Today is the end of our second sprint. We had to do another presentation to the class about the progress of our game.

James and Charlie explained what we've done in the last two weeks and so far it looks great. They showed the new ship that Charlie made that has laser guns attached to the ship and is able to shoot lasers and pods. They also collide with asteroids and enemy ships and are able to destroy them and take them out of the game.

Since last time, I started to look on an old space ship and in a space station for the game as space debris. I haven't fixed my models because Charlie said that we should focus on just one ship at the moment, but I'm still not sure how I can help him make one ship look really good.

As last time, our next sprint starts today. Last time they took a while to assign me a task in ScrumWorks, so I'll just keep working on the old ship and the space station for the meantime. Then once I get an update task list, I'll know what to focus on.

With Thanksgiving next week, hopefully I'll be able to get some work done. Also, we are moving to one week sprints instead of two weeks. This is going to put more pressure on us to get things done instead slacking for a week and then rushing to get things done. We will also have smaller tasks since it's only once week, but this way we will constantly be busy working on the game.

Thats all, thanks for reading.

So I managed to finish my first satellite, but it looks really bad. The model its self looks really good in my opinion, but the shaders that I put on the model look horrible. In order to make it look good, I have to layout the UVs and use Photoshop to make the colors look descent, so I'll get to it sometime this week before Thursday.

Here are the renders for the model with out color:




Here are the renders for the model with color:




Today during class, the art team meet up with Roger to talk about where we were at in the art side of the game. We talked about the idea that we have about having two corporations in the game and Charlie said that he would be in charged of one corporation and I would be in charge of the other one. Brandon showed him the mock up of the HUD that he made and Roger told us to switch to a virtual HUD instead of the of what he made. Roger said that it would end up being a lot easier for everyone in the end.

Roger also told us that we have to focus on completely finishing at least one ship before we keep going.

Before I can start working on the art for one of the corporation, I have to go and fix the geometry of the ships that I made. Even if there isn't anything technically wrong with them, the geometry is a little messy. Brandon also said that I should probably try to round the edges of the ships since it might cause problems with the normal map technique we are trying to use to keep low poly models that look like high resolution models.

Thats all, thanks for reading.

So I've started to work on space debris and miscellaneous space objects for the game. I decided to start by making a satellite for the game. Basically the satellite will just float out in space, not doing anything besides looking pretty. I'm not sure if they will have the satellites just moving in random paths or if they are going to designate a path in Maya since we are using Maya a level editor now (it was Brandon's idea).

This is the picture that I'm using as a reference for the satellite that I'm making:


And I think that I will add the antena dishes from this satellite:


I will try to finish this today and add a shader on it and uploaded to our art svn. I will post a render of the finished satellite once I'm done.

Also, today during class, Roger gave a lecture about reviewing games. He gave us some info from the origins of game reviewing. This is because we have to review at least one indie game before the the end of the semester to get us to be active in the XBox Indie Game community.

That is all, thanks for reading.

So I finally went into Maya and split the ship into pieces just the way that the guys in the tech team wanted. This is so that they can use the different bounding spheres around the separate meshes of the model for collision detection. This way they don't have just one giant sphere with a ton of empty space.

Pace made a program that can draw the spheres around the models that we make to better give us an example of the "final product." But I noticed that even with the separate meshes, there is still a ton of empty space. I don't know if I have to separate the model even further or if I'm just missing something. I'll have to ask everyone next time we meet since I think that it might be a little to difficult to do it over email.

Also, during class the tech guys said that they wanted to have locators attached to the models that we give them so that they could use those points to attach pods to the ship. Sounds easy enough, but I've never actually worked with locators until today. I attached a total 13 locators to the ship for different kinds of pods like: lasers, engines, cockpit, and a few extras for the tech guys to play around with.

Ideally, they want us to model a laser gun (for example) and attach it to the ship. Then attach a locator to the gun so that they would know where a beam would be coming from. Also attach several locators that would function as pod slots for the ship so that the player would be able to choose what kind of pods would be equipped to the ship.

Also, I've decided that I will start to work on miscellaneous space debris since we have enough concept ships at this point. We talked about making a total of 9 ships that the player would be able to use, 3 ships for each faction or corporation in the game. Pace mentioned that we might want to make 2 more ships (one for each faction), these would be the "super ships" that would be unlocked towards the end of the game.

I still don't know what kind of space debris I will make, but probably not asteroids since they already have a ton of those in the current version. I'm thinking of making something like old space ships or satellites. Or if I'm feeling up to the challenge, even a space station.

But probably not.

Thanks for reading.

So I don't have any tasks assigned to me right now, so I didn't know what else I need to work on. In the meantime I finished the ship that I started last week and I put the same shader that I've been using on the other ships that I've made. Charlie should be assigning me some tasks before the end of the day, so I'll know what to work on by next time.

Here is the renders of the new ship that I've made:




I still have to go thru and split the ship into pieces so that the programers have several binding spheres for collision detection. I also have to add attachment points on the ships so that the programers know where to attach the pods. I will get all of this done before the end of the day.

That is all for now, thanks for reading.

So today marks the day that we finished our first sprint. We have come a long way as a team.

We had to do a presentation on where we are at this point. The tech team put together a demo game that has a working space box with some debris and used the first ship that I created a few weeks ago. We also showed that we have an options screen that can manage: the brightness, contrast, and other things. We also have a save and load screen.

After class, most of us that were there, got together for a quick chat and discussed about getting a poll up on our Google Groups site. The poll would take everyone's point of view into consideration of what they would like the ships to look like and other stuff that we need to figure out before we can move on.

Also, we talked a little about what we wanted for the story of the game. A while ago, we talked about there being two corporations in the game, each with their pros and cons; the player would be able to choose sides and stuff like that. Each side would have different ships that would vary in the way they look, the color of the ships, what type of ships are available to the player, etc. But one persons on the group (I can't remember who it was) mentioned that what if instead of having just two faction, we have three.

Since there is three of us doing the work on the art side of the project, each of us would create a "corporation" for the game and have our own art style for the ships. In my opinion this sounds really cool, and its something that I would really enjoy. That would be like creating my own little world inside the game. But on the other hand, this would increase the work load for all three of us. This would also increase the assets necessary for the game and endup taking way more space than needed.

Since Tuesday, I started to work on another ship because I don't know what else to do in the meantime. Also our second sprint starts TODAY! There is no break for us, specially now that we have to make sure that in two weeks we have something more impressive to show the class. We have to outdo ourselves every time! Sounds horrible, I know. But that's the way it has to be. Hopefully I'll get my assignments this weekend so that I can start to work on them.

That is all. Thanks for reading.

On Tuesday we didn't have a lecture during class, so we used the time to go to lab L130 in the WEB. I used that time to learn how to export both of my models into the FBX format. Once I did this to both of my models, I uploaded them to the SVN repository we have for the assets.

I got to see the progress of the game so far and it looks really promising. The programming guys have been able to set up a 3D space and have my first ship fly around in it. The camera follows the ship and it even has a cool effect that makes the camera pull back a little when the ship speeds up.

We also had a conversation of where we wanted the art style and the game to go. At first we talked about probably making the ship modular. This means that the player would be able to build their own ship and customize it how ever they see fit. The player would be able to either buy or get upgrades throughout the game. But James said that it might be too complicated to put it in code and actually get it to work properly.

I belief that we should not take a modular approach because it would require too many assets in the game to come up with a bunch of different parts for ships. I think that we should create a handful of ships and create something like a garage where the player would be able to keep the ships that he or she buys. This would also allow the player to have different types of ships each having their pros and cons.

But since not everyone was there, we weren't able to come to a decision. So we decided that we would put it to a vote on our Google Groups site. This way it will be fair, and once we know for sure we can move forward.

Also, our first sprint will be coming to a close on Thursday and we have to present to the class where we are and what we want to do for the next sprint. We also have to explain what worked and what didn't.

I've finished all the stuff that was assigned to me on ScrumWorks, but I will still work on more ships and try to have one more done by Thursday afternoon. I want to do one that resembles the SA-23E Aurora.

That is all I have to report, thanks for reading.

So today I uploaded a new ship to the assest repository that was set up for our game. And I had a break of about 2 hours, so I made a new ship in that time. It's not that fancy, but we are suppose to be coming up with different variations of the ships.

Here is a few renders of my new ship:

So, I'm too lazy to actually layout the UVs for the model that I made so I just added some shaders to the model and gave it a metallic feel to it. The thing is that I have to work on the shader a bit, because some of the paint on the model looks more like a sticker. I think that part of the problem is that its also a little too bright.

Here are some renders of the model.

Today, all the groups had to do a small presentation about what stage we are in our games. We had to present any code and art that we have.

So today is the first day back from Fall Break.

Bob and Roger (the teachers) weren't here today, but we had a couple of student from last year talk to the class. I don't remember their names, but they were part of the team that created Urban Space Squirrels.

They talked about the level editor that they created for their game and how important it was to not take it lightly. They said that they actually spend a great deal of time developing the editor, constantly making changes or adding features that they needed in order for it to work the way they wanted it to.

Basically, they created a game that is based around tiles. Their game is a bunch of little pictures put together to create a level. But they also created tiles for different things that happened in the game. They had tiles for lasers, buttons, platforms, etc.

It was really cool what they managed to do with their level editor because it looks really easy to use but very good at what it's suppose to do.

They also talked about what they struggled with. Overall, they were there to tells us what not to do, but how to do it in a way that will save time.

We are also going to start our sprints by next class, so pretty soon I probably won't have a social life (their words not mine). :(

Anyways, thanks for reading.

So even if we are in fall break and we aren't working on our sprints yet, we decided that we should probably start working on some of the modeling so that we don't fall behind. The thing is that it's easier said than done. :P

I have to admit that I got really lazy over Fall break and I didn't do what I originally wanted to do, which is have some sort of model done by tomorrow (10-19). But I did manage to go online and look at some pictures of space ships from other games and I think I know what I want to do now, but I first want to run it by the group to make sure that it matches our "art style" that we are suppose to stick to.

So here are some of the picture that I found that might be of some help.

So yesterday, we got together again to talk about the Backlog that we worked on Tuesday during class. But this time, instead of adding more ideas to the backlog we started to talk about what were the essential parts inorder to have some sort of working model by the end of the semester. This means that a lot of the stuff in the backlog are not going to be worked on immediately and might not even make it to the final game.

In the mean time we've decided that some of the most essential things for the game are:

• Menu screen
• Control scheme
• User interface (first person/third person) HUD
• Player's ships
• Enemy's ships
• Load out screen
• Save/Load game system
• Pause system
• Pods functionality
• Space box
• Planets/space content
• Radar system
• Combat system
• Mission screen
• Buy/Sell system or Ship upgrade system
• AI system (enemies and allies)

So I forgo to update my blog for Tuesday October 5th. So this will post will cover what happened on that day.

So on Tuesday we got into our groups and started to brainstorm ideas for our Backlong of all the features that we could possible have. We also included all the things that we would need to actually make the game work. This includes: 3D models, art, programing, etc.

This is our complete list of ideas:

Game Modes

• Versus - split screen/networking
• Campaign - split screen co-op/races/challenges, possibly salvage lost player's ship and lost player could operate in an auxiliary mode (gunner)

Environments

• Environments with gravity due to planets, black holes, stars
• Nebula
• Space stations
• Trash/Junk sectors

Enemies

• Fighters of different sizes and classes (bomber, interceptor, swarm, etc.)
• Capital ships (larger "boss" ships)
• Space stations
• Fixed weapon placements
• Medium cruisers
• Freighters
• Aliens

Targeting

• Target different parts of ships (hull, engines, weapons, shields, etc.)
• Switch targets
• Lock on

Missions

• Escort civilians
• Disable instead of kill
• Attack convoy
• Start with missions that are critical to the story and add more as time permits

Ship Customization

• Money
• Locations to purchase upgrades (stations, home base)
• Find loot/salvage

Gameplay

• Dog fighting
• Keep it "busy" - fast paced, lots of action
• Arcade fell instead of exploration
• Customization - find loot, buy parts
• Objectives - Could affect future missions? Dynamic objectives?
• Missions follow a story
• Pick your missions
• Soft abort/escape?
• Squadron of teammates? - Possibly command them
• Fast travel - select coordinates and jump to mission location
• Switch between fight/defense/travel mode
• Multiple ships
• Lose ships if you die
• Lose money if you die
• Different classes of pods - offensive, defensive, tactical
• Tutorial on ship functions, fighting, navigating, etc.
• Different corporations have different tech/upgrades available - need to earn renown with each corp. to purchase

Features

This is a list of all the things Roger went through with us to help us figure out what we need to develop.

• Menu screen
• Tutorial mission - combat, flight controls, mission structure, etc.
• Control scheme
• User interface (first person/third person) HUD
• Player's ships
• Enemy's ships
• Load out screen
• Save/Load game system
• Pause system
• Pods functionality
• Warp animation
• Jump to active mission
• Space box
• Planets/space content
• Radar system
• Combat system
• Space loot/recover pods
• Mission screen
• Buy/Sell system
• Ship upgrade system
• Hangar/Home base
• Ship to ship communication
• AI system (enemies and allies)
• End game scenarios

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So as you can see, this is a really long list. But that's the whole point of a Backlog, to writedown all possible ideas and then eventually trim it down to the "essentials" for the game to work and to give the player a good gaming experience.

So I forgot to update my blog last Thursday (9-30-10), so this blog post will be for that day.