My Journey: Finishing

     This is has been an interesting semester with plenty of hurdles to overcome. Development was a big issue, as I had to manage my time in a way where I could prioritize efficiently. I had to watch plenty of tutorials in order to work with Unity to make the level. I admit that it definitely was a struggle to learn the program, but I got the level designed, however I did end up having to use models to represent what I wanted in the level, since modeling takes more time to do then what we have available. The design was of the beginning sequence in the dream world. The world is laid out with the village to the east and a castle of a nearby kingdom to the west. Far north lies a mountain range that spans across the countryside. I had to use a pre-scripted character to represent Dan, but it worked out fairly decent with what I had to work. I ended up having to color many pictures by hand, since vectors took too long. I was amazed that I managed to accomplish what I did, but there were so many drawbacks. If I could of improved anything it would be focusing on what the core of my game is in my presentation. I have this well covered in the design doc, but unfortunately I was not able to explain it as well to the professor. I did enjoy the experience very much and I hope the journey continues in future exploits. 

More Character Sketches, Refinements and Unity Work

     My progress so far has been mostly on artwork that I've completed. I've done pretty much all of the character sketches and I'm creating the colored versions of the main characters. The program I'm using primarily for this is Adobe Illustrator. In regards to the work I've done in Unity, so far I've scripted the character to respawn and I've placed invisible walls around the terrain to keep the character from falling off. My next plan is to extend the terrain to give it the illusion of having a vanishing point. I've also started making the screens for the game and I'm editing a series of panels from the storyboard that I will show during the presentation of my prototype for the game I am creating. Other work that I plan on continuing is work is to refine the overall design of this game, both in the way I present and the content of the narrative that I will be detailing in the presentation to come. 

Storyboard and Character Sketch Coloring

So, the storyboard is up for this weeks update. The story is pretty straight forward. Dan is listening to a lecture, falls asleep and is transported to this dream world that he has created subconsciously. Though at first surprised, Dan explores the world, going east, where he finds a village. Interestingly enough, the local villagers come out of their huts to see what's going on. One of the villagers approaches Dan and Dan extends his arm out as a gesture of friendship to the curious villager. The villager greets Dan and introduces himself as Sidewinder. He then signals to the rest of the village that it is safe to approach Dan, when suddenly they hear a loud rustling sound coming from a nearby bush. A monster suddenly emerges from the brush. Sidewinder and Dan engage the creature in battle and then finally defeat it. Sidewinder is in the process of thanking Dan when suddenly Dan hears a familiar voice calling his name. His vision suddenly starts to dim and then goes black. He wakes up back in his classroom. He then realizes that he was dreaming, but the dream seemed so real. This level ends, while making way for the second sequence of events that follow his dream. This will open up the plot in the waking world and how this ties into the dream he had. The storyboard is where I base the prototype. So far I plan on expanding the level design for the dream world. I'm also in the process of coloring many of the main characters. A preview of what I'm talking about is in the picture above. The character you see here is Spike, leader of the Road Raisers Gang. They are a group of bullies that regularly pick on Dan at Kingston High School. I plan on coloring several more characters and posting pictures of these pieces on a latter update.

Update for Game Development: Classroom Crusader is On the Move

     My update for this week's information on the game development is mainly about conceptual development. I have been thinking up a storyboard to make sense of the rough plot that I have in mind. I have a storyboard ready for scanning, but I'm fine tuning some things. I should have it posted up soon. Work with Unity has been minimal because I wanted to develop the storyboard before I continued with the level design. Generally things are on schedule and I hope to have it posted eventually.

Continuing Level Design and Character Design

Last week I managed to create a rough working demo of the game I'm developing. Most of the figures I have inserted into the demo are representational until I can make my own models. The design is based off the dream world level I am creating. I have a rough grassy landscape, with a tree to the left, a castle in back, a village off to the right and some mountains off in the distance. If I can get a snap shot of the design I'll post that up at a later date. The figure I used was a ready made model that was pre-scripted. If I have the time then I will modify it to look more like Dan, but that's if I can squeeze it in with the limited amount of time in continuing to develop the prototype. I gave a animated presentation, displaying the character stretches I've created so far. I'm in the works of making a storyboard with the plot that I've developed so far. The sketches I made for the characters are in the pictures above.  The first picture is of one of the characters that I've created to be part of a gang that attends the school that Dan also attends; Kingston High School. The crew is called the Road Raisers Crew and the crew member I've drawn is Ice. The leader's name is Spike (The guy in the picture below with the mohawk). The other pictures are include Dan's love interest (Lisa Monroe),Dan's chemistry teacher (Whitney Morus), and Crawler (the lead antagonist in Dream World). I've got a character map for those interested into delving more thoroughly into the specifics.

Level Design Sketches and Unity

     So far I've been working on the level design in Unity and I'm still tinkering with some of the program features such as importing objects and adding textures to those objects. I plan on having a rough demo of the level, which will be of the hallway inside the school. This is my plan for now. I've sketched up some drawings of various levels that I wish to create, including the one I'm working on thus far. Next week I'm required to have the demo, which would include game mechanics, character design, and a working prototype.  The sketches I have posted above are the work I've done so far on how I want some of the levels to look. The first picture is of the classroom hallway that Dan attends. The second is of the general landscape in his dream world which he interacts with when he falls asleep. I hope to have more updates on the presentation along with the demo posted up some time next week.

Character Design and Unity

    Well, this week we had to turn in a plot analysis of a game that we would choose to expound upon. I chose Final Fantasy X, a personal favorite of mine. The plot involves the main protagonist, Titus, on his journey as he finds himself in a world 1000 years in the future from his own. He encounters an entity Sin, a monster which ravages the continent and it seems to be tied into his whole predicament. The picture for the analysis and it's design is in the picture above if you wish to view it. Now, as for my game I've been sketching out some character designs. Some of the character designs I have are of rough designs for some enemies in the game along with a more developed design of the main character, Dan. I've been experimenting with the built in physics of the inputs for the in game objects, which for the most part seemed very promising. I chose Unity as opposed to flash, because flash would require me to create and input the programming manually, which would be time consuming for what I have planned. I should have some sketches for the level design by next week as I start designing the level in Unity. Enjoy the work I have posted up so far!