Marching On! -- Week Ending 25 Feb

It's official! Last March of the Dodos was greenlit and will move forward into full production as one of three thesis games our cohort will develop! The hard work and unity of the team paid off with the professionals and faculty alike, and we are pumped to see what we can do over the next 10 months with twice as many developers as we had for the prototype.

We're in the middle of brainstorming and constructing an updated product backlog right now, so there's not a lot of new content to display. Fortunately, that makes this the perfect opportunity to introduce our new team members!

The Team
- Team/Developer Name: Naturally Selected Studios
- New Members
     - Brandon Rees
          - Job: Artist
          - Status: Sweet beard (1 of 2)
          - Skills: Maya master and broad game dev knowledge
     - David Gilder
          - Job: Artist
          - Status: Sweet beard (1 of 2)
          - Skills: Mad drawing abilities
     - Derek Higgs
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: Pumped up (the jam, that is)
          - Skills: Amazing work ethic and dedication to finishing tasks
     - Felix Lau
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: Industry-employed
          - Skills: Problem solver extraordinaire
     - Eric Levin
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: Med school eligible (but he chooses to be here!)
          - Skills: Self-teaching and incredible capacity for retaining new information
     - Jesse Ferraro
          - Job: Producer
          - Status: Fresh-faced and fancy free
          - Skills: Mass media design and team leadership

Sadly, Jorge Elola was assigned to a different team, so he'll be employing his talents elsewhere. We wish him the best but miss him here at Naturally Selected Studios!

- Troy

A Successful Team Effort -- Week Ending 18 Feb

The prototype is complete, and it has been demoed and presented to our faculty, peers, and the professional panel...

And we couldn't be happier with how it turned out!

We received and incredibly positive overall response to our concept and to our presentation. The theme was well-received, as was our implementation of it. While there were certainly some design concerns and some critiques of a few mechanics, most of the comments from the professionals were suggestions for future iterations and compliments on what we had built thus far. If they are making suggestions for consideration n future work, we'll take that as a good sign that we might actually have a shot at putting future work into this game.

Kamron, Jorge, and Chris have done a phenomenal job making this game come to life. Their weeks of work have turned into a great product, and it's been an honor to work with them.

As for the future, we're all stoked to see which games become our theses, and we're excited to team up with more of our peers to really create something special. If one of those thesis projects turns out to be the full production of Last March of the Dodos, well, that would be pretty sweet... Okay, it would be awesome. :)

Here's to the future!

- Troy

Imminent Extinction -- Week Ending 11 Feb

Last March of the Dodos is playable! There's a white-boxed level in place, the Dodos are making their way to their destination, and the player has full control to set traps and watch the Dodos disappear as they die. Only minimal chain reactions are possible, but seeing them in action is pretty cool: place the pie bait, watch the Dodos cluster in large numbers, then--BOOM!--drop an explosion in the middle of them. :) And it's all guilt-free!

Beyond that, we also have a solid vision of how we want our environments to look. Above is a waterfall in Mauritius, the home of the now extinct dodo bird. It's a shame that such a beautiful place has such a dark past.

We present to the faculty and the graduating cohort on Monday, so we're looking forward to how we can clean up our presentation for the professional panel on Wednesday. We can't believe time has flown by so quickly, but we're happy with our progress, and we'd love to continue work on such a fun concept for our official thesis.

Wish us luck!

- Troy

It's All About Style -- Week Ending 4 Feb

We had a couple meetings with our professors and with each other this week, and we came to the conclusion that our game needs to ooze style. Not that we didn't assume or want that before this point, but it was sort of a distant consideration, second to getting the game functioning properly on an engineering level. We realized, however, that even the mechanics need to feel stylized--the physics reactions, the trap effects, the whole package need to be a part of the aesthetic as much as the art style. While that doesn't change much of the work we've done up to this point, it does put a little different spin on the way we think about the project as a whole. Rather than the art and the engineering being two entirely separate pieces, we are starting to recognize just how much collaboration every aspect of the game needs across all the disciplines involved.

That said, it's a good thing that each of the team members has some understanding of what each of the others is doing and is capable. Kamron and Jorge have worked together to figure out how to get traps to place at the player's will on any spot on the level, Jorge and Chris are working together on the 3D modeling of the Dodo, I've been helping Jorge and Kamron lay out algorithms for how the traps function, we've all worked together to determine the final designs of traps and how the Dodos look, etc. We've proven to be a good team so far, and I expect the next (also last) week-and-a-half of development to turn out a great prototype.

The game has playable pieces at the moment, too, though not that fall together into a cohesive game yet. By next week, it will actually play like a game, so take a look at some more concept art in the meantime. Aren't they cute?!

- Troy

Becoming a Team -- Week Ending 28 Jan

There wasn't really a question about the work part of our development this week (we planned on doing a lot of work; we did a lot of work), we weren't entirely sure what would set this week's work apart from any other week.

The answer came in waves, beginning with the definition of what we want to accomplish with Last March of the Dodos. With help from Roger, one of our executive producers, we came to realize exactly why we're making the game: to experience the joy of calculated mass destruction without any of the usual guilt that comes as baggage. Note the three facets of that definition: 1) the joy of mercilessly destroying cute things, 2) a fascination with deliberate mechanical intricacies, á la Rube Goldberg, and 3) the alleviation of any guilt that might otherwise accompany any sort of dodo-cide. Basically, we are making Lemmings the way that it should have been done in the first place (okay, Lemmings was a great game in its own right, but this is gonna be sweet).

Thus, we came up with a team motto as a razor for any work that we do:

And we're not one bit sorry.

In other news, the engineers have the Dodos stoically marching toward their desired freedom now, and you can check out some of Chris's concept art.

Wish us another great upcoming week!

- Troy

Last March of the Dodos -- Week Ending 21 Jan

The brainchild of Kamron Egan, Last March of the Dodos made it through the selection process to be one of seven prototypes the cohort is currently developing as a pitch for our official thesis. Congratulations, Kamron!

In one month, two of the seven will become group theses and enter full production and development. As a team, we're determined to make Last March of the Dodos a standout game, and we think we've got the right combination of concept and team to make it happen. Continue on, and you'll see what we mean!

The Team
- Team/Developer Name: Naturally Selected
- Members
     - Christine Olinquevitch
          - Job: Artist
          - Status: Max ammo
          - Skills: Adobe Illustrator and free-hand drawing; also Portuguese

     - Jorge Elola
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: Super soldier serum
          - Skills: Maya wiz and system engineering; also Spanish and some Mandarin
     - Kamron Egan
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: Ain't no dodo
          - Skills: Ridiculous ability to work more than humans should be able to (still); also engine manipulation
     - Troy Johnson
          - Job: Producer
          - Status: Not poisoned
          - Skills: Facilitation and communication; also Swedish

The Prototype (or, what we hope turns into the beginning of our thesis game!)
- Title: Last March of the Dodos
- Status: Ready for detonation
- Skills: Tasking players with dodo-cide. Classy.

Kamron came up with the concept years ago, and now we've got a shot to make this game a reality. Think "Lemmings meets God's Playing Field." The player must ensure that the last of the dodos are extinct at their cosmically appointed time. Unwilling to accept their fate, the dodos will do everything they can to escape. Over time and experience, the dodos will actually learn to avoid the traps that the player sets and adapt to dangerous environmental conditions. Can you bring balance to the universe by ensuring that their species goes the way of the dinosaur when they're meant to?

It may be grim and politically incorrect, but the concept should be a blast. Christine is working on some goofy art, and the whole style will be comical and tongue-in-cheek, so hopefully it will feel quite light, all things considered.

Kamron and Jorge are already hard at work engineering the AI of the dodos and getting level layout tools functioning. Besides task and process management, I've contacted a musician and sound engineer to hopefully get a sweet soundtrack. This game will thrive on the atmosphere and tone we create, so we're excited to show off what we've come up with soon!

- Troy

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