THE END IS NEAR!

With only a few days remaining until the project due date, everyone in the group is busier than ever (especially the programmers). The group had a lot planned for the game but the delay we had with the art side means the programming side has fell behind as well. The basic course requirements are almost done and we’re not too worried about not being able to meet them on time. The biggest problem is probably with getting all the other stuff we had planned together. I’m sure the game will turn out great even if worse comes to worse and we can’t get everything in there for the submission due date.

I’ve been busy getting the audio to work, fixing up the particle system, adding what happens when cars die, menu, and HUD. One of the programmers has been having trouble and so his work has been put onto my plate unfortunately.

During the week I’ve spent some time playing the game ‘Punishment’. I have to say, that game is VERY punishing. Having to run back to the beginning at the start of every level and then make it back can get frustrating at times, especially in the higher levels, where there is a pole the player must precisely land on. The music for the game is okay for the most part, but is very annoying on some levels, most notably the blue background level. The game has good design since the levels provide a fair level of frustration but is still passable as long as the player doesn’t give up and keeps working at it.

As usual, here is a gameplay video:

Weekly Blog Post

For this week, the game that I got to play was Yakuza 3 for the PS3. I haven't played a PS3 game in a while, and I have to say that this game kinda sucked in terms of its core gameplay since it involves a lot of running around and reading blocks of scrolling text. Although the game is heavy on the reading, I did enjoy the game as the story had many twists and turns to keep me interested as well as a wide variety of "random" activities. They activities themselves also keep the game interesting. The graphics for the game were decent, but I think they definitely could have been better. Audio was on the lower end of the scale, since a lot of the sounds were repeating and weren't as real as I had hoped they would be.

As usual, here is a gameplay video:

As for the update on the game progress, the programming side seems to be the farthest ahead but there is still a lot of work to be done. Having all the models completed only a few days ago means we have more work to do. To add to the work, a lot of the rendering work now has to be converted so it is done in the hardware rather than software because of the lag. We still have to do menu, glow, power ups, as well as putting them altogether (throwing in sound and particles into the main version). There's a long way to go over these next 2 weeks but I'm sure the game will turn out great.

Weekly Blog Post

For this week the game I'm going to talk about is 'Coin Dozer' for the iPhone. This game is pretty much "that game" from the arcade where you keep putting in coins into the top, it drops to the bottom, and you try to get the machine to push your coin off the surface in order to win points. Aside from coins, the game has prizes that you can collect as well as special coins that give you bonuses for a few seconds.

The game is great in that it loads almost instantly and you're in the game. There are no menus to go through which means no wait time. On the other hand, the lack of instructions may make it hard for some players to figure out what to do. The sounds are nice but seem a bit unrealistic.

For the most part the game is fun to play and the ad is placed in a non-intrusive location. The biggest problem with the game is the occasional crashes that will reset the game surface as well as the 4 coin limit. The game does not allow the player to drop more than 4 coins in a row which seems to take out a bit of the fun.

As usual here's a gameplay video.

As for the update on the GDW game, the due date is almost here and everyone's working hard to get the game "completed" on time. At the moment I'm working on repulsion/collision detection as well as the main menu. On the down side a lot of the stuff depends on the art dept team members which means if something goes wrong or someone falls behind the programmers have less time to work with piecing it together. Overall, I think we're making good progress as we have a running game that is playable, particles are done, the physics of the game is almost correct, and most of the sounds needed for the game are already recorded. All that's left are shaders, piecing everything together, writing a mountain of reports, and finally polishing it.

Weekly Blog Post

For the past week I've found myself hooked onto Slingo Supreme. This old game is interesting and fun to play because it combines Bingo with Slots. The general idea of the game is simple: hit the spin button, get 5 numbers (1 for each column), and try to match your board with the numbers you got from the spin. In the supreme version, users can play with powerups such as devil protection (protects you from loosing points in the mini gambling games), x-ray (see where powerups are hidden on the board), free spins, extra points, etc. Users also try to match a certain pattern and if it is done, there will be bonus points awarded. Although fun on its own without sound, I think the casino like sounds that are made when spinning for numbers gets the player even more hooked into the game. Here's a short gameplay video to give you an idea:

For the GDW update, I've uploaded a picture of the particle system (and yes it took me a while). I'm currently working on collisions detection/response for the game. A basic implementation was already done previously, but it still some work (especially in the repulsion area) so I will be spending a day or two trying to fix it up.

For anyone interested, here's a link to the tutorial for this particle system:

http://www.swiftless.com/tutorials/opengl/particles.html

I've used it as a base and made a few modifications. Once the collisions are working correctly I will either be working on a png loader / main menu for the game or will be going back to this particle system and adding more to it so that it is more customizable (the art department has asked that an alpha component be added, direction should be changed, change it so that there is a spark like effect rather than fountain / bursting out effect, and also look into creating fog as it may be needed in the game)

March 1st post

Super Meat Boy is the game that I've played this week. I came across this game on gamespot and decided to give it a try. My first thoughts on this game are its fun to play and it was easy to pick up (in terms of controls / story). The tutorials in the first few levels teach you all the basics you'll need to know and the story is shown at the beginning of the game and is fairly simple. You are meat boy and you are trying to save your girlfriend bandage girl from Dr. Fetus.

The gameplay is fairly fun as each level has its challenges and boss levels have harder unique challenges for the player. What makes the game a bit more challenging is the fact that meat boy will "slip" and slide off walls, meaning the player has to be quick. Sometimes, walls will break after contact and they are used as obstacles in various levels. What makes this game fun is that most of the time the player has to die many many times before they get the level right (similar to 'I wanna be the guy'). The game has some good sound effects and good background music and really gets the playing going while they're playing.

As for the GDW update this week, unfortunately, assignments as well as midterms have gotten in the way and has prevented me from doing a lot of work for the game this week. I've made the time to finish the pitch assignment, which has a lot of the details / costs for the game. Also, the pgm loader assignment has been completed, which is most likely going to be of some use in the near future. For this week I will most likely try to spend more time getting more programming done for the game since milestone 3 is coming up and groups are required to submit prototype code.