More than a Feeling -- Week Ending 17 Dec

As they say, there comes a point when the best documentation of a game is the game itself, so I'll keep this brief. This team was amazing. Derek nailed it on the design and engineering, and our clients were clearly impressed with our prototype. Jorge laid the foundation for visually piecing the game together, and he made the interface a piece of cake to navigate. Christine's art charmed the pants off everyone, and its cute, simple style brought the game to life. All their work combined for an experience that players can really feel--beyond what has been experienced before. It has been a pleasure collaborating and personally interacting with each of them.

See you next semester!

- Troy

Squirming to the Finish Line -- Week Ending 10 Dec

The team is hard at work, and another week of fantastic progress has been made. By the time you see this post, the game will be functional and playable, though not quite ready for presentation to our client. There are still measures of polish and a few features that we'd like to add by that point, so we're continuing at full speed until it's complete.

This week, Derek created and tuned the "fighting" mechanics and procedures that players will utilize as they pin down and struggle against the bugs' squirms. Further, he implemented a scoring system that not only tracks points but also gives players visual cues as to their successes or failures when battling bugs.

 Jorge engineered the necessary systems for collision detections and for behaviors of the different visual aspects of the game. Further, because of his efforts, we're ready to import and make functional the animations that Christine will finish up over the next few days.

Speaking of Christine, she knocked out the stage backgrounds this week. With a porch and a kitchen in place, players will get a sense of progression through the game--a sense that the critters truly are an invading menace, and that something must be done to stop them! (It might not be quite so dramatic  since it is all very cute, but stick with us here.)

Finally, Troy worked on the music and sound effects. Thanks to Edvard Grieg, Richard Wagner, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for letting him shamelessly steal their compositions and chiptune them so that they sound like they fit in a retro video game. Troy apologizes if that is blasphemous in any way--they just convey the perfect feeling for the game.

As usual, enjoy some of the latest art, and check back next week for the final update and the official release trailer!

- Troy

Staying on Course -- Week Ending 3 Dec

Things are running pretty much according to plan with The Pest Controllers. We've spent a great deal of time figuring out the ins and outs of our new controller technology, working with the placement and movement of the enemy critters, and crafting stylized art. Thanks to Derek, Jorge, and Christine, the prototype should be in fine shape by the time we present in a couple weeks.

For the time being, we're still testing the code we've cooked up to govern controller input and skin-stretch output, so we don't have anything playable. However, you can feast your eyes on more of Christine's art to tide you over till next week. By then, players will be able to feel the squirms of and retaliate against the invading bug armies!

- Troy

Meet the Pest Controllers -- Week Ending 26 Nov

The fourth and final prototype for this semester is under way! We have a fantastic and unique opportunity this time around: we are the first developers in the world to take a shot at creating games with skin-stretch haptic output technology! We are working with a new type of game controller under development by Dr. William Provancher from our own university. The controller has a grippy nub embedded in each thumbstick that slightly stretches the skin in different directions as a form of haptic feedback. Our task is to produce a game prototype that utilizes this feedback as a primary form of output to the player.

Luckily, we have an excellent team that is more than up to the challenge. Let's meet them!

The Team
- Team/Developer Name: The Pest Controllers
- Members
     - Christine Olinquevitch
          - Job: Artist
          - Status: Locked 'n' loaded
          - Skills: Adobe Illustrator wonderkid; also Portuguese

     - Jorge Elola
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: 110% (for him, it actually IS possible)
          - Skills: Maya wiz, level design, and Super Smash Bros. dominator; also Spanish and some Mandarin
     - Derek Higgs
          - Job: Game Designer and Engineer
          - Status: Caught 'em all!
          - Skills: Incredible work ethic, problem solving, and Super Smash Bros. master; also incredible generosity (Would you let a fellow student borrow your brand new copy of Skyward Sword over Thanksgiving Break? This guy did.)
     - Troy Johnson
          - Job: Producer
          - Status: FIGHT!
          - Skills: Supplying candy and Super Smash Bros. contender; also Swedish

The Prototype (or, what we hope turns into the beginning of a legitimate game)
- Title: Critters (We found out our original working title, "Critter Crunch," is already a game title, so we've trimmed it to infringe on a movie series trademark for the time being, instead)
- Status: On the trail to glory
- Skills: Giving players a new kind of sensory experience than has never been felt before

So here's the skinny: Derek came up with the fantastic concept of pinning down creepy-crawlies and then actually feeling them squirm underneath your thumb as you "wrestle" them into submission. With that as the hook mechanic of our game, we decided to wrap it up in a Space Invaders scenario. Instead of blasting space creatures, players must pin the invading critters into submission one at a time, then finally take on their captains and generals to ensure freedom from bug domination.

Derek and Jorge are hard at work engineering input and output systems based on the new technology as well as laying out the framework of this real-time action game. Christine, under the direction of Derek, is creating fantastic concept art for the various enemies, all based on the charming style of LocoRoco (that way, players won't get too squeamish…we hope). Troy keeps himself busy as Scrum master, art and tech researcher, and process facilitator (trust me, he does actual work on occasion).

Check back often for development updates and new art! With our razor clearly defined (use the haptic device to simulate a bug squirming) and a unified end goal, we are all pumped to show what we can do in the next 3 weeks!

- Troy

H2Outcome? Successful! -- Week Ending 19 Nov

H2Outcome is a success! We completed a running version of the game in time for our presentation to Becky Menlove, Director of Exhibits at the Utah Museum of Natural History. Despite a few technical hiccups in getting the game working on their system, the pitch was well received. We'll be honored to have our game cycle along with a few others in the Utah Futures installation!

Creating this game in under a month has been a wild ride, but our team pulled together to make it happen in fine fashion. The multiplayer vision we invested in payed off, and we ended up with a product perfect for the 5-touchscreens-1-collective-projection installation. Make selections, see their results, receive rewards based on your decisions, and learn something while you're at it--that's been the goal of our project, and the team pulled it off.

We're excited for the opportunity to optimize the program a bit, and then to finally see it in action once it's officially installed for public use.

Many thanks to Becky Menlove and her staff at the Museum; to Boston Productions, Inc. for the research and resources they readily provided us; to the administration and faculty of the Master Games Studio at the University of Utah; and to our awesome team who pulled together under incredibly stressful circumstances to make this game a reality.

Check out the trailer below, then be sure to go play it at the Museum within a few weeks!

- Troy

Home Stretch and Due Credit -- Week Ending 12 Nov

With only one week of development and presenting left, our project has reached critical mass. With 90% of the pieces finalized, it's now simply a matter of fitting the puzzle together into a playable game.

For this post, we want to recognize the fantastic contributions of the individual team members.

- Kamron dominated the network coding and laid out overall tasks of the engineers.
- George implemented the ActionScript and Flash functionality of the player stations and how the clients communicated their individual effects to the game server.
- Eric scripted the animations that reflect player choices on the valley and implemented the list of choices and their effects.
- Ashley created the touchscreen art and layout, as well as the valley backdrop projection and its various states.
- Adam created icons to represent valley resources and awards given for distinct choices.
- Jesse acted as designer, blog creator, Flash mentor, and technical producer.
- Troy acted as designer, facilitated client communication, wrote game text, and worked as art producer.
- Our powers combined, we've nearly completed H2Outcome!

We're excited to refine the game until it's as fun as possible! We're officially presenting it to our client, the Utah Museum of Natural History, this Wednesday. Wish us luck!

- Troy

Managing Resources -- Week Ending 5 Nov

The game is coming along! Our engineers have the network and gameplay framework nailed down, so now it's all about plugging in the researched ecosystem data. With that step, the system reactions and game flow should fall into place, and our game will be on its way to technical completion!

Of course, I'd be doing a disservice to everyone if I didn't mention the artists' work. Without their efforts, the engineers' labor could never be seen or experienced. Luckily, our art team has created a slick, user-friendly interface through which to interact with the game. The gameplay is all about making smart water management choices, and their vision has made this process clean, simple, and efficient. Of course, they're also hard at work a gorgeous backdrop of the Salt Lake Valley as the main visual set piece. It's looking fantastic, and we're excited with the progress that's been made.

We've got one more week of hard work on development, and we can't wait to see the results as all the pieces fit together in the coming days. Check back again soon, but here's a shot of the touchscreen interface in the meantime!

- Troy

Clear Water Ahead! -- Week Ending 29 Oct

With two successful prototypes under our belts, we've rearranged ourselves and combined forces once again--this time to make a game for the Utah Museum of Natural History. I imagine that this is a new challenge for all of us...

The Team
- Team/Developer Name: Crystal Clear Entertainment
- Members
     - Ashley McMillan
          - Job: Artist
          - Status: One Year Older (Happy Recent Birthday!)
          - Skills: Vector art and stylized sprites
    - Adam Zaelit
          - Job: Technical Artist
          - Status: Ready to Rock
          - Skills: Animation art and scripts
     - Kamron Egan
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: Hero
          - Skills: Combining programming languages into seamless programs
     - George Middleton
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: Sweet Beard
          - Skills: ActionScript experience for well oiled Flash applications
     - Eric Levin
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: Med-Student-Turned-Programmer-Extraordinaire
          - Skills: Doing the robot in Just Dance 3--and programming
     - Jesse Ferraro
          - Job: Producer
          - Status: East Coast Flavor
          - Skills: Flash mastery
     - Troy Johnson
          - Job: Producer
          - Status: Generic Utah Flavor
          - Skills: Talking to people

The Prototype (or, what had better be a legitimate game within 3 weeks)
- Title: Unnamed Water Management Educational Video Game (We've been so busy hammering out design details and development processes that we haven't solidified our title yet)
- Status: In hectic pre-pro/production
- Skills: Being a fun, new installment at the Utah Museum of Natural History!

We've been hired by the UMNH to create a game for display when they open next month! It is a one-to-five-player game that receives input from five individual touchscreens and displays the main game via projection on a large, rounded wall. Pretty cool opportunity for first-semester MGS students.

For our pitch, we took what we thought were the best elements from their original canceled game (water management choices, aggregate effects on the valley) and suggested new ways of presenting those elements more simply and fun. There's a timeline-focused game board that avatars move along with each choice they submit, crisp vector art, gamification in the form of awards and titles, and no "beginner mode" or other complexities that inhibit quick exhibit enjoyment.

That might still sound a bit vague, but we're excited to show more of what it all means next week. Plans are moving full-steam ahead, and we've got the team that can make it happen.

Check back often for updates on the progress of this exciting opportunity! And turn off the faucet while you're brushing your teeth.

- Troy

Rescued! -- Week Ending 22 Oct

The Prince's Repulsive Rescue is completed! Well, at least its prototype is finished. Team Repel is thrilled with how it turned out. The physics are accurate, the educational impact is evident, the market and achievement features are functional, and the artwork ties it all together with a sarcastic fairy tale tone. Had we the time and the request to flesh it out (or perhaps create a full game out of it), I think each of the team members would have a great time in full production.

But enough talk; check out the trailer and see for yourself why we were happy with the results!

See you next week with a new team and a pitch for Prototype #3!

- Troy

Repulsive Rescue, Indeed -- Week Ending 8 Oct

It's settled: The Prince's Repulsive Rescue. Gone are the forced names of our protagonist and not-so-distressed damsel. Instead, we've opted for the more generic, and yet somehow more relatable, Prince and Princess. Sir Wingman remains, however. You just can't ditch a name that perfect.

Beyond just the names, we've made significant progress on the game. Ashley's awesome visuals are in place, Kamron and Chris have implemented functional menus and game states, and the player actually controls the on-screen action! With a few physics calculations and a sense of humor, players can now catapult the Prince exactly how they want. Well, they can once they upgrade the catapult, purchase a telescope, and look up the equations in the in-game physics book...

The game will be finished and presented within a couple weeks, so keep a close eye here! Besides, you don't want to miss any of these awesome art assets, do you?

- Troy

Flying into Action -- Week Ending 1 Oct

Things are moving along smoothly. As a team, we’ve solidified the conceptual details of game flow and stage design. Engineers Chris and Kamron have established a convenient framework for putting the components of the game together, and Ashley has produced some incredibly charming artwork. Though it’s not yet in place, we’ve also secured medieval music to round out the ambience and tone. All things considered, the pieces are coming together in a promising prototype.

As a side note, we’ve reconsidered the names of some of the characters and the title of the game itself. It might have been a bit contrived and forced, so we’re thinking of making it more straightforward. We’ll update you as we make any changes!

- Troy

Prototype 2 Has Begun -- Week Ending 24 Sep

Within a week of completing our first prototype, we have already banded together in new teams and started work on the second of four game projects for this semester. Let me introduce you to the new hotness...

The Team
- Team/Developer Name: Team Repel
- Members
     - Ashley McMillan
          - Job: Artist
          - Status: Girl Power!
          - Skills: Charming toons and polished fairy tales
     - Kamron Egan
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: Superhuman
          - Skills: Handling more work than should be humanly possible
     - Chris Bright
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: Spread Shot
          - Skills: XNA master
     - Troy Johnson
          - Job: Producer
          - Status: Comfy Chair
          - Skills: Sticky-noting

The Prototype (or, what we hope turns into the beginning of a legitimate game)
- Title: Prince Alarming's Repelzel (Repelzul?) Rescue (We still haven't determined how we plan on spelling the captive princess's name.)
- Status: Alarmingly Charming
- Skills: Teaching freshman mechanical engineering concepts (We hope this turns out to be true.)

This time, our game is meant to be used to teach freshman mechanical engineering concepts. Perhaps it could be used for in-class exercises, perhaps as homework, perhaps simply as a practice tool. Whatever its eventual use, it must be complex enough to actually teach while still being as fun and engaging as a video game is expected to be.

We were able to pitch our concept to a ME faculty member during the week: Prince Alarming is trying to rescue Princess Repelzel by launching himself from a catapult into her tower window (apparently her hair isn't long enough, after all). Of course, she's not that easy to win over, so she requires him to collect goodies and treats of monetary value during his flight. If he doesn't have enough cash when he reaches her, she tosses him back out so he can try again. Unfortunately, Alarming isn't quite smart enough to figure out the engineering and physics behind his catapult, so he employs his best friend, Sir Wingman, to do the calculations and set-up for each launch (players essentially take the role of Wingman).

With that premise, we now have plenty of work to do--figuring out the best type of catapult to implement into the game; setting up a market and upgrade system; and creating beautiful, goofy art to tie it all together.

Check back often for updates on the progress of our educational game. Hey, you might even learn a thing or two.

- Troy

We Did It! -- Week Ending 17 Sep

We have officially completed our first prototyping phase, and, therefore, we have wrapped up development on Clean-up Crusaders!

We presented the prototype on Wednesday, and everything went relatively smoothly (all things considered, of course). The latest build was definitely the closest to our original vision for the game, and all the gameplay features required for it to stand out were present. In particular, the verticality and aerial gameplay shone (albeit with occasional camera issues), and the trash-collection-time-boost mechanic hit right on target. Though the art was not representative of our ultimate goal, it was certainly satisfactory, and it generally gelled with the feel of the game.

Now that it's complete, The Lords of Awesome are going to enjoy a light reprieve until next week's game project begins. While you wait for that, here's a brief gameplay video for you. Enjoy!

- Troy

Almost There! -- Week Ending 10 Sep

The mechanics are scripted, the level is laid out, and 95% of the assets are in their proper places. From here on out, it's simply a matter of testing, tweaking, and polishing.

Oh, and the prototype/game now has an official name! Are you ready for this?

Clean-up Crusaders! (However, it is still a YOU Can Save the World! video game--we don't wanna lose the franchise power.)

Sounds just like a cheesy clone platformer aimed at elementary school children in the '90s, right? That's because it pretty much follows that mold. Our goal is for it to be nostalgic for some, educational for others, and genuinely interesting and fun for all. Though it might seem to follow an older style in certain aspects, we've implemented some creative platforming elements and end-of-level rankings to add replayability. (I just realized that I might have already told you some of that. Well, it's probably even better than the point it was last time I mentioned those features.)

We're just about ready to start preparing the official presentation for this coming Wednesday, so here's a final preview, art assets in place before the project is officially complete:

- Troy

Making Our Way Merrily Along -- Week Ending 3 Sep

Our team has reached the end of our second week together (though, only the end of our first designated sprint week), and things are progressing smoothly.

We've got most of the key features of our game running, and our prototype level is constructed. Besides the platforming obstacles (pits, beach balls, etc.), one of the core mechanics of our game is collecting trash strewn around the levels. By cleaning up the environment, the player adds time to the timer at the top of the screen, essentially extending the player's life. All the standard garbage pickups are working, along with those that are dropped by careless beachgoers. The latter then function as ammo pickups so that the player can throw informational flyers at those same beachgoers. At least one other enemy will be present in the prototype by the end of this week, and we're excited to see how it affects the flow of the level and challenges the player to try different strategies.

Though much of the temporary art is still in the current build, most of the final art assets have been created, and things are starting to look really neat. For a preview of some of those assets, check out the September 5th entry of the producer's blog at http://producersperspective.blogspot.com.

More info on this project will be coming steadily, so keep in touch. In the meantime, take a look at a couple more screenshots from the most recent playable build of YOU Can Save the World!: Environmentalist (still a working title, but who knows if we'll ever come up with something that sounds less presumptuous?)!

- Troy

Game Start! The First Team, the First Prototype

Here we are, right in the middle of the first week of the Entertainment Arts & Engineering Master Games Studio at the University of Utah. This blog is dedicated to chronicling the events of the Projects 1 course (...and beyond...) as we band together to form development teams and create game prototypes over the course of the semester.

As one of seven students in the producer track of the EAE:MGS, it is my responsibility to maintain a blog (this blog, in fact) that details the development of each game that I help create and the progress of each team that I am a member of during the next 17 weeks. Being that this is the first week and the first post, it's probably obvious that today I'll be posting about the first team and the first prototype that I have the pleasure of being a part of...

The Team
- Team/Developer Name: Lords of Awesome (This has never actually been decided on by the team members, but that's what first popped into my head. After all, these guys are awesome... Lords.)
- Members
     - Dan Priestly
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: Stud
          - Skills: Mastering events and triggers
     - Anurag Bhagwat
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: Dude
          - Skills: Matching art to game environments and perfecting mechanics
     - Chris Muñoz
          - Job: Artist
          - Status: +50
          - Skills: Designing levels, layouts, and general art assets
     - Troy Johnson
          - Job: Producer
          - Status: Present
          - Skills: TBD; typing words

The Prototype (or, what we hope turns into the beginning of a legitimate game)
- Title: YOU Can Save the World!: Environmentalist (Like our team name, this is also a working title that I came up with because we had yet to decide on a title as a team. We'll keep you posted on whether or not this sticks. At least it's exploitable for future YCSW! titles.)
- Status: In early development
- Skills: Running on Mac OS. And only on Mac OS.

As you may have now guessed, we're developing this quick prototype (4-week development cycle) on iMacs using Power Game Factory. It is a fairly straightforward, occasionally intuitive program that allows users to create sidescrollers and platformers akin to those from the 16-bit era. Besides the creation tool/program restriction, we were also tasked with basing our prototype around some sort of serious theme; hence, the environmentalist angle.

Now that you have a little background on the course and the project, let's get down to the nitty-gritty...

Knowing that we'd be creating some sort of action-platformer (because of the Power Game Factory requirement), we were able to skip a fair chunk of the usual brainstorming steps inherent in coming up with a game concept. We really got started by listing a few serious issues that we saw around us, from immigration laws to pollution to Reese's Peanut Butter Cup trafficking (some were more serious than others). Finally settling on an environmentalist message, we got to work thinking of mechanics that would make our game educational, fun, and able to stand on its own as a legitimate game.

Then the production began. Chris got to work gathering and editing assets to see exactly what kind of style we wanted for the game and to ensure that they would match up with the tools that PGF offers. Anurag and Dan were quickly able to explore and get a handle on the various triggers, event options, and platforming mechanics that we'd be implementing to create solid, exciting levels. I took the reins of the educational aspects, researching and figuring out the best way to present important environmental information to players.

With all these pieces coming along, within two days I was able to put together a game pitch that we presented to the other teams. By that time, Dan and Anurag had already built a playable (short, but playable) demo of some of the core mechanics that define our game. (See above for screenshots from that demo, in which the player can pick up bits of trash to extend the timer and, thus, the player's life.)

From there, we've all got plenty of work to get moving on. I've created asset and task lists so we can keep an eye on the status of each job, and I'm making progress on the educational texts and tutorials that will pop up at certain in-game events. Chris is hard at work on creating a massive image of the basic level layout.  Anurag and Dan are busy making sure that collection, force field, and projectile mechanics are ready to go once we import all the necessary assets.

That's it for this week! Check back soon, and we'll keep you posted on the progress of the project and how we're getting along. I anticipate great things from these guys.

- Troy