Homework 9

So here's my HUD design and menu design on paper.

Hopefully it shows up okay. >.> From here the green looks yellow.

Homework 8

   After racking my brain for a while, I decided that a non-computer game I really enjoy is Scattergories. For any of you who have never heard of Scattergories, it's basically a word game during which you come up with words that fall under a certain category, yet all start with the same letter.

   The technology provided includes category cards; special paper used to record your answers; a piece of specially formed cardboard that is used not only to hold your paper and category cards but also to keep your answers hidden; a timer that counts down one, two, or three minutes; a die with around 20 letters of the alphabet; a board to roll the die on; and a writing utensil. 

   The mechanics are relatively simple. You have a predetermined amount of time to come up with twelve words that fall under a certain category, which are listed on the category cards. For example, one category could be "Book Titles" or "Presidents of the United States." One of the catches is that they all must start with the same letter. This is where the die comes in. One player rolls the die, and whatever letter it lands on is the letter used. There are three rounds, and the letter changes for each round. At the end of each round, every players' answers are revealed and points are rewarded. Points are rewarded based on the uniqueness of the player's answer. For example, the category is "Book Titles" and two players come up with "War and Peace." Neither of those players get a point. At the end of three rounds, the players add up all the points from the previous three rounds, and whoever has the most points is the winner. 

   It's a word game, so there's not really much of a story, if any. As far as aesthetics, the print outs are nice and easy to read and follow, so you don't have to think too much about where to put your words. Columns are well organized as well. Pretty much everything has 'Scattergories' printed on it, so it's hard to forget you're playing. XD

   As far as our game goes, the mechanics are basically that of a regular puzzle shooter. You have an overall task, which is to find the missing teddy bear, but you also have to keep yourself alive by shooting your enemies and navigating through many puzzles. Aesthetics are hopefully going to include some nice textures and immersive sounds, such as eerie music and haunted house sounds. The storyline is that your sister's bear was accidentally sold at a yard sale, and now it's involved in the teddy bear human trafficking syndicate and you have to rescue it. Technology is Blender.

   From my point of view, a strong theme in our game is perseverance and sibling love. The player is on this quest solely because of his sister. He loves his sister so much that he's willing to go through all this crap to save her precious teddy. He's also persevering through all of these trials and tribulations. So sibling love and perseverance. These are shown through the story because it's a known fact. Also, the player has to go through these challenges, so it's made apparent that it's really only because of his sister.

Homework #7

All right, more information about our prospective game!

Surprises: Flickering lights, enemies coming from absolutely nowhere, and I'd like to think the fact that there's a secret teddy bear trafficking syndicate. 

Goal: To rescue Anna's wrongfully sold teddy bear from the grasp of Big Pimpin'. 

Why: In the long run, there will be a plot twist similar to the classic Mario "I'm sorry, but your princess is in another castle." The incentive will be to figure out where the heck Big Pimpin' has taken Anna's teddy bear. Each mansion is in a different location with a different theme, so curiosity will play a part in incentive as well. Questions like "What will the next mansion be like," or "What kind of enemies will the next place have to offer," will drive the player onward.

Valuables: WEAPONS AND BULLETS. You're gonna need 'em. Also helpful are health packs, in whatever way we choose to implement them. 

Problems: The best example we have so far is that the first haunted mansion is multi-story, and before you can proceed to the next level, where all the enemies are, you first have to find a light switch to light the upstairs or something along those lines. The player will have to navigate through the mansion until they reach the goal, which is probably going to be something akin to a maze. Another idea is that the player can't proceed to the next floor or stage until all of the enemies are defeated, or maybe all the parts to a mechanism have been found. 

Generation of Problems: I was thinking maybe randomizing where the light switch is, or creating side quests to unlock better weapons or armor. Maybe if you revisit later in the game there will be an awesome prize if you go through again. 

Initial Thoughts on the Tetrad: Obviously our technology is Blender. As far as mechanics go, we definitely have a spawn point, but death is uncertain as of late. We'll probably have health packs to help out with the players not dying all the time. Basic rules are that you navigate through the mansion, eliminating the enemies as you strive towards the end of the mansion. Then you go through it all over again. The aesthetics of the first mansion are going to be things related to haunted houses, such as being dark and creepy, a bit old fashioned, howling wind, apprehensive music, loud bangs...etc. And the story is basically the player going through different houses in search of Anna's teddy bear. 

Big Pimpin's First Mansion

So here's the outside of the mansion. This is the first place you visit under Big Pimpin's control. I was informed that this place looks like "oodles of fun" because my drawing style is apparently "super bubbly." I was also asked if I had Sprite before drawing this. It's supposed to be at least a little scary...

Little sister permitting, I'll try to color it tomorrow. She's a pain in the butt sometimes.

Homework 5...

Not so great. XD 

I've managed to get the tracking, groups, motion, sensors...mostly everything works but bullets. I feel like I've followed the file given to us as closely as possible, but something's still wrong. It's definitely made of fail. ^^;  I also had a problem with my tracking; I created Boo-like objects and put them in a group. There's four altogether, and three of them won't float unless the first one has a soft body. I don't know what the heck I did to screw it up, but there's one random Boo creature that seemingly does nothing. He tracks me a bit, but that's the extent of it.





In the video, it's basically me moving what's supposed to be my humanoid/gun object running from Boo-like objects. This relates to our game concept because our enemies are going to be ghost-like creatures, and Boo is a fun ghost and easy to pretend to emulate, so I just took a sphere and gave it arms. 

Also, concept art. I will have the outside of the mansion up tomorrow, and maybe Anna. It depends on if I decide to fix her dress or not. >.< Or I may put her up and then put up the changes I may make later.

About our Game~

So the essential experience of our game is rescue. You are given someone to rescue and you do your best to get it done.







The story begins at a yard sale. There's an adorable teddy bear that appears to be for sale. A mysterious, shady man finds it and asks your friend (who volunteered to help out) how much it is. Your friend ends up selling the bear to him without realizing that it is actually a treasured toy of your sister's (Anna). She is heartbroken after discovering her precious teddy bear is gone, so it's your job to get it back. After doing some investigation, you find out that the poor bear has been sold into the world of teddy bear trafficking and is under the roof of Big Pimpin, the Mack Daddy of All Pimps.

The first level of the game will introduce you to a haunted mansion. Here the souls of teddy bear pimps congregate in an attempt to take you down with them. You will wander through furniture and hallways, collecting guns and ammo along the way.

Our characters so far include yourself, Anna, Big Pimpin, and the Souls of Pimps Past. You are a high school male who enjoys being on your high school football team. You also enjoy taking care of your sister and making sure she's happy. The game is in first person view, so not much is known about yourself. You are able to wield a knife and guns, and you're also athletic. The Souls of Pimps Past take the forms of zombies, ghosts, and ghouls, who are all pretty gross. Big Pimpin' is decked out in a traditional purple pimp suit, complete with cane that fires like a gun. He's wealthy and pretty much overweight, but he doesn't need to be built to run things behind the scenes.

Homework 3

All right~ Actually managed to get this video done. I'm now using a desktop computer, since my laptop seems to hate large programs or operating in general. Sorry for the intense silence, by the way. You can play some upbeat music in the background or something.

I started out by throwing my laptop against the wall creating two cubes. I squished one like we did today in class, and the other I left as a general cube, just yellow. I applied the keyboard sensors for the WASD keys (probably in the wrong directions) and created a jumping option with the spacebar. I gave it a dynamic body and a mass of 20. Next I created a bunch of walls by copying the squished cubes a few times and making them green. They're all static. Lastly, I created three different spheres, all with rigid bodies. The red ones have a mass of 5 and utilize the touch sensors, the larger blue ones have a mass of .7 and have collision sensors, and the smaller blue ones have a mass of 2.5 and use near sensors. I duplicated each of these four times, so there's 12 spheres hanging around. The whole premise is to attempt to knock the spheres off the plane and find out how the spheres react. Unfortunately, my cube tends to run all over the screen at times and my aim appears to be awful. I also added several light sources, though only two appeared to have an impact. I put in two suns in two different locations. It's awfully dark without them. 

On a different note, Birth by Sleep is really awesome.

Homework #2

Here's my creepy little character in some hilly terrain.

All right. Finally was able to make my character on hilly terrain. It took me three days to get to this point because I forgot everything we learned last Thursday. I've never worked with a program like this before, so this is definitely turning out to be a learning experience! 

What I finally did was create a plane, subdivide it, and used the proportional editing tool to make the hills. I played around with the sphere, root, and one other type of hill-making. Then I made an icosphere, used the root subset of the proportional editing tool to make his arms, and shoved another sphere on there for good measure. It seems like the circle that I randomly created managed to get there too. As for the colors...I think it was under materials...or something. I was clicking buttons and found it. XD 

EDIT: Fun new fact: my laptop refuses to run the video capture software while I'm using Blender. It took about five minutes for it to subdivide a random cube once, and then completely crashed. I'll have to install it on another computer and see if it'll work there. Or get a new laptop...