Update

With the mention of making a game that is an interactive poem from my teacher for GAM 302, I came up with a concept for our game that would be in the vein of a poem. The player is a spark, they are essentially the "spark of life" and they are giving the world light where there is none. In fact, they are within a computer system that has been dead for a long period of time, and the player is bringing it back to life. More systems come on as the player goes through the game. Throughout the game the player will receive hints as to what happened previously; how the computer stopped working, or went out of use. That's the basic idea of the game.

Gameplay will be more puzzle-esque, and platform-based. The experience I want the player to have would be death in the beginning and life at the end. Sort of an opposite way of thinking, but it could be a profound experience for the player. Granted, I highly doubt my team will switch over to this idea, we are going with our current idea, especially since it is sound, and we already have a bit of the technology up and running. But, this could be a good fall back idea.

This is my third idea, and I actually just came up with it no more than a few minutes ago. Other than the idea, I have to create music for our game, I experimented with the sound program that I will be using and it seems pretty crazy, but I think I'll cope. Especially since I know some talented people to look to for help. Not much else to say about the development of our game. Our graphics programmer has created a texture that looks like a cityscape, and it looks like there are particles moving all over the place, but technically speaking they are not particles, which is really cool.

Playtest meeting

We play tested a prototype that was created for our game, and the results were pleasing to say the least. Players enjoyed the game to a very high degree. Many enjoyed the flying mechanic of the car, and because of this it will probably become our core mechanic (I already had an idea that it would). The main thing that players were having trouble with was the controls when it came to flying. I knew this was going to be an issue, especially since the controls were based off the center of the car. The left joystick controlled spinning, which is completely unintuitive, and the right joystick controlled the camera. So, the only way to move around while flying was to rotate the car and then pull down on the joystick to go up.

Obviously it was just a prototype and our real game's controls will be much better. I'm glad that the overall feedback was favorable to our game idea. Players also enjoyed the other mechanics, and some even said that we don't need to add anything else, the game is good as it is. One person did give a pretty good idea about wall gripping though. I'm thinking about the idea, and it sounds like it really could be fun. You know, driving up the sides of buildings and such when the player has the wall grip ability, stuff like that.

In this same meeting, our team setup what we wanted to finish for our engine proof in week five. It basically dwindled down to getting physics implemented to the point of being able to have a car be able to drive around and go up hills. We also wanted to get a true level into the game. Basically a level that is created by me, which requires a level editor. Another thing that was speculated, and something that I am working on personally is original music for the game composed by me, and my producer. We'll see how that goes. Not much else to say, thanks for reading! I'll keep you posted on any new updates.

Meeting update

Today I had a meeting with my team. We went over the usual stuff, how everyone is feeling and what we've finished over the week. We also spoke of some things that we need to get done, such as the level editor. The team I'm on kicked around the idea of having the editor within blender, it seems sound, and it will be much less coding on the programmer's part since all of the editing is pretty much in place. I also proposed two fall back game ideas to my team. One of them stuck. The other was too close to our core game idea, so I have to come up with another, which is probably what I will be doing in the coming future.

First Post!

Currently, I just finished a video that I was cutting up for my game team. We're called "Team Nitronic". Here's the video


Everything that is in the video was created from the ground up, excluding the music. That is from OCremix. Good game music site by the way. Other than the video I've also been designing the game. Our idea right now is to have a driving game where the player is trying to get through the level. Within the level there will be obstacles, such as walls, blocks, and a changing track. Jumps will also be in the level. I want to have the jumps send the player really high into the air to give a sense of flying. Especially since we plan to give our car wings. There will also be massive downhills.

The player will have powerups as well. Powerups include, hopping, boost, and gliding. The art style for the game is actually going to be similar to Tron, neon lighting and such. I plan to have the track notify the player what is coming up. I'm doing this because I want gameplay to be so fast that it is a requirement to have the notifications. We'll see how that goes. I'll have to play-test it to see how well players adapt to the mechanic.

We plan to play-test our game very soon. We're going to focus on controls for the first few play-tests to get them down. Controls are very important when it comes to a driving game. Also, when I say controls I don't just mean the controller layont. I'm talking about the feel of the controls, how well they correlate to what is going on screen, and the feedback that the controller gives to the player.
Thanks for reading, I'll do updates at least once a week.