Viral build with final music

http://nateselof.info/upload/upload/Viral_final.zip

My contributions.

Particle Effects! (pretty much all of them)
Programming Assistant.
Sound Implementation.
Being an overall badass.

Viral Final Build

nateselof.info/upload/upload/Viral.zip

Final Build Executable

Download final build here: http://nateselof.info/upload/upload/ViralFinalFinal.zip

Download old build here: http://nateselof.info/upload/upload/ViralFinal.zip

Viral Trailer

http://youtu.be/oOqhjq0C1Yo 

BAM!

What I did (Sam)

-Concept Art
-Art Direction and Design
-UI Elements/Font
-Intro/Title/Control/Credit screen
-Title Screen buttons
-Game Logo
-Win/Lose cutscene

My Contributions to Viral by Todd Black

Per Brians' request here are the list of assests i contributed to the game.

1. Made models for enemies (triangles, metacircle, star destroyers)
2. Got sound effects and background music from hired composer (have permission to use as they were made for this game)
3. Modified Cutscene vids
4. Shaped Game Style to well....shapes.
5. Influenced digital art style (cubes looking the way they do, particular particle effects, etc)
6. Helped refine game mechanics (i.e force push, speed)
7. Guided level design to resemble a growing perspective.
Note: Post may change based on what Brian says.

Final Progress?

Just sayin...

Mainly been working on final touches and completing gameplay concepts. Helping Sam with the victory and lose screens, trying to shorten then so the player doesn't feel like it's too long. Will have them finished tomorrow.

Other than that it's all about finishing and playtesting.

Victory Screen

Videos are louder than words. Check it out. Also, particle effects, like a burst of light or something are gonna be needed to transition into the victory screen.

Particles are in!

Well, most of them.

I've added many types of particles to the current version, including;

Player Shooting effect
Player Absorb effect
Player Hit effect
Aimer effects (not exactly happy about this. I'm open to suggestions)
Enemy Spawn effect
Enemy Die effect

I still need to add effects for hitting and killing the meta-circle.

I've uploaded the build to perforce.
JK- I couldn't figure it out.
Here is the link to it on my server.
http://nateselof.info/upload/upload/compress_vAlot.zip

Nate

Play test report for 3/7

So, It's only been about a week since we did a large number of play test with some really good feedback. That didn't leave time to change everything in those comments so things will overlap with the last report.

We can start first with the overall look with the game. With the questions regarding the art style, I was actually surprised to find that most people are satisfied with the game in it's current state. The remaining responses we're split between the more simplistic visuals of the initial concepts and the second set of concepts with the same color scheme. But for almost each person when it came to what art style they felt was best fitting or should be used, the games current style was almost always a first or second choice. So with the time we have left it might not be a bad idea to stick with them and just do some clean up ( which we've already been doing anyway ). When people commented about what they found most exciting, it was usually the visuals: the shapes and colors (people seemed to prefer the version with the cubes outlined in green). Tied for second was they found firing blocks to destroy things satisfying vs. absorbing them to get bigger. So it feels like the game is already on the right track.

When it comes to the gameplay itself, pacing is probably just about right for now because 66% responded is just right, the remaining percentage canceled each other out with being "Fast" or "Slow". Only one person made a comment about the blocks not gathering fast enough. Everyone else seemed to just want to click way too much and in observations this appeared to be linked to how fast they wanted or though they should be progressing. Players who understood how firing worked appeared to rank pacing closer to "about right". So I know we're tweaking how fast blocks gather but it might need adjustment in a few areas simultaneously to make sure the balance is maintained so the game doesn't get too easy. We can talk about our ideas in class, they should be limited to things we could implement in like a day or two and try out ourselves or with a couple of people. Overall though, we seem to be in good shape and just need a visual queues for a couple more things that involve feedback with the player object.

When it comes to the controls feeling awkward was about a 50/50 split as well. The people who left comments usually referenced there was either too much going on already on the screen to remember too many buttons to press. Or, simply that they weren't quite set up for them to use without losing their placing or hurting them in the game (one have must be moved to press L). I think we could remedy this by changing L to Space Bar or similar.

On the last note, the majority was likely to play again, many said they would purchase with reservations such as it being improved a little bit, having more levels, or only being priced around $.99 on the App Store.

So based on the feedback some priorities would probably be:

• Changing the controls they don't require moving the hand as much (moving L to another key)
• Updating the controls instructions screen a little bit, with the new button and maybe a small video also that demonstrates gameplay
• a few more feedback queues for the boss and the enemies and the player ( i know we have a bunch of new ones in place already). The more important one is maybe some longer delays in firing for the player and a visual queues for the player when they're not able to figure (players who understood it was not good to constantly fire all the time were much more calm and found and ranked the game more satisfying--not necessarily easier--than those who clicked too much and saw no results happening on screen for them)
• Integrating some sort of attack for the boss that is different than or in addition to spawning mass amounts of triangles ( I feel like a charge up-which could be the low point in action- followed by a multi directional blast-which could be the rise back into action-would be easiest to integrate)
• Cleaning up the graphics a bit more (aligning the boundaries a little better, etc)

Otherwise I think we already got all the other stuff covered and currently integrating based on the last round of feedback from last week. If you would like the results from surveys let me know, so I can forward them. It was a little more difficult to make them accessible because of the site used this time.

UI, Instruction Screen, and Logo

As it says on the tin. Pictures speak louder than words so...here's an image dump.

Build 15 Survey

In order to gauge responses relative to the version play tested, the old survey was closed and this one will be used for this build. Currently theres only a windows build available for play.

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22F2C5LWVAH

Progress...almost there

Began tweaking sound effects for game, helped Sam with Art for title and Instruction screen and animation sequence.

Helped decide title of game. We have gone "Viral"

New build v15

Mostly UI additions: Pause menu, instructions screen, win screen, lose screen, and HUD are set up, but need to be made a nice looking.

Boss now constantly shoots triangle enemies at you and has shields.

It's up on perforce, but I haven't meshed in Nate's particles yet, will do that Monday. That'll also be an opportunity to make the shields have a hit particle effect.

Animated Triangle Entrance

So as promised I made a flash animation of the triangles appearing ingame. Today in class hopefully it can get cleaned up (get rid of the white in the background to make it transparent, i'm useless in After Effects) and implemented. Fortunately I made it so the triangles don't need to spawn pointing a certain way.

(Click the box to play the animation )

Visual Information and Feedback

From the playtests, I noticed that many people don't easily understand what the avatar's mechanics are.

So I've been toying with different visual cues to relay more clear information to the player.

Some didn't realize that the pink aim point is actually where the gravity pulls the blocks to, and the avatar is where the pushing force comes from. So I emphasized the aim point and added an outward "distortion" particle emitter from the avatar when the player clicks.

http://youtu.be/8Bs354g9kzo an example of what I've been working on.

Always open for your opinions,

Nate

Updated survey

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22EXPB2B3V6

Sorry the last survey I was using didn't give as much control over the results as we would have preferred. I didn't use other sites before because they had a cap of 10 questions. I kind of found a way around this by lumping all the optional responses that require written answers together.

I strongly encourage taking some notes while they're playing or asking them these and other questions anyway and recording their responses if you can, otherwise they can enter them on their own. But in general most of the feedback I got was from me simply observing them play.

Playtests and Progress

I haven't had anyone take the playtest yet because I wanted to wait for a new build and i wasn't sure it had been swapped but i have people lined up to play after today.

For Progress i got sound effects done and got back some of the revised music from my composer including a um....."marching" number......BWAH HAH HAH HAH HA!!!!!

Anyway hoping to get those in as soon as possible.

I read the results from Eric's play tests and it seems like we got some useful feedback to work with.

I have 4-5 play tests scheduled for after class today, so I will post those results later.

General play test comments from eric

Hey I haven't had a chance to review the results of all of my play test but I conducted around 8-10 (looks like only 7 completed the survey) and these are some general themes I noticed while just observing people play.

• Players took a while to get through the second part, but the time spent there was essential to their success in the final part, otherwise they took much longer to meet goals
• They were unsure if they were damaging the boss
• They clicked too much, relating to not understanding how firing actually worked
• Didn't seem to get that the pink dot helped aim a directional blast (either forgot the direction in instructions or just didn't notice it)
• They moved around too much, too fast most of the time to maintain blocks (only a couple played the game well, aiming etc, waiting to gather blocks), 
• Only one or two got aiming without being told. Telling the experienced gamers to slow down and watched what happens allowed them to realize how to gather blocks (it might be helpful to adjust the speed of gravity so its more significant during casual play). 
• After being told the dot aims or to slow down to accumulate a grasp on blocks, about half of them got the mechanic with two practices, the others reverted to excessive, reckless clicking
• few read all of the directions without being told more than once they needed to do so before playing, players who read all directions generally played much better than those who skimmed (would be helpful to have better visual ques without these directions)
• most players asked how to do essential actions after beginning (absorbing blocks, most forgot about releasing blocks
• less than half noticed the growth when absorbing blocks or shrinking when pressing L (and most only noticed it after enemy attack/gameplay was at a slower pace during the second square)
• about a 1/3 of players released too many blocks and killed themselves lol

I'll update with more comments after I review the results. If you want to take a look at comments yourself you can download the PDF results from here.

Survey Results

My survey results

I got two play testers. Here's the jist of what they said suggestion-wise

Make the enemies more challenging. Right now they're not really a threat unless you're an idiot

User feedback that indicates the player is increasing in size, because at least one of them didn't notice until I told them.

The player needs an intuitive goal.

There is a bug where the player would get stuck on occasion, particularly when they tried moving around with a moderately big pile of blocks.

My Observations

-Player moves too damn quickly. Once you become too big, you can't control yourself. I would revert it back to the way it was where the player, no matter the size, moves at a set speed

-Put more blocks in the game and remove size limits. The pre-alpha iterations where we were running around creating Planet [Insert Your Name Here]s were fun, this just seems kind of...bleh.

-Players are gonna make the mistake of absorbing all the blocks in level 2, and the L-key regurgitate block function isn't intuitive at all. Forcing them to restart seems too much like a punishment. I don't know how to balance this, but we can discuss this on Monday

-Using The Force (that is, throwing a cloud of cubes at triangles without exploding them) is still a viable option, as is sitting in a corner in a cloud of cubes. One suggestion I would make is re-code cube/triangle interaction so they don't at all collide UNLESS the cube is going at least X speed. However that's probably gonna cause problems since there's gonna be dozens of checks going on constantly as triangles inadvertently bump into cubes harmlessly. If it doesn't outright murder FPS, it has the potential to cause problems.

My Plans

-Hassle the programmers art-wise :P

-Remix some sound effects and music to either give us some audio variety or something I think will blend in more effectively with the motif.

-Learn how to get audio-editing software to work.

Bug reports

This blog post will be used to track bugs, please list the build/version number in the description.

NOTE: I'LL DELETE COMMENTS WHEN THE BUG HAS BEEN ADDRESSED (just to keep it organized, if a bug reoccurs, repost it this way I know it's reoccurring) . - David

New build changes (v14)

Bug Fixes:
-Fixed no damage bug
-Fixed no sound bug

Gameplay tweaks:
-increased gravity power
-increased radius from aim point for snipe effect
-reduced number of cubes in triangle
-Level 2 has up to 2 enemies at any time, spawn time is longer.
-player is slower, acceleration is unchanged

Added:
-level 4 state, as trigger for meta circle appearance (absorb 5 cubes after entering triangle, some enemies will spawn during level 3)

Survey ready!

(Old link removed)


new one is: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22EXPB2B3V6


Dave got the latest version on Perforce. I exported builds, uploaded them, and created links in the survey. I noticed that the game pace changes when video settings are altered for the downloads so I disabled changing the video options before building. I also found out if you full screen the web version all the controls work but it runs a little slower then the desktop versions. 

I would say try to get people to do the downloads but I made the web version available still because for a few of the people I had to get to play it remotely, they failed at unzipping anything lol

I did add a question to signify which version was played though so we can account for the pace of the game in their answers.

****Also, I'd try to keep this playtest sample of new players small or feed it to those who will help us do repeat tests anyway. I'm still not sure if there's some end or restart function in the game and theres a bug that stops the player from moving once they're too big.

Lastest survey

Hey everybody,

So I revised or combined questions in the survey, it's down to like 12 and it's like half comment, half rating scale or choice with comment options.

We still have to export the last build before I can attach links so we'll have to sit tight for a bit before we can start actually doing the play tests.

In the meantime, take a look and email or post a comment here if you think something should be added or changed. I took out most of the silly questions haha, the first use was mostly to help gauge demographic.

Gameplay mechanic ideas

Using this to track gameplay changes through comments/requests (changes in speed, reduce number of cubes, change enemy speed, etc)

New build changes

Changes for the new build
==================================================================
Gameplay:
==================================================================
Try these out and see what tweaks we need, also these will mess up the balance again (but that's ok as we're working on new waves system anyway)

-New blast forces, if aim cursor (pink dot) is far away from player, you get a powerful and precise shot with less spread, if it's close you get a lot of spread and normal power. Scales linearly based on distance from player: i.e. Max distance away is pretty much all a directional blast (powerful cube blob), cursor directly on the player is all spread blast.

The directional "snipe" only effects cubes within 10 units of the aim point, the other cubes get a proportionally weak spread blast. However in large cube blobs the cubes at the center get the powerful blast, but the ones in front of them may not and slow them down. Trying to work on that. May drastically increase the force.

Also need to consider visual feedback for the player, probably through the aim cursor size/color

-Timer before gravity kicks in after a blast reduced a lot, however haven't added player control over this as it seems like more complexity with little use. We can discuss whether it's useful enough to add another control, personally I haven't found any compelling uses for it yet.

-Player speed and acceleration now increase with size

-player can die, restarting the level (needs lots of balancing)

-Triangle enemies do more damage, are faster, and a little harder to kill

-Aim cursor can be a lot farther from the player, for smoother control of force, but putting it really far away can make it have to swing around.

-Zero sum cube system, when hit you drop cubes (at the moment just dropped). Also tap 'L' to drop cubes. Holding it down doesn't work, as a safeguard against dropping too many.

-meta-circle is now killable (needs user feedback)


==================================================================
Art
==================================================================

-Added procedural lines

Another week another progression

Progression for the week:

Made star destory (cue evil laugh!), got my composers to give me another two songs for the game, will make some changes to them to have them better suit the game.

Updated Survey

I'm having a little trouble completing the survey from an iPad but I hope to have it up soon to coincide with the next round of playtests.

I'm trying to find a survey building that will allow me to attach image tags or pics so we can get some feedback on the art too.

I'll post the link here when it's done.

Major/Minor design problem

So I was looking at the alpha video again when something major occurred to me, and i'm still beating myself over why I didn't notice it sooner. One fundamental problem I noticed with our current rendition, the background is Navy colored, not black.

I'll talk more about this on Monday. I can't imagine it's something that's difficult to fix, but I think it's gonna have a major effect on the visual design.

UI Designs

So after I noticed that the current rendition of the UI design (there was unanimous consent, even from me that it looked good after Sunday) looked like crap in the actual game, I went to work fixing it up. Per suggestions, I made an additional iteration. The current plan is for Dave to put them ingame and get a screenshot so we can decide.

The Resume button is the original style. Out of all of these this is the one I want to see the least because I already know it doesn't look good ingame

The Exit button moves significantly closer to my style, and uses strong green glows to contrast against the solid black. Since there's unanimous support towards moving into a more glowey art style, this one will blend in very well with that. My personal favorite, though I won't fall on my sword on it.

The first Restart button is the first iteration of a more sleek, sharp design that moves away from glows, and more towards my old retro style. I like this a lot, especially considering that I plan for the buttons to be emphasized with some sort of effect when the player's cursor has a button selected. A button in this style with a bright green glow will easily stand out.

The second Restart button uses a darker background with more contrast than the original as per Dave's suggestions. Personally I like it better than the prior iteration and it has all of the same benefits of the sharp design.

Alpha video

Alpha vid:

Untitled from D Bayzer on Vimeo.

Progress...again

Basically for the last week i've been working on getting stuff ready for the alpha build. Been playtesting to tweak the mechanics. Been helping focus the art design and looking up sound effects and background sounds.

Concept mk II stylized

Went and photoshopped a bit more stylized in plack and green. UI menu layout is the same (mostly since I haven't had time to try some other layouts).

background is lines, cloudy, and some fain hexagons on a dark blueish, so that the character is noticeably darker. Included some mockups of exploding and aiming.

I think you can just go to the album, better than a bunch of links.
http://s1067.photobucket.com/albums/u431/david_bucket1/

Concept Idea MKII

Building off of some of Nate's idea, I refined a bit of the UI interface to improve off of some of his shapes and designs into the (totally not just my opinion but verifiable fact :3) more crisp black and green original design.

The first major change is the player avatar becomes a black hole. Because everything else is black, a white corona halos the avatar. Not only making it stand out through shape alone but in color as well. Personally I think it looks really badass, but of course this too is verifiable fact :) There is no such thing as too eclipse-ey. If the corona could like...move around somehow, that would be fantastic

Second, this concept is of a pause screen, possibly a title screen. because it's all black and green, i've darkened everything except the UI and player avatar to prevent blending. The 4 buttons should be pretty self-explanatory (although in a 'one minute of awesomeness' game, I don't see why we need a save-load function.) Furthermore, to emphasize what the player has selected, I put a dirty glow around one of the buttons and the text.

I wouldn't mind the diamond connecting the buttons being removed, i'm not it's biggest fan, but a circle looks out of place and a square looks just plain silly. The font is a placeholder, though I could see it in the final beta.

Anyways, any sort of details aesthetic-wise should be ironed out by Saturday.

Abstract concepts

Tried a few more out there ideas to see what it would look like, going off the idea of a more black hole look mentioned in the feedback feedback (would be done ingame with a black sphere, and a 2d sprite slightly below it showing the ground being sucked down effect as it's just some photoshop trickery and the player always views things top down). Should look like you're controlling a hole in the level.

However to have a black hole/dark colored player, the black background had to go and I did a more abstract grey digital look, with faint clouds of color splatter in the background (giving it some depth and something for you to see you're movement relative too (more sense of speed).

Also make use of a minimal/soft/color splash look. Sort of a soft digital with lots of glow.

I did versions with the plain background and a refined mockup of my menu layout idea. Also versions with Sam's background converted to black (this can be done in photoshop batch process to convert all the drawings, so it is doable). They are faint, but would be much more noticeable when moving.

Glowing dots around the player show powers, suck in towards player when using gravity pull and fly out when exploding (only live for a couple seconds, like bullets). Would be a 2d particle effect with no physics. They could also show range by spawning near the edge of your range.

Basic

Menu

With Sam's Background

Concept idea

So guys, check this out. Better visualization of what I have in mind for a UI. The background is partially masked by an opaque floor in the arena. The concern was the green 255 background would blend with the green 255 everything else, and I had anticipated that already, hence this. The edge is 255 green and very thick so it stands out. Similarly, the powerups are green, but stand out by their size and shape as well as their color (because they're clearly not enemies.)

Enemies will cycle through a bunch of colors, occasionally flickering (that is, dissapearing for a frame or two and appearing back) or giving off some cool special effect to give the player the idea that they aren't supposed to be there.

The current UI is basic, but I like the idea of keeping it a simple black and green box on the top right of the screen. The counter on the left counts enemies, the one on the right, blocks. I was thinking of using the LCD Digital font you see on old VCRs or digital clocks, however this placeholder could work. Icons give the player visual clues as to what the counter counts. Because flickering enemy icons would be disorienting, it should be a static red.

Currently the idea of powerups having unique shapes such as triangle pyramids or dodecahedrons is popular, though there is sentiment about changing its color so they stand out. The current concept art shows them in green just to see if shape and size alone is enough to get them to stand out. I did a bit of experimentation and I think Red 0 Blue 128 Green 200 would look best for powerups if we cannot have green 255.

Questions? Comments? Critique? (TOTALLY my line by the way, that other group stole it from me! >:( )

Fun fun fun

Hey guys,

First I would like apologize for not being in class yesterday, I wasn’t feeling too well.

I was talking to Todd in our Capstone class and he reminded me that Alpha build is coming up very soon and there’s plenty of work to do. So I wanted to try and add some more structure to this process so we can all be sure we are working toward the same goal. Below I’ve jotted down some pieces of the puzzle that still need to be put into place.

Also, I wasn’t there yesterday so I’m probably behind on some information. And please let me know if I’m forgetting things.

UI

Pre-game UI (splash screen, main menu, instructions/tutorial images?)

• Design
• Art
• Implementation

In-game UI (score, health, minimap?, message displaying system)

• Design
• Art
• Implementation

ART

Player character

• Design
• Art
• Implementation

Junk

• Design
• Art
• Implementation

Bullet

• Design
• Art
• Implementation

Particle Effects (lots and lots)

• Design
• Art
• Implementation

DESIGN

Primary Challenges (How do I advance to the next level? How does the player know what to do?)

• Design

• Art (if applicable)
• Implementation

Secondary Challenges/Rewards (if applicable) (kill spawner to get a power-up)

• Design
• Art (if applicable)
• Implementation

High-level Challenge (How do I win? Get to a certain size? Boss battle?)

• Design
• Art (if applicable)
• Implementation

SOUND

Music (main menu, level)

• Find clips
• Implementation

Sound Effects

• Find clips
• Implementation

UI Mock up

This is a quick mockup of what I was talking about. Placement, rotation, and etc all could probably use some tweaking, but this is the basic idea.

Link

Feedback reports

Feedback reports compiled from playtests, please include the build version in your post when reporting.

Working on Survey and playtest feedback

Hey guys, reviewing more survey comments and revising the questions.

Some people thought there were too many questions so I want to make more rated questions to get the feedback we need and keep comment questions to a minimum.

I'll make another post on adjustments we might be able to make based on the rest of the feedback I read.

Did anyone else get people to play the first playtest? Any specific feedback already?

Progress and comment

been working on enemies, changing color and making sure they are like the triangle enemy. Also started searching for sound designers for help on music.

Sam's background looks great! It's interesting (lll). Can't wait to see it in game.

Backgrounds, backgrounds, and other stuff

So the background is done. I have it sitting in my email, and in the interest of saving hard drive space i'm not downloading it to my computer to have it posted...yet. Some last-minute touches may need to be done. Mainly, adjust the speed of the video. But as-is, my goal was to create a looping animation in the background, and that is exactly what I did.

For the purposes of finding more things to do, I might look up some good light techno to put in the background and possibly other sound effects. Furthermore, I might make models of the bits you're supposed to collect. So far everyone likes the idea of keeping them as rotating cubes, but there's also talk of making different sized variants that do different things. So my current idea is to model other geometric 3-d shapes like dodecahedrons, triangle pyramids, etc. I wouldn't be suprised if the latter was thrown out because it might be too visually noisy, but I digress.

Blah blah blah, monday in class should get that background in pretty easily, as well as last-minute changes.

Programmer update

Doing the usual, further improvements bringing us towards alpha functionality, incorperating play test feedback for gameflow, goals, and controls. SOme bug fixing if time allows, but I'm aiming at getting everytihng in at an alpha level before worrying about most of the bugs.

Sound Design

By now you've gotten Brians email about what we need for the alpha in two weeks.

For sound design we need to things: 1. Background Music for the game and possibly the splash screen. 2. Sound effects for the various enemies and actions in the game.

On Monday we need to discuss these so that we can move forward and get it done in time.

Daily Double Progress Report

This is a daily double progress report of my work on the game in the last two weeks..

Mainly for the last two weeks i've been working on levels, we've incorpated one into the game (just without collisions) and i'm working on the scaling for the other levels. I've been getting the other enemies ready after we successfully got the triangle enemy into the game.

For the playtest i got my roommates invovled and each participated in the survey. I've also contributed ideas about some of the results of the playtest such as having particle effect fly off the triangles when they go to ram the player, and suggesting some other particle attacks for the enemies.

Initial Playtest Report

The first play test was a rough one because of the game being in it's early stages. When observing the players, I noticed that most of them struggled to grasp the play mechanics completely for about the first two minutes. Most of them had an "Ah Hah" moment around the 2-3 minute mark and the remaining 2 minutes of time was spent trying to "beat" the level.

Common themes in negative feedback were: needs more art/style, exploding mechanic didn't always work (or they expected more to signify it), feeling unaccomplished because the enemies never stopped appearing and there was no advancement, being unclear on core play for too long, feeling gameplay was tedious.

Common themes in positive feedback included: When it worked seeing the exploding mechanic work at a fast pace, seeing the player object "grow", destroying the enemies. Although many players had the complained of their being no clear objective or hinted at frustration, we noticed that once core play was accomplished and learned, they proceeded to play more anyway.

Planned changes for future versions include:
    •    Swapping player and enemy objects/art to build player attachment or investment in roles
    •    Increase opportunity for length and information player discovers in tutorial section before enemies spawn, so they're not frustrate in the middle of action by new expectations
    •    Adjust art so stages in gameplay are clearly identifiable to player (blocks could be red in border to signify attack power, player could change color to hint at travel speed or current gravity, etc)
    •    Fix bug where gravity release does not always work
    •    Possible give players more control over their attack, or multiple methods for attack
    •    Create spawn points for junk
    •    Create spawn point objects for enemies
    •    Incorporate an identifiable goal for level advancement
    •    Try a version that Incorporates a switch into controls instead of current "hold to" mechanics
    •    Change or add an attack to give player more manipulation capabilities

Results of survey located here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0ApvsESNHKVh-dHFNX0twV2hENGNKX1haRnFOd2w0MFE&single=true&gid=0&output=html

Play test with team notes (update)

Hey guys I created a survey and chose a few questions I thought were relevant.

Directing the player to the survey link will give them download options and brief instructions to begin play.

I tried not to make it too long. To make the playtest consistent, I think we should explain the following to the player and allow them to play for 3-5 minutes (observe and take notes of responses during play if possible):

    •    explain movement controls
    •    explain that space bar activates gravity to pull in objects around the ball
    •    explain that releasing M will scatter the stuff you've pulled in
    •    explain that M will absorb stuff you pulled in (do not explain it makes them more powerful etc.)

Compress v3 for the Web:
http://web.me.com/ericbeasley/gam392/WebPlayer.html

Compress V3 for Windows:
https://files.me.com/ericbeasley/7nr9tg

Compress V3 for Mac:
https://files.me.com/ericbeasley/g1x8h0

Survey Link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/formResponse?formkey=dHFNX0twV2hENGNKX1haRnFOd2w0MFE6MQ&ifq

Let me know what you think or if we should change the questions at all.

Shooting script and Junk spawner

I've got the Shooting Script going and working well.
http://nateselof.info/upload/upload/shooting.txt - to be plugged into an enemy.

Also, I have a junk spawner that spawns junk when there are very few left on the field.
http://nateselof.info/upload/upload/JunkSpawner.cs - to be plugged into an object.

Enemy progress

I've been working on two types of enemies. One that rams you, one that stands at a distance and shoots at you.

David, I can't figure out how to get "forces" to work right on the ramming enemy, so I've just plugged in the velocity transform. Feel free to attempt your own solution.

Here is the link to my CS file for the ramming enemy.
upload/enemyRam.cs

This enemy will die and toss out two junk objects. Take a look at how I did it.

Things I'm working on:

• Getting the shooting enemy to shoot.
• Creating a spawning controller, I have one that works now, but it lags alot.

Possible AI beginnings for ranged enemy

// Update is called once per frame
// Possible shooter enemy ai.. needs force backwards at certain distance
// orbits around player
void Update () {

//look at player
GameObject playerGO = GameObject.FindWithTag ("Player");
transform.LookAt(playerGO.transform.position);

this.rigidbody.AddForce(transform.forward * speed);

if (Vector3.Dot(this.rigidbody.velocity,transform.forward) < 0)
{
this.rigidbody.AddForce(transform.forward * speed * 10.0f);

}

if(this.rigidbody.velocity.magnitude >= maxVel)
{
this.rigidbody.velocity.Normalize();
this.rigidbody.velocity = this.rigidbody.velocity*maxVel;

}

}

Enemies

Hail Glorious Victory!
Was tinkering around with enemies and thought about having very simple shape enemies that of course look cool and this is what i came up with. I'll bring the Maya file tomorrow so if we think of anything else we I can make a quick model. Again these are just very simple and keeping to the concept of shapes.....and yes Sam they're green

Background update

After hours of hand-drawing each line, carefully inspecting them to make sure I didn't miss anything or make any sort of noticable mistake, I have at least half of a running background.

Check it out!

Of course one thing I always say is that you never get it right the first time.
My current problem with it is that it runs kind of slow for my tastes. Looks pretty sweet so far though. You'll notice a white line in the upper left corner. I can batch-process that thing out pretty easily in Photoshop, but given this is just a demo of what I have so far, it isn't important. Now the current plan this week is to get used to Unity shaders so I can finally start on the tiles. Maybe even work on getting the current background to loop, which MUST be done before this game is due.

Also, looking to get feedback from the team on it. As the blue-green debate is still under way, it is good to know I can pretty easily batch-process the colors too.

Work so far

Prototype and more prototype, working on building up my knowledge of unity and a simple working prototype.

Recap of work

During the last week I confered with the team to try and solidify the game, also met with Sam and Nadia to do some filming of our story section on the green screen.

This week will be talking about the gameplay and trying to put the finishing touches on it so Dave can finish the prototype. Also i will attempt to finish the movie for our story section and turn us into holograms.

Art so far

So right now I have a rudimentary idea on art design. The tiles are really setting me back though, getting the right shader for them has been nightmarish.
For the record I plan on using this as my background. Of course i'm gonna animate it. Frame by frame. Yeah, that won't take an absurdly massive amount of time to pull off, but if I can git 'er dunn, it should be awesome.

As for the tiles, glass and hologram shaders haven't been working right. I think i'll try setting up some sort of toon shading with minimal light reflection and make that transparent for a similar effect.

Schedule

This is a preliminary schedule. If you have any additions/changes just post under comments and I'll update. 


Thanks,
Nate


JAN 16TH - 23RD

• Continue with gameplay design. Solidify a core mechanic that the game can expand from.  
• Paper prototyping game mechanics.
• Artistic prototyping and concepts: background, floor tiles, terrain?
• Technical prototyping, set up movement and controls.

JAN 23RD - 30TH

• Begin puzzle design. 
• Further test and possibly decide on an art direction.
• Work on functional in-game prototype.

JAN 30TH - FEB 6TH

• Complete in-game prototype.
• Use prototype to further test mechanics, puzzles and fun.
• Playtesting prototype out-of-class.
• Constant reiteration and tweaking.

FEB 6TH - 13TH

• Begin building in-game art content; background, floor tiles, terrain, walls, blocks, holograms.
• Solidify the 3 level designs.

FEB 13TH - 20TH

• Continue testing with the prototype.
• Begin importing art into game; testing if the art creates the effect that we are going for.
• Gather sound effects.

FEB 20TH - 27TH

• Reiterate on the art, finish importing.
• Build the first level.
• Import and test sounds.

FEB 27TH - MAR 5TH

• Finalize sounds.
• Build the second and third levels.
• Fix unforeseen art and programming bugs.

MAR 5TH - MAR 12TH

• Finishing polish.

For class on Wednesday

Hey, I just wanted to keep all of you informed... 


David, Eric and I were talking with the instructor today after class about our new idea for the gameplay. He liked the idea but he was concerned that there wasn't a specific, simple mechanic at the core of the gameplay. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LL9dB3eRy8

In this game, iBlast Moki, the main gameplay mechanic is  to place explosives to move an object from one area to another. On top of that, it utilizes the timing/chain reaction mechanic to offer a more rich experience. And most importantly, it's not overly complicated. We could definitely take some ideas from it.


Brian did some brainstorming exercises with us to help us get thinking about how to come up with solid, simple mechanics.  Essentially, we came up with a list of verbs that can be used to build off of.  Verbs like: Push, Explode, Converge, etc...  


As an example, we'll make a mechanic out of Converge, then Explode: 


Lets say you have a "toy" (a game without goals), where there is a flat 2d plane. On the plane is a bunch of junk spattered around. You click on the board and all the junk converges to your mouse... Let it go and BOOM! all the junk explodes outwards. Weeee!


I'm not saying we have to do something like this, but we should come up with a more "toy"ish way to use these capsules.


Wednesday is a work day, so we will have all class to meet and discuss. Brian said that he would help us get going on brainstorming. Personally, I would feel much more confident with this if we could solidify the gameplay before moving too far.


Just keep it in mind, and we'll discuss on Wednesday.




Thanks,
Nate

My Schedule

This is my schedule for this quarter. Most of the time I'll be able to get things done at work. 


N8

Official Documentation

This post is confirmation of our team, game and roles

Team: Glorious Victory

Game: Capsule

Roles:
Producer-Nadia
Artists-Todd,Sam,Nate
Programmers-Dave,Nate
Level Designers-Eric,Nate,Todd,Sam,Nadia

Hail Glorious Victory!

"download" effect

So this video is a test of a concept special effect I have in mind. That is, capsules will download into the game rather than fade in. Just a rough proof-of-concept, except it's backwards for some reason. If there's enough time I can probably refine the animation.

Writer's Block pitch

Title: Writer's Block

Genre: Puzzle, Education

Target: Children 7-13 , Teacher's

Writer's Block

A game striving to provide a learning experience for students becoming more involved with mobile technology at a young age.

Gameplay:

• Players rearrange blocks falling onto the screen
• Players can use "specials" to rearrange blocks in given intervals to to get them unstuck when making words
• players drag to connect adjacent letters and form words, longer words get more points, score reduction for reused words
• players move on to the next level once they reach a score cap

Level Design

• Linear, stable viewing plan
• Blocks are dropped into a container horizontally or vertically
• if screen space allows players are able to see words created already
• next letter is shown on a side panel

Downfall

Title: Downfall

Genre: puzzle/platformer

Perspective: 2.5d isometric

Hook: Out run and out think the world you're trapped in as the ground collapses behind you in this blend of exploration, simple puzzles, and fast paced platforming.

-Short burst game play: Each run can be consider a self contained 2-3 minute game play session as the player explores. However each run ties into the player's over arching goal of escaping, inventory, and knowledge of the game world. Each failure is a successful exploration of the environment. Players can try something new with each run and explore a new approach.

-Flow and optimization based game play: As players keep running without stopping, they pick up speed. Learning the game world and optimizing is the key to escaping in time. To reach the edge you'll need to discover and flow through an escape route.

-Simple core mechanics and exploration: The game play is about exploration and optimization, with no complex mechanics. Players are dropped into a world and learn it's rules and about it with little to no instruction, exploring through "death".

One minute of awesome: The tension of the final minute of each run as you try to push out further with the ground collapsing behind you.

Trapped at the center of a strange world, the land starts to collapse away behind you every time you try to escape. When you fall, you find yourself back at the beginning. Explore the environment in this open 360 degree puzzle. You can start running in any direction, encountering puzzles and exploring, attempting to reach the edge. If you do not escape, you start at the beginning with armed with new knowledge and any items you found.

At the core is simple run and jump platforming mechanics, exploration, and a simple tension cycle.

Similar games: Downfall builds on the optimization style gameplay of games like bitrip runner, combined with simple puzzles, a more open world for exploration, and more tense and visible time limit. As draws from drop in and play games and distance games, like Jet Pack Joyride.

Story: The ground is falling, run! (We might be able to reveal more as the player explores, but nothing more would be revealed at the beginning and it's not a narrative heavy sort of game. I haven't really developed this area yet)

Target audience: Puzzle platformer fans, although it does go in artsy directions with it's exploration of exploration and minimal instruction. Not to mention it's asking for a cool minimalist and slightly dark mood in the visual style.

Technical: Note that the world does not need to be very big, especially since a lot of it will be replayed and reused by the player.

Enviroment Concept Art

So I made a quick sketch in Inkscape regarding what I think the game enviroment should look like. So far, there is a consensus that we will have a digital, virtual theme.

Take a look.

So far there's no consensus on what the coloring should be. I like black and green but others want black and cyan.

What I envision is particles rising out in the background with a thin trail of green or cyan behind them. The particles randomly change direction in a 90 degree angle, either going up, left, or right. This will probably have to be programmed. Furthermore, I want the particles to always be going up in a relatively straight pattern, so it will have to be programmed that after going left or right, it HAS to go up. The up direction does not have this constraint, although it may still change direction to the left or right at any time.

Hamsplosion

Title: Hamsplosion
Genre: Third-Person Running
Target: Those who like high-pressure, quick reaction games.

You are a meat delivery man that has unknowingly delivered a ham with a C4 glazing to a meat packing factory. Oh no! Run Forest! Run!

Game Play:

• Sprint through the hallways of the meat packing factory.
• Avoid obtacles by jumping over, dodging by or sliding under them.
• Escape before the Hamsplosion delivers you to Davey Jones' Meat Locker. 

Level Design:

• Linear level design.
• Many Meat-based obstacles that hold you back if you don't avoid them. i.e. meat hooks hanging from the ceiling, piles of meat guts on the floor.

North Pole

This is a simple game that can be completed and polished within the time we have for this class.


Title: North Pole
Genre: 2.5D Platformer
Rating: E for erbody

North Pole is a simple 2.5d platformer set in the north pole, with an emphasis on E-rated content. You play as an elf in this Mario-style game trying to gather the lost Christmas presents. But of course it's not that easy, you have to get past Penguins, Polar Bears and ferocious Yeti-Beasts first.

Game Play:

• Maneuver past obstacles and enemies trying to get to the end of the level.
• Jump on top of enemies to incapacitate them.
• Collect Candy Canes to get points.

Level Design:  

• The levels are constructed as mostly linear, left-to-right.
• There are multiple different platform materials that have different effects on your movement. i.e. ice = slippery, deep snow = slowing.

I figure the levels would take about a minute to play through!

Plexus

Based off of the previous pitches a bit, with elements of Atom Zombie Smasher and the hacking minigames found in many games. Unfortunately I don't have access to Photoshop at the moment, so can't mock it up at the moment.

Title: Plexus
Genre: strategy/puzzle/a little bit of tower defense

Hook: Save as much data as you can before the network is overrun by a malicious virus in this blend of simple fast paced strategy, puzzle, and zombie outbreak mechanics as you fight to delay the inevitable.

The player controls a network of nodes around the centeral processor and creates 2 simple types of units. Their goal is to have saved as much data as possible by getting it through the network of linked nodes to the central processor before the central processor is overrun.

Data is the most basic element, small units that start scattered throughout the nodes that the player has no direct control over. They attempt to travel to the central processor and away from the virus. On the opposing side is corrupted data, much like zombies they will attempt to attack and corrupt the player's data and units, turning it into more corrupted data or units. Nodes are captured when one side has more data on it than the other. Data can move between linked nodes.

The game world consists of a central node, the processor that the player must defend as long as possible against the virus. When data reaches the processor, it can be saved, contributing to the player's score or spent on units/upgrading nodes. Around it are linked nodes branching out, at the ends of these branches can be the virus entry points. A possible idea is to include "key nodes" that give a bonus to adjacent nodes. However, if captured by the virus, they create false units and node states in the adjacent nodes as they hack the player (however, only about 20% will be false). These change periodically, so through patience the player can figure out what's going on or by attacking a node with a unit.

The player can give several simple commands to each node, spending saved data fortify (can be done repeatedly to strengthen the node, slowing down any attempt to take it over), draw nearby data to the node, or use other abilities to recapture or temporarily deny a node to the virus. The player can build two simple units at the processor, the fighter and the transport (the virus has access to the same two unit types). Fighters can attack and destroy corrupted data, enemy transports, and enemy fighters. Transports can be used by the player to get data back to the CPU from nodes or to send data back out from the CPU to recapture an unoccupied node, where as the virus will use them to attack nodes. Units can be moved from node to node via links or travel between two close, but unlinked nodes.

The virus is a dangerous opponent as it turns the player's resources against them. When the player destroys any of the virus, it is gone forever, but data that is corrupted by the virus is used against the player. The more improved a node is when it's captured; the more powerful it is when it falls into the virus's hands.

-Short burst game play: Fast paced and short game play sessions are core to Plexus. As the virus gains resources, the pace of game play steadily picks up. Players must think and act quickly.

-Think in three dimensions: Nodes are arranged and linked in 3 dimensions around the central processor, much like planets. Players must consider all angles as links can be in any direction and units can move to nearby nodes without using links.

-Hack or be hacked: Losing key nodes will hack the player's sensors in the area, mixing in false information in the adjacent nodes.

One minute of incredible game play: The tension as the player begins to lose nodes faster and faster, the final minute as the play rushes to save as much data as they can before being overrun making faster and faster choices, sacrificing some data to save the majority.

Target: mainstream/arcade/casual strategy fans, could be a bit artsy depending on how the visuals would be done (could go pretty abstract)

Firewall pitch

Building off of Todd's idea conceptually I was playing around with a game similar to Sanctum.

That is, a combination of Tower Defense and First Person Shooter. Your purpose is to do what it takes. Either with your extremely pimped out gun, the a devastating gauntlet of attack towers, or prehaps a combination of both.

The storyline is this: You are an antivirus program. The last line of defense between the computer and malicious programs that wish only harm. However, your systems and resources are limited. Your objective is to do everything in your power to make sure the invading malware is not able to reach the central processing unit. Although resources are limited, you are able to gather extra bytes to help you defend against progressively more powerful forms of malware. If you are destroyed or the central processing unit becomes too infected, all hope is lost and you are gone forever.

Gameplay: The players start out with a processor. That is, one harmless tower that they can purchase certain upgrades from. Conversely, enemies have to touch it in order to continue to the central processing unit. This touching is harmless, but strategies on how to arrange your tower can develop from it. The arena is arranged in a grid. Most towers take up four squares on the grid. Malware only need one square of space to move through. If the malware is blocked from the central processing unit (for example their spawn is walled off) they will attack and destroy the offending towers.
As the malware moves to the central processing unit, they will attack the player with certain ranged attacks. However they have limited range. The player can hide behind towers or move a distance away. They are capable of damaging towers though they will only be damaged in crossfire or if they are walling off malware. In which case they are destroyed in one hit.
The player begins with a slow firing pistol, but this can be upgraded at the Processor to a variety of other basic weapons like a machine gun, sniper rifle, shotgun, or more powerful pistol. Health can also be upgraded to make the player more durable. From the processor, unique towers can be built. Like mini towers which take up only one square.
And there are the towers. The player is able to build a gun tower, which as its name suggests, shoots at enemies for damage. This can be upgraded into other kinds of more powerful shooty towers. There is also the block tower. Simple, cheap tower the player can hop on to fire at enemies below. This can be upgraded into tougher bunker the player can fire from in safety or a heightened roost where players can rain death from above in a sniper tower*
*what weapon you use up there is your business.

Pitch for Capsule

Hail Glorious Victory!

I present to you my pitch for the game I think we should make. I call it Capsule. It's an action puzzle game in which you use machines that are housed in capsule pods to solve puzzles. Capsules have a variety of abilites from having a gatling gun, a laser, anti-gravity unit, block mover, mirrors, and we can more with other abilites as well.

The game itself i think is rather unique as i don't know any puzzle game that uses this kind of technique to solve things, but i had classmates refer to Portal as a similarity. I personally got the idea of using capsules from a Yu-Gi-Oh game.

Story: In the future, technology has advanced beyond our wildest dreams. But a focus has become using to technology so that human don't get hurt. Why have a unit in the military that disposes bombs when you can have a robot do it? Seeking to fulfill this need you (as the main character) create C.A.P.S Corp. The Customizable Armament Production Specialists make robots in easy to use containers called Capsules. Able to have a wide range of abilites you believe that this could change the world. But you want to make sure that you have the kinks worked out so you build a simulation system programmed with various terrains and dangers to test out the abilites of your capsules. You personally enter your mind into the simulation to add to the realism and for a while everything goes fine. Until a virus infects your simulation and traps you in there. Now you have to defeat the puzzles you created to get out alive, but the virus keeps changing the rules and the environments to keep you contained. Your life now depends on your ability to use the capsules to their full potential else your mind will be trapped in the simluation. No pressure.

Unique Hook: The hook for my game is the capsules themselves, the variety of them and being able to solve puzzles using them is an experience I don't think gamers have had before. Also building the virtual levels to incorporate different ways of winning the level will be really fun and make the player test their ability to think outside the box.

Proof of Concept: I've actually made most of the parts for this game already. I have some of the capsules done and the basic feel for a level. Here are some links to see what I have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44_tNt6-ihY&list=UUJc-5I7Udr1EM3AYjQC9amw&index=3&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta4k-40R1Qw&feature=related

Who would like this game?: I think people who like puzzle games will like this. Also action people will like this i think. Overall I think people who want a different experience will like this game.

Bonus Sections: why this will work?: Why do I think this will work? Because of the simplicity. The models are mostly done we can improve them add better textures spruce up the level design it's mostly all done. It's a very simple level design, we would just add obstacles to the chess board and figure out how the capsules will complete the level. We wouldn't have to add terrain unless it's really easy then we can but for the most part we can just use the chess board. As for programming we would have to have timed events, placement for the capsules, level set-up, but I think it should be easy to do especially since we can "creative borrow" code. Also I think it'll be fun, I found out we have a green screen that's rarely used, some I think we can go there do some dialogue and then we can tweak the video to look like we're holograms inside the simulation! You know have a blue tint and everything. And it'll be fun to make puzzles and see how challenging we can make it.

1 minute of AwesomeSauce!!!!: So the goal of all of this is to make a game that has 1 minute of awesome, so I say we give that to them literally. We'll set up the game with the hologram dialogue then we'll have the boss for the game (who i have a guy working on) create a bomb that'll explode in.....wait for it.....58 seconds!!!........Ok 1 minute. Anywho so the player will have 1 minute to blast through three levels of defense in order to kill the boss and win the game. So in that one minute we have high stakes, a sense of urgency and a real test of the players skills. I really think this'll work.

So I leave it up to you. I really think with the people we have we can make this work and do it right.

Game Ideas

Hey guys,

So this is our blog apparently, go ahead post your game pitches here and we'll discuss them amongst each other. I've had some great news on my game front so i'll let you know tomorrow what it is!