Post 10 - Discovering Childhood

Discovering Childhood

What was that?

What game did you love when you were around the age of 13? I couldn't honestly answer this question.

I knew that I loved action games, fighting, etc.

This question stemmed from our current project working on a game that helps young adults learn/hear the Shoshone language. The best part about this project is that we are focusing one hundred percent of the game on "FUN!" This was the key focus from the client, and this will allow us to do our best work. We are truly excited to be working on it!

Our game description is: Bastion meets Metroid

We are designing the game as a top-down view exploration game, where your may fight off animals that have been "cursed" or are "sick" and you remove this outer shell by attacking them. You search throughout the land finding new equipment and Shoshone words of power, which allow you to unlock hidden areas of the game, attack and fight in new ways, and open up general exploration.

This is great!

Focus

We are purely focusing on game design this week, involving player interaction with the world, control schemes, visual cues, etc. We will bring our ideas to the table on Monday and show what we have developed.

We will be focusing on HTML5 as our language for this project...So, we will be learning this, as well as Shoshone. I wish I had Rosetta Stone to help with the HTML5.

Post 9 - Kinect & Respect

Kinect & Respect

 

 Truth

I believe that we gave our most useful and honest answers in our presentation this past week. We showed off a game, which was actually in prototype form, instead of a fully fleshed-out game. I am proud that we spent so much time on design, and actually discussing the sense of what was needed for the project, from the users and teachers views.

Fullfillment

We showed that a game didn't exist in our use of the materials. The true desire of the 'customer' was that they wanted the students to focus on the calculations in the project. We took that as completely true.

Next, we decided what would be fun for the users to do with these calculations. This allows the user to complete the tasks the teachers have decided, but be rewarded completely. This is gamification, not game creation. I don't think it is what we truly wanted for the project, but I feel that sometimes things will change. As creators, we will have to be very flexible with creation. It's important.

Side note, the Kinect Gardening was amazing! I am truly inspired, and hope that this project is pushed forward.  Great job!

Discovery

I am terrified to work with HTML5, but I am excited to see what is around the next corner. I am sure that the next project will truly challenge us as programmers, artists, and producers, but also as designers. Let's reveal the next project!

Post 8 - A Break In The Storm

A Break In The Storm

So, this week has been a break from school. Tightening things up for the demo, involving video capture of game play, commenting code, and being happy with some relaxation.

Woot!

Post 7 - Recovery Efforts

Recovery Efforts

We are very focused on design, and have been successfully understanding XNA and C# code. It has been very kind with all of the tutorials, videos, etc., and we appreciate it. :)

Setbacks

It isn't fun.

Really, that is the major setback. We are still iterating on the idea of working on a ship, but then we altered it to focus purely on a power plant.

We will hopefully find something that is fun.

Achievements

Our communication has improved greatly, and we are all on the same page of what we would like to create, but we are not sure of how to make it more fun. Roger has suggested implementing a negative feedback of "Three strikes and your out!" function.

This created an idea for a cash mechanic, and we are now thinking of having the game play more like your typical "Tycoon" games. This will allow the player to run their own power plant, improve equipment, be hired to greater positions in the plant, and learn how to become a better engineer.

Move Forward

Due to our late design iteration, we may need more time to alter the XNA code. We have a great template of a 2D point and click style tycoon game, but our animation knowledge is limited, and it just needs more time.

I am sure that is true of every group and their project.

Post 6 - War, War Never Changes...

War, War Never Changes...

9/28/2012

When creating new software, the hiccups abound. We are still in the process of figuring out how to have the user access materials, and have it be "fun".

Not going great.

Successes

We agreed to focus on the problem input, but we cannot determine how this is any different than a story problem from a text.  More work is needed.

Failures

I feel our person-to-person communication is great, but long distance, text, email has failed a little. Nothing harsh, just not what we need.

Time

Never enough. True statement. We will keep working on making this work.

*XNA - Not too bad. Extremely well documented, and preferred over MOAI.