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.