Everything is set except for some main menu flair/a few small bugs. I'm going to spend the day in the lab finishing up this game and my other game for another class.
What I got done this week:
*All sounds are in the game!
*Made Joe's stilts animation function in game
*Fixed end-game GUI's (win/lose)
What I'll be doing today
*Adding flair to main menu
*Making How-To-Play/Credits menu
*Making Footage of Levels to put in main menu
*Squashing as many bugs as possible (3 that I'm aware of)
The more time I have the more stuff I'm going to try and add to make the game look great! I'll see everyone for the final presentation tomorrow!
-David
Monday, November 21, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Programming Update 11-17
Not too much to report- I've started to implement/animate Joe's spritesheets that he got to me this week. I'm just about done fixing the collision bugs involved with the stilts blocks. I fixed the glitchy winscreen GUI buttons and I'm basically gonna finish everything this weekend!
Wooo!
-David
Wooo!
-David
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Phil Update 11/15/11
I modified lvl1 quite a bit. I think it's still a bit too hard, but what I might do is swap it for lvl 2 or 3.Will continue to work on the level design.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Programming Update - 11/10/11
So we've made a lot of progress and we're basically polishing the level designs at this point. Nearly all of the sounds are set, with the exception of a few of the music cues bugging out. Here's what's left to do on the programming side of things:
*Fix/Finish implementing sounds
*Fix the collision checking for underneath the Player/Stilts
*Fix GUI/Menu on win screen
*Fix the collision checking for Stilts and Score Trigger Blocks
*Program animation functions for Joe's animations
*Implement saving high scores after quitting game (least of my priorities)
Sound programming has been giving me trouble, but I just need to step back from it for a day or so and not get too frustrated. The losing game condition w/ the curtains closing/sand bag dropping looks and sounds awesome (only thing missing is the music)! Here's what I got done these past few days
*Score blocks flash when they're about to change to normal obstacles
*Losing condition/cut-scene triggers and behaves appropriately
*Implemented new art/textured models
*In game high-scores
I won't lie- I'm burned out at this point. The flames still there, it's just I'm running out of wick to keep burning on. I'll make it through the quarter though, and Casablocka will be a fine piece of gameplay for us to all put our names on and be proud of :D
-David
*Fix/Finish implementing sounds
*Fix the collision checking for underneath the Player/Stilts
*Fix GUI/Menu on win screen
*Fix the collision checking for Stilts and Score Trigger Blocks
*Program animation functions for Joe's animations
*Implement saving high scores after quitting game (least of my priorities)
Sound programming has been giving me trouble, but I just need to step back from it for a day or so and not get too frustrated. The losing game condition w/ the curtains closing/sand bag dropping looks and sounds awesome (only thing missing is the music)! Here's what I got done these past few days
*Score blocks flash when they're about to change to normal obstacles
*Losing condition/cut-scene triggers and behaves appropriately
*Implemented new art/textured models
*In game high-scores
I won't lie- I'm burned out at this point. The flames still there, it's just I'm running out of wick to keep burning on. I'll make it through the quarter though, and Casablocka will be a fine piece of gameplay for us to all put our names on and be proud of :D
-David
Final Playtest Feedback 11/10/11
What went well and/or has improved:
- The game is seen as cheery and tightly controlled. The fact that players feel like they are in complete control is a very good thing.
- There is now a good sense of replayability and players want to become better or perfect levels.
- After playing the game twice or even once players are aware of what all the blocks do. They understand the mechanics and there's minimal confusion if any at all.
- The sounds and music really pull players into our aesthetic making them feel goofy/happy.
- The skill needed in order to get the stacking/jump blocks is something players seem to enjoy. They feel accomplished when they grow.
- They see the game's aesthetics and feel very different from other games. UNIQUE
- People LOVE the block collecting part.
- For the most part people see the game as fair. It isn't too hard and it isn't too easy. Good balance.
- People enjoy short challenging levels they can retry and improve their skills on.
What went wrong or still needs improving:
- Some players still believe that we need to provide them with a reason behind what they're doing. This could be solved with a simple opening cinematic or introduction screen. This isn't necessary for the final in class build, but might be something we want to add later if we decide to release it somewhere.
- Level design feels unfair in some spots and basically just needs to be iterated on much more. Phil: I'm going to spend at least a few hours doing this over the weekend. I haven't had a big chunk of time available, and I still don't, but I'm going to make the time.
- The animations are still rough or missing.
- Environment still isn't completely cohesive due to the screen just floating in the middle of no where. I think this is a problem, but I don't think we should follow all player advice on what to do about it.
- Although players feel in control most of them time there are a few moments when trying to switch lanes that it simply does not work for a single press.
- Should probably add sepia tone to the screen, but leave the rest the way it is.
- The game is seen as cheery and tightly controlled. The fact that players feel like they are in complete control is a very good thing.
- There is now a good sense of replayability and players want to become better or perfect levels.
- After playing the game twice or even once players are aware of what all the blocks do. They understand the mechanics and there's minimal confusion if any at all.
- The sounds and music really pull players into our aesthetic making them feel goofy/happy.
- The skill needed in order to get the stacking/jump blocks is something players seem to enjoy. They feel accomplished when they grow.
- They see the game's aesthetics and feel very different from other games. UNIQUE
- People LOVE the block collecting part.
- For the most part people see the game as fair. It isn't too hard and it isn't too easy. Good balance.
- People enjoy short challenging levels they can retry and improve their skills on.
What went wrong or still needs improving:
- Some players still believe that we need to provide them with a reason behind what they're doing. This could be solved with a simple opening cinematic or introduction screen. This isn't necessary for the final in class build, but might be something we want to add later if we decide to release it somewhere.
- Level design feels unfair in some spots and basically just needs to be iterated on much more. Phil: I'm going to spend at least a few hours doing this over the weekend. I haven't had a big chunk of time available, and I still don't, but I'm going to make the time.
- The animations are still rough or missing.
- Environment still isn't completely cohesive due to the screen just floating in the middle of no where. I think this is a problem, but I don't think we should follow all player advice on what to do about it.
- Although players feel in control most of them time there are a few moments when trying to switch lanes that it simply does not work for a single press.
- Should probably add sepia tone to the screen, but leave the rest the way it is.
Past two weeks update
I know i've slacked off on updating this. Here's what I got done: Updated the sandbag model to have a longer rope and adjusted the shape. Added and textured curtains model. Made a left curtain model, top curtain model, and right curtain model. I modeled and textured a stage model. I textured joe Dean's Reel model.
I've fixed any errors with the models and uploaded both the .ma's and the .fbx If there are any errors let me know so I can try to fix them.
I've fixed any errors with the models and uploaded both the .ma's and the .fbx If there are any errors let me know so I can try to fix them.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Phil Update 11/8/11
This past week not much got done on my part. Dealing with a few team communication issues and we've been shuffling some people around in the Octodad camp as well. Dealing with a good amount of drama. I did however iterate on the big long level that we've been working on and I have people lined up to playtest for Thursday's playtest review. I'd like to break up my longer level into three shorter levels.
Logan Update 11-8-11
I maxed all of the sounds outside of Unity and resubmitted them to David in a (hopefully) more organized manner. Other than that, as I'm sure everyone is, my final projects in other classes are really becoming demanding so I didn't get much more done.
I still need to put in a curtain sound and thud for the in game fail if we are implementing that.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Programming Update - The Finish Line in Sight!
Greetings to all-
I'm in a good mood right now, yes it's 8:23 in the morning but I'm feeling GREAT! The game has made a LOT of progress this week, so that's super cool (details below)!
In addition to being happy, I also have this underlying sense of frustration- other classes are starting to require a lot of time for their respective final projects. This is making me have to break up my work for Casablocka and oftentimes break a streak of implementation where instead of hashing out a feature/function in a day it takes the whole week :\
Despite this annoyance, we will prevail- the game is finally looking and feeling like a real game. Most of the features added this week were based on pre-/post-game experience (menus, win conditions, etc.) and wrapping our "play" portion into a nice package. Here's the list:
* Level Start:
The screen in the background does a 3-2-1 countdown before the player gets to run! The film reel begins to tick away and unleash the level upon the player and once the countdown hits zero the music kicks in and the player heads down the path! It feels REALLY nice and gives the player a chance to prepare themselves/build suspense for the experience moments away!
* Finish Line:
The game now possesses a finish line. When the player crosses it the end state is triggered. Speaking of which-
* End State Prototype:
This was a bit tricky but I was able to make it work. Essentially this is an in-game cutscene of sorts. When the player finishes the level, they jump to the middle ground and begin running fairly slow. The camera jumpes to a position facing the cube at a perpendicular angle and having the screen in the background. The screen (this is the only function that is not yet complete) will calculate the players final score as the player continues to run idle down the track. Eventually he hits a block with a girl on it (needs to be drawn, placeholder is...well...in place) and transfers into it- then they will kiss. It feels super great and reminds me of the endings in old platformers! And it's a cute reference to Casablanca, so like...I'd say it's super appropriate.
* Film Reel:
The film reel is in the level now! I also made it so the reel doesn't get too far into the distance because players LOVE seeing the level generate around it! Another layer of artistic cohesion :]
* Basic GUI Elements:
A counter for your time and number of Gold Blocks collected are now in place on the GUI. They really help the player feel immersed in the experience rather than annoyed by the ugly gui-based draw text region. The only thing left to do is decide how to display time remaining for players when they're in score mode (all obstacle blocks turn to gold) and to convert the "time displayed" into frames to feel, as mentioned many times before, cohesive in theme. As of now though I feel the GUI is headed in the right direction :D
* Curtains:
Matt got me the curtains and they look really good! Functionally, they might need some work but visually they are very stunning! Props to Matt :D
* Level Select Menu:
I have the level select menu basically completed. I have placeholders as of now, but there are going to be 3 levels to select from. The menu they see presents them with a short clip of gameplay footage from the level and will look really cool once the placeholder footage is gone (3-2-1 clip again) and we have actually screen cap from the game! :D
So that's everything I've been able to implement this week! The remaining work is just filling in the blanks left in the art and finalizing level design. My goals for this week are as follows:
* Create the death/end game sequence (Player stops running, sad music cues, sandbag drops, curtains close, retry menu pops up)
* Fix the score display to calculate in frames rather than actual seconds
* Add the calculation feature to the screen after the player finishes the level
* Add more functionality to the level select screen (show high scores)
* Add more game-scenes
- Title
- Level Select (DONE)
- Retry
- Levels (DONE)
- Credits
- How to Play (??? Do we need this ???)
* Add more of Logan's sounds
It seems like a lot, but this is essentially everything that's left to do. I'd LOVE to get the game "completed" by next week so we can run one more round of iterative play testing on new/old players to see what they think and make level design/game system tweaks from there. I also have a bug that needs squashing, so I need to get around to that too...sooo
* Squash said bug
There. The list is now complete. I didn't expect to get so much done this week, so I have high hopes for this week considering I have even MORE free time (though still selective free time :P). We seem to have momentum again and I'm using up the rest of my fuel to power through until the day we present our game!
Cheers,
David
I'm in a good mood right now, yes it's 8:23 in the morning but I'm feeling GREAT! The game has made a LOT of progress this week, so that's super cool (details below)!
In addition to being happy, I also have this underlying sense of frustration- other classes are starting to require a lot of time for their respective final projects. This is making me have to break up my work for Casablocka and oftentimes break a streak of implementation where instead of hashing out a feature/function in a day it takes the whole week :\
Despite this annoyance, we will prevail- the game is finally looking and feeling like a real game. Most of the features added this week were based on pre-/post-game experience (menus, win conditions, etc.) and wrapping our "play" portion into a nice package. Here's the list:
* Level Start:
The screen in the background does a 3-2-1 countdown before the player gets to run! The film reel begins to tick away and unleash the level upon the player and once the countdown hits zero the music kicks in and the player heads down the path! It feels REALLY nice and gives the player a chance to prepare themselves/build suspense for the experience moments away!
* Finish Line:
The game now possesses a finish line. When the player crosses it the end state is triggered. Speaking of which-
* End State Prototype:
This was a bit tricky but I was able to make it work. Essentially this is an in-game cutscene of sorts. When the player finishes the level, they jump to the middle ground and begin running fairly slow. The camera jumpes to a position facing the cube at a perpendicular angle and having the screen in the background. The screen (this is the only function that is not yet complete) will calculate the players final score as the player continues to run idle down the track. Eventually he hits a block with a girl on it (needs to be drawn, placeholder is...well...in place) and transfers into it- then they will kiss. It feels super great and reminds me of the endings in old platformers! And it's a cute reference to Casablanca, so like...I'd say it's super appropriate.
* Film Reel:
The film reel is in the level now! I also made it so the reel doesn't get too far into the distance because players LOVE seeing the level generate around it! Another layer of artistic cohesion :]
* Basic GUI Elements:
A counter for your time and number of Gold Blocks collected are now in place on the GUI. They really help the player feel immersed in the experience rather than annoyed by the ugly gui-based draw text region. The only thing left to do is decide how to display time remaining for players when they're in score mode (all obstacle blocks turn to gold) and to convert the "time displayed" into frames to feel, as mentioned many times before, cohesive in theme. As of now though I feel the GUI is headed in the right direction :D
* Curtains:
Matt got me the curtains and they look really good! Functionally, they might need some work but visually they are very stunning! Props to Matt :D
* Level Select Menu:
I have the level select menu basically completed. I have placeholders as of now, but there are going to be 3 levels to select from. The menu they see presents them with a short clip of gameplay footage from the level and will look really cool once the placeholder footage is gone (3-2-1 clip again) and we have actually screen cap from the game! :D
So that's everything I've been able to implement this week! The remaining work is just filling in the blanks left in the art and finalizing level design. My goals for this week are as follows:
* Create the death/end game sequence (Player stops running, sad music cues, sandbag drops, curtains close, retry menu pops up)
* Fix the score display to calculate in frames rather than actual seconds
* Add the calculation feature to the screen after the player finishes the level
* Add more functionality to the level select screen (show high scores)
* Add more game-scenes
- Title
- Level Select (DONE)
- Retry
- Levels (DONE)
- Credits
- How to Play (??? Do we need this ???)
* Add more of Logan's sounds
It seems like a lot, but this is essentially everything that's left to do. I'd LOVE to get the game "completed" by next week so we can run one more round of iterative play testing on new/old players to see what they think and make level design/game system tweaks from there. I also have a bug that needs squashing, so I need to get around to that too...sooo
* Squash said bug
There. The list is now complete. I didn't expect to get so much done this week, so I have high hopes for this week considering I have even MORE free time (though still selective free time :P). We seem to have momentum again and I'm using up the rest of my fuel to power through until the day we present our game!
Cheers,
David
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Phil Update 11/3/11
The past week I've iterated a bit on the level. I think it's getting there, but there's still a good amount of work to be done as far as balancing difficulty.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Update - Logan
I submitted the lane shifting noise (to David).
I composed and submitted 'CasaBlocka Rag' (to David) that will more than likely be used for the intro/start screen if everyone accepts it. No hard feelings if you don't like it, just let me know!
To try and have as many game assets our own, I'll see about writing another track for the game play once I've finished everything else (which isn't much more at this point). I really do like the current gameplay music though, so if I don't write another CasaBlocka Rag, I think we'll be fine. (But I'll try to write something similar, although so much ragtime is extremely similar to begin with :P )
Programming Update Part 2 - 11/1
I'm back with Part 2 of the programming update. Since I last posted, I've added the following features:
- Score Block Mode Fixed
It was never really broken...just not fully implemented. Score Blocks now can be collected from the sides and don't cause you to slow down upon collision. Hoorah!
- Tunnel Locking
This was a feature I had in the works a while ago but it didn't work so I ignored it. Well good news folks- I did it. When players enter a speed tunnel they no longer can accidentally break out of them. They now are shot through the tunnel blocks until they have come out the end of the line!
- Cool Track Generation
This feature is pretty sweet- I had been prototyping a new way for track to be generated, and now it seems to be working! An old film reel begins to roll from underneath the player/level and unleashes film (track) for the player to travel on. As of now the film reel is a placeholder for a model in the works, but it works and definitely adds to the aesthetic of the game.
- Sandbag
I added the sandbag to the level and I implemented some physics to make the world feel more alive. Whenever a player hits a block, the sandbag reacts and acts as if it was just hit as well. I think it's pretty cool, nbd.
- Sounds
I added more of Logan's assets to the game. The rolling film reel plays a projector/film tick sound as it rolls, the intro music now plays when the game is started, and the "pop" sound triggers whenever a player changes lanes. I implemented one of the clapping sound effects for whenever a player hits the highest speed, but it's bugging out and not playing out its full length. This will ideally be fixed this week
I'm about to work on a back-end for the game, as well as the front end to make it feel more alive. Placeholders abound, this should hopefully be finished before class starts.
-David
- Score Block Mode Fixed
It was never really broken...just not fully implemented. Score Blocks now can be collected from the sides and don't cause you to slow down upon collision. Hoorah!
- Tunnel Locking
This was a feature I had in the works a while ago but it didn't work so I ignored it. Well good news folks- I did it. When players enter a speed tunnel they no longer can accidentally break out of them. They now are shot through the tunnel blocks until they have come out the end of the line!
- Cool Track Generation
This feature is pretty sweet- I had been prototyping a new way for track to be generated, and now it seems to be working! An old film reel begins to roll from underneath the player/level and unleashes film (track) for the player to travel on. As of now the film reel is a placeholder for a model in the works, but it works and definitely adds to the aesthetic of the game.
- Sandbag
I added the sandbag to the level and I implemented some physics to make the world feel more alive. Whenever a player hits a block, the sandbag reacts and acts as if it was just hit as well. I think it's pretty cool, nbd.
- Sounds
I added more of Logan's assets to the game. The rolling film reel plays a projector/film tick sound as it rolls, the intro music now plays when the game is started, and the "pop" sound triggers whenever a player changes lanes. I implemented one of the clapping sound effects for whenever a player hits the highest speed, but it's bugging out and not playing out its full length. This will ideally be fixed this week
I'm about to work on a back-end for the game, as well as the front end to make it feel more alive. Placeholders abound, this should hopefully be finished before class starts.
-David
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)