As one of our first real work periods, we've had one of our very first problems. This being the camera, with the menu and controls in place all we need to finish them up is a camera that can rotate around the player. This being how the player knew how levels were set up and how to tackle them with all their tools at their disposal. But guess what, our camera rotates around it's own axis, so the player can't properly move while looking around. We wanted to make the camera make more sense so we looked to a decision together. What we got is not much, tutorials and different unity scripts did not help at all. It wasn't until last Thursday that we thought of making the whole level rotate around the player and camera, which actually worked, with a catch. It needed to adjust to the player, which is what our residential programmer, Judah Free, is working on right now, just another day in game development. Next up is pretty much the last blog post of my high school career, see you guys in college.
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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.
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
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. Our first official (on class time) meeting went off without a hitch. We had to make a base narrative for what we want with the game, from characters to locations, we had to make sure we had a story we'd all want to commit to until the end of May. This resulted in a mood board we had to make, with images we found. These were images of rundown buildings, where we wanted the second half of the game to be like by going to another dimension, along with B movie posters in all of their overly dramatic and fantastical nature (invasion of the crab people). We wanted to combine these two types of clashing sub genres into one experience, with lots of back and forth we came to the conclusion of one half being an adventure game, and the second half being a survival horror game. It seems crazy now, but what game sounds cohesive when first pitched? What we made was a narrative that can put it all together, the message it conveys about being insecure in high school. Sounds less appealing having a really sappy message about inclusion right? Ahh, we'll do something about it, promise. But so far, we've got a lot done and are currently on the way to making characters and layouts. We goofed around for a short bit, with all the funky squiggles, but who knows? it might be in the game for all we know
As mentioned before, we have a new team to develop our new game. Now we have our groups and assigned roles, we can start learning all about them.
The past couple of weeks we've been putting together pieces of work to showcase our abilities and research to explain our role in the team (all of which is featured on my selected works). We organize into roles so we can best make the use of our time in one thing, and so one other person knows what to do in a certain part. This is done to make sure we all run smoothly to make our parts come together as one. So in order to show what I mean, I'll showcase my Producer role in my team. Judah - Modeler Our main man when it comes to the putting together the characters and environments. Along with talking to the programmer and artist on what everything will be like. Andy - other programmer Andy, who works together with Judah the most, is the one who actually puts all of our work together, in the form of anything script related. Jaiden - Residential artist Her main goal is to give all of us a sense of what it should look like. kidna like a preview to what the game is, that the rest of us bring to life. Moi - Producer My job is to keep the game concept the game concept, tell people what to make or what not to make, for the good of the game's original vision. This will require a lot of interaction with everybody's roles. That's our group, everyone does what there assigned, they tell others when they want something specific to be done, and I consult them throughout (or shut down ideas that don't conform to the story). Being quarantined at home is a very different experience, with so much time to do anything else at home, or time to slack off on work, then a lot can be gained from what has happened. Ever since we have been quarantined, it has given me a lot of time to do just about anything, it kinda sucks at first but it quickly becomes a worthwhile experience in such a trying time. Right now, it's mostly video games, my cousin coming over more (he's even considering moving in), cooking since my parents are out a lot (they're nurses), along with learning another language, it's a lot. I'm waiting for the school year to be over, since I can do so much more now that summer's come, it's really going going to show what you want other than school, hanging out and what you'd do in whatever future home you live in. So, since this is an assigned sketch that requires a blog post, i made an image of a certain someone living at home. It's quiet, peaceful, and shows something that I barely realize while still going to school every week, the room. Chores have also become much more "enjoyable" with so much time it really helps to slow down and just do these correctly. A small room in house does make me feel so natural. I would've done just the room itself and put more into it, but making it a quiet Japanese neighborhood adds to the nice atmosphere. Very, very quiet next couple of months... A small room for a small person doing laundry
After a lot of work on 3D last quarter, we can finally hope back on the game design horse. We have started on what is essentially our game's bible, after we changed the name from Strange Occurrences to Strangeview. For our GDD, we had to do a lot of back and forth over various calls, with lots of original ideas we had thought were set in stone now being flipped in it's head, along with some altogether new changes. One of my favorite is how we planned to make the interface a Viewmaster, along with the cover art being reminiscent of a B movie poster. These help in giving the game a more distinct personality along with a clear premise for whoever is interested. It means we know what's in store for our game too, we can just reference what we need to do from this handy dandy document, it's essentially a cheat sheet for what to do for our game.
The best part is that we did it all together, with suggestions left and right for what we should keep or remove, just like the title itself changing. All in a day for game development, now we'll go full throttle on finally building the game's everything. We might even put work we make on the site next time. See you then. Animation and cameras go hand in hand, since both are needed to make any render of a moving subject be convincing. Since we already used cameras, we have been learning more about animation, not just the auto key from last year. We play around with the curves that an object makes when it moves, this is most applicable to a ball bouncing, the first object we really animated. We then had to apply our bounces to multiple objects. Animating a bounce requires the Curve Editor, a useful graph that shows the XYZ movements for an object. Cutting out certain frames can make a bounce less rail-like, and more natural, this is the base for our bounce.
Another technique we used is the rotation, a small change, but one that makes the ball look less like it's bouncing on a pathway, and more of a ball bouncing. Changing the rotation is only changing the axis of the ball at key frames, self explanatory, but it's the little touch that makes the animation much more convincing. The last piece is the Squash and Stretch, which is not as simple as either of the last two. It requires the use of the Stretch modifier, but can change at key frames in specific ways, with specific modifiers. If you want a ball to start and stop, then do it again differently, it will keep stretching in that way. But, in a perfect world, it helps in making the ball's bounces much more real. It may make the ball seem more cartoon-ish, but in a way that is feasible and appealing. So, in the end, what did we take from doing a bunch of activities based around a topic then doing a quiz afterwards?
Sources: “Animation.” Autodesk Support & Learning, knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2017/ENU/3DSMax/files/GUID-FC0BE460-9BA8-4221-AEA6-ACB6ECA4AE9B-htm.html. Lax, Melissa. “3ds Max Animation Techniques | Tutorial Series | AREA by Autodesk.” Area by Autodesk, 20 Sept. 2016, area.autodesk.com/tutorials/series/3ds-max-animation-techniques-series/. “The Ultimate Collection of 3DS Max Tutorials.” Hongkiat, Hongkiat, 6 Apr. 2018, www.hongkiat.com/blog/the-ultimate-collection-of-3ds-max-tutorials/.This week, we had the last topic in out Unit B for the year, Advanced Modeling Techniques. Which were the 3DS Max tools and forces we used for the past couple of months, all the way back in September, last year. But, with all of these tools, we have been able to make much more detailed, and lively models, especially when compared to last year's work. We finally learned animating certain actions, like force and MassFX, which made more potential for making actual animations. Since it made some realistic models, it came at the price of careful understanding, and our sanity. Some learning some topics were easy to grasp, like Compound Models, which were modifiers that did some simple changes. But, others were really weird, in my opinion, like Surface models, which really hurt my grade to time, effort, and a certain district restart, hmph. But, this topic also tested our ability to juggle activities, the dice activity thew lots of people off, since we had to model six dice, with each side of each needing a number, which needed a very intricate Surface technique to put a written number with. along with break, the neighborhood, and, again, a district restart. Overall, it wasn't a bad unit, it had lots of downs, the quizzes on certain topics just DID NOT go up, even after careful retakes, and the Surface modeling topic, but what came out is the knowledge to make varied, detailed models. So, what did we learn this week?
“The Ultimate Collection of 3DS Max Tutorials.” Hongkiat, Hongkiat, 6 Apr. 2018, www.hongkiat.com/blog/the-ultimate-collection-of-3ds-max-tutorials/. “11 Amazing Modelling Tips for 3ds Max.” 3D Artist - Animation, Models, Inspiration & Advice | 3DArtist Magazine, www.3dartistonline.com/news/2015/03/11-amazing-modelling-tips-for-3ds-max/. An example of new work we can use, showing the Particle System and 3D simulations
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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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