Weekly Post

Blah.
Ive finally got an enemy AI working. Our AI algorithms now work to have enemies follow along a path as long as all of the nodes of the path have the same name. The enemy shoots (still very buggy) and is at the point that it is very easy to modify. Unfortunately I'm the only who will touch the code so it's ease o use is irrelevant.
Once this AI is cleaned up and more functional then the rest should just be pretty easy code and behavior tweaks since all of the hard underlying systems will be in place.
The biggest issue right now is that Unity is not always working the same with every build. What I mean by this is that every time I click play whether I've changed code or not, the behaviors seem to change and I can't always be there whenever someone goes to work on the game so I'm stuck trying to figure out why Unity does this without the source to unity( which makes it more difficult).
I've realized that I keep trying to look at Unity from a C++ perspective, and trying to realize that Unity takes all control away from the programmer and does stuff I don't tell it to certainly makes it easier to work with.

weekly blog

The game is coming along much better than I expected. The feel is great and we got some great feedback from the other groups. We are discussing incorporating some of it. I think if our group continues doing what we are, we'll be in great shape when the final version is due.

Blog Post - Video Post

Up to this point, things have been going alright as a group. We have been able to put together a quality half of a level, and have been able to get some really good sounds and assets in to our game. We look forward to showing the class our video, as we think that it represents the "feel" that we are really going for. It doesnt have any gameplay mechanics in it quite yet, but that is coming and is our next big milestone. We will gladly take all feedback tomorrow and use it positively, and continue moving on. We are headed in the right direction, but we realize that we have a lot of work ahead of us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKiiAQn1Xd4&feature=youtube_gdata

weekly blog

I found a cool cloak model online. I have some cool ideas for our grave setting. I want the player to realize they are dead and get spooked by the phantom. I had to settle for a simple animation for my cloak because I am terrible with the uv editor. The cloak has lots of awkward movements so I am going to settle for a basic walk cycle for the sake of time. Time to create a video for the alpha milestone. Hopefully I remember how to work final cut!

Update

I'm still not a fan of Unity and don't like the scripting that is involved, but I"m more of an engine and systems developer so that's probably why.
We finally got a rudimentary AI system working and assets are starting to creep into the game which is good.
I've spent the past week trying to finish up the level design and look and feel and get some additional functionality in. This week I'm hoping to further refine the AI and have "attacking" in the game to have something playable ASAP.

--Kevin Forshey

Blog Post/Playtest Feedback

Game is coming along. I've been trying to update myself on unity and perforce. I have finalized most of the character sounds and ambiance. I have been also working on some art. We should be fine as long as we keep our expectations to a reasonable level.

The play test went well. I discovered some movement issues that some of the play testers had. One play tester wanted slower movement with the camera. Another tester wanted a way to run.W e will consider both options. Additionally, the atmosphere and setting of the game were questioned. Although the game is in its very early stages, we will take into consideration these concerns. Our game is relying heavily on these aspects so it is imperative that we nail down the setting and atmosphere. The textures and color of the world was also brought to our attention. We will continue to work to achieve our goals taking all this input into consideration.

Blog Entry - Playtest feedback

Here we are, 5 weeks in to the class. Things are still coming together, but we were at least able to put together a small, short prototype in order to test out a few things. For me specifically, the playtest was vital for a few reasons. One reason being, it was important for me to see the scale of the map, in comparison to the player size. There are a few areas in the map where the player may have to fit in a small spot, and I needed to make sure they were the right size. It turns out, they were so that was very helpful to know. I also realized that the maps scale as a whole was good.

Moving forward, there are things that I will be able to take from this playtest. One of them is the pipeline. I now know that the textures in Maya will not carry over in to Unity. This is helpful because now I know to spend more time creating the level, and I can worry about textures later when I get in Unity itself. Also, I am learning a lot about Maya as I continue to work in it. I need to become more detail-oriented within Maya. I need to start naming all of my objects, to make things clearer for me to sort out.

As a group, I think it is vital that we remember this is a game MOD class. We can use whatever code and assests we find online. We should not take up a lot of time doing things from scratch if we want to get this done the way we want to. For the next deadline, we need to take a huge step up. We need to have the player in the game, not some figure acting like it. We need to have an attack system, and the AI to react to it. The level should be finalized, and we should be in the process of adding assets to give it the right "feel." We should be incorporating sounds. We should have more scripted events. We have a lot of work to do, I think that is the main thing that we took away from this date. This needs to be a team effort with ALL THREE of the team members contributing. I hope that point came across during the playtest.

Update

I love Crunch-Time -- I like to think of it as that time when workaholics like me get to use a "real" reason to stay up all night coding.
I have just worked through upgrading our project to Unity Pro(using the free trial) and am looking forward to using the more advanced features. Today in a meeting with Scott, we discussed the opportunities to take advantage of shadows as visual cues to "lead" the player through the level. This resulted in some very good ideas that I am currently putting in (Dynamic Shadows and 2D sound).
I am also working on finishing up porting some AI and Animation code into our project from other Unity projects that I have seen. I'm looking forward to an all nighter, so hopefully I have another post later.
-- Kevin Forshey