Pitch Day

Today we did our final pitch to a few industry people. I thought that most of the teams did quite well. Many of the prototypes were much improved from the first dry run. My own personal critique of a few of the ideas is that while they are excellent ideas the playstyle and point and click or drag and drop interface only makes sense with a mouse and keyboard and definitely not a controller.

Specifically our own pitch I thought went decidedly ok. In that we did not wow or impress, nor did we fall entirely flat. Somewhat frustratingly many of the elements that we consider core the the game (hunger, thirst, gradual gathering and building) were received quite negatively and a quicker shorter version of the game, that I at least would defeat the whole purpose, was suggested. Then again that is just how these things go I suppose.

Filming

This weekend I worked more on the 3d prototype scene. I was unable to create an effective height map, but compromised by filming with a free flying camera. I put in a few rows of trees that Brandon had modeled. There were some issues, such as at certain angles the leaves of the trees would disappeared entirely. By filming mostly below the height of the trees though it was hard to see which trees were missing their leaves. The other complication was the quality of the video. I use a free software that worked well on small resolutions or slow moving scenes, but when i tried filming something in a resolution as high as my windows the frame rates would
drop below 5 per second.

It appears I actually do have some depth

After talking to Roger and Bob about our game last Thursday we have decided to divide our resources. Zee is working on a 2d prototype that is going to show some of our mechanics and be a general tool for explaining gameplay while I am working on a 3d prototype that will be essentially eye candy (if you can call it that) and have a model slide around a beach or island.

I was able to relatively quickly find some tutorials for terrain and water and put that together, but this did not support any collision, height mapping, or a 3rd person camera at all. The majority of my time went into importing our prototype character into the world and then finding a way to have the camera follow him as it should and then also have him be put at the correct height as he slides around the map.

The problem that I have run into is that while he is sliding he will only snap to the height of the nearest terrain vertex. I have attempted several solutions such as taking the height of several of the vertexes around him but to not much success. Even as it is it may be a useful presentation tool if nothing else but for screen shots. I hope to be able to figure out a more elegant solution before the pitch tomorrow and if not by then for the final pitch next week.

I'm Just a 2-dimensional Guy

After a period of indecision it seems that we are going to scrap the 3d attempt and refocus on working on a 2d prototype. I was starting to get exciting at the idea of attempting the 3d, but this is a much more realistic path to take at the moment. I've been drawing up some basic outlines for the game major classes, but some of those were with 3d in mind, but some minor changes should make them applicable.

As a side note, my new computer has arrived and with vs2008 and xna freshly installed I'm finally able to get down to some real code and real work. The exact points that we are trying to hit in the prototype are not entirely clear to me, but I'm sure will be soon. As for now having the ability to walk around a map, basic collision, and basic inventory seem to be the obvious things to get up and running.

The New Pitch

Voting took place and we were divided into small teams last week.

I was placed on what as far as I can remember was my second or third choice. Shipwreck, as best as I can describe it in a few word is an open ended survival rpg. The long term goal of the character is to escape a tropical island which he/she has been stranded on, but the immediate fun I believe is going to be exploration and, for lack of a better word, stabilization. What I mean by this is that while the character is originally thrown into a very hostile world with no means of feeling safe there will be ways to create shelter, stockpile food and resources, and become more dangerous themselves.

The major decision we have to make as a team is weather to pitch this as a 3d game or a 2.5D game. Originally I was hesitant to go any where near a 3d game, but after reading tutorials and just plain thinking about how the game would look I want to invest a little more time to see if it is possible. The game itself is of fairly large scope and adding 3d could push us over the edge into the realm of impossibility, but it remains a possibility for now.

The Pitch

This week was the pitching and voting on what game we will eventually build.
This was mine:

Junkers
Pace Sims
 

Story Summary:
In the year 1337 robots that have out lived their function
are exiled into the cold dead void that is space, Mars. When a group
of robots has their friend taken to this place they must band together
to make their way to to Mars and then, with some luck, back again.
 

Game Play:
- Side-Scrolling Puzzle Platformer
- 1-4 (2-4 possibly?) Players (split screen or zoom out?)
- There are 4 Robots that can be controlled simultaneously
(1 active robot per player at a time)
- Players must use the unique abilities of each Robot to make
there way through the levels and puzzles.
 

Robot 1:
Can unlatch his/her arm and use it as a grappling hook
Robot 2:
Can shoot a laser and has a short ranged attack as well
Robot 3:
Can jump twice as high and can
glide with his arms that turn into wings.
Robot 4:
Has armor plating and does not take damage from normal enemies.
Is also very strong and can throw other players and lift heavy objects.
 

Examples:
This is very much like the snes game "Lost Vikings"
What makes this game different from lost vikings is the multiplayer
mechanic. Because the players can be controlled simultaneously the
puzzles can take this into account and become more complex.

Notes:
The story and particular powers of the robots are not elements that have
had a great deal of thought put into them, but the mechanic of the multiple
player/multiple power put into a puzzle platforming game I believe lends itself
very well to a scalable complexity that other mechanics may not offer.