Together Again -- Week Ending 25 Aug

Welcome back! We've been on summer hiatus from our thesis game, Last March of the Dodos, but we're reunited and ready to bring our game to the next level (yes, I just said that). Based on test sessions with several different groups over the summer, we've re-evaluated a number of aspects of our game. After deciding that we are on the right path to where we want to end up, we're confident that we can make it all come together by our end-of-October IGF submission deadline.

While the engineering team is focused in large part on fixing bugs and addressing overall functionality, we've also got them working on a new shop feature that is available in real-time so that players can purchase traps as they need them--at a price, of course.

From the art team, we've established some concrete rules for creating concepts and true assets. We feel that we struggled to find our style early on, but that by following our new criteria we can make a truly cohesive, exciting aesthetic to display the in-game carnage. As part of this, we also have a new outsource artist who is helping us complete all the assets we'll need. Please welcome Sasha as you take a look at some of her ideas!

Finally, we've also determined that we need a true face for the players as they go about hunting the last surviving Dodos. Look forward to some artwork depicting the shady characters who are bent on leading these adorable (but not too bright) island fowl to their  ultimate demise!

- Troy

Only Days Left! -- Week Ending 21 Apr

The art flowed this week, and many of the assets are now in place, not to mention a slew of hilarious sound effects! Brandon modeled a sweet new level for our upcoming alpha demo, and it looks great in the game engine. There's a great vertical element to it, and it should be a blast to see in action once the engineers finish laying the pathfinding system onto it.

In addition, all sorts of smaller (yet necessary) features have been implemented from the engineering side. Four of us put a ton of work into cracking out a fun menu GUI, and now the project actually feels like starting up a software product and jumping into a real video game. It's incredibly rewarding to see things falling into place.

And it's a good thing that they are, because we give our official presentation to the original MGS cohort in a matter of days! Jesse and I are going to spend some serious time hammering out the best presentation we can, and we plan on letting our fantastic team's product speak loudest of all.

We're excited to put the final touches on the alpha build of Last March of the Dodos, so keep an eye here for its official debut!

The Physics of Fun -- Week Ending 14 Apr

Chain reactions in Last March of the Dodos are awesome! The engineers have implemented the ability for players to combo Dodos from trap to trap. This includes everything from the physics of knocking the Dodos throughout the game space, allowing them to be hit with successive traps as they flop around, and keeping track of increasing score multipliers with each trap collision--until they finally come to rest and poof out of existence. With just the physics of some of the traps alone (the mine, for example), it's a blast to send a group of Dodos flying in every direction, and then to watch them bounce around the environment like ragdolls. Other enjoyable scenarios we've discovered include shooting a Dodo with a cannonball so that the force carries it up and off a ramp into space, luring Dodos with bait up a ramp so that they fall onto a mine as they drop off the end, and simply watching them repeatedly run into player-positioned walls until they figure out they're solid and adjust their course.

The individual features involved in these reactions will, of course, require a hefty amount of tweaking to make the experience as fun as it can possibly be. At the moment, the force of many collisions is on the high side, so it's somewhat difficult for a player to precisely calculate where to place the various traps in a chain. Further, creating engaging level designs has proven to be part of the challenge in this process (not that it's ever easy) since there are so few limitations with how players can use their traps at the moment.

Additionally, art assets keep coming along, too. We now have models for the boot, ramp, walls, mine, bomb, environmental fixtures like island huts, and--of course--the impressive Dodo! All the pieces are coming together nicely to make for an incredibly promising alpha build of the game.

Can't wait!

- Troy

Good Thing We Planned for Debugging -- Week Ending 7 Apr

Don't be too scared by the title of the post. Things are rolling steadily forward with Last March of the Dodos. The game is in great shape, and the player can now easily make selections from a clean, focused drop-down inventory to place a wide array of traps in the Dodos' paths (or force the Dodos out of their paths to trigger said traps).

Unfortunately, some of the new functionality of trap chaining has added a bit of extra work to programming the physics of those chain reactions. The engineers are on top of it, but it will take an extra bit of time to get everything in perfectly functioning order. Luckily, we scheduled an extra week of development time strictly for the purpose of overcoming such challenges and debugging everything until it runs smoothly--silky smoothly.

In addition, we've got even more environment, trap, and Dodo modeling completed, as well as a basic map of the menu and gameflow progression. The game marches forward, so check back next week for a new video demo of Last March of the Dodos in action!

- Troy

Alpha Is Imminent! -- Week Ending 31 Mar

Last March of the Dodos is in great shape! Significant progress was made this week by every member of the team. We've got several new mechanics ready to go (chaining, scoring, and more), not to mention several additional trap types available to the player.

In addition to the direct development of the game, even more of the design details have been solidified as our process has evolved. Trap chain potential has been fleshed out to the point that we can now envision emergent gameplay beyond our original designs; that is an exciting prospect!

More models and concept art continue to come to life as well, and it's fun to see how the aesthetics are shaping the gameplay itself.

Another playable build is on its way, so keep an eye out on Last March of the Dodos!

Organizing to Conquer -- Week Ending 24 Mar

Though little visible progress has been made on the game over the past few weeks (Spring Break, GDC, and a few other delays are at least in part to blame), we've actually nailed down a lot of planning, team structuring, and optimizing of our existing game code. In addition, we have an updated Dodo model in the game, so kudos to our art team for the concept progress and continuing implementation of assets!

From a design standpoint, several features have also been more clearly defined, and the team seems to have the same vision of what the game can and should be. We've put into action our customized Agile development process in which every sprint will end with a new build of the game. This way, each week will result in more and more features of our target alpha design being playable. With this methodology, we can efficiently and effectively scale the design to something that's realistic as we work through the coming weeks.

Speaking of design, we've also got several potential level designs sketched out and in the modeling process. Thus begins our quest to find great layouts for chaining traps and machines together and to generate some truly devious Dodo destruction!

- Troy

Forward March! -- Week Ending 3 Mar

Whoa, double meaning to the title of this post (maybe even a triple meaning!).

Pre-production is in full swing! Everyone's ideas have been collected and communicated (not to suggest that inspiration won't hit us with more along the way), backlogs have been formulated, and a release backlog for our alpha version of Last March of the Dodos has been settled upon by the product owner and the team.

Though official development is scheduled to begin in a couple of weeks (GDC is next week, and Spring Break is the week following), several of the team members have gotten a head start on nailing the process. Particularly, Derek, Kamron, and Felix have been hard at work selecting the appropriate development engine and plug-ins necessary to make our game design come to life. At the moment, Unity Pro with the A* AI path-finding plugin looks like the winner (what we were using in the prototyope, but a more robust version). Coupled with the art skills that run rampant in the team, we can't wait to see what our talented group can produce over the next two months!

- Troy