Problems

We've hit a snag with our prototype. Our programmer is having a rough time figuring out how to attach our cart to the track in the level. Hopefully we can get this resolved, but if not...c'est la vie~

On the other hand, I finished the cart level along with the rolling boulder that is supposed to follow you on one part of the track.

More Music for Wild Kart!

I have also made music for when you are in the game of Wild Kart! This is a fast and exciting song that will give the player anticipation of not failing the game.

Menu Music!

I created menu music for our prototype "Wild Kart". I recorded some guys from our cohort grunting and yelling and edited the sounds in post. I only used one of their sounds, but I think it turned out great! Also, that is me humming and breathing. :P

Tracks!

With inspiration from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", I have started creating mine-cart tracks. Kevin and I first created a simple level of just a track going around in an oval. This will help Kevin figure out the basics of our game programming wise. Now, all we need to do is make a level design and I will lay out the tracks.

ALSO! I have started recording sound effects for our game. Right now I just have sound effects for my music. I got a bunch of guys from the cohort and recorded them grunting, yelling, and being all barbaric. I hope to include these within my music for the game.

PROJECT "DOLPHIN"

We have our new clients and our new teams with our new ideas! We aren't allowed to talk about our client's technology that we'll be using, but I can at least say what our game is...I think. Our game is called 'Wild Kart'! You are in a mine cart and must survive the ride on the track to the end. My team designer decided to at first do 2D because he didn't know how to program in 3D. As I started drawing the track, I thought..."Well how exactly are we doing this? Sprite sheets? Just images? What happens when the track turns?" So, I asked one of the programmers and the end conclusion was, this was going to be pretty hard. Both programmers decided to mess with 3D coding and later decided 3D design would be best. So, we are now doing a 3D game.

I have started building a track. Kevin, one of our programmers, actually quickly modeled a mine cart. So, now that's taken care of I am going to just do a simple track level of an oval with straight ends on two sides and two curves. This will make it easier for the programmers to figure out what to program. After that, Karatti will start designing a level and I will then start to outline that in Maya.

Here's hoping things go well!

Presented to Sienna Entertainment

The team and I presented our prototype of "Alexandra's Wardrobe" to the Sienna Entertainment with flying colors. They really liked our idea of a 'Simon Says' type feature mixed with dress up. There were some concerns like if maybe having so many clothing items might confuse the target audience. However, that could be solved with focus testing. Another concern was that it was too static, so it was suggested that if this game went further to add animations to the closet and Alex. For example, have the boots shake or have Jasper come out, or when you dress up Alex correctly she'll do a little animation and say "That's right!". I wrote down the feedback and will type it up to give it to the rest of the team. Now, I await my new team and my new prototype.

Another Change With the Game

So, talking to one of professors we decided to change the game into a rhythmic game. So, you'll see Alex change to a beat and you need to dress her up in the same clothes to that same beat. The art assets are still the same, so that's good.

I made more clothes on Alex and then I made the closet. Right now I am going to see if the programmers need anything else. If not I'll make logos and a welcome screen of sorts.

Dressing Up Alex

I've been creating clothes for Alex to wear and then tweaking Alex to look like she's actually wearing that piece of clothing. I plan on doing more articles of clothing and then putting them on Alex.

Clearing Out Complications and Confusion

So, it's been really hard for the team and I to figure out how to turn Alex into a game. The client wants a dress up game, but for us that's not really game-y and there are a TON of dress up games out there. I mean it's good for the age range. Girls like dress up. So, keeping all of this in mind we decided to still have Alex in her room as a hub. You can click different objects, like her jewelry box, to launch a game. So, to incorporate her dress up with a game, we're making the dress up an actual game. It will be time-based. We will flash an image of what Alex wants to wear and you have a certain amount of time to go through her closet and find that outfit.

So, with that I have started tweaking the art assets the client gave us. Albeit a very small list of assets, but I can work with it. I have taken Alex and changed her clothes to be plain. This will be her pajamas, her starting clothes, her undergarments, what have you. Next I will make the GUI of the closet and the clothes.

Siena Entertainment

We have our new groups and new clients to make prototypes for. Our new client is Siena Entertainment. They are the creators of Story Chimes which make apps for phones. My team is creating a game for them based around one of their stories/characters Alexandra Rain. We were thinking of doing a dress-up thing where Alex would be in her room and you can either look at her diary or change her clothes. However, we're not sure if this is "gamey" enough for the class. But, we'll see. I threw together some quick photos of what our game would be like for our pitch presentation. We got the background of Alex in her room from Siena.

Another Prototype Done. Another One Coming.

The prototype, Autosprings, is now over. The last things I did for the game were tweak up our other artist's backgrounds and made music. Now that it's over, we have been assigned new groups and will receive new ideas for new projects on Monday.

Back from the Break

So, our school had a fall break last week and my mind was mostly elsewhere as I relaxed. I did do some things like make obstacles like quick sand, water, mud, etc for our road. I plan on making a menu screen and a credits screen now.

Changing Art Perspective...Again

I took the background that David gave me and tweaked them a little. I found out that we could still do the 2.5 Perspective instead of a flat 2D side-view. I showed it tot he rest of the team and they liked it, so we are going to go back to the 2.5 view. Granted my car is still slightly more slanted than it should be, it should still work for the prototype.

Here is the background that I made. I put the new background I tweaked, the spring, my old car, some ice, and a target to show how this view would work. Adam should still be able to program this. The road is still flat with no hills or bumps or jumps, and even though the car has a 3D aspect it's still just a 2D image that he can program going from one side of the screen to the target.

New Art

Our team decided to go with a new art style. This will not only make it easier for us artists on the team, but it will greatly help make things more simple for our programmer. I created a 2D side-view of a jeep for our game. I also rotated the hubcaps of the jeep for another frame to make it look like it's moving. I will now work on making a crashed jeep and then work on springs.

Dilemmas

So, the other artist was creating backgrounds with a flat 2D perspective while mine, although 2D, had a 3D perspective. The group and I discussed what would be easier for the programmer and we came to the conclusion to go straight on 2D perspective (side view). The car cannot go up and down (ie can't go up and down hills) due to the difficulty of programming, so we will have our levels be flat and you need to get the car over bridges that have different friction. For example, a bridge might be icy so the player will need to calculate how to adjust the springs to get the car safely over to the target. I am also changing the style of car. It will not be a Bugatti, but rather a jeep. The car will also change based on the level. Jeep will probably be for mountain levels, a regular car like a Nissan Altima for just a regular level, and some type of car good for snow for the snow level. I will start with the jeep and go from there. I am also creating bridges for the levels.

On a side note, here is the art I created for today in my style. The team can still use the flame and smoke for when the car fails and crashes.

Car

So, I created a car for our game with a top-side view to give more depth. It's based off the Bugatti Veyron. I chose reds and browns with a hint of silver/gray for the colors. This may change in the future. Now I will continue working on making an image of a totaled car as if it's been in a car crash. I'll try and see if I can find references of totaled Bugati's.

Getting Ideas

Over the weekend I've been looking at cars to help me get ideas for the main car of our game. I'll show these to the team and see what they say so I know what direction I should be taking my concept art. Here are my favorites:

New Client. New Game.

We are now in different teams in the class. The class has a client now too: the Mechanical Engineering Department. They would like us to make games on different aspects of mechanical engineering for freshman students. My team is doing things with springs and Hooke's law. Our concept is that the player will need to calculate how far to move back the spring in order to push the car onto a target. I will start concept art on the car and then go from there.

More Animations

I did some more animations for Harry and I also touched up some of my art according to Craig's advice. I also helped Brandon Reese's group by providing guitar sound effects.

Music and Animations

I did more animation for Harry and will continue working on more of his animations today and tomorrow. I also composed a musical composition for our prototype. It is my first jazz piece. I decided to do a more jazz/funk style because our setting in the game is urban/city. I also wanted the music to be fun since our game is aimed towards children and pre-teens.

Simple Animations

So, I did a very simple, two-frame animation for Harry. It actually works out in my previewer, but we'll have to see how it works in the game. I will add more animation if I need to, but for now I am getting the core things done THEN the beautiful-ness of the art and game will be added later. Ashley was cool enough to give me references of the sprites already used in the game engine, so I can use those to help me extend Harry's animation later on.