Homework 6

1.  For each of the four elements of the Tetrad, explain how it is addressed by your game. If one of the four elements is not used, please state this. 

Mechanics: Our game is going to be a 2d side scrolling action game done in a 3d engine. We went with 2d because the gameplay will feel much tighter and more precise for the player, and the platforming aspects of the game are going play a very important role in it.

Story: Our main character is tasked with rescuing people to help populate and maintain the space colony he lives on. The player will have to explore dangerous areas while rescuing engineers, scientists, and soldiers. 

Aesthetics: The player is going to expeience a lot of bright flashing and expansive gaps. The game takes place in space so there will be certain areas that feel very empty, to remind the player most of the game is taking place in the void of space. The player can also expect to see events and changes in the background based on whats going on in the mission.

Technology: We're using  all the tools Blender Engine has at it's disposal. We're going to be programming in a 2 player battle arena with massive amounts of obstacles and ways to fight. We'll be sure to take full advantage of Python programming and all the texture tools Blender has

2. Do the four (or less) elements work towards a current theme? 
Absolutely.  We're using all of them to try and give the player the best version of the game the group envisioned.

3. In your own words, describe the meaning of a "theme", and how does it differ from an "experience" (see book for examples in Chapters 2 and 5. 
I would say Theme is the idea and feel the developers intend for the game as the release it, and Experience is how the game actually feels and plays as experienced by the target audience

4. What is your game's theme?
I would say overcoming the fear of the unknown, but my group might have a different answer. 

5. What are the elements in your game that are meant to reinforce this theme? 
Exploring the dark recesses of space, the instant death of the player is they're struck or hurt by something. Drifting off into space and dying if you go outside the game's boundaries.  Part of the game should make the player feel a little nervous exploring new areas. 

6. What is it about your game that you feel makes it special and powerful?
I think space and the concept of how small humans are compared to the size of the known universe is a powerful thing in and of itself.  The fact that the player is going to be stressed from killing aliens, searching for survivors, maintaining a good supply of weapons and fuel should make the platforming aspects and victory all that more satisfying. 

Homework 5

For our game, we wanted to have a wide variety of weapons available to the player. I went ahead and put together the animation for the warhammer I made last week. Because of the nature of our game, we're only planning on having a single animation per weapon, since the weapons will have one attack each.


I took my Hammer and gave it the command to rotate in Y 10 degrees every time the A button is pressed, and I had it rotate Y -10 degrees whenever D is pressed. I had my weapon spinning but not in the way I intended. I had to change the center of the object to the bottom of the hilt, so it had that look of being swung by an actual person.

This use of the game engine is pretty important, because most of the game is going to be about killing monsters with different weapons that have unique animations. This animation is completely different compared to say a knife or a gun.

*more pictures on the way

Homework 4: Teamwork

• Do you love your project/game. If not, how can that be changed? 

Right now, I love the idea of our game.  We've got a lot of great ideas we want to include in the final version we submit for this class, but right now theres a lot of work for us to do to get to the stage of where we love our game

• Does the team as a whole love the project? If not, what can be done? 

I think we're getting there. We're pretty dedicated and putting together something amazing to present is on all of our minds, and non of us are going to be satisfied unless it meets a certain level of quality.

• Are the team members communicating with each other?

We communicate through texts and over the phone mostly. We've decided to set up a log to keep track of the tasks we complete, and manage a working schedule.

• Does the team have a regular meeting schedule? What is that schedule? 

As of now, we do not. The team has been in talks about a day that works with all of our schedules. It'll most likely be Thursdays in the future.

• Describe the modes of communication between the team members. 

We use text, email, Google docs and we often discuss what needs to be done after class.

• Regarding game documents, what must be remembered while designing your game? 

We want our game to play well and be fun above everything else. We want it to be simple, enjoyable, easy to get into and have some degree of strategy.

Homework 3

For my groups game, I went ahead and put together the 3D image of a two handed great hammer. I started by taking a Cylinder and scaling it so it would look like the wooden part of the hammer. Afterwards I put a cube on the top of the object and scaled it into a brick like object. After that I touched up the block by subdividing different areas, then I extruded them to create the edges of the hammer to make it look like more of a dangerous weapon.

I made this object because it'll be one of the weapons that is eventually used in our game. We plan on having a fair amount of weapons in game, so I'll probably get to make more of these soon.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/7k0uxm

http://www.sendspace.com/file/k7awrb

City building games!

I've played a lot of these kind of games over the years, I could mention quite a few but I'm going to go ahead and share some of the more obscure games you might not have seen before.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King has you play as the young ruler of a kingdom. You build houses for different groups of people, train soldiers and order them to clear different dungeons for you.. and you have to manage time effectively if you want to clear the game. It's pretty simplistic, but still very enjoyable.

I haven't played the newest installment, but the Rune Factory series has some of the best new JRPGs on handhelds. The games mixes traditional beat'em up gameplay with resource management, town creation, dating sim, and gambling elements to make a really unique and fun game. Check it out and ignore all the silly Japanese music!

spectacular ms paint job

This anime character channels my fear and hesitation I felt when taking this class. I edited the picture behind her and placed a boring stale blue background there instead. Yay me.

SMITE VIDEO

Heres a video of me playing the game SMITE. In this video, I'm trying to get my sound working and I trade kills with  Ao Kuang.