Sunday, June 22, 2008
Post Mortem
Post mortem Station defender
At the start:
At the start of the project we had collected some ideas for our project, we choose one that was we thought was innovative an interesting. Before we got our programmers we had play tested the game, the play test was built by wooden bricks and the weapons were represented by glass marbles. This went fine; we did also notice a difference.
When we play tested we couldn’t have a third player playing the computers role so we made our shot from our own base, as if we were the ones with weapons. This was implemented by building walls that could bounce the weapons off and turn on the other players.
When the project started for real we, Johan Lövdahl & Robert Carlsson, had a group of four programmers which was going to be divided into two smaller groups and where two of them should work on our game. We showed them an early concept picture on how the game could look like and what it was all about. The programmers were Hans and Eric from the third year.
During development:
During development most things run smooth; the programmers work hard every day and the designers were busy making the graphics and the sounds. Though we think there were some problems and some major. At first the room and computer we was given to work with was fixed very late, this made us loose more than a week on the project. Also the work with NUI was a bit time spending. If the factors outside the project had run smoother we should have had at least 2 more weeks to work on the game.
The group worked well together and the first weeks were problem free, this is not at all good and it was the effect of different factors. First off was that we designers are not educated in programming at the level of third year students. Even in the understanding of a program/game and it´s components are not at all at the same level. This made us very none problematic, we couldn’t try to find flaws or problems with their job. Though the other way around worked fine, they could comment and argue with us about the design, graphics and sounds.
In the end of the game development we worked at some play testing but the time was really short since the machine needed for playing was delivered a week late. But we did make some interesting changes at the end and it became an “almost not boring game” as a programmer said. I think we succeeded in our main goals, this was a game designed to fit by passers so that they could just stop and play in a second and so they can. Innovation was not a goal but we succeeded in some ways there to.
Solutions:
If we had worked with one year students like the rest of the groups had, then we would have been closer to the programming and making of the game. We would even be able to program our selves, this would have been not just a bonus for the project but also a great learning experience.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Game cover
Today I made the game cover for the game and it’s found to the right for those who are intrested. We also changed so all documents are in pdf’s.
//Johan
Finale!!
Now the last weak is taking place and the game is done! The programmers did the final version at 30 of may 18.00, now we programmers only have the xml´s (scripting files) to work with. We can change all from the amount of missile launchers to the amount of shots that can simultaneously exist on the map. So the game testing is left to do, if we find time for it.
I have now uploaded the first version of the gamemanual, it will explain how the game works and how it is played.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Major update
We made a major update on the design document today when we took away all things that won’t be in the game and added some new things that have been created the last couple of days.
Gone is the “new player” sign, it was meant to be used when a new player wanted to join a game but it have change and today a new player only need to tap on of a free stations if s/he wants to join a new game so that have been erased from the design document.
Gone is also the spinning on the player stations but have so been for a while but it is now definite that it won’t make it in to the game so all that was erased from the design document as well.
Things we have added are bouncing, some new names and updated some old stuff. Earlier weeks lasers have been able to reflect on mirror walls and missiles on force fields but now plasmas have joined the club of reflection and they bounces on the anti plasma walls which earlier was known as concrete walls. The namechange came after we added the bounce and all of it is a result of trying to make the game a bit funnier and more chaotic and I would say we have succeded on that. We have also made all projectiles to bounce on the game boarder so they won’t fly out in the infinite but instead bounce back and go for a new goal. This created a wider player area since you now ain’t safe on the side facing away from the center as you kinda were before. Along with this new feature we added a way to gain health by reflecting projectiles on the other players and if you hit someone else you gain the amount of damage the projectile made on him/her in health.
Name changes have been done to, the earlier mentioned Anti plasma wall but also the central station earlier known as the <Thing> have now been renamned to Güd ([Gi:d] kinda). Other things that have been updated is the damage list for weapons and there have been some few modifications in it to.
We got new wall graphics and it all is shown in the design document.
The new design document can be found to the right for those who are intrested.
//Johan
Friday, May 23, 2008
Design Document 1.4!!
We have made some changes on the design document. Some of the pictures are redone and we have made the decision to make the walls round instead of square. This will make it easier for the programmers and we think it will be both nicer for the graphics and for the design.
The game so far:
We have both the music for the game and the sounds fixed, just all the impact sounds left (when a weapon make damage on a object). The agent in the middle shot all the weapons with both graphics and effects (destruction and flight), the laser does not work yet.
The player base has 100hp and take damage from the weapons, you can start a new base when one is destroyed. You can also see how long the base have been alive.
We have a splash screen and a menu, creadits are visible but no options may be made so far.
Right now at the moment the programmers are working to make the colition work
//Robert
