In less than 6 hours the Final Presentations will take place. Can't wait? Can't make it? Whet your appetite for Drifters and Sultans of Scratch with these shiny game trailers!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Final Game Presentation Event
With the Siggraph materials completed and shipped off to the bayou, the teams are focused back on their last bits of polish for the big event!
After months of reading about the incredible development of these two unique games, FIEA is proud to announce the first complete look at the Cohort 5 games. This is your chance to get a first-hand look at the stealth multiplayer game, Drifters, and the hip-hop dance crew and DJ game, Sultans of Scratch.
Space is limited, so to RSVP please send an e-mail to rsvp@fiea.ucf.edu or call 407-823-2121 for more information.
The presentations will take place from 4 - 6PM at the Center for Emerging Media at 500 W. Livingston Street in downtown Orlando. For directions, click here.
Of course, if you can't make it in person, we'll have a full report complete with video highlights right here on the blog!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Fluid Simulation for Video Games, part 1: Introduction to Fluid Dynamics
The first in a series of articles I wrote for Intel:
http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/fluid-simulation-for-video-games-part-1/
...and some delicious videos:
Atomic vortex ring
Cannonball through smoke
Dragons, bunnies and magic
Make sure to watch them in HD!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
FIEA's a hot spot for visitors this week!
The cohort is in a constant state of flux right now as the games are being polished and bugs are being fixed, but more importantly a slew of special guests have been making their way through the FIEA halls. Just this week representatives from 360ed, Bethesda Softworks, Monster Media, and EA Tiburon are coming through for interviews with 2K Boston also attending virtually through webcam for their interviews. Added to that is the normal facility tours that take place ever so often for new and prospective students, and also a very prestigious visit from the Florida Governor, Charlie Crist...FIEA is certainly the place to be this week!
While the companies attending the events this week are mainly interested in personal interviews with our students, they've also been touring around the cohort space and taking place in game demos of Drifters and Sultans of Scratch. This not only lets them see the games that their interviewees are touting on their resume, but also shows them what kind of amazing work our program churns out in just a few months!
During his visit to our area, Governor Crist visited the FIEA campus as well as EA Tiburon to see how game development is flourishing in the Central Florida area. Both teams had the opportunity to demonstrate their games for the Governor and he also toured the cohort space to see where the next generation of game developers were honing their skills. He believed both Sultans and Drifters were very creative and he was impressed with the talent that is coming out of Florida today.
While the companies attending the events this week are mainly interested in personal interviews with our students, they've also been touring around the cohort space and taking place in game demos of Drifters and Sultans of Scratch. This not only lets them see the games that their interviewees are touting on their resume, but also shows them what kind of amazing work our program churns out in just a few months!
During his visit to our area, Governor Crist visited the FIEA campus as well as EA Tiburon to see how game development is flourishing in the Central Florida area. Both teams had the opportunity to demonstrate their games for the Governor and he also toured the cohort space to see where the next generation of game developers were honing their skills. He believed both Sultans and Drifters were very creative and he was impressed with the talent that is coming out of Florida today.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Drifters Team: BEARD-OFF FINALE!
The day has come. After months of neglectful cultivation and itching to shave (literally), the results of the unshaven have been revealed!
Each contestant went up and told the story of their beard experience. Some were mistaken for homeless while walking around the FIEA area, many had tales of angry girlfriends and scolding mothers, while some bemoaned the fact that they just couldn't seem to grow a decent facial landscape. However, there were some stories of happiness among them, such as the welcome reunion of man and facial hair after years in the army where being clean shaven was a must. Once the stories were over, the judges surveyed the vast plains of hair...
Once all the awards were awarded, those who were interested headed to the bathroom for some "Man-Scaping" and put a creative twist to the end of their beards. As each contestant headed back in...
The judges did one more analysis...
and announced...
The "Man Scape Award"
Congratulations to our beard growers and the entire Drifters team for their hard work! It's a great end to a great production run, and now the whole team is revving up for the final polish and testing.
Each contestant went up and told the story of their beard experience. Some were mistaken for homeless while walking around the FIEA area, many had tales of angry girlfriends and scolding mothers, while some bemoaned the fact that they just couldn't seem to grow a decent facial landscape. However, there were some stories of happiness among them, such as the welcome reunion of man and facial hair after years in the army where being clean shaven was a must. Once the stories were over, the judges surveyed the vast plains of hair...
And now, the winners of the 2009 Cohort 5 Drifters Team Beard-Off!
The "Billy Mays Memorial Award"
The "Colonel Sanders Award"
The "Ron Jeremy Award"
The "Chameleon Award"
The "Patch Adams Award"
Once all the awards were awarded, those who were interested headed to the bathroom for some "Man-Scaping" and put a creative twist to the end of their beards. As each contestant headed back in...
The judges did one more analysis...
and announced...
The "Man Scape Award"Congratulations to our beard growers and the entire Drifters team for their hard work! It's a great end to a great production run, and now the whole team is revving up for the final polish and testing.
It's Beta Time!
This week marks the end of production for both games as they push on to alpha/beta stage. Only minor assets are being loaded in when needed to fix bugs, and the majority of the work for the rest of this month is testing, testing and testing. The only new things being developed now are the game manuals and box art, as well as finishing touches on the websites.
The museum environment got a much deserved facelift with a new lighting setup, making it easier to see and to cast shadows with the characters. The lighting is now baked in to the geometry, allowing the dynamic lights to be focused on characters so they now have shadows as they wander through the museum floors. The Sovereign has been seated on her throne and is being rigged for animations. She currently provides commentary on the match, commending or berating her Drifters on their performance against each other. Other sound additions include the announcement of the selected Drifter's name on the player select screen, more random comments from the NPCs as they stop at various exhibits, and the Drifters have more sounds including taunts, victory comments, and attack sounds.
The Drifter Vision no longer snaps from glowing character to Drifter form, rather a new light burst transition activates to reveal the Drifter form, letting players know they're now visible as a Drifter. While attacking, there's better response time, so a missed strike no longer makes you as vulnerable to your target. To better assist the player in learning to make better use of Drifter Vision and attacking, the video tutorial which was in progress is being updated with the latest assets and controls.
On the technical side, DevTrack is being used to track the bugs that come up during playtesting. As a bug is identified, a log is created by the player that tells when it occurred, under what conditions, and what the steps are to reproduce it. The bug is assigned a category, and then the QA lead reviews the report, determines who should handle the bug, and assigns it to a team member to work on it. The team is also busy testing on multiple machine setups, including 3 versions of Windows (XP, Vista and 7 beta), various video card configurations, and multiple processor speeds. The goal is to optimize it so the game can run on virtually any current generation machine capable of playing games like Half-Life2.
To kick off their last normal status report, the Sultans team revealed their final peripheral, a Turntable Lite if you will...
The game is down to the addition of a few minor art assets in the menu screen and the DJ models in the crew transition modes. The new peripheral integrated perfectly in with the control scheme, so the game is playable with either the DDR pad and turntable, or the keyboard and mouse schemes. Now that the environments are finalized for lighting, the cinematic crew is placing the final assets for the final cinematic clips.
The last bits of the menu are coming together to complete the experience and this week some background music sets the mood for the record shop. The announcer can now be heard on the selection screens and once inside, he'll direct you to choose your crew, your turntable, venue, and song. Menu overlays are being placed and the animations on character select are being polished as well with each pair having a unique interaction animation set.
In-game the digital screen on the turntable finally gets its moment to shine and now displays the multiplier for the current crew, as well as the difference between the scores of your crew and the opposing crew. This lets you know at a glance whether you need to step up your game or if you're dominating the round. The crowds are fully placed, textured, randomized, and animated to create a real dance club experience, completed with animated props like the warehouse's traffic light speakers or the club's neon glow furniture. At the end of the level, a new chalkboard-style score screen shows off the winner and loser of the round:
Probably the biggest reveal of this report was the tutorial option, which guides players through the various controls of the game, plus introduces the combo system and how to activate "Pass the Spotlight". There's still some adjusting to do so the steps flow easier, and talk of splitting it into a normal and advanced tutorial set, but so far it's a great feature!
These next two weeks, Cohort 5 will be conducting interviews with many companies within the video game, simulation and digital media industries. With so many interviews and companies to coordinate among the 49 students, the teams will not be holding their weekly status reports. The final game presentations will take place on July 30th and that will most likely be the final development blog post for Cohort 5. We'll try to dig up some beta stage info for you in the meantime!
The museum environment got a much deserved facelift with a new lighting setup, making it easier to see and to cast shadows with the characters. The lighting is now baked in to the geometry, allowing the dynamic lights to be focused on characters so they now have shadows as they wander through the museum floors. The Sovereign has been seated on her throne and is being rigged for animations. She currently provides commentary on the match, commending or berating her Drifters on their performance against each other. Other sound additions include the announcement of the selected Drifter's name on the player select screen, more random comments from the NPCs as they stop at various exhibits, and the Drifters have more sounds including taunts, victory comments, and attack sounds.
The Drifter Vision no longer snaps from glowing character to Drifter form, rather a new light burst transition activates to reveal the Drifter form, letting players know they're now visible as a Drifter. While attacking, there's better response time, so a missed strike no longer makes you as vulnerable to your target. To better assist the player in learning to make better use of Drifter Vision and attacking, the video tutorial which was in progress is being updated with the latest assets and controls.
On the technical side, DevTrack is being used to track the bugs that come up during playtesting. As a bug is identified, a log is created by the player that tells when it occurred, under what conditions, and what the steps are to reproduce it. The bug is assigned a category, and then the QA lead reviews the report, determines who should handle the bug, and assigns it to a team member to work on it. The team is also busy testing on multiple machine setups, including 3 versions of Windows (XP, Vista and 7 beta), various video card configurations, and multiple processor speeds. The goal is to optimize it so the game can run on virtually any current generation machine capable of playing games like Half-Life2.
To kick off their last normal status report, the Sultans team revealed their final peripheral, a Turntable Lite if you will...
It's about 1/3 of the previous peripheral, isn't it adorable?!
The game is down to the addition of a few minor art assets in the menu screen and the DJ models in the crew transition modes. The new peripheral integrated perfectly in with the control scheme, so the game is playable with either the DDR pad and turntable, or the keyboard and mouse schemes. Now that the environments are finalized for lighting, the cinematic crew is placing the final assets for the final cinematic clips.
The last bits of the menu are coming together to complete the experience and this week some background music sets the mood for the record shop. The announcer can now be heard on the selection screens and once inside, he'll direct you to choose your crew, your turntable, venue, and song. Menu overlays are being placed and the animations on character select are being polished as well with each pair having a unique interaction animation set.
In-game the digital screen on the turntable finally gets its moment to shine and now displays the multiplier for the current crew, as well as the difference between the scores of your crew and the opposing crew. This lets you know at a glance whether you need to step up your game or if you're dominating the round. The crowds are fully placed, textured, randomized, and animated to create a real dance club experience, completed with animated props like the warehouse's traffic light speakers or the club's neon glow furniture. At the end of the level, a new chalkboard-style score screen shows off the winner and loser of the round:
Probably the biggest reveal of this report was the tutorial option, which guides players through the various controls of the game, plus introduces the combo system and how to activate "Pass the Spotlight". There's still some adjusting to do so the steps flow easier, and talk of splitting it into a normal and advanced tutorial set, but so far it's a great feature!
These next two weeks, Cohort 5 will be conducting interviews with many companies within the video game, simulation and digital media industries. With so many interviews and companies to coordinate among the 49 students, the teams will not be holding their weekly status reports. The final game presentations will take place on July 30th and that will most likely be the final development blog post for Cohort 5. We'll try to dig up some beta stage info for you in the meantime!
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