It's been a VERY busy couple of weeks for all of us. In particular, I've been working on extending our game's capabilities since I got back from a longer-than-expected spring break. Today was my second meeting with my group, and I've compiled enough work to share in this blog after hours of toiling over what seemed to be simple things.
Particularly, I was having problems implementing a sort of level selection map for our game. It seems simple enough - a map with a bunch of buttons all over it, and each loads a different level! Well, it is that simple from an outside point of view, but I had to reconfigure a lot of previous framework code that I had written in order to make this work correctly.
Here is what has been completed on my end:
- I now have an implemented, but currently blocky looking, level selection screen. Once I can get a sort of map layout from our graphics guru, I'll be able to make it look much nicer! The important part is, it's working
- I've gotten all of the current animations for our character working and implemented into the first two levels, at least for bug testing. Before, our character simply ran through a looping running animation. Now, we have a running, slicing, and throwing animation for our character! Swiping has become more exciting by ten fold, now that our character actually reacts to it! It's pretty neat.
- I've also managed to aid my level designer in correctly installing and using his development environment. It seems that moving the entire eclipse project from one computer over to the next can be rather challenging. Either way, I'm glad he's up and running now, as testing his own platform and enemy placements will become much smoother and easier!
I expect things to pick up pace here a bit. There was a bit of a lull after spring break that was rather hard to break, as I was having some major technical setbacks and everyone wound up a little jumbled. Still, I have enormous hopes for this project when presentation day rolls around. We are going to be ready for it!
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Mike Pope - Week 10
This week I've been working some more on the enemy ninja and the rest of the background for Asia 1-3. Soon, I will be working on the start of World 2, which is Madagascar! Since I'm starting from scratch, I hope that I can get through it quickly, since I have some basic ideas of how I want to do it. Unlike the first level, there will be a one or two time dynamic object that will go by, which will help play into the background a little more, which helps the player know where exactly the gaps in the floor are.
Here's some pictures of what I had going for a background this past week.
Like I mentioned, I finished up the ninja and rigged and created animations for it. Basically, all it does is throw ninja stars and die. Unlike the main character, this mesh was rigged using the 3DSMax Biped, instead of standard bones. I think it turned out very well! We'll see what we need next for the new levels!
Here's some pictures of what I had going for a background this past week.
Asia 1-3
Monday, May 14, 2012
Kyle Windsor - Week 10
This week has been one of my most productive yet. I spent the first half of the week trying to get eclipse fully working. I uninstalled and re installed it on my primary system and things didn't work. I then tried to install it on a fresh computer and everything worked fine there. The only difference (besides being a fresh computer) is I had to install 32 bit on the other system. When I tried on my primary system with 32 bit eclipse worked fine and the errors I had with my code at large were fixed.
Andengine proceeded to have issues then. I proceeded to Google a few things and after testing some solutions (adding a library type, fixing/cleaning the file, etc) nothing seemed to work. I'm still not sure why, but when I took a look at things today, the Andengine issues were fixed but then Fat Ninja still had a ton of errors.
After talking with Tate and looking through some options, the only thing I can see is that the Andengine files aren't actively in Fat Ninja's library and as such, they aren't being referenced in any way. I haven't found a solution yet but with the issue narrowed down so far, I hope to have everything fully functional tomorrow.
As for my progress, outside of the computer issues I have coded out a preliminary form of levels 2 and 3. I have levels 4 and 5 partway done and plan on having those completed for tomorrow in a similar form. I will also have at least 1, I'm aiming for 2 more levels drawn out and if possible coded in though having the ideas down is my priority.
All told, despite not having the levels actually done, I think I have managed to stay on top of things sufficiently that I am not too far behind. By the end of next week I should have 6 levels fully completed. If my goals for this week are met and my computer is running for next week, I should have 4 levels completed and 4 more coded if not necessarily debugged.
Andengine proceeded to have issues then. I proceeded to Google a few things and after testing some solutions (adding a library type, fixing/cleaning the file, etc) nothing seemed to work. I'm still not sure why, but when I took a look at things today, the Andengine issues were fixed but then Fat Ninja still had a ton of errors.
After talking with Tate and looking through some options, the only thing I can see is that the Andengine files aren't actively in Fat Ninja's library and as such, they aren't being referenced in any way. I haven't found a solution yet but with the issue narrowed down so far, I hope to have everything fully functional tomorrow.
As for my progress, outside of the computer issues I have coded out a preliminary form of levels 2 and 3. I have levels 4 and 5 partway done and plan on having those completed for tomorrow in a similar form. I will also have at least 1, I'm aiming for 2 more levels drawn out and if possible coded in though having the ideas down is my priority.
All told, despite not having the levels actually done, I think I have managed to stay on top of things sufficiently that I am not too far behind. By the end of next week I should have 6 levels fully completed. If my goals for this week are met and my computer is running for next week, I should have 4 levels completed and 4 more coded if not necessarily debugged.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Kyle Windsor - Week 9
This week was fairly productive despite having a problem that hindered work. I finally got the code working, sorta, on my computer. This allowed me to view everything and to make changes to it which was something I couldn't do before. But now there are a few errors within the code that prevents it from compiling at all. So for this week, I was unable to actually test any of the levels I made and put in place.
Instead, I took the format established in the code and coded 2 levels in a word document that can easily be copied and pasted in at a later date. This way I at least kept some work up until the code is fixed. But that only got me two levels that were half completed. So I also made sure to have at least the design sketched out for the following two levels.
All told, I have levels 2, 3, 4 and 5 completely designed, with levels 2 and 3 also coded on the side. This week I hope to fully complete, test and have ready to go these 4 levels.
Instead, I took the format established in the code and coded 2 levels in a word document that can easily be copied and pasted in at a later date. This way I at least kept some work up until the code is fixed. But that only got me two levels that were half completed. So I also made sure to have at least the design sketched out for the following two levels.
All told, I have levels 2, 3, 4 and 5 completely designed, with levels 2 and 3 also coded on the side. This week I hope to fully complete, test and have ready to go these 4 levels.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Mike Pope - Week 9
Well, back from spring break and going into the final stretch of our Senior Project! While the past two weeks have been for relaxing and revitalizing for the last 8 weeks, I've been very productive.
First off, I wanted to make Chin (the main character) blend into the game a lot more. What I mean by this is that the way I rendered him in 3D for the alpha made him look "too realistic" to fit into the drawn, cartoony style of everything. Deciding to tinker with the rendering and material settings in 3DS Max 2012, I found out a great way to make a more "cell-shaded" or cartoony render setting.
As you can compare to previous rendering outputs, the shading is now much more flat and solid colred. To make sure this style looked perfect for the game, I even tested it against the level background. I must say it looks pretty damn good! Also this week, I finished UVW Mapping and Texturing Chin, as well as re-tweaked some animations.
Finally, I completed the Asia 1-2 level. Bascially, I wanted to keep the same structure and feel as the previous Asia, so I decided to put it in a sunrise moment, giving everything a orangish-purple hue. Also, the area is slowly going towards the forest, so there are less buildings and added trees. For Asia 1-3, I plan on making it at the very tip of the forest, so there will be a lot more trees.
First off, I wanted to make Chin (the main character) blend into the game a lot more. What I mean by this is that the way I rendered him in 3D for the alpha made him look "too realistic" to fit into the drawn, cartoony style of everything. Deciding to tinker with the rendering and material settings in 3DS Max 2012, I found out a great way to make a more "cell-shaded" or cartoony render setting.
As you can compare to previous rendering outputs, the shading is now much more flat and solid colred. To make sure this style looked perfect for the game, I even tested it against the level background. I must say it looks pretty damn good! Also this week, I finished UVW Mapping and Texturing Chin, as well as re-tweaked some animations.
Finally, I completed the Asia 1-2 level. Bascially, I wanted to keep the same structure and feel as the previous Asia, so I decided to put it in a sunrise moment, giving everything a orangish-purple hue. Also, the area is slowly going towards the forest, so there are less buildings and added trees. For Asia 1-3, I plan on making it at the very tip of the forest, so there will be a lot more trees.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Mike Pope - Week 7
Hey guys! This last week has been incredibly productive. First matter of business I attended to was the first enemy. Since this enemy does not have any animations, I decided to just draw a 2D sprite from scratch instead of modeling one. The only part that's animated on him is the "ZzZz" above his head to indicate that they are sleeping, These are animated through the code that Tate has written.
Secondly, I created 6 sushi assets for pickups. I took a lot of ideas for these from the mini-game Lickitung's Sushi-Go-Round from Pokemon Stadium. It gave me a lot of ideas on the basic types of sushi to draw out. Drawing them out was fairly simple. Once again I used Photoshop. These pieces also animate, dancing back and forth and glowing for the play to easily see them in any environment.
Next week we are presenting our Alpha, and I am extremely confident!
Secondly, I created 6 sushi assets for pickups. I took a lot of ideas for these from the mini-game Lickitung's Sushi-Go-Round from Pokemon Stadium. It gave me a lot of ideas on the basic types of sushi to draw out. Drawing them out was fairly simple. Once again I used Photoshop. These pieces also animate, dancing back and forth and glowing for the play to easily see them in any environment.
Next week we are presenting our Alpha, and I am extremely confident!
Tate Marske - Week 6-7
It feels like only yesterday we started this whole project off, and now we're about to present the alpha build of "Fat Ninja" to our peers and professors.
Over the course of the past two weeks, I've been working hard to get my team's final Alpha assets put into our game and getting all of the mechanics to work well with one another. Have a look!
As you can see, we have our main character running and animated, our final backgrounds (which act in a parallax as they run by the screen to give depth), our platforms, and our sushi. All of our algorithms, sprites, and audio assets are working together perfectly, and we're very excited for our presentation later this afternoon.
I plan on presenting our game itself by running a camera-projector to a television. Until I get the proper display cable, this will be the most lag-free way of presenting our working game application.
Over the course of the past two weeks, I've been working hard to get my team's final Alpha assets put into our game and getting all of the mechanics to work well with one another. Have a look!
As you can see, we have our main character running and animated, our final backgrounds (which act in a parallax as they run by the screen to give depth), our platforms, and our sushi. All of our algorithms, sprites, and audio assets are working together perfectly, and we're very excited for our presentation later this afternoon.
I plan on presenting our game itself by running a camera-projector to a television. Until I get the proper display cable, this will be the most lag-free way of presenting our working game application.
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