I was the Jerk of the team this time. I knew that I had to make some sort of effort to redeem myself because I knew that everyone else had been working relatively hard and trying to keep on track especially without my sorry butt around to help. I knew that I shouldn't have accepted the prime Mechanic position in the first place, but I wanted Jake to get a chance at doing something different.
I left my Postmortem at school, so I can't quite just copy and paste it here at home. Anyhow, aside from beating myself up for not getting my part done, I feel like the team kicked some serious ass and content-wise our game is pretty cool. I managed to figure out how to dynamically load all 5 of the characters upon the game launching, which up to this point I hadn't done in any other project. I only wish that I could have had this knowledge 2 weeks ago, and I know that I would have gotten a lot of dialogue and story elements into the game (which was the whole point in the first place).
I think I have to defend myself a little bit though; I've been forced to work extra shifts because one of my coworkers simply stopped showing up to work. Our management is also not the epitome of brilliance. I have no other source of income aside from my job, so I couldn't exactly say "NO." I would understand if any of my teammates were caught up in such a predicament.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Boura's Postmortem
Back Story:
Jumping over dead trees and rushing across the river, Ugg races away from what he calls “big lizard pointy teeth”. This is the second time in three days that Ugg has found himself attempting to avoid being an appetizer for a tyrannosaurus. As Ugg finally reaches his cave, he lies down on his saber tooth rug and tries to catch his breath. Ugg is a caveman, and after his long life of 15 years, he is growing weary of dodging dinosaurs.
The next day Ugg finds himself wandering the plains in the valley below his cave. While struggling through some tall grass he stumbles upon a giant glowing rock. There are strange symbols all over the rock, and when Ugg’s curiosity finally gets the best of him, he touches the stone. Instantly he feels some strange energy flowing through him until he finally blacks out.
When Ugg awakes, nearly 65 million years later, he is laying in a clearing surrounded by strange trees that he doesn’t recognize. As he looks around, Ugg finds some cloth covered huts, and a strange little man. Despite the change in era, scenery, and temperature of the glowing orb in the sky, Ugg finds that he is able to talk to the tiny man.
The tiny man tells him that he is a druid that accidentally shrunk himself while trying out some new spells. Ugg of course has no idea what a druid is, or a spell, but he smiles and nods. The druid goes on to explain that his spell also seems to have drawn him to this island and time period by accident. The druid asks Ugg to search the island for other strange things, and bring back something from each area he finds so that the druid can reverse the spell.
What Went right?:
In Mytholojig, I think the majority of the game went quite well. The level turned out amazingly better than I had imagined it would. The assets are unique and well suited for our game. And the areas, though slightly similar, represent the time period or mythology therein well.
What Went Wrong?:
I had an issue with overloading the engine. The level was looking incredibly awesome, but the engine couldn’t handle all the objects and started crashing. With LOD on the assets, I could have avoided that, but that is a good lesson to take away from this.
We didn’t have much programming done, and our AITalk wasn’t functioning. I don’t know where to begin with the programming problems.
What would I do Differently?:
Our team decided to split mostly everything so that we could all have some fun doing aspects other than our chosen track. I would have liked to have not done that. After I began getting into my game level, I became addicted with making it as fun as possible. If I wasn’t responsible for some assets as well, I could have worked with Constructor to create some LOD for our assets so I could implement much more.
Jumping over dead trees and rushing across the river, Ugg races away from what he calls “big lizard pointy teeth”. This is the second time in three days that Ugg has found himself attempting to avoid being an appetizer for a tyrannosaurus. As Ugg finally reaches his cave, he lies down on his saber tooth rug and tries to catch his breath. Ugg is a caveman, and after his long life of 15 years, he is growing weary of dodging dinosaurs.
The next day Ugg finds himself wandering the plains in the valley below his cave. While struggling through some tall grass he stumbles upon a giant glowing rock. There are strange symbols all over the rock, and when Ugg’s curiosity finally gets the best of him, he touches the stone. Instantly he feels some strange energy flowing through him until he finally blacks out.
When Ugg awakes, nearly 65 million years later, he is laying in a clearing surrounded by strange trees that he doesn’t recognize. As he looks around, Ugg finds some cloth covered huts, and a strange little man. Despite the change in era, scenery, and temperature of the glowing orb in the sky, Ugg finds that he is able to talk to the tiny man.
The tiny man tells him that he is a druid that accidentally shrunk himself while trying out some new spells. Ugg of course has no idea what a druid is, or a spell, but he smiles and nods. The druid goes on to explain that his spell also seems to have drawn him to this island and time period by accident. The druid asks Ugg to search the island for other strange things, and bring back something from each area he finds so that the druid can reverse the spell.
What Went right?:
In Mytholojig, I think the majority of the game went quite well. The level turned out amazingly better than I had imagined it would. The assets are unique and well suited for our game. And the areas, though slightly similar, represent the time period or mythology therein well.
What Went Wrong?:
I had an issue with overloading the engine. The level was looking incredibly awesome, but the engine couldn’t handle all the objects and started crashing. With LOD on the assets, I could have avoided that, but that is a good lesson to take away from this.
We didn’t have much programming done, and our AITalk wasn’t functioning. I don’t know where to begin with the programming problems.
What would I do Differently?:
Our team decided to split mostly everything so that we could all have some fun doing aspects other than our chosen track. I would have liked to have not done that. After I began getting into my game level, I became addicted with making it as fun as possible. If I wasn’t responsible for some assets as well, I could have worked with Constructor to create some LOD for our assets so I could implement much more.
Trevor's postmortem.
Briefly describe the project:
Our project was to make a game that included different mythologies. In the game, the player would go around and talk to the different people from those time periods. The other characters would help the player find out their objective and tell them where to collect the rune stones. After the player has collect all of the rune stones, the player will then take them back to Stonehenge. Upon reaching this area, all of the different areas would be transported back to their correct era.
What went right?
A lot went right for me. I was able to make the character and successfully animate him. Also, the texturing of the different building and assets went well too. When texturing the assets, I used reference images, cut out a portion that I wanted, edited it to fit the asset that it was going to be applied to, and then apply it to the asset.
Our project was to make a game that included different mythologies. In the game, the player would go around and talk to the different people from those time periods. The other characters would help the player find out their objective and tell them where to collect the rune stones. After the player has collect all of the rune stones, the player will then take them back to Stonehenge. Upon reaching this area, all of the different areas would be transported back to their correct era.
What went right?
A lot went right for me. I was able to make the character and successfully animate him. Also, the texturing of the different building and assets went well too. When texturing the assets, I used reference images, cut out a portion that I wanted, edited it to fit the asset that it was going to be applied to, and then apply it to the asset.
What went wrong?
The only issue that I encountered was exporting the main character. When I went to exported it, it told me that “vertex 6016 was not weighted”. I then went to check the vertices weights on the character and found that vertex 6016 did not even exist in the list. After spending a long time researching, I had found the answer. In a post on Torque Powered website, it said to move the center of mass on the character biped. By doing that, I was finally able to find the vertex that was misbehaving. After weighing the vertex, it finally behaved for me and exported nicely. The animations there after, worked nicely.
The only issue that I encountered was exporting the main character. When I went to exported it, it told me that “vertex 6016 was not weighted”. I then went to check the vertices weights on the character and found that vertex 6016 did not even exist in the list. After spending a long time researching, I had found the answer. In a post on Torque Powered website, it said to move the center of mass on the character biped. By doing that, I was finally able to find the vertex that was misbehaving. After weighing the vertex, it finally behaved for me and exported nicely. The animations there after, worked nicely.
What would you do differently?
I would have redone the character from scratch. I had encountered many issues with the shoulder, arms, hands, legs, and feet as far as the animating them. There was a lot of stretching of the character mesh do to me not modeling it correctly.
I would have redone the character from scratch. I had encountered many issues with the shoulder, arms, hands, legs, and feet as far as the animating them. There was a lot of stretching of the character mesh do to me not modeling it correctly.
Post Mortem!
Mytholojig is an adventure game where you play as a caveman trapped in a strange land. Your goal in the game is to find your way home. As you explore the strange landscape of this world, you will encounter different characters that will help you along the way. We set up characters to go with their environments. Our main environments were Egypt, Atlantis, China, Norway, and Roman based. They all had their own style and feel, and were conveyed by the character. I wanted to go with a feel of being guided through the game by the same person in each area. I developed the idea of Van Dam being the face for all of the characters besides the old man, and the caveman. The outcome of the characters was really cool. I was happy to see them finished. Your objective is to speak with each character, and then collect an item to help you return home. Once you have collected the items, you will return to Stonehenge and be sent home. You must return to the altar in the center of Stonehenge is you doorway to return home to the past.
Things that went right are few and far in between. We hoped to be able to play test at our final milestone, but came up a little short. None of us were 100% done at that point, and we took the time up until the final to work on our parts. We stuck together as a team and focused on getting the assets done. The assets I was in charge of came out better than I expected and I was pleased with their final look and feel.
Things that went wrong were mostly in programming, but also in the LOD. We overlooked the LOD needed for the complete build of the game and for it to run smoothly. This caused us to have to take a lot of awesome looking assets out to let the game run and not crash. The programming in our game was lacking some key parts to make it interesting. The AI talk was the games major focus, while the programming was there; it was not functional at the time of presentation.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again; we all need to work on time management. It is easy to get side tracked and forget where you need to be in finishing your milestone. It would be great if we could stay focused, sometimes that is difficult when you are working on different projects for other classes while trying to maintain a life outside of school, but you need to find a happy medium or you will stress and fail all the time. This time, I was pleased that I kept up with my goals overall. I slacked a couple of times, but I was able to complete my assets in time before the midnight oil started to burn.
The team worked great even when we were slackers. The important thing to do is communicate with your team and try and keep each other focused. I feel that we did a good job with this, but could have done better if we would have pushed to be ahead of schedule.
Things that went right are few and far in between. We hoped to be able to play test at our final milestone, but came up a little short. None of us were 100% done at that point, and we took the time up until the final to work on our parts. We stuck together as a team and focused on getting the assets done. The assets I was in charge of came out better than I expected and I was pleased with their final look and feel.
Things that went wrong were mostly in programming, but also in the LOD. We overlooked the LOD needed for the complete build of the game and for it to run smoothly. This caused us to have to take a lot of awesome looking assets out to let the game run and not crash. The programming in our game was lacking some key parts to make it interesting. The AI talk was the games major focus, while the programming was there; it was not functional at the time of presentation.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again; we all need to work on time management. It is easy to get side tracked and forget where you need to be in finishing your milestone. It would be great if we could stay focused, sometimes that is difficult when you are working on different projects for other classes while trying to maintain a life outside of school, but you need to find a happy medium or you will stress and fail all the time. This time, I was pleased that I kept up with my goals overall. I slacked a couple of times, but I was able to complete my assets in time before the midnight oil started to burn.
The team worked great even when we were slackers. The important thing to do is communicate with your team and try and keep each other focused. I feel that we did a good job with this, but could have done better if we would have pushed to be ahead of schedule.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Trevor blogging again
- We are in the last stages of this project. Right now, we are all putting the last assets of the game together.
- No milestones were changed at all
- So far there have been no issues on my end
- Most everything is working for the most part. The level design is coming along well and the assets are fitting the areas we have.
- I have not had any issues thus far
- Aside from Jordan not being here to program our game, everyone is doing their part to complete the project.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Schits weak...
So as I watch the beginning of game 2 and we are already down by 1 I am reminded of this weeks post and things that do and don't work. All of my modeling is complete, and everything is ready to export and textured. The only difficulty I am having is that the face of the viking character is inverted. My milestones have not changed at all. I need to figure out what's going on with my texture asap. I'm sure we will be ready to present in time; I plan to use the weekend to work out my kinks. Other than that the group is working well together, but I haven't heard from Jordan. I'm sure he will come through with his part of the job, and if he needs help, we will be there to finalize the project. If anyone needs anything from me shoot me an email. Good luck on finals week, and go Wings!
blog blog blog... bla bla blog blogs the .... um blog...
What stages of the (project) am I on and how is it progressing? How or what could I improve?
At this point we are trying to wrap everything up. I have finished with the placement of environment objects (except for the palm trees) and I only need to add assets from the art team.
Did I change my (project) milestone goals? If so, why?
I didn't change my goals at all.
How did I deal with the problems that came up?
I was having a hard time with multiple collision mesh's until Amanda showed me a super fast way to make what I wanted in Constructor... bye bye mesh's...
What is working and what is not working in the planning and implementation of the (project)?
Right now, the level turned out a million times better then I thought it was going to. I dont want to say I'm suprised but I sort of am. The level is still loading quite fast thanks to the built in LOD on the trees that come with starter.fps. The problems I'm having now are all in relation to programming. The player walks to slow for how big our level is... he can walk up inclines that are FAR to steep for him etc.
Briefly describe your time spent and any problems (within the team, with a computer, etc)
The only real problem I've had is in exporting assets. I still have some issues with sizing and collision meshs. I spent several hours on the tree placement, the asset placement, the modeling and the texturing of assets. I've had fun, but I have spent quite some time in front of a computer.
Evaluate the (project) as a whole including team members, if applicable
So far the assets have been comming along nicely. I still need to place everything which means getting it from the art team, but as of now it looks good. I'm not sure about our "talk" system. I hope its getting done but we'll see...
At this point we are trying to wrap everything up. I have finished with the placement of environment objects (except for the palm trees) and I only need to add assets from the art team.
Did I change my (project) milestone goals? If so, why?
I didn't change my goals at all.
How did I deal with the problems that came up?
I was having a hard time with multiple collision mesh's until Amanda showed me a super fast way to make what I wanted in Constructor... bye bye mesh's...
What is working and what is not working in the planning and implementation of the (project)?
Right now, the level turned out a million times better then I thought it was going to. I dont want to say I'm suprised but I sort of am. The level is still loading quite fast thanks to the built in LOD on the trees that come with starter.fps. The problems I'm having now are all in relation to programming. The player walks to slow for how big our level is... he can walk up inclines that are FAR to steep for him etc.
Briefly describe your time spent and any problems (within the team, with a computer, etc)
The only real problem I've had is in exporting assets. I still have some issues with sizing and collision meshs. I spent several hours on the tree placement, the asset placement, the modeling and the texturing of assets. I've had fun, but I have spent quite some time in front of a computer.
Evaluate the (project) as a whole including team members, if applicable
So far the assets have been comming along nicely. I still need to place everything which means getting it from the art team, but as of now it looks good. I'm not sure about our "talk" system. I hope its getting done but we'll see...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)