3/29/2015

This week was spent playing the build that we have been working on and working to figure out what could be improved upon. I also spent time finding bugs and inspecting what things we have but have not yet been added. One main issue I was looking at was the difficulty curve. This curve seemed to change in specific circumstances and looked a lot harder than it should have. I will be continuing to look at this until I can better understand when this is happening and  then meet with Tim to correct the issue. During the meeting the team did well to knock a lot off of the list that we had for finishing alpha issues.

3/22/2014

This week has been a push for everyone to make Alpha a reality. I specifically have been taking somewhat of a backseat roll but have been part every conversation surrounding art, mechanics, and implementation so far. I specifically have been focusing on the newspaper art and implementation. I went through and spoke to Matt T about what should be featured for the pictures as well as helped go over choices for other headlines. I sat with Leif and went over re sizing the gave yard, making sure to highlight the exit gate for the zombies, as well as fixing the carry animation for the main character and the daze animation for the zombie. I also went over with Tim all of the mechanics that still needed to be added and how those mechanics should work Alpha.  

3/15/2015

This week was not as work loaded as it possibly could have been due to the fact I went to San Francisco. This was helpful in a different way in that I was able to meet with a relative that works at Zynga. This was very helpful and informative to how a studio runs, looks like, and how a week looks at a relatively large company. Not to mention it was a really awesome experience and a great way to meet someone who is actually working in the industry right now. For work this week I created a newspaper layout to Matt T in order to let him get an idea of what we needed. Over the week I also started spit balling possible things that could read depending on if we have time to add it after players complete a level. At the bare minimum there will be labels for how well the player did, Best, good, and  worse style setup.

3/1/2015

This week has been one of our more stressful and successful weeks of production. With the midterm check in rapidly approaching it was vital that we be clear on what needed to get done. One of the first things that I did that I felt help this process move along quite well was creating a list of tasks that needed to be met for the midterm milestone. There were several wish list tasks on there as well but prioritizing these tasks and diving them among the separate disciplines led to a very tight schedule and everyone understanding the work load and priorities they needed to be focused on. Once everyone understood this we went off and just worked. Most did a solid 3 and a half hours on Saturday starting from the easiest tasks and working our way up. The finished product was a very pretty build that had a good balanced feel to it with a lot of  animation components compared to our last build. We also have a much clearer understanding of what needs to get done for alpha and each of us seem to have a better understand of the expectations laid out for the game. The only draw back, which unfortunately was a rather crippling one was the repo. This week on two separate occasions updating the repo removed almost of the meshes that were  present in the game which forced us to re download the repo then add all meshes and textures back in manually. This cost us a significant amount of time to fix and hindered adding some features but overall i am happy with the progress of the entire team this week.

2/22/2014

This week has been very eventful for me. I was able to work on new sounds, respond and make decisions off of QA feedback, and continue getting the economy variables figured out for how the costs of different items in the game will work. I was also worked with cool downs and the amounts players will be able to receive from the money they spend per object. Another important note to make was taking the responsibility of lead. This is something I know I will need to focus on moving forward and work to make sure that the design direction and overall direction of the game will be responsive to my decisions. Moving forward I will be focusing on tuning the economy and other aspects of the game while continuing to test and make the appropriate changes according to feedback.

2/15/2014

This week was completely spent on finishing the balancing for the different variables included primarily for difficulty. I spent a lot of time balancing and retesting them to fit into the different sized maps and appropriate difficulties. I also found some new mechanics I believe will be quite vital in further increasing the player's experience for the better. Thanks to time all of the variables are now in game and are ready for QA. I have set my sights on balancing the economy in the game for purchases of items as well.

2/8/2014

This week has been spent in preparation for green light. I specifically have not have a lot to do with the necessities that came with this presentation specifically but I have been overseeing certain individuals that did. I specifically have been working on finishing the sounds that are on the spreadsheet that has been created. I also went through the process of citing all of these sources correctly according to the sites specifications. I have also been able to get accurate figures out of the game on the different variables i have been working with for balancing issues. This has greatly prepared us for testing which we will be doing this week.

2/1/2015

This week as been met with a minor set back that came with different difficulties but were overcome none the less. The main objective of the week was to implementing more balancing in game. the first issue that I ran into was that I was unable to access my testing branch that I had created in order to test out the different balancing possibilities in combination with each area size and difficulty setting. After figuring it was my version of unity I decided it would be easier to go to the labs and just work there for now until I could ask others if that was the true issue.  However, after looking through the project in the labs I learned that there was another issue that I could not fix on my own. I was able to set the length of each night and a general spawn rate of zombies in the appropriate area sizes and difficulties. Although I realized there was not yet a way to manipulate the number of zombies that spawned during each wave (The set times zombies were set to spawn). with this knowledge there was no real way to test the other variables without being able to control the amount of zombies. From there I passed this info onto Tim. In the meantime I decided to collect sounds off of the juiciness spreadsheet that Kevin, Ian, and I worked out earlier in the week. I was able to collect and successfully cut 12 different sounds off of that spreadsheet. This up coming week will be dedicated to balancing now that Tim has implemented a  way to access that variable.    

1/25/2015

      This week I spent a majority of it going over the different systems that were already present in the game and understanding how they work. I spent a great deal of time focusing on the difficulty that became associated with the size of the maps that the players could choose and also the difficulty setting. After looking at variables like how many graves spawned, how far apart they spawned from each other, number of zombies from the start to the end of the round, and how long a round lasted I started to realize that with the increase of difficulty the game was severely unfair after the advanced setting in the small areas and even unfair sometimes on the normal setting for the normal and huge map sizes. I also came to find that the difficulty of each round was only effecting the number of zombies per round and nothing else as far as I could tell. This week will be spent putting in my own numbers and estimates off of the game play I have already recorded and testing to see if it is easier, fairer, and still enjoyable. To this this I have already created my own branch in the repository to do my own testing. Thanks to Tim I can easily access most of the project variables I need and adjust them accordingly.
      Another section of this week was spent finding some new sounds to be used for zombies. I found several grunt noises and even a clip of zombies saying "BRAINS!". I collected several different clips all having a different direction to go in. I plan on cutting them up and creating simple script that I can give the programmers to easily implement into the project wherever they need to.

1/18/2015

This week as been spent getting to know the new team and the way in which we all function. We all seem to be working together extremely well as of right now. We have all been placed on different clusters in order to ensure that we are all accomplishing the tasks needed. I was placed on the cluster that will be developing characters. Specifically the main character and his appropriate animations. Along with what the zombies will look and feel like as the game is played. I did this by first watching different rewarding moves that the player could possibly do to place the zombies back into their graves after they have been knocked unconscious. After I decided which ones I liked I story boarded them out into segments and gave them to Shain to look over. I also gave some reference images to Noah to help him get the feel for the type of zombies I believe we should have. I ended out the week continuing on the master balancing sheet I have developed off of Ian's work from last semester.

11/22/2014

Having been very sick up until the time of presentations has been one of the most stressful things I have had to do in a very longtime. Preparing for the presentation has taken up a lot of my time. I have made three different iterations on our power point and the wording that I want to use on each slide. I am dedicating myself now to learning this completely new slide  along with the addition of note cards. I am still deciding whether or not I want to actively use the note cards I created, not only does it feel more awkward to be using them while i am presenting but it also adds at least a minuet onto the entire presentation. They also disrupt my flow while I am presenting and make me into a robot that is putting out information rather than a developer talking about their game. I do feel ready however, in that I have rehearsed a great deal for this presentation and even though I have changed the order and wording I know that I have a firm grasp on what I want to communicate to the audience about our game.

11/15/2014

While this day has come with some amazing news of passing stage three it has been a struggle for me personally with this awful sickness. Not only has this limited me in this class but also in all of my other classes. There is nothing more frustrating then knowing that there are extremely important dates coming up while knowing that pushing yourself while sick will only make things worse. The biggest thing I have been focusing on is trying to rest so that I will be ready and able to present next week. I have also stayed in constant communication with my team so that they can stay up to date with how I am doing and my progress that I have been making. I have put all the energy I could into creating the presentation and trying to fit an entire semester, or at least how long we have been working on this game into a 15 min presentation which is not easy but is not completely undo able. While resting and hoping to get better only time will tell what is going to happen.

11/8/2014

This past week has been jammed with huge amounts of week. Balancing progress in all has been a difficult challenge thus far. However, even though this has been a rough week we have been making huge strides with our game. We have been making huge strides with audio and creation of our tutorial level. I feel confident that we have a good grasp on our game play and what we want our players to ultimately experience. Our market however, has caused us to take a step back and reconsider. Even though I believe that we could potentially make the Facebook market work and that it would be a worth while attempt to make a difference in this market the amount of time and effort that would go into trying to do this is out of scope. We plan on venturing into new territory and perhaps explore how the steam community would receive our game. So far I believe this might be a more welcoming place to have our game and players that are more involved and can retrieve deeper meaning from games would be easier to find here than in a Facebook community. Other documents will need to be updated and adjusted but overall I feel comfortable that we are in a good place to move forward.

11/1/2014

For this week as a team we really wanted to step back and focus on what we really needed to get done so that we can move onto stage three easily. A lot of the market analysis for this particular idea has already been researched in a relatively detailed way. I personally want to dive in further and defiantly make sure that this game is going to be received by this market at least in a positive way. I will have to be sure that the players in the Facebook market that we are exploring will be able to follow such an intense and in depth game. I plan on addressing this through a basic walk through tutorial level narrated by Noah. Traditionally Facebook games are quick and give an enormous amount of feel good points  whenever the player does anything right. While I do not want to fall in with the rest of these typical Facebook games I do appreciate how much feedback the players do receive in these types of games in general. This is definitely where I have been placing my focus for this week and have been researching ways in which the followers can show their response's to the player through body language, specifically the proximity the followers want to have to the player depending on their loyalty at any given time. This has not yet been completely worked out  but it is a good way to start heading in.  We also are focusing on a camera blur that will aid us in our new theme that the player is in some time of dream like world. In our meeting today we are working all of these into our new level that I also created for a tutorial.

10/25/2014

This has been one of the best weeks in Capstone ever. All of the hard work has definitely paid off these last two weeks. We were not only able to finally past stage one but pass stage two as well. This was an incredible feat and cannot be happier. Now we are trying very hard to make sure that we step back and greatly plan and use our time wisely in attempting stage three.  We want to be sure that we will be able to go through no matter what. Everyone on the team has been working extremely hard to get us were we need to be and I could not be prouder of myself or my team. The next big challenges that we have to deal with have to do with making realistic and appealing AI that follow the player as they move. Rob and I are already making preparations to address these issues and I feel confident that we will be able to quickly fix any issues surrounding this. Another focus that we have to work on is nailing down the exact background that we want to have. At the moment it is between a more realistic background that we are currently using and a more fantasy less realistic look. Although, we have agreed that we want this to take place in ruins or an Easter island type of setting. For me personally I want to be sure that the players are having a fun and positive experience while playing and that the game play does not become stale.

10/14/2014

Coming up on the newest reveal of our project Influence. I am excited for what I believe will be taken very well. Everyone has been working extremely hard to prepare for taking on two stages at once. We have been meeting non stop and work meeting have been going extremely well. the art and prototypes look good, and if I do say so myself the research is spot on with what we are portraying in our game. if we can keep up this focus I strongly believe we can push this game through to where it needs to be, even if we are a bit behind. The systems all seem to work together and through playing the prototype I can kind of feel that excitement someone who is fishing gets. The unknowing of whether that follower will agree to how you answered last or not. The biggest problem I see in my way now is just pulling it all together and selling it as best I can and get this game to stage 2.

10/8/2014

Influence went spectacularly, just like we were all hoping for. even though this idea has come to us extremely late, compared to what we were hoping for. I believe we can pull it off and hopeful get through to the needed stages. I have already research a great deal and can see that this game can be extremely complex, however it will pay off through authentic game play. I will continue to do further research in hopes of getting this game were it needs to be to continue on.

9/30/2014

At this point the team has been very demotivated that we have not been successful in passing stage 1. It has come to everyone's attention that following up with any of our games is fairly hopeless.  We have decided to seek help to clear up some confusion. going and speaking to Professor Ferguson has greatly improved our outlook and has helped to re motivate us by assisting in coming up with a new idea. I am excited for the new system heavy ideas that have been spoken about for influence.

9/26/2014

This week I will be trying a new way to discuss my design processes. This past week has been met with both success and hardship. Starting with the more challenging parts of this week I will note that being unable to challenge stage one has been a major downer for me personally. Going through to make the project stand out and work well with the criteria of stage one was a challenge and ultimately did not affect whether we would be able to move on or not. However, we were still able to receive feedback on our presentation and make up of what we had to present. On another less than amazing note is finding out that our Conundrum Coliseum Game idea has potential to be stopped in its tracks do to criteria that all games should be able to be played in a single player mode. While we are not completely in trouble this has made a lot of my ideas and the teams ideas extremely challenging to work with. a lot of pressure has been put on me to try to rethink how this game is going to work. While I accept this challenge I will not lie and say I was not disappointed. On a more positive note however, I am very happy with the focus and advancement the team has made on Comet Collide. Seeing this has also made me feel a lot better about the fact that a single player game may be required to continue on. If Conundrum Coliseum does ultimately become unsalvageable Comet Collide game may be just what saves us in the end.

9/15/2014

- Continued working on balancing classes
- Presentation of our solidified and simplified ideas
- Update on comet collision
- Continuing Visual Design doc on both