Also coming soon will be video! We will be releasing small segments of the status reports and footage from various team meetings, or just general work days around FIEA. Expect behind the scenes interviews, candid looks into the inner workings of a team, and general antics around the cohort space. We’ll try not to tie up too much of your time!
Drifters
Starting off the focus game trend, they held a Q&A session and got general opinions on how the environment looked and would be for gameplay, how the blending in of drifters and NPCs was working, the Drifter abilities, and how the feeling of paranoia was in the game so far and how it could be improved. They also did some prototype testing using current games such as Halo3, Counter-strike, and Age of Empires2. Within Halo3, they created a custom map designed to look like the museum of the Drifters game, complete with powerups that acted like some of the artifact abilities. They had 2-3 players as the Drifters and the other 5 players acting as NPCs with set walk paths. With Age of Empires, they had the ability to set actual AI and had 5 NPCs with 3 Drifter players trying to attack without giving away they were an actual player and get attacked themselves.
This week they’re working on expanding on level design based on the focus group input, with the potential to add hallways, basement areas, and corridors. To help with this, more paper prototypes are being developed and used for testing the new additions and layouts proposed. The Drifter designs are being reiterated upon based on the focus group findings, solidifying their fiction and justification a bit more as well.
In the art department, a second body type was modeled and textured to create another NPC variation in the game. This model is already rigged and working with the current animation set, plus a few new cycles to distinguish it from the original model. In game, the lighting has been fixed up and better shadowing is now visible. The drifter mesh is set on the main player and the drift function is working on the static NPCs. Texturing on the environment has started and collision now works on the major geometry as well as the characters.
To show off next Monday, the team is working on a staffing plan for potential team growth and how they’ll put their new talent to its best, most efficient use. They’re also getting in more collision, a working upstairs level, texturing the rest of the environment and more character textures for variation. Combat mechanics are also in the works, but more importantly is networking so multiple Drifter players can be shown in the environment and create the challenge of the game.
Delirium
The design team reanalyzed their plan and worked on best balancing the 3 personalities with their strengths and weaknesses in regards to the three main obstacles of the game: environment factors, enemies, and navigation of the level. Each personality now has a strength, a weakness, and a neutral reaction for each of those obstacles, making it sometimes necessary for the player to force switching personalities or wait for it to happen for them to pass a certain part of the level.
One of the more unique attempts at prototyping their game, the team developed a live action role play version of the game and tested it out on their unsuspecting team lead, John. He was put forth in the building with the lead designer playing the role of Mr. Buttons and telling him things such as personality switches, puzzle information, and AI alerts. To represent the different personalities, things like sunglasses and headphones were used to change the environment perception. Other students acted as nurses and doctors and various areas were set with puzzles that could only be overcome by a certain personality. Through playing, John said he definitely felt the frantic pace they were going for, as well as the help and hindrance each personality brought to the game.
The art progression has a fully modeled Mr. Buttons complete and normal mapped:
Edward now has 2 run and 2 idle animations, each set unique to a certain personality to show further distinction between the various stages. In engine they have a fully laid out level with the elevator in place. Collision is functional on the geometry and lighting works throughout the area. Two of the environment effects that were functional before porting into Earth are now back, the desaturation of the screen and the camera distortion zoom effect are now able to be toggled while playing in game. The elevator is in the process of being UV'd so texturing can begin.
Sultans of Scratch
The name conundrum has been solved and yes, “Sultans” is now plural. Other finalized decisions include the environment which has been set as a new-age club sort of venue with a stage and flashy lighting effects similar to the videos of last week. This choice was made to keep the urban, modern feel without distracting the player too much from the actual gameplay.
A sample of the new test venue and dancer cues
The new UI design keeps the bottom table with 2 turntables and the fader and introduces the familiar “dance arrows” behind the dancer avatar. The scratch mechanic for the DJ was previewed and works similar to how most rhythm games have a scrolling pattern they have to match as it hits a certain point. Sound waves scroll across the record and the DJ has to scratch up and down to follow them as they hit the edge. During play, they have the power to increase and decrease difficulty for the dancer. As the team works better together, the dancer can improve and move up in difficulty, earning more points and boosting their combo meter.
A flash prototype was shown with the dancer arrows functional with the DDR pad controller and the DJ scratching functional on the keyboard. The difficulty controls and combo multipliers were also shown and the score increase could be seen. An important change to the gameplay is that only one team will be playing on the screen at a time. Competing teams will switch off controls, so only one set of turntable and dancer has to be shown on screen at once, reducing the cramping of the previous layouts.
The visual style has been polished further with a new iteration of their main character concept fully colored. A toon shader is being used in game to add the non-realistic feel to the art and also help with the surreal club atmosphere. A mocap shoot is scheduled next week with Nelson, their previous breakdancer, coming back for another session with new moves choreographed.
On the musical front, custom tracks are being mastered specifically for the game. This negates the need for copyright research and licensing, as well as allows the team to be able to adjust the master tracks to correlate with improper scratch moves and such.
The team has also been polling various sources outside of FIEA such as dance clubs and DDR fans to find out their opinions on rhythm games, dance competitions and their character style. This information will be included in the Dan Day presentation to reflect their progress toward the popular trends and style of dance-offs.
The Chain Game
One of the major programming hurdles The Chain Game faced from day one was the actual chain itself. Getting an independently reactive chain in-game without having to control it link-by-link or breaking the engine was a serious task that the team has gotten one step closer to solving. This week was the debut of an in-engine chain stretched between the two players, not to mention the fact that they now have both players in-game and independently controlled with jumping. As of right now the chain is infinitely stretching and not really hindering the players, but it reacts to movement and doesn’t kill the framerate, so it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
More progress on the art front is Sophie’s finished texture with a better designed face and more dramatic contrast on her clothing. The environment textures are being updated to allow for it all to blend better and look more uniform. New jumping animations were created for both characters: Melvin jumps and runs a little bit at landing while Sophie jumps and stops. The difference was created to see which transition would work better. Sophie’s jump animation will be blended with the next animation (idle, run, walk, etc.) while Melvin’s will transfer into run and then blend into the next animation. Whichever looks best will be the standard for both characters.
To further explore some of the design facets of the game, a “rip-o-matic” video collage was created using clips from the movies Clueless and Legally Blonde to give the designers and artists a better idea of the Sophie character. One of the more unique design exploration exercises the team has been working on is the analysis of cooperative gameplay on a platformer-style game. To study this, two players were asked to play the first level of Mario 64 using only one controller. One player acted on the analog stick and Z button, moving Mario, while the other handled the right side buttons including attacking, jumping and camera control. At various times, the players switched places and resumed control of the other side. Most of the time each side did their own thing and very little communication was done between the two players, almost as if it were supposed to be intuitive. These observations and continued tests will help shape how the two characters react and certain moves work.
