EAE Capstone - Update 21-31

So it sure has been a while! As kind of a quick update, here's everything that has been happening over the past two months.

Feb. 9-15:

                Mass production of assets for our game, to make it look pretty. Only problem was the memory for our game. The engineers researched and fought for any and all ways we could manage our memory better, so we can have beautiful scenery without the lag.  I, myself, started on the opening story for our game. Rebecca gave me the concept art she made for it, and then I developed it from them.

Feb. 16-22:

                Our team had a Level Jam, where everyone came up with levels alongside the design team. We gained a lot of great levels from it, and our game is beginning to really come together.

    In addition, the opening story was finished and implemented! Got a lot of love for it too. :)

Feb. 23- Mar. 1:

                We were all pretty much running ragged this entire week, fighting to get our game finished so we could submit it for review at the beginning of next week. A lot of play testing, a lot of last minute calling and working, but in the end, we managed to finish off enough to call it a full game!

Mar. 2-8:

                Submitted our game to PSM for the first time! Afterwards, everyone took an impromptu break for that week.

Mar. 9-15:

                We got a response back from PSM, telling us of 2 problems that needed to be fixed. They were taken care of quickly (including removing the Back button from certain pages, due to conflicts with how the Vita is supposed to work) We wanted to have a mostly completed game to bring to GDC next week, so we also finished off things that needed to be done still! From me, I fixed a few things in our menus and opening story, mainly button and text placement.

Mar. 16-22:

                GDC was this week! We didn't have class this week, and for the most part, we recovered from getting our game done.

Mar. 23-29:

                Utilized feedback from GDC to fix various issues with our game. Sent in our game to PS Mobile for review again. Cory made our game a unique font, based on our logo.

Mar. 30-Apr. 5:

                I began work on our ending story. The idea of in-app purchases was also pitched at this point, and is being looked into. We had another Super Saturday to get everything done as well. I also finished the ending of our story. I also altered all other menus with the new font, updated our instructions screen, and created our credits screens.

Apr. 6-12:

               Took critiques from PSM and we fixed our game. Credits screen was fixed up to include missing items and new font. Also, in-app purchases have been finished and are working!

Apr. 13-19:

                Our game was approved and getting ready for release on PlayStation Mobile!

Apr. 20-26:

                Our game has officially been released on PlayStation Mobile! If you've got a Vita, make sure to stop by the PSM store and get our game! We’ve already got a few purchases, which we’re all really psyched over.

                                

In addition to this, Thursday is EAE Day at the U, which is when we premiere our game. We'd love to see you there! Check it out here: EAE Fest 2014 

We are planning on continuing our game afterwards, but for now, we’ve made it! Can't wait to see where it goes from here~

EAE Capstone - Update 16-20

Week of Jan. 6-11:

So it's been a while since I have updated this blog. Christmas break was busy and exciting for me, between family vacations, my internship with Fat Loot Games and my engagement! That being said, there wasn't a whole lot of progress made this first week, mainly because we were all trying to get back into the groove of things. We went over all the feedback we got from our alpha testing in December, and discussed where we would go next with our game.

Week of Jan. 12-18:

I created a bare timeline sheet and brought it to my team so we could discuss what happened in our game at specific points of the day. Our game goes through an entire "day" in game, from start to finish; it starts in the morning and ends late at night, with a storm blowing through during the evening.

We decided to focus on at least getting the "day" part (as well as any and all of our remaining important mechanics) into our game before our play test on Feb. 6, and then we'd see what else we could get done after that. We have to get our game finished before mid March, so this should be interesting....

Week of Jan. 19-25:

We had an in-class play test, where each team walked around and played each other's games, and got some more feedback from them. Specifically, we got some good feedback on the new dragging motion that a lot of people wanted, but it ended up not being very good for our game. So we took it back out. Maybe we'll put it back in later, but for now, it just doesn't fit well.

What's even better is that our water now reflects what's going on in the sky! Cory made some clouds that would move above it, and I worked on making "tile" pieces for our sky. In case we manage to get the full day in, every section has been made. This means that the backdrop for our sky will at least be able to go from morning to night. Plus the flat tiles can be used as many times as needed. Hopefully we'll be able to get this far with our game!

Week of Jan. 26-Feb. 1:

We had a huge workday on Saturday. Almost everybody showed up so we could pump our the important parts. I worked on the scroll image that is going to be used for our various menus, instructions, ect.

Additionally, I did a few concept sketches for our title screen. In the end, my team chose the first sketch, so that will be the one that's going into it's final stage.

Week of Feb. 2-8:

This week was our big play test with family, friends and just about anyone else we could manage. There were probably about 30-40 people who came to test out our game, and it was a lot of fun!

Before our play test, I made sure to finish off our title screen and instruction pages.

The logo became a bit of a problem, and it will need to be fixed with a better resolution version. In the meantime, I made another version of the test in our logo as a more clean version, thinking it'd get chosen as at least a stand-in for our play test. Funnily enough, I think the engineers used the original instead, since it had our logo on it, but oh well. The screen on the Vita is smaller anyway, so it wasn't that noticeable of a problem.

What is a problem is that our game lags on the Vita, and we definitely need to fix that, but at least our graphics are working well on it!

EAE Capstone - Update 13-15

Week of Nov. 24-30 (update 13) :

To recap this week, I worked on a texture for the cherry blossom and lily pad that Andrea made. We also demoed our game in class and got some more feedback on what needs to be fixed. For the most part, our game is coming along nicely and it's alpha will be ready for the open house.

Week of Dec. 1-7 (update 14) :

After discussing with each other the best way to both play our game and show off our art, we have finally settled on doing a top-down view of the river that the boat floats on. It might seem a little boring at first, but we had an epiphany - why not use the water as our art source? The topic really took off at that point, and we've decided to go with it.

The idea is that, since our water mechanics are mostly in and working, we would add a reflective/refractive mechanic to the water. That way, some levels will display things above it, and others will show what's in the water in a very vibrant and beautiful way. We'll get to show off our art while still retaining our game play.

We've talked to the designers about it, and are currently in the works of discussing levels beyond our traditional Japanese world (with cherry blossom trees reflected in the water), such as night levels (with lanterns on the water to guide your way), snow levels (with the aurora borealis) and beach levels (with glowing blue sand). By the time we get our game published, I think it's going to look amazing.

Week of Dec. 8-14 (update 15) :

The EAE Open House was this week, and the alpha of our game was playable during it. We got a lot of good reviews and we're all very excited now! We also wore matching shirts with the logo of our game (titled Origami Kami) emblazoned on the front. We can't wait to work on our game some more and we can tell that people will really like it when it's done.

EAE Capstone - Update 09-12 (recap)

Week of Oct. 20-26 (update 09) :

This first week, my team and I worked to get at least a working game going. The art team worked on getting placeholders done, while designers tried to design our game out and the programmers got the game going.

On my end, I made a bank to use in the game. (see above) However, for whatever reason, it never actually got used, likely because our games camera was face-down, so we could get the mechanics working correctly.

Week of Nov. 3-9 (update 10) :

So we decided this week that the designers would make placeholders where the programmers need them while the art team focused on making the actual art for the game.

For starts, I made us a smooth, black stone (see above) that would be dropped into the water in order to make the boat move. In addition to that, the art team worked with the designers to try and settle on an art style for the game. We bounced around a few ideas, including art styles from PokePark 2 and LoZ Wind Waker, and we were starting to get a good idea of what we wanted for our game.

Week of Nov. 10-16 (update 11) :

After this week, the art team decided to try and split into specific jobs. We can still take up other jobs (i.e. if there's a model an animator wants to make, they can go ahead and claim it) but for the most part, we would try to get a production going.

I obtained a job as one of our texturers. As Brock and Andrea finish models, Cory and I will take those models and put detailed textures on them.

For this week, I took Andrea's log model and finished it off with it's texture. (see above) Cory and I are pretty sure that we're on the same page in terms of texturing, so hopefully the game turns out looking amazing!

We're pretty sure we want something kind of artsy for our game. We were thinking origami is going to play a big role in our art style, but a soft-palette watercolor scheme is a definite in our art style.

Week of Nov. 17-23 (update 12) :

This last week is when we showed a demo of our game to the class and got feedback on what works and what doesn't. Our game currently has a working level, with a water system (splashes, waves, ect) that works great! Additionally, we showcased some of our concept art.

On that note, I created some concept art (see above) to help us visualize our camera angle (as well as determine whether that angle would actually work). Ideally, the player will be able to see and interact with objects on the bank, and even be able to see a background behind all of that. We still need to test it to see if the game is playable like that, but if it works, we already know what our backgrounds, color scheme, ect will look like.

The background in particular, we're hoping to be able to get into the game. We've decided to have sort of a layered background, where it's really just three flat images, but as you move across the water, it will seem as though the background moves along with it.

EAE Capstone - Update 04-08 (recap)

Now that we are nearing the end of the semester, it's dawning on me that I'm missing quite a few weeks since my last post. That said, these next few posts are going to be recaps of what my team and I have done over the past month.

This first post will contain what was worked on from September to mid October. It's going to be short, as the concept art I made during it has already been posted.

Week of Sept. 15-21 (update 04) :

At this point, I was still in my Maze Junkies group. (although at the time, it was still known as Ninja Mouse) For this week, we mainly tried to settle on what our story was going to be. I.e. something that wasn't ninja related. We ended up picking a "lab rat" concept.

Week of Sept. 22-28 (update 05) : 

This week, we got a basic game going and had it working on the PSVita. Art-wise, we experimented with making a modeled mouse and had it working in Unity. Sadly, the model never quite made it in the actual demo.

Week of Sept. 29-Oct. 5 (update 06) :

I made some concept pieces of our main character, the mouse. The sketched have already been posted on this blog, in the previous post. So feel free to have a look~

Week of Oct. 6-12 (update 07) :

We pitched our games and demos this week to a few people from the gaming industry. For the most part, they liked our demo, which involved the different reactions our mouse would have to certain drugs.

Week of Oct. 13-19 (update 08) :

So I believe this was the week that we were placed within our final teams. I was assigned as the Art Lead in the Zen Boat game. This week mainly consisted of setting up Copy and Asana accounts for everyone, as well as making sure we were all connected via Google Groups. We also got to know each other and our game.

EAE Capstone - Update 03

A little while has passed since I've last posted, but quite a bit has since happened.

For starts, we finished presenting our mouse maze game, which we ended up calling Maze Junkies. My main job was to create concept art for our mouse.

Our concept was really fun and we had a lot of people who loved the video we made to go with it. However, sadly Maze Junkies didn't make it through to the next stage.

I am now the Art Lead for the team creating a game called Zen Boat. It's a really neat concept and I'm looking forward to helping get this game published!

EAE Capstone - Update 02

So 10 pitches have been picked to go into the Alpha stage and we have split into teams. I'm now part of the team creating a game called Ninja Mouse. (although the ninja concept is currently being reworked, and we are brainstorming concepts for our mouse character to be) I'm really looking forward to working on this game, as it was one of my top 5 favorites, and I love making mice characters. They're pretty fun!

Anyway, right now I don't have much to really show. So here's a character I made recently. I actually ended up auctioning off him and a batch of similar characters.

Looking forward to this semester!