New Quarter Planning

Hey guys I am back from Japan and I am ready to get going again.  I hope you guys are too.  We know we need to meet up, but until we do I was going to post what I think our meeting should prioritize.

There are 2 big things for us to discuss. 
1) What do we want to do with Splatz? 
2) What do we want to do for capstone?

They are kind of the same question.  Do we want to continue on with Splatz for capstone?  If so where do we draw the line on being done with Splatz "one/alpha"? 

Personally I feel that we need to get Splatz out asap and turn our focus to capstone.  We won't be able to focus on both at the same time.  Maybe we do continue Splatz in capstone, but make everything black like Ray said.  So we get Splatz one polished and out the door.

Things I was thinking Splatz needs.

1) what ever cleaning up Ted wants to do under the hood.  Maybe not restarting from scratch for this version.
2) sounds need serious polishing up.  I personally need to sit down with Brian and get on the same page.
3) animations need a little cleaning up.  Not much, just fine tuning.
4) I think we need something that teaches the player how to use the arrow keys for throwing paint.
5) Ted or Brian, is there a way to save your progress? Like after you complete a level maybe save the scores from that level? Or if you make it to level 7 and exit, have the game remember that your still on level 7 so you don't have to play the first 6 over again?
6) do we have an exit button?

Any other changes people feel are needed please add them.  As for question 2.  Even if we are going to continue Splatz for capstone I think everyone should come up with other game ideas, return to our pitching posts, start again, add some.  We can always use them after capstone even if we don't use them this time.

now to send out emails and text asking you guys to read this.

Josh

End of the quarter

Contributions:

Raymond Tan

• Concept Design
• Level Design
• Tweaked In Game Mechanics
• Bringer of Food, Forgetter of Napkins

Ted Molinsky

• Concept Design
• Main Programmer - Game Mechanics
• Main Programmer - Level Generator
• Main Programmer - Object Functions

Brian Mushika

• Main Programmer - UI Elements
• Main Programmer - Sound System
• Main Programmer - peripherals (counters, timers, displays)
• Secondary Programmer - Game Mechanics

Josh Campbell

• Concept Design
• Game Design
• Sound Design

Bob Juranek

• Modeler
• Animator
• Splash pages

All elements in the game were created by the team except for the fonts and the sounds.

• Background music is a cut from Squarepusher's track Star Time 2 from his Just A Souvenir album.

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I do hope we are all able to do some more work on the game over the break. I know everyone probably needs a week or two to decompress from the quarter and Josh will be off to Japan (lucky bastard) but if you guys want to try to arrange for an in person group meeting or skype conference to talk some more some time over the break, let me know.
Great job everyone and have a good holiday.

Last build I believe

http://www.mediafire.com/?xdlf4fk8d8yqb88

Beta Vid Link

http://vimeo.com/32497275

Wrapping Up

Ok guys heres somethings I have been thinking about that we should try to get done in the next few days to wrap up for the class.

0. Play test as much as you can, try to break the game
1. We need to get a collection of sounds for Thursday and play through all the sounds to see what fits and what needs to go
2. Animations need to get in and work appropriately
3. The UI work needs to be merged with the current version
4. Level tweaking or replacing of levels
5. Level times to give player ranking at end

Also can you guys test the spawning bug where you spawn too early? The controls need to be tested also, let me know as soon as possible if there are any buttons that do multiple things like move and shoot.

Some aesthetic changes

Some of the more aesthetic variables were changed and should make things look nicer in game when put in. A possible issue to this is that when the new titles and menus are put in, this may result in some missing blocks since one of the variables I changed was the fountains. I could go into it after and changed the titles/ menus so that they appear or we could create a separate object for the in game levels using the variables I changed and then assigning them a different ASCII key instead of 'F'.

Speaking of aesthetics, apparently...

Cookies Make You SEXY

Controls Reminder

If you guys would like to try different keyboard set ups remember that you can. When open the .exe file you will see a window that says Play! along with the resolutions above it. Above that there will be two tabs click the Input tab and adjust the controls to your liking. The only thing you have no control over is the arrow keys for shooting paint as that is hardcoded right now. So if you show someone this game and you shoot and walk at the same time, you need to change the controls because they default differently everywhere and I can not save them for you.

Work in Progress --- Sounds Coming Soon

Don't forget to put up your playtests.

I'll compile them Wednesday night/Thursday morning

Enjoy

Instructions screens finalized

I finalized the instructions screens. This week I plan on figuring out and fixing the problems with the character animation.

Update

So ok, we should be solid on levels at 14. Ray can pump these out like well ill stop there... Let's just work on polish for the rest of the project. We need to adjust variables and tweak the current levels depending from the playtests.

Brian, somethings I noticed with your main menu was that you were checking the position of the player but could you change that to be states? Like if the player hits down on the controller/keyboard they go from state 1 to 2, then just have a switch statement that takes you to different screens depending on the state. Just saying this so we can move things around on the main menu without having to adjust the code a lot.

Josh and Brian, the sound effects are really late. Also just wanted to say I think the jumping sounds a bit like jumping off a trampoline and not sure if it fits. AANNNDD I may have removed the sounds playing in the game since I had to merge the files and didn't even think about it, so we need to throw these back in on Tuesday.


AAAAAAANNNNNDDDDD one more thing, don't use the mouse on the main menu screen or youll go to the wrong screen. Brian can you also look into that.

New Levels and possible titles

There are 14 levels in all now with 1-6 acting primarily as learning levels I guess and should teach everything except shooting and the collectibles(since they aren't there) so when playtesting keep this in mind.
Levels 6, 13, and 14 feature wall jumping and should be winnable as I tried to make sure they were never too far apart and set to what was my max distance wall jumping (though that could be due to my stupid fingers : ) ). So I guess pay special attention to these when testing this mechanic and player reaction.
There are also three possible titles in there using the level builder to design them, so take a look at those ( you may have to go into unity and adjust the level generator script to view them)

Some things

Ceiling jumps are out for now due to wall jump testing, Ray can you make some levels that make use of wall jumping to properly test how it will feel. Also a new version with some tweaks and I removed that black/gray spike thing like you guys wanted, but this may be removing the feedback of what killed you since the spike disappears once it kills you.

Pick-up Done

I created a paintbrush for the pick-up in the game. From here I plan to tweak the character animation to make it look better.

Things to get done and what I saw from playtesting

So heres a break down of what I think thats needs to get done. This is primarily to help me and maybe you guys out. We should all be play testing also and adjusting variables if something feels too slow or too fast. Something major I noticed from the playtesting was the initial jump was way too high so we should lower that and give it a higher extra jump (the longer you hold it down the higher you go). Ceiling jump had positive response but something seemed a little strange to me, there was no feedback to know that you were going to do a ceiling jump.

Brian
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2. Merge the sounds with the latest build
3. Get the menus merged into the latest built
4. Integrate the game pad/keyboard into the menus (no mouse)
1. Get the internet

Ray
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1. Polish up your levels
2. Start creating a flow of levels (easy to difficult)
3. Tweak gameplay variables like jump, run and whatever else

Bob
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3. Need a ceiling jump animation
1. Need a jump animation
4. Possibly a wall jump animation
2. Sliding down wall animation
?. Model for the collectible if we are still going to use it (talk with Ray/Josh about what this is going to be)

Josh
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1. When sounds get implemented, test out everything to see if it is how you imagined
2. Maybe help Ray with levels
3. Tweak gameplay variables like jump, run and whatever else

Me
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1. Change Spike colors when hit by paint temporarily
5. Polish controls
3. Give a little randomness to throwing paint
2. Implement directional paint throwing (I think I may follow what Metal Slug and Contra did for directional shooting)
7. Change blocks to a 3x3 blocks to give a more natural color bleeding feel
6. Possibly add AI goons that walk left/right and throw paint
4. Work on getting the ability to leave a wall slide without jumping
8. Experiment with using the triggers to shoot a stream of paint and go further depending on how far the trigger is pushed (last on my priority list)


Think that should be it, probably forgot something but eh

Visual Prettiness

I finished the screens and will work on making the animations for the character better.

New Levels

No way are they final but there are new levels that should be going up in the next build.

Test them out and let me know what you think of the challenges.

Final Goal for levels

What if we had a paint fountain that revealed the part of the end for the player? Like a fountain that shoots paint globs upward and outward, not a lot but just enough and they would shoot random colors of paint. Just an idea maybe its coming from something other than the ground, maybe its on the wall like a door.

Easel Done

This week I created a model for the end goal, an easel that the player has to reach. For next week I plan on creating all of the screens that we will need.

Almost there

I think guys we are almost there, the music is in, moving platforms are in, i think what is left is designing more levels and putting in some final art for the splash pages. Also waiting on the decision for the sound volumes from the Producer and the Designer. Because right now the sounds are conflicting, i don't know what music should have low volume and which ones should have high volume.

so long and stay thirst my friends.

Alpha Milestone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SDHuneR8A0

Screen Resolution

Ok guys I need a screen resolution you will be happy to play with. What we have now works on mine but that means I just have been using a wider resolution.

Do we want full screen or windowed?
Is it going to be wide screen or 4:3 ratio?

I think 800x600 is a pretty universal screen size so it should work on most PCs but tell me what you think.

New Variable speeds

Adjustments to the current player movement variables

Walk 8.5

Run 13

Jump 4

Extra jump 2.5

NEW SONG IDEA!

so what I'm thinking is looping the first half of Ronald Jenkees' Guitar Sound. I will play it for you guys in class...

Splash Screen and Health Bar

I've been working on a Splash Screen and a Health Bar.

Next week I plan to work on creating a throwing animation as well as adding more character textures.

Sound option

I got the sound enable/disable option to work from the Option screen so that the player can turn on and off the sound if they want. Also i got the font to work, i mean customized font to work all we need is to decide what type of the font suits the game.. But for now i am just using placeholders..

Thanks guys,

So long and stay thirst my friends..

Little update

I have been working on the trails a little more and think this is much better then before. I have it changing colors on death and no slow downs for creating these trails. For Tuesday, I am hoping to have the player trails work properly without creating any kind of slow downs and have it when these trails hit a block they change that block to the color or the trail. I haven't posted this stuff yet so hang on, it should be up tomorrow.

Oh yeah, and should have Bob's animated model going in for Tuesday.

Email Rehash

So this is pretty much what I sent in the email earlier this week, but hopefully a little bit clearer. As you can tell from the playtests, one of the concerns raised was that the game was a little confusing and hard to know what to do. The simplest and most efficient solution would be to create instructions that are given to the player beforehand. Next is just even simpler levels with easier to reach goals, though in my playtests with the initial levels that I thought were really simple, one of the testers said it was a bit boring and should have at least one trap/explosion effect in it and the other still found it difficult to understand what was happening. The following is some of the proposed solutions we came up with in class:



The really simple level in which the corresponding mechanic is obviously revealed, in this image jumping or double-jumping












A collectible having an one-time additional function in the early levels that literally spells out what needs to be done























The gradual change from colored to blank levels so that the player is first given visual cues as to what to do and also given the idea that the game will move to a complete blank level

If not too difficult, it might be best to implement all of the above situations and playtest those during the next round so we can see which one is best from the player's perspective

Also, some ideas for the visual goal of the levels that were come up with is moving from canvas to canvas in the level. We could even have it where the starting canvas is actually a screenshot of the previous level, though at the scale it's at it probably wouldn't be noticeable, and a blank canvas representing the next level, or other art/paint tools like brushes or palettes (Ted, this is what that thing is called that isn't an easel :D )

Collectables

Possible ideas for the collectible items.

• Only 1 item you have to pick up in the entire map.

• Every time you die the item gets taken away from you.  To get the reward for getting the item. You must pick it up and get to the exit without dying.

• There could be multiple pieces to pick up to receive the reward.  Again you might have to get all the pieces without dying, but would not have to get to the exit.

Render Settings

Ok so if you decide to show someone testing the game, make sure you use the default window size and have the graphics quality/render setting to "Good". Since I hacked together some explosions it will effect the gravity of the paint blobs for now. This is something that I need to fix.

Temp sound

Ok, I got some temp sound in, but i am only using the one sound for all the stuff, if the audio team can send me some simple sound for now that will be good. I am also now working on the option to allow the player to turn sound on and off.. hope i get that in..

stay thirst my friends..

Latest build

Just threw up the latest build to the build page. You guys should follow it or somehow to get notifications from it, if thats possible. Can you guys mess around with some numbers and let me know what feels good like speed, toggling the toggle, double jump height, jump height, extra jump height and whatever else there is? Play it a bit and let me know what mechanics feel good or stuff needs to be adjusted. Over the weekend I should have some other traps implemented along with better air controls. Also can someone hit me up with a fbx file of a spike and possibly a spike that goes up and down?

Also don't be afraid to mess around in unity to try and add some stuff or create new levels. Ask me if you guys need some help or got some questions.

Alpha transperency textures

So this is more for you Bob but you can all read along.

This is the fix the professor showed us for the textures

1. Click on the channel layers
2. Hold down ctrl and click on the alpha channel layer
3. Return to the original layer and add a new layer
4. In the new layer, use the paint bucket to fill in the shape with the color you want or are using currently
5. Make the original layer invisible
6. Save as a PNG file and make sure you choose interlaced when asked

So that should make things transparent when you import it into unity
Not sure if for new textures we just have to delete the background and save as PNG and that'll make the alpha channel automatically but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

This week I created a model for the character. Next week I plan to finish some rough animations for him and work on polishing the textures.

So this week I created character mock-up ideas for the main character. Next week I plan on making a character model to use in the game.

New Blog Layout

So I edited the layout of the blog a bit. You can see at the top right below the header, "Home / Game Builds / Schedule". Check em out and update things. I have been rocking updates of the game and posting them under the builds page. Go grab the latest and play play play.

Paint Splatter Images

Here are some of the images, that should hopefully work properly now. I'll post the new schedule soon.

Sounds We Need

Sound Track

http://www.drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html

Do we need different songs for every level?

Running
Jumping(double jumping)
Landing
?Falling
?Slipping
Hitting Trap Splash
Throwing paint

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZmTAR1lqeA

Progress On Throwing Mechanic

Hi Guys, So I spent sometime over the weekend trying to understand Unity and JavaScript, I found a good tutorial about that and i decided to give it a shot. I decided to make a simple 2D space shooter following the tutorial. What did i learn from this? How to implement the HUD, transitioning from one level to another( from Main menu to level 1 to win or lose screen). I also learned how to create the Main menu and how to make sound work in Unity. So I have a complete simple game up all we need is to transfer this to our prototype.

Thanks guys,

Sound

So for sound I have been looking around for tracks that we can use.  So far I haven't really found anything that matches the our game.  My room mate has promised the use of his KORG DS-10 which basically is a synth on the DS. He has several tracks already the loop that I am going to look into using, if not It shouldn't be to hard to come up with a couple tracks between the two of us.

Also for all other sounds, splashes and splatters I am going to raid DePaul's sound library first.  If that doesn't work it is off to the interwebs.

Idea

So I was reading Brian's email about choices, only made it about half way but thought. What if we incorporated the trail button so you saw your last jump pattern, something that gives paint back to the player or can use that paint power up to reveal part of the canvas?

Little Update

So after some frustration, I was able to grab a screen shot of the game and apply it to the background texture. It doesn't seem to be applying the entire screenshot but as of right now it is applying the color green to it, so I feel pretty close.

Throwing Paint mechanic

I am currently working on the throwing paint mechanic, hopefully i get this done this week also work on the basic hud. I am trying as much as possible also working with Ted so we get this thing right for it to work in the game.

I will keep you guys updated on the progress.

Thanks

Weekly Blog Post 01

So this past week I worked on creating a mock-up for the visual style for the game.
I plan on creating character mock-up ideas for this upcoming week.

Latest Mechanics Update

I have two images of what I have been working on recently.

So after some experimenting with this trail effect, I was seeing it bog the system down. It's still playable but definitely notice some slow down. On the left picture, I am drawing cylinders which is overkill for what we are trying to do. On the right picture, I am drawing just one triangle for each frame but still noticed quite a bit of slow down after awhile. I noticed that it was drawing on both faces of the triangle so thats essentially drawing double than it should be drawing. Uhhh but yeah, is this essentially the effect were looking for?

Weekly Post 1

So this past week we managed to nail down an idea and begin work. I'll update the schedule on Tuesdays after we get a chance to talk about where we all are and I will try to have some sketches down for levels and obstacles tomorrow for class.

Some Characters for Inspiration or Thought

Game Mechanics

This is a working list of mechanics for project paintkake.

1. Bleed (we have this done right?)

2. Jump (get the feel right)

2.5 Double Jump. (loose paint when you do this?)

3. Friction (should be like on ice? we will see how we like this.)

4. Paint explosion when you die?

5. Throwing of paint. (should cost 30% of total paint)

6. Paint life levels (HuD? or built into character model, maybe both?)

7-* Please comment with other key mechanics.


Mechanic Ideas.  Some of these are out there, some of them conflict, we need to decide so that we are all on the same page.

1. The Art style.  What do we like?  What do we dislike and want to change?  Do we want the character to be a paint bucket or a guy more like de blob only clear skin that shows the ink color he is on the inside? What other character ideas do we have?  Second on the art style is how the paint reveals the world.  When first approached the idea was more of solid white blocks  with paint that would drip down them.  Bob came up with a great prototype style that simply has a "line platform". Personally I feel that this is a great look, but it brings up some questions.  Do we want paint to be able to go onto the other side of the line?  This is fine for walking, but how far does the paint go when "bleeding" or when you explode.  The explosion being blocked by a wall was a subtle mechanic that was discussed. So say platform A was position to hide the location of platform B.  However when you hit a spike/explode the paint reveals the "line platform" and continues on to reveal platform B... (i can draw a diagram the next time we meet) This might be a complication.  We will have to decide what we want to do with mechanics vs art style.  Both are very important.

2. Should you be able to press a button and just explode?  What is to keep the player from just running a few extra steps in the next life and exploding again?  Is this okay to do or do we not want that ability.  If you can choose to explode, should there be some sort of penalty?  Possible penalty would be that every time you die you choose to explode you come back with less life?

3.  I had a 3 but then I got tired... PLEASE COMMENT OTHER IDEAS THAT NEED TO BE DISCUSSED. I will try to take down as many as possible the next time we meet and add them to this.

Great job so far everyone!!!

Schedule

Paintkakke Pitch

Team:

Josh Campbell (Designer/Co-Producer)

Bob Juranek (Artist)

Ted Molinski (Programmer)

Brian Mushika (Programmer)

Raymond Tan (Designer/Artist/Co-Producer)

The love child of a classy dame like The Unfinished Swan with the wrong side of the tracks ruffian like Super Meat Boy or I Wanna Be The Guy

Game Pitch

This game is an educational game. You have a building with different rooms, on each door there is a word a player need to find in order to unlock the door and move on to the next level. The player will look for a specified letter for that word on the door. In some cases the player will have to look for a word specifying certain actions in the game. For example if the door is open, then there will be a sentence specifying the action and a missing word to complete the sentence. "The door is_____." then the player has to look for the word in this case the word is "Open". If the player get stuck, a hint will be provided to the player so he/she knows what they are doing. These actions or words on doors will be randomly generated and placed so that the player don't memorise the word or where the letter for the word was hidden. To make it more intense as the player moves on to different levels, there will be a timer in which the player should finish the whole sequence.

mechanics will be just jumping, climbing, running and shooting..

Prototype Update

So here is the update on the prototype. I have it currently generating levels from a 2D array (in script but get this in by a file later on) and change colors on contact. Next thing probably to start working on is the bleeding effect so whenever your standing still the tiles around you should begin to be revealed. If anyone wants the project folder let me know. I am also going to look into, if there is a way to use no lights and still have colors or objects visible, because you can see a shadow in the top right corner.

Brainstorm Pitch

A pacman esque game that uses the streets on real world maps to create the level layout

A 3d platformer based on the work of this artist whose name I forgot but he paints disaster scenes with animals that have human heads. This could be like an environmental game where the player can transform into different animal bodies to save the world.

A racing game ala Mario Kart or Twisted Metal where the player(s) drive spy cars equipped with guns, missiles, etc. and they try to sabotage each other to win the race while at the same time dealing with obstacles on the road like turrets or barriers rising up on the track.

A platformer where are all the visual aspects are created using typography like instead of a traditional tree we would have


and the mechanics would revolve around word usage for navigation or puzzle solving