I may have done some things.

Though I'm not really sure, I'm way past the point of being able to objectively evaluate if I'm making progress. Good thing I was handed a list of areas to work on.

Things are crossed off!

Feedback. Sometimes useful.

Current build.

Tomorrow I will be getting area transformations in, and perhaps doing some mUziK recording. So that as the level becomes more transformed, the music becomes more complex. And thus an exploration reward!

To the comforts of bed!

And So It Goes On

Title screen.

Part 2

The game itself
is so obviously, still a work in progress. There are some things that I went with simply for how quick and simple it would be to implement rather than would work best for this project, and so much that I just didn't have time to do. Things like the GUI, which I don't think should be obvious at all (basic though it is now), and the textures and backgrounds, are pretty much still just placeholders. They may be looking better than what they did, but there's not really any sort of distinct or memorable style evident.

Next up is
jobhunting, joy!
Actually getting a portfolio ready.

And of course, finishing this game.

A Postmortem Style Post (Part 1)

The final weeks
have been frakking nuts. In about week 10 I parted ways with the Genus group, so that I could work on turning my own vision of Jasmine's concept into something I could be assessed on (as the rest of the class won't be assessed til the end of the year).


I also had to write 3 essays and take a written test for my other classes, which is more theory combined in this one semester than the previous three years of my degree. Well, maybe equal... Yeah, I chose to do that, silly me.


I am sick of sitting at the computer and just want to spend a week or so wandering around outside, absorbing non-technical things. Like, ya know, nature or something.

Nature.

I have discovered
that without a list of small, specific tasks, I will get distracted by playing with particle systems. Telling myself to "make it pretty" will mean many wasted days hours of exclaiming over camera effects, and then having to fix the camera system before doing anything useful.


I realised (a few times) that pulling an all-nighter when I'm also pretty stressed equals depressed and cranky Simone, which, it seems, is never a good thing for being productive. Imagine that.


Perhaps being direct is not always a good thing.


The reason unity kept crashing probably has something to do with the corrupt files in my project folder... Maybe. That's also why it took an extra two hours yesterday to get it exported, zipped and uploaded. Also why my submitted project is now missing some key assets.


Playtesting will almost always show you've been spending too much time on unimportant things. Like particle effects.

There are five particle systems in this screenshot.

To be continued...

Times Up

It's still very prototypey in many ways, but I'm out of time! Have a gander, a critique, a whatever floats your boat.

Elan: you are a seed bringing life back to the world around you, helped along by the elements.

Earth for places to plant, water for life, wind for direction and fire to see what is hidden.

This is a prototype level.

Proper write-up to follow when I don't have a birthday party to prepare for!

Not done yet.

But now with its own name: Élan. Which is a French word that can mean: momentum, fervour, fire, enthusiasm, to soar, spirit, and many other frenchy things.

Here is my final to do list (before submission, still a long way from finished!):

Not much for the last 24hours...

And here is a video I meant to post awhile ago, there is sound in the game but you can't listen cos THAT'S HOW I ROLL!

click click!

On an Unrelated Note

Totally unrelated this, but here're some quick designs I had to mock up this afternoon for Mum's business (after having a quick drool over my newly arrived Witcher2 collector's edition). Next up tonight: dinner, sugar, unity swears and a distinct lack of sleep.

Onwards.

Graduation Preparation

I'm the only one in the class graduating this semester, so there're a few things I need to prepare for assessing in the next six (EEP!) weeks.

Mainly, with my role in the current state of my group's project, there's an issue in that it doesn't really show what I'm capable of creating. So Matt has suggested I mock up my own prototype version of the game to showcase what I can do, or any little things I think should be different than what the group has decided on.

So, there's that.

Site edit: moved all the movement testers out to separate pages to stop killing the blog with multiple unity plugin calls.

Linkshare

Great reads on indie, iphone and android game development.

Plant Progress

 

Dandelion, some random indoor plant, thistle (in progress).

More Movement!

Still a lot of placeholder stuff in here, just ignore those.

You are a force guiding the seed. The closer you click to the seed the less force is applied.

Feedback required: do you believe it's a seed, should the movement be slower/faster, less/more responsive?

Opens in new window.

Finding this last night would've been awesome

Link to correct the issue I've been having with ScreenToWorldPoint giving me the camera position instead mouse.

Oh internet, why did you ever leave me?

Vectors hurting my brain.

So this week's task for me has been more movement refinement. Which has meant trying to wrap my brain around vectors. The code I've been using up 'til this point is mostly a heap of hacked together if statements, which kinda works, but isn't the most accurate or realistic.

I've been reading up on vector math here and here thinking about cross and dot products, and studying the unity vector3 documentation waiting for the right function to jump out and say "oi, use me!". All of which has been a whole lot of fail until I went and drew myself this diagram.

Probably makes no sense at all to anyone else, but total duh moment for me.

The lesson here? Remember I have a visual brain.

----

In other news, the Interwebs at our new house is connected today, woop woop!

Week 6

I'm a bit behind with things atm being in the middle of moving houses, so here's a belated movement build from last week, have at it. Things to refine: physics behaviour, needs to be more floaty and light, movement accuracy, gravity and more intuitive controls.

Moving moving.

Also, note to self, to work on this week in between packing and cleaning are obstacle textures and particle effects, an image/object for oil (the dark walls in the above build) and different images for the mouse pointer that will also work as a symbol for what you do with it.

Clicky Clicky!

**UPDATE**  Stupid embed not working in Firefox and Chrome. Fix later.


Ok right now the movement is still pretty bodgy, and there're still a fair few things to add in even before Stand Ups in class on Wednesday... such as adding smoothing and figuring out why drag is actually accelerating movement...

but test it out and leave some feedback anyway!

Movement Tester

Video: movement!

Genus Loci: Movement Prototyping from Simone Macrae on Vimeo.

Beginning of the prototype for Genus Loci, I've been working on how the player will control the seed's movement. Using Javascript in Unity.

Link for if you can't see the embed: here.

A Link (or two)

Mr Boss Level Design: Platform Primer
I keep referring back to this but have to search for it every time, so here it is. So good.

Also read this earlier today (thanks Matt!), twas informative.
Why Angry Birds is So Successful: A Cognitive Teardown of the User Experience.



**Edited** More Link Dump

It's a bit of an effort finding my way around the Torque documentation, so here's a collection of links for scripting/coding for my convenience.

/Documentation
/Tutorials/Platformer
/Collision_Detection_and_Response_Rev2.pdf
/Reference
/TorqueScript
/TorqueScript_Quick_Reference
/MiniTutorials
/SimplePhysicsDemo
/ScriptGenreTutorials

Floaty Seed Thingy

Jasmine, Natalie and myself will be working on Jasmine's pitch Genus Loci. Or as I like to call it Floaty Seed Thing.

First up is getting a prototype ready in the next couple of weeks. I'll be starting in getting the movement happening, J the collisions and N some concept art.

I may be a little excited, but shhh.

A Thousand Tales and One

Arabian Nights, you must create stories to stay alive.

You are a genie, wish-granting quests.

Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales

Initially separate concepts these could also be mooshed together as mini-games.

You are sucked into a book of... uh guess... and the only way to escape is to complete each level, I mean, Rhyme or Tale and make it to the end.

Question: Grimm or Disney-fied?

Red Riding Hood

• follow the path
• avoid the wolf
• kill (or save!) your grandma

- or Red Riding Hood's Revenge, down with wolves! -

Jack & the Beanstalk

• escape from the giant down the beanstalk
• constant movement, control speed + left & right
• avoid slowy-downy obstacles

Three Billy Goats Gruff

• trick your way past the troll across the bridge and get your tasty goat noms

- or point + click stylez

• Trine/ Day of the Tentacle switching between character shenanigans
• LucasArts puzzlings

Also interesting: Neil Gaiman's story based on this. The Troll wants a boy's life as payment for crossing his bridge, but the boy, and then teenager, then man, convinces him it would be worth more when he's lived more.

Light Being of Light Doober

ONE

You are a marsh light/ will 'o wisp who lures people to their doom. When you are lit up people will follow you, but this will also drain your health.

Possibilities:

• time limit to waste as many people as you can without killing yourself
• end of the level your health will regen x amount for each deadening
• you do this because (that's what will 'o wisps do) you're working for the Marsh Light Man and you have to reach your quota
• lemmings style

TWO

You are a being of light trapped in this terrible limbo-y darkness. You must escape before your light goes out.

• environment around you only exists when you can see it
• find light "life" sources
• puzzley
• being brighter = movement/escape options but dying quicker
• seeing less, slower movement but less of the dying happens

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas

First!

Time to get this blog thing started huh. I was trying to do my own setup as I do have my own domain, but perhaps deciding to use Drupal for it was not the best idea. Seeing as I now need to learn my way around Drupal.

So hopefully this one will be temporary.