This blog and portfolio was first assigned in Q1 of freshmen year of the GAD course, where we put images of primitive adobe pizza and 3D pencil models the crazy lady "taught" us how to make. My first blog post was made with the title box and was about how I threw up on a camping trip, and I never thought it would be graded throughout high school in our course, let alone actually have it actually be a part of myself open on the internet for people to see, or at least I think they see. Freshmen Year It's really weird to remember that first cover image I had for the site. Unfortunately I didn't keep the image of my "self portrait" and it's now lost to time, probably for the better. This was around when we were learning about Adobe and 3DS Max, which are legit really useful since pretty much any editing software is similar to that line. This was also the time I made pixel art, really really subpar pixel art, masked by the fact it was super deformed. Guess it followed me to now, people still call it chibi. Wow, this is messier than I remember. Probably because I got my layers mixed up a lot, the colors were over three random layers. Sophomore Year This is where things really took off, unfortunately this was all 3D work, which was pretty boring since it's all technical and was a slog with how many tutorials we had. But, this was the opportunity to really express myself with what I consider to be an awakening of my capabilities. Because of a certain little android. Also I did actual drawing, with the occasional batch of pixel art which I strayed a bit away from. This really was the time when I took pride in selected works, since you get to put in 3D models from class as freebies for the selected works requirement. Junior Year Now this is what I remember fondly, not only was it when we were let of school for quarantine, but it was also the time I took more time to really flesh out my creations, I even put SHO and the Machine Girl concept in a GDD, well sorta since I didn't have enough time (or effort) to finish and still got an 80% for it. I legit found my own style this year oddly enough, things really do work out like that huh? This image actually came from Sophomore year, but I still think it deserves to be here because I drew it to be a game cover. Senior Year This year was... interesting to say the least. In the very last quarter up to testing, I did not feel like working in school anymore until university. But that's a part of growing up, knowing when to stop caring too much. This year is personally just one to reflect on everything up to this point, how I really did grow as an artist and even learned a lot about digital everything. Personally it's not that good, the lines are scraggly and the proportions are weird once you look closely. But it has improved since I could do so much more in senior year. Overall, I am very thankful I took a CTE course. This doesn't even bring up the unexpected parts of the GAD course, like how we had senior friends due to the classes, the unexpected software not working so we got off free, and of course the fact we could be exempt since it's still in pilot status a lot. There was also lots of funny stuff that went down, from the photoshop edits, to the dumb jokes, and even how we screwed with the computers (the overstuffed desktop comes to mind). I am very thankful to be a part of the school that was as strange as could be. Here is To Doing More Stuff and Things!
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Now that we have finally finished our assignments on affordance and signifiers, we can finally do a bit more work on our game. It's pretty much all going to be game work from this point on until the end of the year, so we're kicking it into high gear when it comes to organizing everything. But in order to start the process we need a formal schedule to work on, which is what we have organized in Trello, now everyone has their own tasks to do with each of us checking on what we got so far. I give them instructions and fill in the blanks for whatever roles we don't have done, for instance, I have to complete the first level so we can start working in it. Everyone else isn't twiddling their thumbs, since we have a whole laundry list of game chores to do. But we do have deadlines, but as per request by Mr. B I put them towards the end of the week, and as a little bonus it's technically due when we get back. So we have everything we need and hopefully I can post about our progress next quarter, see you then. Our Schedule For Making The First Level
For Strangeview, our current game project, we decided to make the levels based off of parts of a school. Which helps give some interesting design that doesn't rely on being overly interconnected while still having diverse element for each room. We each assigned each other a level and this is currently my level, the school library. I decided to make this different from the usual maze-like levels that the other peeps are working on, making it a more complex puzzle with not that much navigation. I did this as a way to make some difference so the player doesn't get too bored with rooms and a change of pace is just what they needed. Since it's a library it's also going to have a book puzzle, I planned on using the Dewey Decimal system but I thought it would be too difficult for people who don't understand using it. So I wanted it to instead be hints of some sort, mainly coming from the one person there since each level has someone's soul stuck. But, as you try to solve the puzzle there is a monster around you that's silent. Since he's silent you have to constantly look for him between the bookcases. Making a sense of tension as you try to follow it, the level ends when you submit all the books as a door opens... or does it? Afterwards in the same room you can find a library card with the name of the trapped individual, if you were to find this book and return it to her she would give you secret item to put the library's monster down for good. We are planning a whole secret route and this is a part of it, don't tell anybody. But that's my level, so I hope it fits in properly into the rest of the game.
Wow another touhou themed game, buuuuut this one is a rougelike game where you play multiple characters. Rumia (usually a first boss level) has sunk Gensokyo into darkness, every one of the sorta main cast is stuck and has to light torches to fight Rumia, over and over again. Did I mention it was in beta? Mind that it's a little buggy and incomplete, but there's enough in the game to really review it. First off, characters. It includes the two main heroines Reimu and Marisa, but it also includes many of the other characters with notable abilites. They each have unique bullets and bombs to use, even different types of dashes. Reimu - Easy to use starter character, homing bullets and a special (which requires MP) that kill everything, she also grazes easier due to her smaller hitbox Marisa - Has a start up period for bombs and bullets, but once they start they can lay down some hurt, also big fat laser special, can't argue with that Reisen - A burst character that doesn't have much in the way of personal offense, but her dodge and special can summon clones which can take out whole groups of enemies and have do insane damage to bosses. Youmu - Melee character that has a projectile special, if you upgrade her she can slice projectiles, so she's reeaaaallly easy to abuse, especially since her ability gives her bonus damage if you have extra range alongside half damage from other melee opponents, also really tanky. Suika - Large offense and defense, flamethrower special that melts through health bars but endangers you with it's close range, you're special kinda helps since you turn big and take only one damage from projectiles but you need lots of MP regeneration items if you want to dominate. Sakuya - Pretty much the best character if you want to complete the game as many times as possible, she has a really slow bullet where you have to charge your knives to throw them (at least it does a lot of damage) and her special should rarely be used to deal with weak/large groups of enemies, but it decimates tanky enemies and bosses, also she has the lowest health out of all the characters. My personal favorite. The thing about all of the characters is that they all have their fun moments, but some have niches that are way better for beating the game, which you will be doing over and over again. For instance, Youmu basically never loses health since she slices everything, enemies die quickly and the projectiles that are shot will be sliced anyway. Sakuya has a time stop clone which avoids a hit then gives you lot of time to reposition yourself, AND her insane special (the DIO timestop knife attack thing) really does decimate bosses, literally two phases in the first five second for most bosses, and Rumia herself is easily beaten with enough MP items. But what really brings out the potential is collectibles, random objects that can give you more health, attack, range, and other special effects. There are a really random assortment of items, toothbrushes, jeans, radios, seals, sailor uniforms, hammers, bricks, waterguns, fire swords, baguettes, and all sorts of funny hats. The best part is they all stack, so you have to collect as much items as possible. There is a degree of strategy to this, since some items have really severe downsides, the magic hammer gives you a bigger hitbox (but more health), the vampire fangs make it so you can only consume black tea (in exchange for it dropping regularly instead of chests), and the water gun decreases your damage by 20% (in exchange for an 80% fire rate bonus), it depends on the character but you should capitalize on their strengths, you do not want to use the water gun with Suika's fire breath (common sense I guess) since it already has a high fire rate, you're gimping your damage output that way. This isn't even bringing up the special items which are other items that you can use alongside your bullets and specials but have a cooldown. Most are based off a character who may or may not be in the game, Suika has a gourd that flings fireballs, a super double laser spark, and even a retired train car. They should be used as much as possible. Some of them are also really easy to abuse, like the boundary that makes you invincible, move faster, AND regenerates a bit of health alongside a short cooldown. There are very good items, but there are really meta ones, good thing you can carry four. That's pretty much the main part I wanted to talk about, cool characters with awesome items to obliterate bosses and enemies.
So what did we learn?
For our current unit for AGAD, we had to put together our fire hydrant and outpost that we made in the last quarter along with our level in Unity.
Sounds really basic, but this is actually kinda cool in my eyes, since this is pretty much what assembling a video game is like. Just another step in the game design process we actually get to put our hands on. The problem is that is takes a lot of work, miss one piece and the whole thing just looks off. I already learned this the hard way from the Outpost Project, I didn't get to put a texture on my water tower so it's just looked really really out of place amongst the wooden beams and concrete towers. Which also comes to another problem that is mostly my fault... I didn't make the fire hydrant. This comes back to the whole structure of the GAD class that makes it a little unbearable. The additive style of projects makes it so if you miss one piece, you're going to have to make it up in some way. You have to be doing them anyway, but you can't really get them all so you're stuck in a weird place sometimes, thank god Mr. B is pretty chill on some things. Trying my best not to go more off a rant right now, so I'll just say that we're doing more real work for game design. The big game project we are making in a group, Strangeview, takes a lot of easy organized communication. Which is why an easy team organization tool is important, Trello does that but there are a lot of other options. Checklists and categories are key, people can finish them at their own pace and each person will know what to do from their position to help. Other than sites, we usually discord call to discuss exactly what we want to put on the project related material, while occasionally goofing around to keep our sanity. A lesson you learn in Mr. B's class is that you can occasionally screw around as long as it doesn't detriment your work. But it really is simple enough with these two, just calling and checking a lost off, as long as each person's specialty is fulfilled then we already finish the project. The depth comes from really putting it all together, which is set aside for it's own time in calls. The last assignment we had to do was to make a game. A short simple platforming game that was actually really open ended, as long as it was textured and playable then it's all good. We didn't even have to submit the code and game, we just needed a video so no weird coding errors (everyone starting out has them) can be actively looked for. Sounds like a fun project, and it actually really was, considering I thought I'd never actually finish it. For one, the open ended part was really important, as long as our objects were textured, we can move, and we can jump on platforms, it's all right. So the best way I could think up an idea was, oddly enough, just looking through the Unity Asset Store had a lot of finds (for free). The one that really made me want to make a moon gravity game was a Planetary Walker script, it basically made the player stick to planets Mario Galaxy style. The second was a model for this small astronaut, he/she was short so it was easy to platform with, along with the fact he came with a walk animation meant all I needed to do was add a walk/jump script and two levels at that point. The funny thing was that I did all of this in one day, I wasted my time talking to Judah for the first week. But I actually really do enjoy this project because it really does feel like I made something, albeit pretty small and doesn't work half the time. whoooooa
You know those games that take a lot of time to really get anything out of? The ones where you're building up 2/3 of the time you play? That's Elona, a Japanese developed open source open ended roguelike RPG where literally anything can happen, factoring in the stats of course, that's been in development from 2006 to 2010, but has multiple fan made expansions that are still developed today. Elona is, like any good open source JRPG, based on character sheets and die rolls. Attributes are your characters characteristics that allow you to do basic actions, skills govern the possibility of actions working, and the things you get from both are essentially how you progress. Skills and attributes grow from potential, a percentage that is used up to affect how much stat gain get from certain actions (i.e. casting spells grows your casting skills), so you also have to go to trainers to train your stat skill from platinum coins, which you get from quests which coordinate to certain stats. Simple right? The main goal of the game is to save the world from an ancient evil usurping the world blah blah blah preventing a mad experiment from ruling the world with zombie soldiers blah blah blah preventing ANOTHER ancient evil usurping the world, it kinda sucks that the story is only in Japanese and the English version doesn't translate all of the lines. These later game content are gradually unlocked through the story dungeons, really just a big dungeon with a boss on some floors, and have higher level scaling. Still with me? I'm about to get to the interesting stuff. But other than the story, the game really depends on what you want to do, you can become a golem and focus solely on big melee hits (or just use potential growth to grow your other stats and become OP), become a cargo trader with a large estate with all gold everything, become a thief who can steal the weapons and leave everyone defenseless, raise the charisma stat and command an army of catgirls, it's really up to you. Scaling in games is far from new, especially RPGs, but Elona has ALL of its skills useful with obscurity making them fun to use, particularly ones that specialize in character growth rather than direct work like combat or magic. A good example is gardening, the ability to grow plants sounds quite plain, until you realize that you can use the cooking skill to make skill food out of your +9 crops (or sell it for lots of money), grow artifact seeds for some easy enchanted weapons, or some magic seeds for spell books and rods essential for a wizard, to become a really well stocked character. That's only one skill, jeweler can make precious gemstones out of ore to sell for a lot of money, carpentry can make a lot of cargo to sell for money, alchemy can make potions in a jiffy compared to the limited stock of low invest merchants, it really is up to what you want to focus on. But a stat that allows rapid scaling for your skills and attributes is very valuable. The fun also comes from dungeoneering (dungeons are called Nefia in-game) which is the more exciting part of the game, you'll encounter weapons of legendary value, weird and funny looking creatures that will kill you in one hit, and of course the cooking supplies and spell books to keep your skills going! Dungeons and enemies are level locked, the best part is the monster balls (poke-balls) that recruit any hostile monster to your team. But that's the most fun, seeing the different bosses and monsters and defeating them, along with the modifiable sprite sheets, so you can put any anime character or moe-ize any monster you want (*ゝω・). Overall if the point wasn't made clear, you really get what you want from the game by just exploring at first, then maybe making a new character that will focus one one thing, it really depends on you. That's all I can say, just don't pick a dumb class like fairy (gear limitations and easy to die early game) and go for any stat boosters. So go young one, explore... But seriously what do I do?
Obligatory Score: *single roll of (8d10+11) that modifies hit bonus by 8 and damage bonus by 5 with two hand modifier and character scaling*/10 Disclaimer: I'm using ElonaPlus 2.01 with some visual modifications, Elona base or OOMSEST are considerable too
After making up for 3D work last quarter, we can finally work on our game, which we have renamed to Strangeview. The game process was long and arduous, with a lot of us going back and forth on certain ideas. Most of which were probably for the better, we finally have a menu set up that makes sense, along with a Viewmaster inventory system that adds to the charm of the game. It's changes like this that make our game stand out a bit more, B movie survival horror games are pretty cool in our opinions. We also got to the specific mechanics, which are separated by floor, are now defined and in a set order. We also have our controls down, so we have a less ambiguous game now. What's also important is that we don't have to do as much thinking as to what we should do, it's already outlined in our document.
Other than that, we can actually start posting on the website made for the game, and give a bit more into what we're working on. See you then. The seventh game in the mainline Touhou series, or rather the second game in the more well known Touhou games developed for Windows, it improves upon Embodiment of Scarlet Devil and fine tunes the game's system for a more rewarding system. There are five base levels, an extra level, and the Phantasm level. You play as one of three playable characters shooting enemies which fire danmaku (projectiles, lasers, anything that can kill you) towards you, a mini boss, then a boss fight. You have a limited amount of lives and three continues, you can cancel enemies and projectiles with a limited amount of bombs. Bosses and mini bosses consist of regular projectile patterns, and spell cards, really difficult (and pretty) attacks where you can't die or use a bomb if you want to capture it. You obtain different bonuses when you clear the stage. The main objective is to finish all the stages, but the good ending is when you can beat it without a continue, and also collect the highest score you can. This system is a very solid example of using flow, if you've ever seen the game without playing it, it looks impossible and very visually appealing. But when you actually play the game you see something else, you can see a path to sneak through and the right way to take it, also you have a tiny hit box, you can practically kiss the danmaku and you will live. That is the first part of playing any sort of bullet hell game, getting to understand danmaku patterns and knowing how to lead shots at enemies as you do that. You will die a lot, use a lot of bombs, and eat up your continues just to see what the stage and bosses even look like. But after a lot of repeated attempts, you can practically do whole stages without using any bombs or dying. The impossible eventually becomes possible, then it becomes easy, this is the skill return that makes the series so addictive. The changes in difficulty do have a sorta steep curve once you get to The Prismriver sisters, since their stage's enemies have large chucks of projectiles all flung at you. On the first play through, You would die a lot, the only way around this and to grab all the score items in time is to fly around the edge of the screen, which goes against a lot of schmup thinking. But, that's Touhou for you, so the best thing you can do is go with the flow (ooh pun) and always play with the whole screen. The flow stays intact since there is a practice mode, so you can focus solely on the stage and boss, eventually mastering that one boss that tears you in half without the hassle of the bosses you already mastered just eating up your time. You also tend to find favorite bosses through practice (*cough* Konpaku *cough*), which also keeps you going. With some precarious curiosity, you can eviscerate through some spell cards The flow learning the pattern and shooting the boss until it's become second nature. But what keeps this system going is the difficulty setting before you even start. What makes Touhou difficulty settings so interesting is that each pattern and spell card is revamped with more projectiles, lots of bosses and mini bosses will even have new spell cards that you can't even witness until you play higher difficulties, further rewarding mastery of previous levels. Which leads up to the fact that it's really up to you on how confident you are in your abilities to see what else the game has to offer, self-challenge is what keeps the flow flowing without infuriating the player, since the player is deciding how difficult they want to play. But there is another feature that follows completion and that is score, because this is a traditional arcade game at heart. There are many ways to get waaaaaay more score than playing normally, from shooting unfocused to item grabbing by going to the top to shooting closer to a boss so a spell card can be beaten for a better time score, they are all very dangerous and can only even be considered if you know the original stage/spell card. But this is what throws the flow into the stratosphere, building a new score as you learn projectiles is addictive, supplementing the gameplay further. Cherry is also important since it auto-grabs items so you can focus on dodge projectiles So, the last thing to talk about is the game's main draw, which adds a new score feature called Cherry. You get cherry from grazing, shooting, and cherry items. If you collect 50,000 points worth of cherry, you activate a barrier, which acts as a free bomb that activates when you are hit are you use a bomb. But, you can keep the barrier up for a nice score bonus, which means you can't use a bomb or die when it's active, further reinforcing the skills that is expected of you. You will be cashing out your barrier bonus for a large score during a spell card, which is fun with the sound effects and huge numbers on the screen, really really addictive. There is also the characters and music, what makes Touhou so unique. if you've been on the internet and have even grazed (oh look another pun) anything video game/anime related, you have maybe seen a character (Cirno probably lol) or heard a music track without even realizing it: Bad Apple, Night of Nights, UN Owen Was Her, Hartmann's Youkai Girl, Gensokyo Past and Present, and the millions of popular tracks covering each song. So does Perfect Cherry Blossom's characters and music tracks stack up? Yes, absolutely because of how energetic and powerful they are, the tone and mood is perfectly set by each track. MIDIs fit the Touhou games well from the fact that they are meant for PC games from that era (early 2000s). But really, all the Touhou tracks in every game are actually good, so yes they do stack up. If you want to know more just look them up and see what fan made anything is made on them. Touhou characters are easily recognizable, which is where they're so popular. The interactions in the base game are funny too. It just works, separately or together. So overall, you should play the games, from learning how to be patient and gradually getting better to just being able to love what is arguably one of the most recognizably obscure video game series out there. What did we learn about? No seriously I went off and forgot what I was writing about
Obligatory Score: Chen/10 *All footage was recorded in medium difficulty of practice mode
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JamesHe aspires to be a game designer, let's just hope he gets there. He also happens to goes to DSA. Categories
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