Game Jam Week: Final Day

This week has been really interesting. We have expanded our horizons by adopting a design for a technology we had never been able to work with before. Over the course of the week we have seen our game grow and expand. 

We started with a simple idea and it has grown. We managed to get a base model for what we would like to have developed and playable. We managed to create our own HUD and had some issues with the implementation but on the whole everyone is really happy with the way it turned out.

We all want to work on it in the future if we find the time but as for know we are going to take a bit of a rest and move on to other things and enjoy our summer. Thanks for tuning in daily to see our progress and support our game.

Game Jam Week: Day 4

It's now day 4 and the game is looking amazing. There are some glowing particle effects which follow the hands of the player. The hands are currently represented by white cubes on the screen, but we are going to replace them with some transparent hands (shown below).

It is now possible to move the sun, moon and also swipe meteors and asteroids into planet Earth! I had too much fun with the meteors so they're aren't any in the screenshot... appologies.

The player HUD has also been added to the game and it's looking pretty good, however it might need some tweaks and we are undecided about the function of the red 'population' bar.

Stay tuned and find out how we get on over the rest of today and tomorrow. Crunch time!

Game Jam Week: Day 4 - In-game screenshot

Game Jam Week: Day 3

Day 3 saw the arrival of some art assets from a friend we worked with during our integrated project in third year. The models look cool and the textures are even better.

As a group we are seeing progress each and every day although we lost a member due to a family emergency. There is not much left in the way of design just now and we are working together to tweak and adjust all the HUD components and tweak the scene to make it look a little more lively.

We do have a screen shot to share with you all but it is not the latest version we have. The programmers are hard at work with finding out the limitations of Kinect and what we could do in the time frame. So far it looks awesome and I have been able to spin the earth as if it were a basketball. With 2 days left to complete it I think we should have a pretty rad game for everyone to play with.

Stay tuned for some more news by the end of the day.

Game Jam Week: Day 2

Our goals for day 2 are to develop the HUD further and start to mess around with Kinect. With Gavin working away on the HUD and the rest of the team clambering over one another to jump about in front the computer screen and throw balls at a tower.

As we draw closer to lunch progress is evident in every area, we may even have some 3D models to implement in to Unity from a friend in the art course in Caledonian University. We hope to have a few images up by midday and have some basic elements of the game up and running.

And if you don't believe us that we are working I have evidence that Fely is slogging away at the Kinect trying to discovers all it's magical powers. 

Project Update

It's now the end of the 6th week in our development cycle and we have finally started to see some real levels in progress.

The week started with a burst of models to be implemented. These models are flying out of Marc's computer faster than we can think of new objects to make. They all look great without texture and all the characters are rigged for Kinect motion capture.

We also got to see some base textures and applied them for our first prototype. The textures look good and gave a rough idea as to what our game could potentially look like and it looks great. We also started to tackle bugs and glitches that have been happening and implement more ideas in to our game. On top of that I also started on some basic HUD elements this week and hopefully they will be fully functional by next week.

Our plans for next week is to get more art in place, build more levels and hopefully see the extermination of those pesky bugs. All in all it has been a great week and I really hope it goes well.

Integrated Project 3 Update.

Today was our first meeting with Brian after submitting our project plan. With criticisms in hand we all drudged on toward the meeting room. We were able to discuss care points and possible downfalls of the document. That being said Brian seemed generally pleased with the progress we are making.

Today was also the first day we got to see our game "in action". Although there is currently no textures or backgrounds to the game we were able to see the models run around and see how good they looked in Unity, and my god they looked good.

As far as I can tell they will work perfectly and their was even discussion about using Kinect as a means of capturing motion for the animation of the models. This would mean that we would be able to quickly and efficiently record animations for the game and maybe some quirky movements too if we have time.

As the project continues I can't help but get really excited. At this point in time I even feel that no amount of paperwork could take away from the high you get from this level of creativity. There is just some kind of synergy within the group and we all are really looking forward to the finished product.

Game Progress

Today we had our weekly meeting with the group for IP 3. We have came pretty far in the past 4 weeks considering we have only been a group for 3. We have a story, ideas, basic mechanics and some base art to create our first prototype.

The main topic of discussion was our ideas on each others maps and maybe ways of trying to do more with less to keep people interested while playing with limited resources. We had a bit of a debate and decided it might be best to try use what Unity has to offer as opposed to asking more of our artists before we receive the majority of our art.

That being said I was just sent some of the 3D models to our game and I am psyched about getting them in game, there is a certain charm about them and I can't wait to see it develop.

Stay Tuned !

And remember we must move forward, not backward, upward not forward and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.

A Story About A Game

This year we have been tasked to make another game as a group. We are already pushing on our 4th week of development in a 12 week time frame. Our group is made up of 3 Designers, 2 programmers, a 3D artist and a 2D artist.

What is the game about ?
Our game has to be based on the comedy of George Carlin and Bill Hicks, so taking that in to consideration we decided to make a game based on anti-establishment. The idea of the game is to go about saving brainwashed Americans and overthrowing the government, for by that I don't want to give away too much. Hopefully one day, if you are reading this you might have enough interest to give it a go.

What type of game is it ?
Our game is going to be a 2D platformer in 3D environments. The aim is to have something looking like a cross between Abe's Odyssey and Shadow Complex in terms of layout. As for art style we haven't seen a lot of artwork yet, although so far we have some basic character designs and ideas on themes and levels with 2D backgrounds with 3D models to navigate around in the area.

What's Next ?
Currently we are trying to mock up levels on paper to get them in to our engine and then hopefully some testing. If we are lucky enough this should be done in the next week or two. After that testing, implementation and who knows.

It's going to be a roller coaster ride but I've really never been as excited about a project aside from last years, although luckily we have managed to rekindle the same excitement and passion for developing games as we had back then, so much so we have almost the same team and plan on doing at least one project during the summer.

Would you like to know more ? 
Then stay tuned.