Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows

The project is turned in! It's time for everyone to take a much-needed break.

There has been some talk of continuing development for 2012, but I think we all need to stop thinking about it for a little while. Of course, I'll be updating the blog with any information regarding further development.
I'll also be updating with the results of the class contest. It's hard to say who will win at this point. I think all the teams have a really good chance. All of the designs are really solid and well-done.

Gold tomorrow!

Tomorrow, 2012 goes gold. A few minor edits to the design doc, a few tweaks to the website, and we'll be ready to go.

I'd just like to say that I'm really glad I had the opportunity to work on this project. This experience was extraordinarily valuable to me as a game design student, and I'm proud of our final product. Thanks to our contractors for helping us out despite their own busy schedules, to Brenda for all the support, to the other teams for their constructive criticism, to the 'Applied Vets' for helping us in a crisis, and a very special thanks to the 2012 team for all the sleepless nights and stress-filled hours they poured into this project. You guys did an AMAZING job and I couldn't be more proud.

holy cow! an update from class

So, for the first time in ages, I'm updating when I'm supposed to. Our beta turnins are today. We had the option of either turning in the website or the document. Originally we were going to turn in the doc, but we opted for the website due to the fact that the minigames in the document had to be redone entirely. With Brenda's blessing on the new minigames, the beta design document should be right on schedule and ready for Wednesday turn-in.
The website is having some technical issues which are being solved as we speak. The only content that's not up on the website is content that does not exist and the prototype download.
Our prototype level is going to be very prototypish indeed. Unfortunately, we just don't have the manpower to get the kind of prototype we were hoping for. However, we have something playable and that's what counts.
As I'm writing this, Brenda is complimenting the new minigames, which is fantastic news. A few minor detail tweaks and the beta design doc will be good to hook.
Everyone is really tired. As great as it has been to do a full-scale project like this, I think we're all ready for a much deserved break.

it's been awhile

Been awhile since I posted anything, especially considering we're supposed to be updating every class. Things have been pretty hectic. Alpha was extremely successful- Brenda seemed really pleased, especially with the website. Our rapidly thrown together design doc actually turned out pretty well. We just have to do a little bit of tweaking to it. I'll be enlisting the help of some applied game design veterans for that.
Our art assets are looking really good. One of our contractors should be sending us character models tomorrow, which is very exciting.
Currently, the plan is to turn in the beta version of the design doc on Monday and the beta website on Wednesday. We all have a lot of work ahead of us, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Website Alpha

I am pleased to announce that the alpha version of the website is completed. Anyone can access it at http://2012.enmaruguild.com.

What we need now is the following:

• Content for each of the pages
• A design for a new "Enter Site" page
• Artwork for the Navigation buttons
• A logo
• An official name for the game

Currently there are placeholder graphics for all of the Navigation buttons and the banner.

I'm pretty pleased with the alpha, and I can't wait to see it with all the content and final graphics.

Tragile

Today, Alicia told me that making all four minigames from the original design of the game was not going to be feasible. We quickly decided to switch to "Tragile" development, which means we're combining traditional and agile methods of design. Basically, we're going to write out traditional design document sections for any part of the game that does not appear in the prototype. With alpha a week away, this change was a bit scary, but I think it will be for the better. The Adventure Kit plugin for Torque is making our lives much easier with its pseudo-isometric view. Wish we'd been using it sooner.
The best bit of news is that our website is essentially finished. We just need to make it pretty and add content. So I think we'll have a nice product to turn in for alpha in that respect.
What I'm really nervous about right now is the character models. I dumped them on one of our contractors with kind of short notice and we're going to need them in a hurry. I have a lot of faith in this particular contractor though, so hopefully it will work out.
Wednesday, we're going to start importing art assets, keep working on the minigame we're actually going to include, and we're going to name the game.
Things are getting scary, but hopefully we'll survive alpha.

Midterms

Our midterm presentation is tomorrow, so we'll find out if our progress is satisfactory. Alicia got the GUI working, which is fantastic. Tim has modeled some of the main buildings, so we will start importing art assets into the game for this sprint.
Leana will be working with Alicia and John to make sure the assets are laid out correctly in the level. I will be doing more concept art and writing the design doc, as well as creating art for the UI. In addition to getting the art assets placed, John and Alicia will be working on the minigame interface and getting those working. Hopefully Tim will be able to start working on modeling characters so we can collect and animate the sprites.
Our FTP server is up and our website is designed and in the process of being created. Very exciting.

I am tired as hell right now from pulling an all-nighter for another class, so forgive my incoherent entry. I'm really looking forward to a nap.

Steady as she goes

Today is just a work day for everyone. Alicia continues to wrestle with Torque. Tim is going to start modeling temples for us. We also recruited a kid named Michael from ITGM120 to color our concept art and do other things that we simply lack the time for. Our website, which is what we're actually being judged on, is essentially designed. By Monday the design should be sent to Leana's friend, the html guy, to be created.
Alpha is getting ever closer, and it's actually pretty nerve-wracking. Everybody seems to be where I need them to be though, so hopefully, I have nothing to worry about.

HOORAY! OUR TECH ISSUES ARE SOLVED!....For the time being anyway.

Things are really coming together. Tim has done some great modeling, which we're all very happy with. Thanks to Leana, we have some great research for the levels, and by the end of this sprint, they should all be laid out. Alicia has busily been figuring out Torque and she's done incredibly well. She and John will have to work hard to make the minigames that John has designed, but I'm confident they'll be able to pull it off. I have been working on concept art, website things, and general design stuff. I'll also need to put together some interface art.

Today, we handed in "concept sketches" that show the basic layout of our interfaces. I was going to upload them to the blog, but whenever I do, they change colors. So...so much for that.

Sprint 2

I forgot to update after Monday's class. There are a few technology problems, but they should be fixed very soon. We're speeding up the process so we can start cranking out prototypes, and, as long as we manage to deal with our Torque issue (which is kind of complicated and bureaucracy-related) everything should work out beautifully.

We handed in the outline of our design document and the technical design document. Brenda was very complimentary, but pointed out that we don't need as much detail as we included since we're doing an agile project. Today, we got to look at the other team's outlines. All of the teams look like they know what they're doing, but I was particularly impressed with the Cowboy Cave team's document. It's extremely thorough.

Sprint 2 is a week and a half away, and our goals are set. They're a little loftier than the goals for Sprint 1 and everyone is going to have to work hard. But this is what we signed up for and I'm confident we'll get to where we need to be.


Sprint 2 Assignments

Tim- keep modeling

Alicia and John-

Main Menu
New Game- Working

Load Game- Direct to Placeholder

Options- Direct to Placeholder

Quit Game- Working

Character Creation Screen- Placeholder

"Begin Game" Button- Working

In-Game

Character Movement- Working

Menu Bar:

Inventory- Direct to Placeholder

Map- Direct to Placeholder

Game Menu-

Exit Game- Working

Options- Direct to Placeholder

NPC Interaction:

Dialogue

Puzzle Interface Pop-Up

John-

PUZZLES

Leana-

Fleshed out level 1

Concept art of level 1

Layout of other levels

Sketches of other levels

Susanna-

Character Concepts

Concept Sketches (assignment 3)

Website Design

TDD/DD

Today we got our TDD (technical design document) written and fleshed out a few items from the table of contents of the Design Document. Tim modeled some pots, so we're getting a head-start on asset creation.
Our first sprint is coming up this Monday, so in addition to the outline of the Design Document and the TDD, we also have our own goals to reach. It seems like everyone knows what they have to do, so I'll be excited to see our progress at the meeting Sunday night.

Systems Listing

We had a group meeting today. It went very well, although Alicia wasn't able to come due to work for another class. We have our goals laid out for the first sprint and we've gotten our system list ready. John wrote out the index for the design doc and Leana and I collected various visual resources. I also did a quick character sketch to get the basic idea of body type, facial structure, costume, accessories, and tattoos. I plan to do several character variations based on this sketch. For Monday, we'll need to get our TDD (technical design document) together. Monday also marks the date of our first sprint. Our goals for this sprint are as follows:

> Have an outline of the design doc

>Have a basic prototype ready (which mostly means we have basic movement controls and the correct camera angle and have, in general, gotten accustomed to our software)

>Have an art bible and a style guide for architecture, color schemes, costumes, items, etc. (this should include some concept sketches as well as photo references)

>Have an outline for the overall narrative and a detailed narrative for the level that will actually be playable

Below is the system list we compiled. I think it seems pretty thorough, but we'll have a better idea of how well we did with it tomorrow.

Systems:

>New Game/Load Game/Quit Game

>Character Creation

>Sound Effects

>Music (on/off and volume)

>Movement (Left, Right, Up, Down, Situational Jump/Climb)

>Level Division

>Day/Night Cycle

>Calendar

>Weather Cycle

>Inventory

>Paper Doll Inventory

>Equipment

>Item Use/Environmental Item Interaction

>Item Combinations

>NPC Interaction

>NPC Dialog Tree

>NPC Pathing

>Healing Mini-Game (Physical)

>Inspiration Mini-Game (Spiritual)

>Miracle Mini-Game (Boss)

>Retry/Continue

>Saving/Autosave

>NPC Well Being (NPC HEALTH)

>Options:

Music On/Off

Sound Effects On/Off

Brightness/Contrast

Window Mode

Resolution

Main Role Assignments

The following is the main role assignments of each of our group members. We will also be contracting out for other programmers, a website developer (for the programming aspect), animators/rigors, and modelers/texture artists.

Susanna - Lead, Producer, Art Director, Concept Artist
Leana - Level Designer, Environment Artist
Alicia - Programmer, Modeler
John - Design Doc Writer, Systems Designer, Web Designer
Tim - Modeler, Texture Artist

Sprints and Milestones

Following a lecture by Brenda today, we met as a group and discussed our goals for the project. We assigned various group roles and set some milestones for our first sprint. We'll be meeting tomorrow to outline the design doc chapters and develop a systems listing. I'll be able to talk more in detail about all of this after the meeting tomorrow.

The chaos begins

The group was supposed to meet this weekend to introduce ourselves to Tim and just try to get everyone on the same page. We weren't able to because of various schedule conflicts (*ahem* GO JAGS!), but for this meeting, I don't think it was that big of a deal. We'll meet regularly following this class and get this show on the road.
We've also found some people to do contract work, including riggers, animators, and a modeler.

Problem Solved

I just talked to both Brenda and the team member who was moved off of our team, and it turns out the whole thing was just a mix-up. Hooray! Now I feel a little silly for getting stressed over it, but all's well.

So, the official team for Project 2012 is:

Susanna Harrison (that's me)
Alicia Forrest
Leana Galiel
Tim Curry
John Thompson

Looks like this weekend will be our last weekend of peace, so hopefully we all enjoy it.

A rough start...

Today, we presented our pitch to our professor, Brenda Brathwaite, and the rest of the Applied Game Design class. It seemed to be well-received by both the professor and the students, and we felt fairly confident by the end of the presentations that our project would be among the ones to be greenlit. We heard a lot of interesting ideas during the presentations, and personally, I am extremely impressed by the level of talent in the AGD group.

This evening, Brenda sent out e-mails to let us know which projects were greenlit, and I was thrilled to see that 2012 made the cut. The official team assignments were due later that night, so I went back to listening to Bob Pendarvis lecture about the predecessors to comic books. It wasn't til I'd gotten home, had some ice cream, and watched Futurama and Family Guy that I checked my e-mail again and discovered the team assignments.

You see, Project 2012 was presented by a block of four students (including me) who had been planning and brainstorming about the game all summer. As you might imagine, all four students were meant to be on the team. We were just going to need one additional member. So, naturally, I was very curious to find out who our fifth member would be and I was very excited to read the team assignment e-mail. Turns out, one of our members was moved (for some reason that has yet to be determined) onto another project and we were given two different people.

Unfortunately, the loss of this team member is likely to prevent us from being able to use the Agile method, which is very disappointing. There's still a chance that the move was a mix-up, so I'm waiting to hear back from Brenda to see what it's all about, but right now, I have to work from the assumption that that member will no longer be working on 2012.

It's important to stay optimistic though. I think 2012 is a solid idea and can stand on its own as long as hard-working, dedicated people are on the team.