Week 4: Jack Wilson-Perrien

Hey guys sorry for the late post, I've been have internet and power issues for the past days. Last week we have our themes and mechanics down for the first three levels. Every member of the team has been invited to the the file share network. I'm need some help with the game group on facebook. Matt and I are working on the market plan and that should be done sometime this week.

James Henderson Week 4 blog

The group was able to meet up for a group meeting and we went over the mechanics for the game. I do like the way the game is coming out so far, and I am looking forward to the completed version. Our 2D artist having amazing talent for drawing as they showed us there character drawings and enemies, for the game. Thursday we broke down every bit of the game as we could, as far as mechanics, combat, level design, abilities, and we were at a good point to where we liked our ideas and kept to it. I have been working with the sounds for the game as far as background music and sound affects. I want to get some really great sounds to show the group when I get the chance. So far everything as been going good, now we look forward to making the game.

Week 4: Eric Swarts

This week we nailed down all of the mechanics that will be included in the game, and how complex they'll be. In the end we decided to cut back on the combos for now and add those in later if we have time. A few of the knife abilities we assigned to one button, and will vary based on context. For instance, the stab 'n' swing technique will only happen while the player is in the air, while the pole vault will only happen if the player is on the ground, but they are assigned to the same button. Also, we went over our level settings one last time and decided what theme we want each of our levels to take. The project seems to be coming along pretty nicely.

Week 4:Zack McGuire

I'm happy to hear that people are coming up with good stuff for the game. I'm sorry that I could not be there Thursday to see it. Next Thursday is when our documents are due. I will be doing the majority of that except the concept art. We need it for everything. I know I said this Tuesday but I just want to make sure this point hits home.

I will be working on the vision image for next Thursday. I also will have sketches for the UI to show as well. I was thinking our ink bottle logo would work with an ink level indicating life. If there is anything else you guys think need to go in the player UI let me know.

Keep up the good work everyone.

Matthew Theroux- week 04B

Thursday:
Today, we went back over the mechanics. We decided to keep the Pole Vault, Stab 'n Swing, and Cut n' Paste. We also talked about combat. We will keep simple combat for the numerous drone/ minion type enemies. But, more creative techniques will have to be used on tougher, more "real" enemies. For now, LOD will make only one motion. But later, we could easily make more motions to cycle through.
We touched on how each of these could be implemented through a keyboard/ mouse interface. W,A,S,D will handle movement. Although, W & S may be confined to ladders. Spacebar is for jumping. One button will be used for melée attacking. We may have a run button. Another button will be the "action" button that will be context sensitive for Pole Vault or Stab 'n Swing. [SHIFT]?
One button will enable "cut" mode. An icon will pop up from cuttable objects. The player can click on the object to cut it, (as opposed to dragging around it). The object can later be pasted by clicking the icon along the bottom edge of the screen, dragging it to its destination, and clicking. If the destination is invalid, the icon should turn red, indicating such.

Individual assignments:
All of Anthony's stuff is great. Almost no need to comment. Shaylin whipped out his enemy ccpts. We decided upon a flying bat, a web spinning spider, an ink-squirting squiddy, and a "Chupricabra" crawling, lunging enemy. We should probably make up some dipshit enemy that can come in great numbers and be meléed.
We went over level ccpts and definitely decided that Level One will feature a basic black line for the ground (hills preferred) and a lined paper background. Levels Two & Three were slightly more fuzzy. It seems like Level Two will feature a boneyard. There is no reason why other ideas and themes cannot be mixed in, however.
Everyone is encouraged to continue in their areas of development. I also asked that everyone choose one 'value' that each most treasures for the group and come up with a short, 3-4 sentence paragraph to say why. I think next time, I will ask for uniform wardrobe ideas.

Matthew Theroux- week 04A

Tuesday, we discussed level concepts, flushed them out, and assigned ccpt art, (etc).
Thursday, we looked at what everyone had worked on.
>I worked on 3 presentations to organize some data:
1. game ccpt revision (2 to combine), 2. company profile & beliefs, 3. Marketing+Ads, 4. legal
>Anthony did more poses for the main character in his 3 LODs to use toward animation.
>Shaylin did some new enemies with the skulls. Each one was unique in its own way.
>However, James stole the show when he brought in a finished background music composition. It sounds like techno meets Chalkzone(c). It's not the sound I was thinking of for a a game like this, but I can see how it could work. Jack suggested the tempo is too aggressive for Level 1. Agreed. It would be better for Level 3. If James can make a more laid back, version of the same thing, we can use it for Level 2. An 8-bit version of this could be used for Level 1. Impressive!

Week 4:Shaylin

1-25-11 What team Death Ink™ did was meet in a different room and discuss several things.
We decided that the combo-attacks would be set on backburner. Our team came up with various ideas for the environment of each level. I am in charge of coming up with the enemies.
1-27-11 Team Death Ink™ in a group meeting in a different room discussed our day 2 agenda. We discussed the main character sketches. We decided to choose which enemy characters to focus on.

James Henderson: Week post

Its been a crazy couple weeks and with my group, I feel that we can successed in this game. To be honest I kinda feel that we make a perfect group, but at the same time we feel that we could easily fall apart. When this group was formed, none of us expected to work with each other and it took us as a shock. I do feel confident in the team and I am happy. I want us to work together a team and make a good game. I am alittle upset that I am a 3D modeler, but not a 2D, sometimes I feel that there is no use for me. I tend to be useful to the group some how, some way. I do have a lot to think about for the weeks ahead.

Week 3: Jack

This week I was responsible for creating the fighting moves for LOD. I've come up with several attacks and combo using hand to hand combat, the exacto knife, minor objects, and parodies from several video games and movies. It's been decided that when the time comes I will be responsible for the design doc, and managing all the data. Currently I'm studying up on my flash, so I can animate the objects.

Larin Payne-Week 3

I did the presentation with the team about the game we was doing. I put all the drawing concepts I did on the and turned it in for the PowerPoint introduction. After that, the team want into a different room to disguse more on game machanics, character movements, and enemies illustrations. I did the final concepts of the main character and a flying enemy for Thursday.

On Thursday I turned in the new character concepts and the flying enemy and the team did the presentation on the games with better understanding and detail about what we are making. Over the weekend, I will be drawing up characters animation movements so it can be put on flash.

week03D- Matthew Theroux

>I don't know what happened, but after our presentation, Zack disappeared, then Eric. I'm sure they will meet later by themselves to talk about the game design. The remaining 5 of us talked candidly about our roles in the project.
>James was disappointed because he can do 3D art, but not 2D. We quickly discovered that he also has a talent for *sound,* one of the key abilities for which we were searching. This is *HUGE.* I gave him my small collection of voice effects (including quality disclaimer) as a sample. He is going to do some of his own for Tuesday.
>Anthony has been working very hard on the 'LOD' character, so he will be good for continuing on that.
>Shaylin is a very talented, creative artist, and is perfect for working on the enemies. This way, he can show off to us how awesome and creative he can be. It sounds like he already has a style in mind featuring skulls and demons in a noir style, as far as I can tell. Very nice.
>Jack was concerned about his 2D animation skills. He says his strength is in 3D. From what I've seen from our two artists, however, this looks like a task they can handle, possibly from help from Zack (the lead), if needed. Since he had already offered to get a start on documentation, I suggested that maybe this could be his role. Because he thought that wouldn't be much, he also offered to be a go-between for roles, helping out anyone who needs help. He can also help with the flow of information and communication between these roles. This will end up being a lot.
>Obviously, I will be the programmer. Eric wants to be the level designer, and Zack wants lead design/ artist. This is not a conflict, at all. I admit, I was frustrated with the disorganization of the team. Now that we've flushed out some roles, I think the flow of work can begin, and that bitter taste we each have can end.

Week 3 Shaylin

1-18-11 I am on the post-brainstorm stage. The real work begins after the presentation, of our ideas so far. Lately, I have been trying to construct a game mechanic like ours in my mind. After the presentation our team decided early roles. We are still in the concept phase.

1-20-11 After another highly criticized presentation, it is almost time to create our assets. We had team meeting in a separate room and discussed the game idea into more detail. I felt shattered, my ideas were shattered. I hope that in the end this idea becomes a realization. The idea of enemies having skulls for heads puts death in Death Ink™. If we want to finish within scope, then we must start off small and build up from there. Strictly Flash.

week03C- Matthew Theroux

Today, our presentation was not as completely humiliating, but it was still pretty bad. I wonder if everyone understands what should go into a good presentation. Only one person was able to make the 'End of Day' Wednesday deadline. As a result, unprocessed images were tossed at me last minute to throw in there. Other things were not formatted correctly and were not able to be seen well. On my end, the font did not stick out enough. Apparently, the solution was as simple as using boldface.

Week 3: Eric Swarts

This week we've assigned jobs to all of our team members. We've settled on using Flash for our game instead of Unity, so that changes our roles a little bit. I'll be working on level design and I'm going to be sketching up some ideas for our presentation later today.

week 03-B MattTheroux

Our presentation was completely embarrassing, today. It was a lot of nothing all over the place. I am very disappointed in (most of) my team of artists for (mostly) not providing me with any art.
Fortunately, we found an empty room and were able to collaborate more thoroughly on the details of the core game concepts. I feel some of the team member's gifts may not be properly recognized and channeled, yet. However, we should be much better prepared, if everyone pitches in and does what they are supposed to do.
Anthony will redo the "LOD" character to 3 LODs. He will also do one enemy concept. Shaylin will also be doing enemy concepts like his one on the ink bottle. James will be doing flying enemy concepts. Eric will be doing level concepts. Jack will be doing (melée) fighting concepts. Zack, who has currently taken leadrship of the team, will be doing the other game mechanic concepts. All of the above "concepts" are visuals, of course, because we need to put them into our power point that we get a second chance at. I am doing competitive analysis, (risk management), and re-compiling the presentation.

Week3 Zack McGuire

Not being here on Thursday was a big set back for me. I wasn't able to finalize details with the team for the presentation. All and all the presentation was thrown together quite quickly. I would have like to have been more prepared.

On the brighter side we have decided to go with flash. I think that it will allow us to do more than if we using a 3d engine. We have some skilled 2d artists and I think we can get some quality assets. Some of the mechanics are worked out but I want to do a major brainstorming session to get everyone on the same page.

week 03-A: Matt Theroux

It looks like we're going to get organized and be in good shape by Monday for Tuesday.

Week 2: Jack

What's up guys, Matt posted earlier that mediafire was giving me problems (totally true), but I found a different file sharing site and set up a folder for Death Inc at dropbox.com. I will be be contacting each team member and send them instructions on what to do. Right now I'm consolidating all our notes for LOD, when I finish its going right to dropbox with the other team stuff.

Larin Payne-Week 1

In the first week of class in GAME410, I have done some thumbnails on the Logo and Character designs and listen to what game mechanics will be use and what will be in the game being created. I have done some character concepts sketches and ideas for Thursday and over the weekend to be used for the PowerPoint.

week 02-C

Jack is having issues getting the Media fire link.
For now, use the Forum under Team Project I, General Discussion, team Death Ink,
on the student portal.

Don't forget: The presentation is on Tuesday. Which means I need your stuff for Monday.

James Henderson Blog: week 2

I am very happy with the way the group is progressing with the project. I will admit I was a little concern at first, but I see that this will be a awesome group project to work with. On thursday we were able to get a good description of what the game will look like. We came up with a lot of ideas and everyone really liked the ideas. I believe the name of our game was LOD: cut & paste, and with this game its about detail. This is a unique game and I am excited to work on it. I myself am a 3D modeler and level enivorment designer, so I will play My part in the design anyway I can. I can't wait to get this project started.

week 02B update

We are team Death Ink, in our journey through team game project at school. Our members are as follows (but speeling may be off, anlong with other details):
Zack MacGuire, Eric Swarts, Jack Wilson, James Henderson, L. Anthony Payne, and Shaylin Clark. Oh yeah, I'm on there, too.
Without Zack to confirm or deny what we went over on Tuesday, we had to go by what Eric was telling us. Eric and Jack worked on level mechanics. Anthony did a nice delineation of 5 character LoDs. Now, he is working on enemy visual desig In. Shaylin had some nice weapon visual designs. I don't know what James is working on. Jack is working on the GDD. I'm putting the PPT presentation together for Tuesday, based on what everyone gives me.
Some sort of wording slip caused us to upgrade the name of this game to "LOD: A Cut and Paste Adventure." It's catchy. "LOD" will also be the name of the protagonist who gets a visual upgrade every level. (Get it?)
I hope someone will be willing to pickup some research on sounds. I really don't want to have to handle it if I've already got all the programming. It's not like I'm an expert, anyway.
I guess that's it for now. What's that? "Speeling" and "anlong" are not spelled wrong. Those are imaginary words I made up in my head. So, they are speeled exactly rayte.

Week 1: Eric Swarts

Last night we had a good, lengthy team discussion. We've ironed out a lot of the details on a level by level basis and we've also decided that our engine that we'll be using for the project will be Unity. Our 2D artists in the group have whipped up some real nice concept sketches and more will be on the way. Hopefully on Tuesday we'll be able to post the design doc for everyone to see.

Journal Entry

I am on the post-brainstorming stage; the project is moving smoothly.

The team is still unsure as to what software will be used.

The gameplay is well thought-out.

week 02A update

Hey. We just started on our epic team project. We decided on a game called "Cut and Paste" and a team name of "Death Ink." We set ideas for job parameters, and our more artistically inclined members came up with some good logo ideas. Each level adds to the "level" of detail of the character. Anthony came up with some good, clear divisions for these. Shaylin came up with some good concepts for the weapons and items our character will be using. Our pitch presentation is due on Tuesday, so I hope everyone can get me their art and ideas in time to show them off.