Week 11 [Latter]
Progress Update
Here we are, the final update. Our game has approached it's final form, so I'd like to give one last update on where we've ended up after this long and hectic journey.
A Hard Decision
Earlier this week, our team got together and made what had to have been the toughest decision of the design process thus far. We decided that we were not going to attempt to go forwards to next semester - in effect, canceling our game. It wasn't easy for most of us to admit, but when we all sat and looked at the game, it was clear that it just wasn't up to where we wanted it to be. Some members, myself included, also felt that the game simply wasn't fun to work on anymore, and wasn't something we wanted to continue to work on throughout the next semester. So, in the end, we decided to scrap the project. To those of you following this journey, we hope you'll understand.
...I suppose there isn't much point to saying anything else after that, is there? There was certainly work done this week, don't get me wrong. But to mention any of it feels a bit moot at this point. So instead, I'll just sign off as always. Thank you for following this adventure in game design.
Until next time.
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Game Development Blog - Week 11
Week 11
Progress Update
Hey, giving a bit of an early update this week. Since we're so close to the end goal now, the pace is picking up a bit, so we've done a lot in the time since I last updated, even though it was only a few days ago! Anyways, onto the updates!
Testing Results
These past few days, we managed to take our game to QA. While I had initially planned on testing the motion controls, these were not functioning correctly by the time testing rolled around, so a last minute adjustment had to be made to the testing plan. We instead tested the new Overseer enemies and tried to get feedback on the visual feedback for the game (classmates had previously noted the game looked somewhat cluttered). Testing showed that, while we had managed to fix the clutter, most players had no clue what the point of the Overseer enemies was. We'll need to make some design adjustments to those enemies if we want to keep them in the game at all.
Enemy Movement
Earlier this week, one of our programmers notified me that they wouldn't be able to get the enemy movement working as we had intended. This troubled me, seeing as making sure the enemies moved correctly was a key part of making sure the player was able to feel the rhythm of the game. Therefor, I spent a fair amount of time these past few days making enemy movement code myself. It took a while, but I managed to get the enemies all moving correctly and on the beat, so by the time we test the game this Thursday, the enemies should be moving correctly.
Moving Forwards
At this point, there's very little left to do before the deadline approaches. All we can do is keep on working, and hope things end up working out for us.
Until next time!
Progress Update
Hey, giving a bit of an early update this week. Since we're so close to the end goal now, the pace is picking up a bit, so we've done a lot in the time since I last updated, even though it was only a few days ago! Anyways, onto the updates!
Testing Results
These past few days, we managed to take our game to QA. While I had initially planned on testing the motion controls, these were not functioning correctly by the time testing rolled around, so a last minute adjustment had to be made to the testing plan. We instead tested the new Overseer enemies and tried to get feedback on the visual feedback for the game (classmates had previously noted the game looked somewhat cluttered). Testing showed that, while we had managed to fix the clutter, most players had no clue what the point of the Overseer enemies was. We'll need to make some design adjustments to those enemies if we want to keep them in the game at all.
Enemy Movement
Earlier this week, one of our programmers notified me that they wouldn't be able to get the enemy movement working as we had intended. This troubled me, seeing as making sure the enemies moved correctly was a key part of making sure the player was able to feel the rhythm of the game. Therefor, I spent a fair amount of time these past few days making enemy movement code myself. It took a while, but I managed to get the enemies all moving correctly and on the beat, so by the time we test the game this Thursday, the enemies should be moving correctly.
Moving Forwards
At this point, there's very little left to do before the deadline approaches. All we can do is keep on working, and hope things end up working out for us.
Until next time!
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Game Development Blog - Week 10
Week 10
Progress Update
This is it! As of right now, we're moving into the last week of development for us. It's been a long and incredibly bumpy road, but with the end in sight, we're ready to give it our all and push our game to success!
The Motion Shift
This past week, we finally committed to switching the way we handle motion controls. We will now be utilizing the nintendo Wii controller instead of the Kinect. Design-wise, this doesn't change a whole lot, but it does mean that we don't have to worry about things like distance from the sensor, number of people, and other such hindrances the Kinect had. At the moment, our programmers are frantically working to make sure the Wii controls are properly functioning, and with luck we'll have it implemented by the time the showcase rolls around.
Design Work
Last week, I spent a lot of time revamping some of our earlier designs. Chief among these were the enemy designs, which I changed up to hopefully make more unique enemy types. Feedback from testing has shown me a few ways in which the enemies could be tweaked for a better experience, but overall, these will be the designs that stay until the very end. Additionally, the weapons were revamped, turning one of the weapons into a true shotgun, instead of the merely visually different burst weapon it once was.
Moving Forwards
We only have one more week to finish up our game before we present! As of right now, our main focus is on preparing for next semester, while squeezing as much as we can into this final vertical slice prototype. We hope to be able to challenge the vertical slice stage this week, in our last class before presentations.
Until next time!
Progress Update
This is it! As of right now, we're moving into the last week of development for us. It's been a long and incredibly bumpy road, but with the end in sight, we're ready to give it our all and push our game to success!
The Motion Shift
This past week, we finally committed to switching the way we handle motion controls. We will now be utilizing the nintendo Wii controller instead of the Kinect. Design-wise, this doesn't change a whole lot, but it does mean that we don't have to worry about things like distance from the sensor, number of people, and other such hindrances the Kinect had. At the moment, our programmers are frantically working to make sure the Wii controls are properly functioning, and with luck we'll have it implemented by the time the showcase rolls around.
Design Work
Last week, I spent a lot of time revamping some of our earlier designs. Chief among these were the enemy designs, which I changed up to hopefully make more unique enemy types. Feedback from testing has shown me a few ways in which the enemies could be tweaked for a better experience, but overall, these will be the designs that stay until the very end. Additionally, the weapons were revamped, turning one of the weapons into a true shotgun, instead of the merely visually different burst weapon it once was.
Moving Forwards
We only have one more week to finish up our game before we present! As of right now, our main focus is on preparing for next semester, while squeezing as much as we can into this final vertical slice prototype. We hope to be able to challenge the vertical slice stage this week, in our last class before presentations.
Until next time!
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Game Development Blog - Week 9
Week 9
Progress Update
The last week was rough on our team. Testing showed that the controls we were using were finicky at best, and broken at worst. Additionally, solving these issues turned out to become a major roadblock for us. All we can hope for right now is that we'll manage to get past it, and move on.
The Controls
We brought our game to testing, and the results were... well, not very positive. Many players found the guitar felt nice to use, but the Kinect was ineffective in every possible way. We had previously attributed this to issues with the physical space, but we have come to realize the issue may lie with the Kinect itself. Right now, our team is looking into utilizing some other method, such as a Wii controller.
The Controllers
If that wasn't enough, our guitar controllers broke this past week. This in and of itself has become a massive problem for our team, as we've been unable to find replacements as of yet. Right now, our workaround is that the player can use the Kinect along with a normal game controller, though this makes testing very difficult as the player is forced to miss out on a huge part of the core experience. We will hopefully have replacement controllers in very soon.
Moving Forwards
This week, a big focus is going to be placed on updating the design. Based on in-class feedback, we're planning on adding and changing a few of our game's mechanics, so we hope to have those in very quickly.
Until next time!
Progress Update
The last week was rough on our team. Testing showed that the controls we were using were finicky at best, and broken at worst. Additionally, solving these issues turned out to become a major roadblock for us. All we can hope for right now is that we'll manage to get past it, and move on.
The Controls
We brought our game to testing, and the results were... well, not very positive. Many players found the guitar felt nice to use, but the Kinect was ineffective in every possible way. We had previously attributed this to issues with the physical space, but we have come to realize the issue may lie with the Kinect itself. Right now, our team is looking into utilizing some other method, such as a Wii controller.
The Controllers
If that wasn't enough, our guitar controllers broke this past week. This in and of itself has become a massive problem for our team, as we've been unable to find replacements as of yet. Right now, our workaround is that the player can use the Kinect along with a normal game controller, though this makes testing very difficult as the player is forced to miss out on a huge part of the core experience. We will hopefully have replacement controllers in very soon.
Moving Forwards
This week, a big focus is going to be placed on updating the design. Based on in-class feedback, we're planning on adding and changing a few of our game's mechanics, so we hope to have those in very quickly.
Until next time!
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Game Development Blog - Week 8
Week 8
Progress Update
Things have been progressing at a fairly steady rate. The whole team has banded together in order to get everything we need done in as these last few weeks close in on us, so with any luck we'll finally be able to arrive at our completed vertical slice by the time we're done!
Ah, but that's getting ahead of myself. We still have a lot of work to do before we get there, so let's focus on right now!
Another Step Forwards
After a long and grueling week of work, we made it out of Deep Dive, and into Proof of Concept! This is great, because that means we now have the ability to petition our game to move to next semester! If we can get all the way to Vertical Slice, then we won't need to petition, but at least now we've hit the most important milestone - being able to present is a huge step for us!
Music and Design
On my end of things, I've spent the last week making a lot of documents. VDDs, Mechanics lists, QA Feedback write-ups, the whole lot of it. In addition, a large portion of last week was spent getting a song into the game. It's still WIP at the moment, so I'll have to spend a lot of time this week polishing and refining it, but it's certainly there, which is more than we had last week! We're going for a very heavy metal style, to which an acquaintance of mine has been more than happy to provide the most brutal examples of the genre for analysis. I hope to have a fully fledged metal song by the end of the week!
Moving Forwards
This week, it's all about proof of concept. We'll need to do a lot of testing, and make sure the game continues to move towards completion. I'm confident that we can get our game through to the end - it's just a matter of hard work and perseverance.
Until Next Time!
Progress Update
Things have been progressing at a fairly steady rate. The whole team has banded together in order to get everything we need done in as these last few weeks close in on us, so with any luck we'll finally be able to arrive at our completed vertical slice by the time we're done!
Ah, but that's getting ahead of myself. We still have a lot of work to do before we get there, so let's focus on right now!
Another Step Forwards
After a long and grueling week of work, we made it out of Deep Dive, and into Proof of Concept! This is great, because that means we now have the ability to petition our game to move to next semester! If we can get all the way to Vertical Slice, then we won't need to petition, but at least now we've hit the most important milestone - being able to present is a huge step for us!
Music and Design
On my end of things, I've spent the last week making a lot of documents. VDDs, Mechanics lists, QA Feedback write-ups, the whole lot of it. In addition, a large portion of last week was spent getting a song into the game. It's still WIP at the moment, so I'll have to spend a lot of time this week polishing and refining it, but it's certainly there, which is more than we had last week! We're going for a very heavy metal style, to which an acquaintance of mine has been more than happy to provide the most brutal examples of the genre for analysis. I hope to have a fully fledged metal song by the end of the week!
Moving Forwards
This week, it's all about proof of concept. We'll need to do a lot of testing, and make sure the game continues to move towards completion. I'm confident that we can get our game through to the end - it's just a matter of hard work and perseverance.
Until Next Time!
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