Its sparks to life

Here is the video of me making sparks that fly out of exposed wires. I think it turned out pretty good.

Sorry for the choppy video and length..google hangout is a bad video recorder when it comes to animations or at least at school

Here is the texture I used for it

FIRE!!!

Here is the fire I made for rubble pile within the ship

Sorry for the choppy video and length..google hangout is a bad video recorder when it comes to animations or at least at school

And here is the texture I used for the fire

Weapon Trail

I was working on the weapon trail for the engine but now I get why its hard to get the combat code working. It's hard to find. I will keep looking. For now here is my texture I am going to use it.

Nothing special but its a start.

Plan for the Spring Break

Since our Next Retrospectives lands on spring break we are going to have a hard time to get things done. So what we are going to is have this plan, over the break people are required to send in two email stand ups about what they did. This should make the case for everyone to put in some work over the break. Here's hopping.

Retrospectives 4

I think the pressure is starting to build, we still don't combat in the engine and it seems to come down to use not being able to find the files or commands needed to call animations. But without this we can't run numbers or set up the attack and defense system. Pretty much I have put all but 1 member onto the combat feature team to figure it out. Hopefully we can get it in time to get AI in.

Sprint 4

3/26/2013

Bad

• Combat Feature team
• Standups take too long
• People aren’t responding timely to friday standup
• Morale
• Tempers are high
• Art team’s work is getting in late

Good

• Effort
• For the most part, Improve section from last sprint was done
• Inside meta and feature communication
• People have appreciated the little victories more
• Attendance
• Information disseminated in friday emails

How to Improve

• All hands on deck for combat
• Appreciate small victories more
• If you have something to show, show it
• Dedicate a bit of time in the first hour of class to show work
• Meta team google hangout for screen sharing in class
• Start standups immediately
• Make sure to send friday standups ON FRIDAY
• Learn from your mistakes and success
• People need to use Trello as they work, rather than just before the end of the sprint
• Art Team needs strict deadlines

We are on the right track

I feel we are on the right track here, check out this picture I found on reddit about the type of game they want

All I can say is working on it

Retrospectives Sprint 3

Its not a great start to the new semester. I feel somehow I need to improve moral which will become my biggest priorty

Sprint 3

2/26/2013

Bad

• Getting to class on time!!!!
• Transparency
• Wayne needs to be included on all late or absence emails
• Morale is Bad
• Tech is very negative
• Slow Progression
• Focus
• Meta Communication
• Art voice meetings still not happening
• Missed Milestone - No Game Day :(
• Keep blogs updated and turn them in when asked
• Did not show build enough
• Team needs Deadlines

Good

• Feature team communication
• Environment team did well
• Quality of work
• Character team did well
• AI Team has a direction finally
• Build to show
• Feature Team Teamwork
• Character team spends good amount of time outside of class working

How to Improve

• 20 mins late without communication, marked absent
• If you are communicated to about lateness or absence, make sure you tell Wayne right away
• If at all possible, contact Wayne directly that you will be late
• Everyone should use Trello
• When back in class, give SoS recap, at least about the standup
• Meet before and after SoS
• Show build more
• Use more of class time towards work, less Youtube, less Reddit, less Facebook
• Declare Impediments Immediately
• Do good things together, but after class
• Scrum Master, Product Owner, and/or Leads should be checking on teams and making sure they are working and no impediments
• Art meta team needs to have a voice meeting
• Team needs to take meeting notes and put them on the forums in Team News
• Update blogs weekly

Sword Party!!

Victory is mine, 6 hrs of work. Awesome Pirates Blade made in Cryengine. Getting the flames to come off the blade right was the hardest part. Crytek never really explains what is going on there but I got it :D

New Semester New Plan

With the new semester starting one of the 1st things we did was re-plan out this project in order to get something ready for our portfolio night. So far our road map is built around the idea of getting our swashbuckling combat done with a level done and a small tutorial to get the player off the ground

We ended up rebuilding our User Stories and Roadmap.

Finally we built up a milestone system to incentivise our people to preform above and beyond. Of course how do you get gamers to work, Pizza and Games. Yep if we hit one of our milestones we get pizza in class, if we hit all our milestones we will have a game day in class at the end of the semester. 

Milestones

1st Milestone: week 4

main character in w/ animation/textured

Attacking and Defending

2nd Milestone: Week 7

textured level

all npcs in engine

basic Ai pathing

3rd Milestone: Week 12

(NOTE: This includes spring break)

Combat completed

Scripted Events layout

All AI implemented

All props implemented

4th Milestone: Week 14

UI implemented and textured

Level Completed

Polish

Release

Meeting a milestone reward = pizza in class

Meeting all 4 Milestones = Game Day in class

So Yeah BRING IT Semester!!

Space Pirates Music

Alright so I have been trying to figure out what to go with for the music of our game. So my choices are to go with a more Rock feel to the sound for a more badass sound or a more techno feel since we are in space.

So here is my rock reference it is a small band called Alestorm, literally a Pirate Metal Rock band, with their single "Captain Morgan's Revenge".

And here is the techno version of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song, which I will add is an awesome twist.

 

ARGGhhh Choices!

Sprint 1 begins!

Here is the class on the 1st day of real production.

Paper protoryping

Here we are developing our game play and ai design..sorta.

Today I Learned 1

That I need to do some more research on feature driven projects. I keep going back to a Meta based theme in terms of how I run things. I thought I was getting it right but I guess not. What I finding out I am trying to build a house without the blueprints and I don't have enough people who are suppose to be giving input present at the design aspect of things. This again is my doing because I am noticing I have this tendency to think in terms of meta. So in order to fix that I am going to have to make sure as we are designing things to include those involved in their production in order to get the right input, give people the sense of what is happening, and make sure they all know the project. I thought I was doing it, thanks Teach for correcting me.

This is either going to work or....boom!!

So after much blood spilled and sweat excreted I outlined the design for the prototype. Why would I need to do this...SCOPE!!!! The original design is way to big and an impossible thing to make under a year. To give us a more manageable goal to shoot for so that we have something to show at the end of two semesters. Enjoy!!


Prototype Build:
https://docs.google.com/a/gmatc.matc.edu/file/d/0BxVG_6W6T4_DVUF6Sm4xNXE5ZGs/edit

Prototype Design notes:
Designs should be geared what the combat will be like as if the player was 50% done with the game.

We are building this prototype to test the Combat elements in the game

• Not including Story
• Not Including the Larger Universe (Including factions, economy or an exploratory elements)
• Only including the Scoundrel Archetype
• Leaving Unnecessary Combat Elements out

Prototype Objective: Provide a combat oriented proof of concept.

Prototype Structure:
Disable a Cargo Ship
Board Said Cargo Ship and find the Target Cargo (+ extra goods for bonus)
Leave Cargo Ship to engage a Military Ship in Space Combat to the Death
Thank Player for Playing

Ship Comparison

I put this on here to help determine the size of space craft that we may want to go with. Some of these ships are just HUGE!! so I don't think  I want to go with them.

Massive Battlecruiser Ship

So as I was driving for my job and looked to my right and saw these beautiful array of clouds that was  flowing and shifting in the magestic twilight of the sunset. So I came up with a concept of a battlecruiser. RAWR!!!

Here..we..go

Hey everyone!

School has come around again and boy what a doozy of a couple semesters we have. I am in the capstone class this year, which is the final class to show we can make a AAA game using the Cryengine. Those who had the iniative and the fortitude (trust me it takes a good amount of fortitude) to make a design doc could submit a design to the class have a chance to be selected to be made in this class. Well about seven different projects were submitted and after a rigerous voting process, my project was chosen to be made and the theme of it...Space Pirates!!


Here is the presentation for my submission....there is no audio and obviously I need to be talking during it, but its still pretty easy to understand. Just take into mind that I am wearing an eye patch and making a fool of myself. I had fun doing it though.