The End is Here Part 2

Welcome to the end of the semester the time where no one really sleeps, but its ok because you can see the light on the horizon. Obviously things are crazy for us. Were working non stop to finish this game. Over the past week i have worked on the poster, as well as worked on finalizing the UI, making some final assets, and finishing up my levels. I had been working on the poster simultaneously with Evan over the course of the last week bouncing ideas off of each other, and we had a pretty rushed time period to get it finished. In the end we ended up going with Evans design. I wish i had more time to work on it, so mine could have been finished. I have also been working on finalizing the menu art, and UI. As of right now there are only two UI elements that are left to do. The account creation screen, and i need to redo the 3-2-1 countdown from the feedback i revived. On top of that i am finishing my levels tomorrow. They have had art in them for the past few weeks, but now I've finally had some time to put some love into them. I also finished a new asset that we've been putting off for awhile. The breakable objects for the road. Its going to be a mad dash to the finish line for the midnight tacos, but i know that we're going to have a sweet looking game come Tuesday.

The end is here Part 1

Well here ends another week, and we now only have two weeks left before the show. Its really crunch time, so lets cut to the chase. Over the past week i have spent my time arting out levels, and working on finalizing the 2D assets we have/need. I still have 5 2D assets to finish over the next week. To go into specifics I have been working on the poster, but it still needs a lot of work. I need to finish the countdown for the beginning of the level. I also need to work on our menus, because they need some love. I have to finish up the in game GUI, and last but not least I need to create some art for the leader board. Because I have so much GUI related stuff to finish I am taking a "temporary leave of absence" from working on levels. I hope to be right back at it by Sunday night at least. Its going to be a long weekend getting everything done. Everything will look awesome by this time next week, and I am ready to push myself and my team to create the best product possible.

The end is really here, and its hard to believe

Beta

Oh man Beta is coming up, and I have a lot to accomplish over the next week. On top of the super busy schedule I had this week. Over the last week I had finished two more levels with art in them as you've seen in the build. I am also working on finalizing some U.I. elements, as well as working on our Poster. I am hoping to have all of this done by class on Wednesday; if not a little bit later than class (Thursday; Friday if need be). 

As far as this week is concerned i got two levels done, and will be finishing up another level today. I am finished with making assets outside of making set piece assets for each of the levels. I am hoping to have time to finish two tomorrow, but am unsure of my schedule because of the Accepted Students day that I am working tomorrow (Saturday). By class on Wednesday I should have all of my levels arted out, and hopefully some of them should be polished (Lighting, etc). Everything is coming up really fast, and my time is super important to balance at this point. I foresee many sleepless nights on the horizon.

As far as the U.I. I have everything planned out, but not its just a matter of polish, critique, and getting it implemented. The poster needs a lot of work as well, but i don't think that it will take nearly as much time as everything else. So it is on the backburner right now. 

I have a lot to do, and the pressure is on now. If only i could work without sleep...

Time to get to work.  

The Sprint To Beta

So Alpha is now behind us, and we are sprinting to beta. Over the past week i have been designing the new stop light animation for the beginning of the levels, as well as finishing levels, and making set piece assets for the levels. All if coming together, and now that we have the levels whiteboxed we can art all of them out, and tweak them before the senior show. It is going to be a tight deadline to meet, but i am more than confident in my abilities, and the abilities of my team to get this game "done and polished". This brings me to what i will be working on.

Over the next week i want to have another level fully arted out, and i plan to have preliminary art in the rest of my levels. That way when we show off the game, and bring it to testing they aren't just looking at a blank background or obviously repeating planes. I am also going to finish up the in game G.U.I with the stop light 3-2-1-go feature. That shouldn't take that much time to finish. It is just a matter of testing to see what fits better. Along with these tasks I will be finishing up set piece assets, and requests as they come to me.

I am sure all of this work will keep me busy over the next couple of weeks. I will also have a better sense of what i should prioritize after our friday meeting taking place later. Even though i already have an idea of what i should focus on (arting out the levels), but still there may be different request or need for the week.

Well thats all i've got for now.

The Push For Alpha - Week 10

So today ends another week of work. We're starting to hit our stride, but we are still a bit behind. Over the past week i have been working on rapid iteration of the U.I. because we need it functional and in game for alpha. I have concepted around 30 rapid prototypes. Now that we at least have a solid placeholder we can get it in came, and i can keep iterating. As well as working on the U.I. i have also been working on the environments. In total i have made around 70 assets for the mines, and city level. Seeing as we are in a good place with that I am taking a break from asset making for at least a week. I will be devoting the rest of my time to arting out the levels. Along with that i will be concepting some set pieces to make for the levels I am in charge of.

I am going to be spending a lot of time on the levels over this next week. We're hoping to have at least two "complete" levels by the end of the week, and at least one done for class. Its time for us all to kick it into high gear to get this game where it needs to be. I am excited to see how the game comes together of the next few weeks.

Thats all for this weekly update

Spring Break

Spring Break is coming to an end, and fun was had by all. I focused on getting rest a lot over break. With the end of the semester coming up quickly I have a feeling sleep and I aren't going to be too friendly anymore. What I really did was catching up on work this week, and I uploaded all of my final assets to the repo. I will be arting out the levels this weekend. I'm pretty excited to finally get art into the levels. I feel like that is way behind where is should be. Oh well we still have some time. Also this weekend i plan on having at least 20 new assets up for review with Chris. This will give each of the levels a good amount of variety for the time being. By the next class we should have around 4 arted out levels. I haven't heard from Chris as to what hes been doing, but i'm sure i'll see it soon enough. So it could be more. Along with that i should have a new U.I. Design to present the group and the class.

SPRING BREAK

This week saw the end of another sprint. It was very short, so I didn't get a lot done. But now that spring break is here I'll get yo art out my levels and create more assets. As well as get a nice amour. Of rest. All of my assets are ready for engine, and I will have 50 assets on the repo. So the rating out process will be underway this weekend. To deal with the nuisance of spring break I'm staying in Vermont for any possible in person meeting, and I should be available most days to answer questions as well as take requests for assets. Like I said before it was a short spring so I don't have too much to talk about this week.

Have a safe and break readers.

Mike out

7 7 7 you're a winner

So I just left the Friday meeting with the guys, and we're just about ready for green mountain games. I was hoping that we would have more art in the games by now, but i'm not too worried. I'm more worried about the levels being fun for everyone. Over the past week I have fixed all of the assets I put on the repo as well as made some more assets for the mines. I'm finally in a position where I can start adding the assets into engine. which is gonna be sweet. Also i started mocking up some different menu layouts for a later time.

For tomorrow were gonna have 5 levels to show off, and a high score list for the day. We will all be taking shifts during the day so i'm excited to hear what the others will have to say about their shifts. Tomorrow should be a good day for VXT and the Midnight Tacos.

So this week i spent mostly on cleanup duty for assets. Which is good. Some of them needed it. By next week there should be art in game. That will be sweet. I will also be making more assets, and more menu layouts. The team all seems to like one idea of the character being the main part of the start menu that you control with the shield. Chris came up with the idea that based on what level you're playing the background of that level will appear around you when you select it. Which i think is awesome. Hopefully we can get that to work. Looks like i'll have another busy week.

-Mike out

6-6-6 It's the Number of the Week

This week was fairly productive for the team overall. I finished up my preliminary U.I. Sketches, as well as started an actual photoshop document. I had a lot of time to get feedback with the designers i'm working with, as well as Chris. This being said i put up 20+ assets to the repo.

Working on the U.I. should be interesting with the comments from class to have them be on the character with some numbers on the sides. I think it could look cool either way, but i think that there is a lot i have to play around with. I should have the previously stated photoshop mock up finished, as well as character U.I. sketches.

I worked with Evan to create some base assets for the first mine level. I busted out a lot of assets in a short amount of time, but poly count is always an issue. I keep pushing the meshes as low as i can, and it is a bit more time consuming than expected. That means i am slightly behind where i want to be. As for assets I should have the base set for the second level done next week. Roughly another 20+ assets. Those would all be for the City level.

Heres my quick update for the week.

Mike V signing off.

5 Weeks

Today marks the end of another week here at the midnight tacos. I am excited because i will finally be able to start real work and get out of the concept phase. We all feel we have been moving too slowly, and that we're not where we should be. Over the past week i have been working on GUI elements, and working with the designers to come up with assets for our levels. Just as a reminder I am the artist in charge of the City, and the Mines.

For the GUI we want it to have all of the necessary information for gameplay displayed, while keeping it simple and relevant to our art style. I have three designs currently, and i will have full concepts to show my team by the end of the weekend. I'm hoping the team then will be able to help decide on what we want in the game. Which we will then present on Wednesday.

Gilly came up with the idea of monorails and other such means of moving platforms that i am going to be getting started on shortly. I am going to challenge myself based on what my lead, Chris suggested. Keep all assets under 200 polys to force simplicity. Just to see if that works. This week as far as assets is concerned i completed two of the three buildings i wanted to design for the city, as well as some more work on the tacks for the mines.

It seems that things are starting to pick up quickly, and I really like that.

Thats all i've got for this week.

-Mike signing off

Week the Fourth

We challenged green light this week, and we seem to be progressing nicely. Nicely, but slow. As a team we should be able to start testing this week which makes me excited. For the mean time i have just been continuing to make concepts and 3d concepts for modular pieces and set pieces.

This has been a good exercise for me I'm creating things that wouldn't normally come to mind, and i'm hoping some of it can be put into game later on. At least making 3d concepts can help me later on this week.

I need to get feedback from Chris, Evan and Gilly. This will show me where i need to take my contribution to the art.

Thats all i really have for this week.

-Mike out

Week 3

So this week we have been focusing on contextualizing our game, and my task has been to continue concepting throughout the week. Were continuing to evolve our game to make it as interesting visually as we can. We seem to be on the track of adding more particle effects, and collectibles to create more interactions in the world.

For the concepts I have been trying different worlds, and puzzles as well as concepting in a 3d space. I am also going to start working closer with the designers for my two levels. This will give me an asset list, and more pieces to concept out. It will be good to get a lot more work on my plate. I have been having a hard time creating work for myself to do.

The particle effects, and collectibles should bring more visual interest to the path the player is on. Smashing through crystals will create a particle effect that the player will collect. This will be cool to look at visually, and i feel that it will bring us closer to the lacking Ah-hah moments we've been striving for. The collectibles also adds just a little bit more to the completion and mastery aspects of the game that we are looking to achieve. Both of these items are things that need to be tested still.

I have to say i like where the team, and the game are progressing. It will be good to get everything we have in engine to start busting out levels once greenlight is completed.

Thats all I got for this week.

Week 2

So we had our first real critique as a full team this week, and it is apparent that we still have some work to do as a team. We have a lot of exploring and growing to do with VXT. I'm sure that when we find the last few pieces of the puzzle we're going to almost feel stupid because we didn't think of it earlier. That's usually how I feel when I figure our a simple solution that was right in front of me the whole time. 

Over the past week i have been creating various concepts for our bioms. This has been an interesting process so far. I'm trying to stretch my creativity, and come up with ridiculous ideas for levels. Such as an Indiana Jones style roller coaster-esque level in a cave full of colorful crystals. Said crystals would be the raw form of what the player can stick to. Now its time to collaborate more with the designers so we can hit the ground running. In the mean time the art department has a bit more concepting to complete along with creating a modularity system for all of us to use. It'll just make it easier in the long run. 

I'm ready to start actually working. I'm not a fan of wasting time like this. Oh well. Soon enough. 

-Mike V Signing off for this week. 

Second Semester Post 1

Well its the beginning of the semester, and it is syllabus week. That means everyone is still lazy, and no one really knows what to do. To start off my work with the new team I created some concepts on how i want to revamp the game, and the environment specifically. I am going to keep working on this until our team meeting on Saturday. I'm hoping that we can all work together and come up with a great plan for the semester. I'm hopeful, and excited for this semester.