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.