Games design - Seventh entry

This week, I created the first enemy to be used in my game and also worked on a collision system for the enemy's, player and his bullets.

The first thing I worked on was the basic enemy that will be created via a wave system that I will implement at a later date. This enemy fly towards the players screen whilst moving upwards and downwards whilst never travelling off of screen up or down ways. Depending on whether or not this enemy is higher or lower than the middle of the screen upon creation will determine the initial direction of movement on the Y plane. Also upon creation, this enemy spawns four more of itself behind it that all have the same attributes that it does bar a few seconds later so they do not move at precisely the same time.

I also programmed in a basic collision system that replaces enemy sprites with an explosion animation when they collide with a bullet.Once said explosion animation has finished playing the explosion will disappear.

Next week I will be working on the second kind of enemy and the upgrade system for my game.
Thank you for reading

Games design - Sixth entry

This week I began development of my flash game. Using very basic shapes with writing on top of them to serve as placeholders, I began coding in various key game aspects such as navigation systems and weapons systems. Now, after a weeks worth of work, I have programmed in a full movement system that allows the player to move around the screen using the arrow keys but is stopped the moment they approach the sides of the screen.

I also worked on making a basic weapons system to pave the way for a more advanced system later on. The first thing that I developed for this was creating a bullet that, on creation, fly's to the right side of the screen at a stable speed.  I then made it so that the player ship spawns one of these when the SPACE BAR  key is held down. I also added in a delay so the bullets to not come out in a direct stream.

Next week I need to create a type  of enemy that fly's towards the players screen and is destroyed on collision with a bullet, the player or if it fly's off of screen.
As always, thanks for reading.

Games design - Fifth entry

Having splintered off into our own separate projects, I have now begun designing and producing my own game.This week I worked on the design for my game both visually and conceptually. I first wrote up a vareity of important aspects about my game such as :

• Visual style
• Game play elements
• Game play structure

 Once I had a full design to work to, I filled a sketch book with a variety of sketches such as enemy and player models, upgrades and environments. Having a clear visual style to work to will make the asset production easier and having a complete design document will make comprehensive and cognitive game production possible. Next week I hope to have the initial games production underway with movement and basic weapons firing created.

Thanks for reading

Games design - Fourth entry

This week, things have changed quite considerably both in management and team direction. Due to poor management and inconsistent team work, the team has had to splinter into individual members producing their own games. This is because the game we are currently working on is taking far too long and the management for the team has gotten to the point where even if the goals were reasonable we would be unable to make our final goals.

This means that I am going to have to work separately from the team to create my own game. I will first need to work on creating a strong design to work to, both visually and in a document to help structure my production. I will then program the game using rudimentary graphics and finally produce the artists assets and sounds for the game.

I hope to have the designs finished by the end of next week. Thanks for reading

New week, New work

Hello again gentlefolk

Today I have to write anouther analysis for this week of work in my games production class.
This week I worked on creating more designes for the various enemeys and fleshing out some of the concepts for the animations based on each individual character.

The project is really starting to advance in a good direction, with progress being made in each area and every teammember knowing precisely what they have to do. We also finnally have some asset lists to work to, which gives the art team much needed direction in knowing what we need to do. I am quite happy with my own progress, making good advances on the various animation storyboards and on the redesignes for each enemy that needs them.

Next week I should be finished will all of the various character designes and animation storyboards and should be working on producing the various assets and animations that will be needed for the final game.

Thanks again for reading, and have a great day

Games design - Second entry

Hello again fellow gentlefolk.
Looks like I have to update this thing again for my college course so I'd best get on with it.
This week I have been finishing designs for the various bosses and enemies of the game, getting their visual style just so for the game before we begin asset production.

I also created the final concept designs for the human base system which have now been handed over to Vicky for final creation so we can create the various enemy assets based on a normal human body type.
Next week I will be finalising designs on all of my already created works and then proceeding to conceptually create the animations before the assets are created and ready to work with.

The project itself seems to be progressing at a good speed, with the management slowly working thanks to Owens intervening and the teams will to work.Josh seems to be getting to grips with the programming and producing high enough quality work and it seems overall that this project is finally kicking off.

Hopefully next week I will have the same positive attitude about things.
Have a good one guys.

Games production - My pitch evaluation

Hello again gentlefolk
It seems to have been along time since I updated this thing. Even now I suppose that I am only doing this because its required for my course, but lets get on with it regardless.

This Thursday I had to give a pitch presentation on my current progress on the games production and my particular job roles progress. In this project I am a both an artist and an animator, producing assets and then giving them movement for the game.
So far, My work has been purely conceptual, producing concept sketch's that showcase how the various enemies will look, act and move. I have also designs a "Base" system for the humanoids that will allow for easy animation and creation of human variants such as different types of bandit.

To showcase this to a potential investor, I created a few slides and prepared a few key cards that would help me talk about the systems I had designed and visuals I would be creating for the game. I included several points about my job such as why I had chosen to make so many different bandits and how I was designing each creature to be unique. I also included a variety of examples of my concept sketch's that showcased humans and creatures alike, fully annotated and drawn with multiple poses. This allows the potential investor to get a good insight into my design process and how the final assets might look.

I also talked about how the animation system would work and how it would allow us to create custom animations for each character relatively quickly and precisely. I showed some quick storyboards that showcased movement and body styles. This allows the potential investor to see how I will be producing the animations and why the system I have created will work.

When it came down to my own performance, I believe that I presented myself rather clearly with only a few moments where I stuttered and had trouble conveying clear points. Whilst I had brought a blazer to the pitch to help with my professional appearance, a good Friend and team member has spilt paint on themselves so I lent it to them to cover the paint. This mildly impacted my appearance and could of had an effect on the way the investor perceives me.
Regardless of this, I still believe that I manged to perform acceptably and convey the important points quickly and concisely. The only major problem I had was that I began to talk about my methodology too heavily in the second part of my presentation. Whilst my methodology is important, it is not the kind of thing that Potential investor needs or wants to know, as it does not showcase results or planed results.

I believe that my section of the pitch went quite satisfactory and showcased all that it needed to with clarity.
Thank you for reading through this fellow gentlefolk, and have a pleasant day.