Homework 6

1. For each of the four elements of the Tetrad, explain how it is addressed by your game. If one of the four elements is not used please state this. 

Mechanics: We are still discussing and developing our game, but I think the general idea is that we want the players to have fun while also completing a purpose which is to save the village from the infection along with fighting off the aliens. We currently have weapons going with the Medieval theme, bows and swords! So we have a play style for both long range fighters and up close melee players.

Story: There is a myth about these scared Dragon Balls spread around the village that possesses an incredible power; Once gathered together the Dragon Balls can grant any wish. However, alien have heard about such great power and have venture there way into the village to find it. With them they bring a virus that's infecting people of the village. It is up to our protagonist to kill the aliens as they try to gather clues on how to find all the Dragon Balls and rid the village of the deadly virus.

Aesthetics: How our game looks, sounds, smells, tastes, and feels? As stated we are still developing different parts of our game now and haven't really touched based on the aesthetics part. We definitely have a theme going for Medieval times, but the question is what are we going to do with this idea? We already open up the world of our game by involving aliens so there is like much more we can do. We aren't restricted in our creativity for the game. I am even thinking about involving in plasma guns =)

Technology: We are mainly using Blender. There is a lot this program can do and that is impressive considering it is free! I am still learning how to use it, but based off what we do in class I am excited to get to a decent level of understand so I can create more. Also shout out to Skype and CamStudio.

2. Do the four (or less) elements work towards a current theme?
Yes, we have an ScFi Medieval theme going. As mention, we are still in the developing process and have our own ideas flowing. However, it's going to all come together and be something unique!

3. In your own words, describe the meaning of a "theme", and how does it differ from an "experience"?
Theme is the main focal point of any event, story, conversation, etc. For example, I am not a hardcore fan of the horror theme so I avoid things that focus on this theme such as Halloween Horror Nights. (See it even has horror in the events name!) Even though I don't like horror I did go to Halloween Horror Nights a couple years ago with a group of friends and had a surprisingly awesome experience! It wasn't fun getting scared to the point of almost peeing myself, but it was a nice experience that I will never forget because of the time spent with my friends and undergoing those haunted houses together. So to better explain myself, a theme should not be a deciding factor how one experiences something much like how graphics shouldn't be a deciding factor on how good a game is.

4. What is your game's theme?
I feel like are general theme for our game was assigned to our team based off our interest in a specific game genre, in our case RPG. So our game is going to have characteristics of a Role Play Game with our own little twist. We have the setting of our game in Medieval time with weapons you would find in such a time like bows and swords, but we involved a ScFi theme as well by involving in aliens. Where we are going to take our players on there adventure is open. We can stick to a basic plot with our player killing aliens for no purpose and find the DragonBalls and call it a day. Or we might have a huge boss battle at the end where the player needs a rocket launcher to be effective against the boss outer-shell armor! See it is still pretty open now.

5. What are the elements in your game that are meant to reinforce this theme?
I feel that all the elements will flow together to reinforce our ScFi Medieval theme, except the aesthetics part.... work in progress >.> However, I am totally looking forward to working on the combat for game. We are definitely going to incorporate the combat with the goal of the game, find the DragonBalls and save the village.

6. What is it about your game that you feel makes it special and powerful?
I feel like what make our game special and powerful is our team. We have such a good team that has all these grand ideas and aren't afraid to make them real. The final product is probably going to be more enjoyable for our team to play more than anybody because of us all undergoing the trails of learning blender and create something awesome with it!

Homework 5

Above is a video showing the setup on how to add keyboard inputs to make the object have motion to it. I realized after watching the video that it might be difficult to see what exact was in the Logic Editor portion. So I have a picture below showing a screenshot of what I have for my current setup for my object which is a chair. As stated in the video, I plan to incorporate this motion in our groups game by having the player move the chair out of the way in order to access one of the Dragon Balls that might be hiding under the table. 

Homework 4

1. Do you love your project/game. If not, how can that be changed?

I just recently got hardcore into the RPG genre through Skyrim and don't really have a passion for it compared to that of first-person shooters and fighting games. However, I am very open-minded about the possibilities for this project and feel that my lack of love is just my lack of information about the genre. I am slowly growing to love it though especially the story line and the different ideas we all have =) My teammates seem very passionate about what we are working on and I have to say that it's contagious.

2. Does the team as a whole love the project? If not, what can be done?

As stated, I personally am just getting into the genre so I don't really have a passion for it. I am still a newbie. However, I am interested in the story line and the design for the game. (Medieval times is my favorite setting: Elder Scrolls series >.>) The fact that my other teammates are passionate about the game makes me want to help them achieve their ideals for it and contribute as much as I can.

3. Are the team members communicating with each other?

Yes we are communicating with each other. I feel that is the most important part to get everyone inputs for the game and different aspects that we should work on. It's been an awesome experience so far communicating with the others.

4. Does the team have a regular meeting schedule? What is that schedule?

We don't have a set schedule yet, but we all have each other Skype accounts and we communicate through that. Our next meeting is actually tomorrow at 7pm via Skype.

5. Describe the modes of communication between the team members. 

We communicate sometimes after our class depending on if we have to rush to our next class. Our main source of communication has been through Google docs and Skype. Each of my team members' phone numbers can be found on the Goggle docs just in case we need to get in immediate contact. It has been a good system so far. We also use our school email as well.

6. Regarding game documents, what must be remembered while designing your game?

I feel that we have to remember that there is only so much that we can do for our game and what exactly we want the game to be. We all collectively have wonderful ideas, but they have to flow together. By flow together I mean come together collectively to make a complex game by the end of the semester.

Homework 3

Honestly I can say with confidence that I had no clue how to maneuver through Blender efficiently. (I am such a n00b) However, with the help of this tutorial I was able to create two objects to be used in my team's game.

This is a picture of the first object I created in Blender and I would like to think of it as either a stool or a table. For what I have now in my Blender file it is proportional to that of a stool, but I plan on changing it to be proportional to a table. (Once I figure out how to do so >.>) Basically I started out with a cube and changed the x,y,z axis size to make something resembling a box. I used subdivision for the surface of the table. I changed to bottom view to use extrusion on the legs for the table. 

Success! I have created the final object that was my initial goal, a chair =) As simple as this object may be in the real world, it was quiet a challenge to construct in Blender. I took the template of the file represented by the first image and change to top view to use extrusion for the back seat of the chair. I used the knife tool on vectors that I cut into twos and made a bridge across to have a face for the back seat of the chair. (Don't want the person to lean back in fall to the floor!)  A new tool I learn to use and that was used often in both creations was "Loop cut and slide". It allowed me to smooth out the curvature of the legs and the back seat of the chair. (Very useful!!)

Once again I used this tutorial I found on Youtube to help me make these objects. I plan to incorporate both objects in the game to have places where the NPC of the game can sit and interact. Plus it could be a perfect place to hide one of the four balls from our game underneath!

Hw 1.2

Showing off my current wallpaper for my desktop. I created this image when I was messing around with a free photo editor I found surfing the web. 

 I guess this could be seen as proof of me creating this image. This was a couple steps back in the creation process and was almost the final product. Just in case you are wondering, CosmicCurry is my gamertag.

Add me!!

Speaking of games, below are two city building theme games similar to that of SimCity.

Tycoon City: New York

CivCity: Rome

HW 1.1

This video shows a demo of a free program called Cold Turkey. I used this program often in my career as a student and it has help me a ton when I really want to be productive. You also get an awesome look at my current desktop setup =)