thanks guys.

-Adam

Pitch Notes

• Space Rabbits!
• Static start planet
• Grav Man Cannon Planet
• Dynamic terrain while in flight
• Exploding planets
• Competition? Other Grav Men
• INTERACTEMIES!
• Space worms (with holes in them)
• Inverse World through black hole
• "Shift" in space

Prep work for presentation

Do you all feel that we are ready to present tomorrow? If not, then we should get to discussing things. Going to have to have each person cover a separate topic or aspect of the game, and be able to do so with some enthusiasm. We need to be able to start out with our hook, and draw attention within the first 30 seconds or so. And it wouldn't hurt to be able to respond to whatever questions we might get.

GravMan

GravMan

Gravity Puzzle in SPACE
~Place planets, stars, black holes, worm holes to guide GravMan to outer space so he can fight Aliens.

High Level Goals
~Replayability
~Goofiness
~Combos! (Cinematic)
~Fun to fail
~Dynamic Environment (Double Edged Sword), short term vs long term goals

Original Post:
Genre: Puzzle, Physics, Action (ish)

Similar Games: Space Penguin, Angry Birds (a stretch)

Narrative Summary/Character Description: You are GravMan, a space super hero tasked with defending the universe from aliens! Unfortunately you missed your shuttle to the battlefield because you just had to eat that delicious sandwich for lunch. Now you must make your way to fight the aliens yourself! Place planets, stars, shuttles, moons, anything you can to orbit and manipulate gravity to sling shot yourself to outer space so you can fight the aliens and save the day.

Unique Hook: Everyone has played a game like angry birds where you repeatedly shoot your character and try to hit the target, and that gets old, this time around you’re the one making the target! GravMan will do all the shooting. Place objects on the space field to create the perfect path for GravMan to follow. Exploit gravity and help him orbit around lunar objects in order to shoot off into space!

Demographic: At kids, adults, anyone on the go with a phone. Fun, interactive, new, puzzler to captivate the minds of millions.

Brainstorm Ideas

Post your brainstorm Ideas here.

THE BLOG

As per the class requirement, here is our blog. All sorts of team based insanity will be happening here. Schedules and updates will be posted when available