Holiday Card Update

After we've made immense progress throughout our level designs, I've moved over to art assets. I am now in charge of creating ambient background characters for the game. Still following the main style, these characters will be holding candles for the protagonist to light and then see a nice holiday message.

Holiday Card Proposal

What I had in mind for our group project is that as a holiday card, the objective of the game is for the (genderless) student character to deliver their finals to their respective department heads based on the foundation classes (painting, 3D, drawing, etc). The student character has to pick them up and drop them off and then the game ends when all the finals have been delivered and the character leaves the Hardie building (If we want to make the game more challenging maybe we should find a way to work a timer into the game). When you exit, the text “Happy Holidays!” comes onto the screen as the character enjoys the snowy outdoors of winter. 

Oct 29 7:30pm - 11:15pm

Phew....For my next project I should probably think of something simpler to do. I didn't realize this would take a lot out of me. But anywho, the art part of my reskin is all complete. I finished the last sprite sheet (my character jumping), and I made the background and platform for my character to travel across (and also jump on).

Though I spent more time on the art aspect than the actual mechanics of my game, so my game will end up incredibly simple compared to the rest of the class.......

Thurs Oct 23 8:30am-11:10am

More sprite work complete. My character can now run and stay idle. Last thing I must reskin for the character sprites is the jump.

As for the rest of the game, I'm working on collectable items and thinking of how to reskin the platforms. So far I thought of an item that will mean the player wins the game...

...and I'm drawing jasmine flowers for my character to collect as she progresses.

I want the game to have a lot of Pakistani themes, in relation to my character's ethnicity.

Tues, Oct 21 8:30am - 11:10am

Today was another great discussion, this time about gender and sexuality in video games. It was especially a wonderful moment for me considering these are the kinds of issues that affect me directly. It's also good that we dabbled a little into race as well. Hearing about everyone's thoughts and opinions was interesting, and it was a good feeling to know that there are people who understand how I feel as well as people who brought certain topics to light.

Back to my 2D 1st person, I made some progress on my reskin of the Robot's sprite sheet but now the sprites aren't being read on Unity. It looks like I'll have to work with the Sprite Animator within Unity, but for now I'll take the focus off the sprites for a little bit to work on the rest of the level (like the platforms and the background).

As for the Holiday Card project, I really want to work with 2D elements. I enjoy doing the animation aspect more than the coding, to be honest.

Thurs Oct 16, 8:30am-11:10am

Makin some good progress with the robot 2D reskin. I have my character and I began editing over the robot sprites. Due to the box limitations of the robot sprites, I had to do my best to fit my character so she fit into the character sprite box that reads each frame of animation.

Before class ended I wanted to do a quick test and I like the outcome so far!

While I do enjoy making this, I know it's going to be quite a lot of work. This is only the first sprite sheet, there are six others. Some have less frames, some have more. I'm gonna be busy this weekend.

Tues Oct 14 - 8:30am-11:10am

After my attempts with SHMUP, I started the Beam Up Cow tutorial and got that done in about 10 minutes. It wasn't too hard, but the person who made the tutorial should consider editing some of their instructions. People who aren't too familiar with 2D Unity could easily be confused.

Now I'm currently playing around with the 2D robot character. Right now I'm editing the sprite of the robot so it has a star pin.

It looks so cute.

I want to implement the character animations in the holiday cards we'll be making.

SHMUP progress: Mon Oct 13, 5pm-8pm

I've gotten farther with my SHMUP reskin. There's still a few more things to work on, but I hit a rough patch with the background scrolling.

But other than that, I have all my reskin art done.

Player:

Their projectile:

Enemy:

Enemy projectile:

I've also reskinned the platforms and backgrounds, which can be seen in this in-progress shot:

I though since I went with a candy theme I'd make cotton candy clouds and bubblegum platforms.

I'll be starting the Beam Up Cow tutorial as soon as I work the kinks out of this project.

Good Game, Bad Game - Analysis and Results: Tues Oct 7

The games I chose for discussion are Grandia and Bubsy 3D. Both games are for the PlayStation 1.

Grandia is a JRPG about a young boy named Justin who goes on adventure to solve the mysteries of an ancient civilization. With just a strange rock his father left for him called the Spirit Stone, Justin goes from fooling around his hometown with his friend Sue to preparing to go up against a god-like creature intent on destroying the whole world. While Grandia is one of the many games to bring inspiration from the rise of Final Fantasy, it breaks off a little from other JRPG games by using a mixture of 2D sprites and 3D environments, making exploration an enjoyable experience as the characters interact with new (and potentially dangerous) elements as they explore the new world. They encounter vicious monsters of all shapes and sizes, and fight against them in turn based combat that varies on both character and enemy stats. As the player roams the unique and vast maps, they come across many different areas where they can find new equipment, money, items, and more in order to increase their strength and learn new magic spells in order to push forward. However, the English voice acting is rather corny so players might either get a laugh out of it or get annoyed by the characters.

Bubsy 3D is a 3D platform adventure game about a bobcat named Bubsy who needs to collect rocket parts and defeat an evil alien race. In a very limited environment that looks like pieces of painted cardboard, Bubsy can only walk in a straight line and his movements are clunky at best. His personality is quite obnoxious, and his one-liners constantly break the fourth wall (even one of the phrases sounds like the developers were patting themselves on the back). Just about everything about this game is weak, and players who can bear through the entire cesspool of disaster deserve an award for being able to stomach Bubsy's difficult controls and awful voice acting. Unfortunately, deadlines and employees inexperienced with 3D tools were unable to save Bubsy's already crumbling reputation.

The class was able to quickly deduce which was the good game (Grandia) and the bad game (Bubsy 3D).  I personally really adored Grandia, and I hope to be able to talk more about it in future discussions.

Thurs Oct 2, 8:30am-11:10am

I'm almost done with the 2D tutorial. It's really easy to follow, so I also started on making objects for my reskin. I want to reskin it so the game has a candy theme. I already have ideas for the player, projectiles and background objects, and I already got started on making the background image.

For the Good Game, Bad Game assignment, I already know which "good" game I want to discuss, but the "bad" game will take some time to choose.

Tues Sept 30, 8:30am-11:10am

The critique on out rollaballs was ok.....I wish I got some more feedback but I knew we were short on time.

After the rollaball critique, I began the tutorial for the 2D SHMUP. I'm already liking the build for it in Unity, I'd like to utilize it for my own personal use sometime.

Mon Sept 29, 8:00pm - 9:30pm

While my rollaball reskin doesn't have all the features I was planning for it, I did manage to have another idea for it's summary and I added a lot of easter eggs. It's playable, but I do worry that it will be too challenging.

As for the reading Extra Lives, I came up with three questions for discussion:

1.) What are we supposed to get out of the author's detailed rant in the beginning of the section about Fallout 3 that makes me feel like I'm reading a whiny blog post written by a 15 year old fanboy?

2.) What does the author mean by "most gamers do not care because they have been trained by the game designers not to care"?

3.) Why are the games he chose to rant about mostly first person shooters?

(I have more questions but to be honest they sound really annoyed and sarcastic because I honestly hated the author's writing)

Thurs Sept 25, 8:30am-11:10am

Having no luck with the shooting floating cans, I fooled around with models in C4D for some inspiration. Luckily, I did find some. While playing with a cube model, I created a spike. I imported the spike object into Unity and slapped on a texture that made it look really neat. I think I found my new enemy/obstacle!

I felt like my terrain needed something more exciting, so I took figure models and gave them unique poses and a mix of textures and hid them around my reskin game for fun.

Once the spikes are utilized as obstacles, my game will be complete.

Tues Sept 23, 8:30am-11:10am

Today I finished the shooter tutorial. I learned quite a lot from that tutorial, and now I'm attempting to push those new lessons into my rollaball reskin. As for my cans shooting bullets idea......I haven't had any luck yet. I'll keep trying, but I have a bad feeling that making the cans shoot at the player will include a lot more work than I'm already aware of. Still, doesn't hurt to learn more as I go. I'm also thinking about adding water and adding more peas and carrots to collect so I can make the most out of my terrain besides the center.

However, I did manage to add some interesting loop background music to my reskin. Now the game isn't so awkwardly quiet.

Thurs Sept 18, 8:30am-11:10am

I made significant progress in the Space Shooter tutorial. I've created hazards, made my ship move and shoot bullets, and even included audio. I'm now currently trying to figure out how to add more hazards.

The bullets in the space shooter assets got me curious, so I am thinking about seeing if I can add them to my roll-a-ball reskin as an extra challenge on top of collecting vegetables.

Tues Sept 16, 8:30AM - 11:10AM

Today I was able to turn a few cubes into a functioning clock. I also started the Space Shooter tutorial. I've made it up to step 6. I'm already liking the process for this particular game, and I wonder if any elements I learn in this tutorial can go towards tweaking my roll-a-ball reskin a little more. My background in the Space Shooter is a little different than what I was told to do in the tutorial, but personally I think it looks better.

Sun Sept 14 4:00pm-5:00pm

Added a few more details to the reskin.

I changed the Win text to something that looked more appealing to players. Then I fixed up the terrain and changed the trees so it didn't seem so insanely crowded. I want to get some in-class feedback because I am unsure if there is anymore I can do for this scene. I haven't really needed anything in C4D, though I might fix up the Can models.

Next I'll get a little into the Shooter tutorial so I can begin that project on top of finishing this one.

Thurs Sept 11, 8:30am-11:10am

Making progress in my Reskin today.

Fixed up the terrain and added textures, and now I'm working on making the audio work. I can get one track to work how I want, but the issue I'm having is using the other track. I also need to make sure I don't add too many trees so players can still see the peas and carrots in the grass.

RollaBall Reskin - What to Do

I gathered some sound effects, and now I must learn to add textures onto the peas and carrot pick up objects and implement the sound effects. I need one more sound effect, but I want to see how the others work before I find the last one I need. My terrain is looking a bit bland, so I think I will spruce it up as well today.

Roll a Ball Reskin - GDD

Veggie Velocity

Simple Game Design Document

Version 1.0

Vicki Vega

victoria.vega@montserrat.edu

Section I - Game Overview

Game Concept

Feature Set

Genre

Adventure

Target Audience

Everyone

Game Flow Summary

You walk around at a controlled speed level

Look and Feel

3D built universe with floating objects, the environment is very realistic despite the floating vegetables

Project Scope

Number of locations: 1

Number of levels: 1

Number of peas: 12

Number of carrots: 12

Number of cans: 8

Section II - Gameplay and  Mechanics

Gameplay

Objectives

The player must collect all the peas and carrots on the map in order to succeed

Mechanics

In first person view, the player must walk around the environment and collect all 24 of the peas and carrots in order to win.

Physics

The peas and carrots are scattered around the area, floating and rotating. The player must walk through the grass in order to achieve them.

Objects

Pick up peas and carrots in order to win

Reading

The Count display and the You Win! text that appears when all vegetables are collected

Game World

General Description

Mountains, grass, grass and dirt texture, floating cans and vegetables

Section V - Interface

Camera

First Person

Control System

Mouse to look around, direction keys to move

Music

undecided

Sound Effects

sfx resembling footsteps, vegetables “plopping” when collected

http://www.freesound.org/people/OtisJames/sounds/233343/

http://www.freesound.org/people/freefire66/sounds/175955/

Section VII – Technical

Development hardware and software

Unity Free

Development procedures and standards

Game Engine

Unity Free

Network

Scripting Language

BBEdit