Adrianna - Workload

Adrianna I need to know what you can do this week. From my notes I noticed that we have the Website thumbnails to do. We also need to work on the instructions menu, screen interface, Website banners, and t-shirts.

I was thinking I would work on the instructions menu's and screen interface if you could pull my files from box.net and work on the banners and t-shirts. As for the Website thumbnails I don't know if you want us to work together on it again or not (the 25 thumbnails each)? If you don't want to work together (Since some of team mentioned we need to separate projects) then one of us can work on the Website thumbnails and do the CD/CD Case thumbnails.

I know we have a lot to do but hang in there and I will be checking the blog on my blackberry I just cannot respond to blog posts from it. If anything comes up I will be able to post Sunday morning.

Design Document Files

I have dropped my design document files into box.net (Documents Folder). I had to to do several files so I made a folder. Even the zipped files were rather large and I had a hard time downloading them. I have not yet gotten together the marketing documents. I still need to do some work and sort through it. I will not have Internet access tomorrow but I will still be working on the project. I will be checking the blog Sunday. Have a good weekend team.

Attention Joe!!!

and anyone who has an opinion.


This week will come the all mighty control change!!! DUN! DUN! DUUUUUUNNNNNNN!

So based on testing what do you think the logical controls are?



Interface people may want to pay attention!

Box.net

The example I talked about earlier is now on box.net. It's in the milestones folder under documentation. This is where you should drop your files for the design document.



Also (this is more for Joe since he wasn't there to see it or get it out of the drop box) the new TimeBlunders.exe file is up on box.net (in the main folder).


Go. Play.

Documentation

Rules for documentation:

1. Portrait not Landscape.
2. Pictures must have relevant file names.
3. Use those file names to write down a short description.
4. If you want, write a paragraph describing steps you took and such.
5. For thumbnails, use a 8 1/2 by 11 document to fit 3x3 thumbnails. (so 9 total)
6. Put all of this in a folder and compress it.
7. Upload that folder to the documentation folder in box.net
8. Do more work on the game.



That's about it. I'll upload a little example folder to box.net. Hopefully this will help those that might be confused by what I require.

Questions?

Bring that beat back.

So I had fun doing sound today it was eye opening well I thought it was. So there are two that are posted radiation and radiationX. Yeah I was inspired by the Power Puff girls. My favorite is bubbles she is so cute. And she has a little temper on her. lol. Anyway the sound is up and I know it is late, and I know Joe is a night owl. So Joe look at this when you get a chance. HOOO HOOO. See you in the morning.

Let there be ground..... Well I am God lol's

So I have the work as followed the ground is done wel;l to my standard and I am proud of my ground. TEE HEE! So I am going to do the sound for the game and mix it up a little. But if you guys have any questions about the ground I am happy to answer them. So see you guys in the morning and programmers please get some sleep ok. Dont need you guys mad at the world well A.K.A. me. See you.

Website Banners

I went with the size that most websites required. So here are some quick images I took from the animations. Please download the swf files from box.net - milestone 5 - Malina's website banners. I know they still need some work the text animation and clean up of the banners edges needs to be done. Let me know what you think so far. Thanks team, I will see you all tomorrow morning.

*Sigh*

So I've been looking at my designs for the Banners and T-Shirts and realized that almost none of the art is made because it needs a lot of new stuff from Shelby. Things that I waited to and eventually forgot to ask Shelby for.....

So I fail epically.

I knew the iterated in-game interface wouldn't be in game this week but the fact that I forgot to request the new art sucks and that the old art I was going to use for certain things won't work they way they are supposed to when I took a longer look at them.

*headdesk*

On the single positive note of the night....

I will have a back up version of the "Next Level" Screen with a nifty new button up Shortly.

What I've been up to:

NO GOOD!

Actually I've been working hard at putting peoples assets into the game. The compy is now in the game, the dinos can pick (well, walk over it and it dissapears, where is that animation of the raptor gobbling the compy down Shelby? Ha Ha Ha, l.o.l.) up the compy and the ride timer is reset.

I'm finishing up putting Dans sounds into the game and developing a system that will randomly pick a jump sound each time Zalien jumps. This will add a little more depth and "anti-repeditiveness".

There is still more to do and for some reason I actually feel kinda pumped up for the game again. Maybe it's because for the first time in over a month I got a day off to do my work. It's kinda nice.

Anyways, I do have a few questions about the food system in the game. When you pick up food should the timer be reset? Should we add to it? Should it be a lot of time? Maybe a few seconds? The timer deffinitly needs to start with a longer limit than 5 seconds that's for sure. All these questions and more will be answered in next weeks action packed installment of "Dragon Ball Z"!

Attention Krissy!

I am very disapointed in you....

I went into your milestone 5 folder and seen the BugPop.swf and got all excited to see a little rolly polly bug pop into a glorious display of entrail fireworks and to my dismay I seen a neat little animation of a bug popping out of the ground.... I was totally thrown off guard! Ha ha!

Other than that the beetle is freaking great! I'ma work on putting it in right now.

Polly Animations and Thorn

Okays, I have the thorn bush done along with the animation done for Polly (our little bug). He has a death, Pop up and walk animation. All files are up in box.net milestone folder. In all of the fla files, the movie clip on the stage is sized for the game, if you just want do drag and drop.

Malina's Update

Tom, Justin & Adrianna
My Screen Interface Version
There is the new file with the correct naming conventions and all are movie clips with the exception of the text. Hope this helps, I dropped it in the same folder (Files were replaced).

Team
We are going to need votes on the T-shirts, Website Banners and Screen Interface. Thank you all for your time. I have posted my versions of the screen interface and t-shirt designs. I know this is late in the day and I will not be able to post my website banners until tonite. Because of this I know we will not meet our deadline tomorrow but at least we can follow through on the process and get revisions or final comps done this upcoming weekend.

T-Shirt Designs

Here are the designs for the T-shirts. I really wanted to go for a simple direct design. I believe that Adrianna is going for a more elaborate design. So we really need to vote between my design and Adriannas so if anyone reads this in time please vote for tomorrows presentation. I know its kind of late in the afternoon. Thanks team.


Edited Version - Does this help the back design?

Edited Version - Does this help the back design?

Actual Size Logo (Black T-Shirt)

Actual Size Logo (White T-Shirt)

T-Shirt Logo Placement

Actual Size Logo (Black T-Shirt)

Actual Size Logo (White T-Shirt)

T-Shirt Logo Placement

Wow...

So it seems putting stuff in the new level is a full time job (it doesn't help that my computer may be responsible for Flash chugging so much). Anyway Level 1 is looking very, very nice. Compliments go out to Joe for designing this level. Also Todd's tar pit bubbles look pretty sweet combined with Justin's particle effect. Things are looking really good.

Couple of things:

Adrianna: The level complete screen that's in your folder is not in the game yet. I don't know if this is the final version but it would make it easier to have a button to start the next level. Right now it seems like it needs to be based on a timer.

Krissy: You have nothing in the Milestones folder. Do you have anything that's final?

Dan: Do you have the new parts to the ground yet?

Joe: Remind me to talk to you about level backtracking.

Justin: I'm assuming we're meeting tonight?




As a note to everyone it seems like Justin and I may have forgot that there's a lot of programming that needs to be done for some of these new assets. I'm going to be working like mad to finish this new stuff in time for critique. However, it may not happen. Just a heads up.

Off to work I go!!! ( A&W...sigh)

Speaking of A&W. I'll be there until around 11 p.m. If there's something posted to the blog I will be able to read it through my phone. However, I can not respond until I get home (stupid blogger log in thing). So I will see your comments, I just can't respond.


GO TEAM!

Attention Malina!!!!!

When you upload a fla file make sure all of the movieclip names are unique (unless they are unchanged). The Zalien head in the in-game interface was changed. Therefore his movieclip name should not be "Zalien" (this is already a movieclip name). Be sure you're working with the game file to avoid simple mistakes like this.

Also you're still using Graphics. This is very bad. It makes the game lag. A LOT. Everyone was told from to use movieclips for performence purposes.

Please take care of this problem if your interface is chosen. If not make it a point to be aware of this in the future.

Do You Know What I Love???

The fact that when I press a key on my keyboard it takes Flash 15 - 20 seconds to respond. Hmm. I wonder how this is going to work.






SLEEP BE DAMNED!!!!!!!!!

Tom - Game Interface

Tom
I dropped the games interface in Milestone 5 Folder - Interface Folder. We are leaving it up to you on if you want to use Adrianna's or my file. There are images below of both interfaces. The file is called Screen_Interface.

Second In-Game Interface

Here is a JPEG of a screenshot I took, the flash, SWF and this JPEG are all in the Box under Milestone 5 in my folder. I decided to show it on it's own and how it would look in the game.





I decided to go with images and numbers to convey the information to the player simply because it's easier for them to read in a hurry.

Please look at Mine and Malina's designs give us some feedback and choose which you would like to use as the interface.

I have also tested this interface file in Version 21 of the game and it works with no errors.

Screen Interface

Okay here is what the screen interface icon looks like. I believe the best place for this is the lower left corner of the screen since the only thing that it will cover is the levels lower ground area. I will drop the files into the milestone folder as soon as I can. I am having trouble uploading to box.net again.


In-Game View


Closeup View


Render (800 x 600 View)

Bug

Here is Polly the Rolly Polly Bug. Isn't he cute. :3

T-shirt Question?

So I was looking at the T-shirt designs everyone is picking and most of them are very large designs. I dont know if the large designs will work with the iron ons were going to use. I also dont know if this will end up costing us more to make the t-shirts.

I think doing the simple pocket logo on the front and the Game name with website on the back shoulder may work best?

Good morning chidRens!

I'm not expecting anyone to read this, (right now) it's pretty late, uh, early. I just wanted to say good morning and Level 1 blockout is complete & in my BOX. It's playable...the whole level, (Tom & Justin, it's all connected into one long jack ass of a movie clip). The dips, (as mentioned earlier) are not where spikes or tar are going to be. Roughly 92.7% of Level 1's spikes, thorns, and tar pits have been removed. Even the scary room at the end has been cut down. Don't cry. People will be more happy now. However not all of the jump distances are smoothed out yet, plus there are quite a few hangy edges and other various cleanups needed. I know, I know, get back to work! Sleep first. See everyone in about three and a half hours.

Tom & Justin: I have to review the fla file with you before we release it into the wild.

ThornBush

Sorry for not posting anything sooner, but here is the thorn bush. I'll be adding the thorn bush into box.net soon. I added the spike vines with it cause maybe some where down the line, it would be neat to have the spike vines around the thorn bush (and it seems that I like to add an e at the end of thorn so ... yeah, just don't mind the random e).
Unfortunately, I forgot the bug at school and I didn't realize it until today. The concept of him is done. He as a 'fleshed-out' body and I started working on getting him some movable legs. He is based off an Rolly-Polly bug (aka Pill bug). In which, with the help of Shelby, that the Rolly-Polly is more of an crustacean than a bug. I'll show you guys Polly on Tuesday. But until then, becareful with the thorn bush.... it might poke an eye out.

(Thorn bush is in my box.net under k_brown_week5)

Vine Update

In my BOX folder in the Tutorial update section...I've done something with the first set of vines. Tell me what you think.

Howdy folks!

Like blood? Violence? Freaks of nature? Well come on down to my BOX folder labeled Level 1 index -> Level 1 - 1st Milestone Blockout "exe" yall can play the first milestone length of Level 1. Make sure you pick up some of my tasty fried chicken! Ha! Haa! It just tastes so damn good! The dips in the level are not going to be spike or tar pits, (only like the last three to four). I have a page worth of changes made to the level. I have also condensed it a bit; the A-C portion is just a hair bigger than the tutorial level. :D>--

Tar

The first tar pit I made was too wavy, looking at Joe's levels the tar pits were shallow and I thought the tar needed to be more flat too look more viscous(I don't know if I spelled that right but open office says I did). Tom the tar pits I made half the size of the water in the tutorial level and they do tile so if it needs size adjusting let me know, I tried it in game with version 20. The bones in there can be placed separately if needed so if you want I can pick out the bones of the one in the file. The splash of tar when Zalien falls in is in there too in milestone 5 folder.

EDIT: The ship is in there too scaled to the size in game. The lines Kim said looked painted on are removed.

Compy!

I've got the Compy and tar death animations up in the Milestone 5 folder on the box. I'm afraid that the movie clips might be too big though, because I don't have CS4 at home and couldn't open up the .fla here to check the sizes. :( (But I will open it at school tomorrow and fix them, don't worry!)

Right now I think the tar one plays a bit strange and fast, so you can probably consider that one a work in progress at the moment. If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix/change anything let me know!

New plans

So, based off of the new tutorial style, Level 1 will be changing...a bit. The initial spike pit of doom is going to be removed. As well as many other pits. The dangers of level 1 compared to the tutorial do not match. I have tested two people so far with the new tutorial design. One of the testers did not play games; the tutorial level completion was a success. The comfort zone is much higher. Ease of play has been increased. And the overall fun factor has elevated too. These results are being implemented into Level 1.

What Am I Doing??????????

So I haven't been on the blog in a couple days. I apologize. So what am I working on?

Well I'm working on optimizing the code mostly. We have 21,654,065,410,324,894,032,185,403,210 for loops going at once and the last time I checked that wasn't good. However if they recently changed that and more for loops make the game run faster then we're golden. So I'm getting rid of for loops any way I can. This will involve doing things through classes. I might need to make classes for some things that we don't have them for now.

Another thing I'm working with is the documentation. Everyone has been putting their stuff up so now it's time to get all of that officially in the document.

Sketches

I have some bigger sketches of a couple of the Banners, T-shirts, and Interface ideas that might work really well. These are bigger and give a better idea of the thumbnails.

If there are any other versions of either of these three things, Banners, T-shirts, or Interfaces, that catch your eye from my previous post let me know and based on the majority I'll sketch out more concepts.

These are also available in the Box for perusal.

It occurs to me.......

That when I uploaded my thumbnails on Saturday I should have put them on the blog as well...

Tutorial Level update

I have uploaded an exe to the BOX. It's in my folder located in Tutorial update "exe" (follow the gold star). I know... some of the ground looks like butt. I haven't gotten that far yet. This is a tangled web of hell. On the same plate, I'm about 89% done with our first milestone blockout for Level 1, (yes, behind). This level is huge. It's giving some problems as far as scale goes. I will talk with Tom and Justin on 7/27/09 to get this issue resolved, (once resolved, the rest of the level blockout will take about an hour). Other than that, everything seems to be going somewhat smooth. Working with our file is a nightmare, (I'm sure this is more apparent to some than others) I just felt like throwing that out there, anywho. I will continue to post my updates. When all is said and done, the correct files will be placed into the appropriate milestone folder. For now, the progress work will remain in my BOX folder.

Thumbnails - T-shirt, Game interface, & Web Banners

Here is the thumbnails I have done. Please let me know what you guys think. I am really excited about doing the final comps.

I have...

...updated the flowcharts and level maps. They are in the BOX, (in my folder). I have also started writing the Level 1 breakdown document. I have been redesigning the tutorial level, and also blocking out Level 1. The blockout file will be placed into the milestones folder when finished. All feedback, (thus far) has been reviewed thoroughly and the recursive gameplay problems are being "dealt with." That's all for the moment.

Interface & Marketing

So Adrianna and I have a good amount of work for this week and have split up the work load. Here is our plan for this weeks work.

Tom or Justin, I know were suppose to move onto "week 5" milestone folder should we put all of the interface screens (even previously finished ones) in that folder too? Or do you just want the updated versions in that folder?

Main Menu Instructions - Malina (Done tonite - posted in box.net)
Place boxes for the "hit" so rollovers work better.
Place ESC key rollover and define.
Remove the Battery and Ghostrig rollovers.

In-Game Pause Screens - Malina (Done tonite - posted in box.net)See above for instuction screen changes
Place "back" buttons on the Quit, Volume, and Instructions screens.

Game Interface - Malina & Adrianna
Thumbnails (20 each) Due Sat. 12pm
Final Sketches (2 each) Due Mon. 6pm (Please remember to vote)
Digital Comps (1 each) Due Tues. 5pm

T-Shirt Designs - Malina & Adrianna
Thumbnails (20 each) Due Sat. 12pm
Final Sketches (2 each) Due Mon. 6pm (Please remember to vote)
Digital Comps (1 each) Due Tues. 5pm

Website Banners - Malina & Adrianna
Thumbnails (20 each) Due Sat. 12pm
Final Sketches (2 each) Due Mon. 6pm (Please remember to vote)
Digital Comps (1 each) Due Tues. 5pm

Main Menu Instructions Update

Here is the updated version of the main menus instructions screen. Since we decided to remove the ghostrig I had to rearrange the buttons since it looked odd have two rows of 4 and then a row of 2. I hope this is okay with everyone? The ecplanations are now on the bottom which I think adds better flow to the page reading straight down. I also added in the "hit" boxes that Justin was talking about so the rollovers work much better.

Tom or Justin, I redid the in-game pause menus but for some reason the file that I used from the milestone folder was missing the volume screens controls so I had to put them back into the screen. I also noticed that the back button on two of the screens does not work?

Stuff That's Going On

Today we decided as a team that the Ghost Rig Guy is not necessary. This changes some of our game interface and gameplay stuff. Now going by Kim's current schedule all of the little things that need to be fixed are due in box.net in the Milestone 5 folder by Saturday at 3.

On to new stuff. We all discussed what is new for this week. We are now moving on to Level 1.

Artwork for this level includes: Tar Pits, Compys, Bug, and Thorn Bush

Sound includes: Background music, more jump sounds (2-3), tar pit noises, Earth Element pickups

Interface: In game interface: Lives, Earth Elements

Marketing: T-Shirt, Banner ad

Level: Final Blockout (consider what's going on for Tutorial Level)

Programming: Collectable Food, Sign that dino is about to dismount, stay on triggers.

Also for programming I will be optimizing some of the code. This will decrease some of the lag.

So all of this is due by Tuesday at 5. In the Milestone 5 folder (with the exception of Marketing). Remember to post what you are doing so that everyone is aware.


A few notes:

Remember to name new MovieClips differently.
Work with the game fla file so that all of the art matches perfectly. (The first time you see your art in game shouldn't be during critque)
Also we have an hour every Tuesday before it's due. If you care about if your stuff got in the game come over and talk to Justin and I.




AND REMEMBER!!!!! No smoking, and no flash photography.

Tom and Justin Game Tweaks List

Character bobing up and down when on a dino. Moving mount point.

Waves sound implimentation.

Updates to come later.

So once again I have to upload the whole game.

So you guys how are you? So i was having a problem with the games ground and it keeps crashing. So I am going to upload it the way I have always been doing it right through the blog. Yeah I know, dan why are you doing this, well because I hate box in for not taking more things at a bigger memory size. And I still need your guys opinion of it. But enough Crying about it. Scratch that I have to give it to him manually

Updated Posters - ESRB Rating Pending

Okay I changed the age group to the ESRB rating that some asked for. Joe I also changed your name to Joseph so everyone has there full name on the poster. I did think about the T rating but since we did not get the rating from the ESRB board I thought it would be safer to use the RP (Rating Pending). Let me Know if we should go with T or RP. I would just have to switch them out. These are also in the box.net milestone folder.

Attention Everyone!

It's Wednesday night. Again. Milestone 4 is due tomorrow at 9:15am. It's 8:28pm right now.

Todd-

Where is the raptor stun animation with color? It's still just a black outline.

Krissy-

What happened to the vine bending? It's just rotates stright.

Shelby-

I think you're done.

Adrianna & Malina-

I see you fixed the spelling mistakes but what about everything else Kim and the team mentioned?

Dan-

The ground.fla just crashes my computer. Do you have an earlier version you can work off? Just like when you are creating something in 3dsmax you should save your work as a version each time you press save.

Joe-

I may have missed it but were you supposed to upload anything to the milestone 4 folder?

I am so scared right now....

Shelby..... I.... sort of need you to do.... all of Zaliens' animations.... over....

No, Shelby, please... don't make me kill myself... pleeaase... argh! umph!

Weird how I would type out the sounds of myself dieing. Even werider still that I could explain how wierd it would be that I typed out all the sounds of my own death and then ultimately how weird all of this is. Is this a type of recursion? Brain melty goodness indeed.

On to the buisness at hand. I don't need you to do Zaliens animations all over again, but I do need you to replicate them without their gun arm so that we can add the arm in and point it out whenever zalien shoots like mega man does.

Reference:

This part is more for Tom than anyone else.

This way we can have Zalien's arms moving about and move his arm out seamlessly with the animations. We could keep track of what frame Zalien is on and just change the movie clip to the same spot he's on in the shooting movie clip.

Or we can add the gun into each movie clip and rotate it straight out when we need to.

The second method sounds easier to program but neither of these methods makes it easier on poor Shelb's.

But I guess there is the possibility that I don't see an easier solution to all this.

New Posters

Okay I fixed the age to 13+ and fixed the copyrights information to what Adrianna had posted from Tuesdays review. Please let me know if there is anything else. Thank you again and sorry I missed Tuesday.

Got it.

Everything is up! Take a look and let me know what you need changed if anything. I have iterated all the Pause Menus, as well as the Main Menu Instructions and Quit screens, and the Loss screens.

(Nothing Major Malina, just the little things Kim wanted)

Again, they are in the "Updated_Interfaces" folder in the "Milestone 4" folder.

Hey so we have a problem?

Hey guys how are you? I am having a problem with the ground fla file and it is in the folder in box in.net. Yeah I am so pissed it keeps crashing and I need your help ,tom and Justin. If you guys can look at it for me I would be so grateful thanks guys. This shit is annoying please Help.

Know what? We should start over.....

At least I did. I had no choice. There were separate images and movies clips for EVERYTHING! Only a few things were even the same size. So when I was deleting the movie clip copies I had to reposition everything and redo some of the screens. I only have one in game screen left and then I can iterate the Main Menu screens.

When all these are done I will put them in the milestones folder in a folder I will call Updated_Interfaces.

MALINA: We have to redo the poster/Flyers by Thursday there are a dew more issues to take care of before we can call them finished, including the Age recommendation, and the Copyrights technicalities.

"Copyright © 2009. Time Blunders. All Rights Reserved."

In class today Kim wanted us to make some changes to the screens and finish them by the end of the day, since you were out of class I copied your files from the Box and am working on them to have them in tonight. All you have to take care of are the Posters and have them finished by Thursday.

A few more updates!

So Tom, you asked me about getting a copy of the shoot animation with the arm in separate movie clips. And it's now up in the milestones folder! The shooting animation itself has also been updated! I've also got a vague idea for the scout Zalien at the end of the level in there. Let me know what you think!

Also, Todd seems to have the raptor under control now. Let me know if it's otherwise!

are you tired cause you have been running around in my head all day......screaming

The run was irritating me more than anything else. Thanks to Krissy for her video suggestion on Jurassic park rampage. It is a much better reference.This took longer than I thought, I cut the pieces individually and animated it that way. Setting things up was taking longer than the animating. Let me know if it still sucks. Tom should I put them back in week 4 still or in week 5?

Glitch

This may have been something I did just recently but when you die on a dino it doesn't seem to reset you anymore, you just respawn right where you died and die again. This is something we should probably fix, one day.

Animations Done

I have uploaded/re-uploaded all of my animation files again to the milestone folder. With the help of Justin, we were able to get the water, smoke and vine animations done. For the water animation, the little waves that are inside the water are just place holders. The code that Justin work on today, is going to help out with randomize the waves so that the waves are going to be all over the place. Justin can explain more later.

AH HA. Look what I've created.

I have made DYNAMIC EFFECTS!

I've created a system in which to create the falling leaves, or rising smoke, or whatever all you have to do is place an effect placeholder and name it what you want it to create! I am so awesome it makes my teeth hurt. (This last line is to be disregarded considering my eyes want to close because I've been looking at literally 18 lines of code and crying for the last 2 hours).

HEY ARCHIE I FINISHED IT, FOR REAL THIS TIME. LOL

Ok Tom here you go bro. Sorry I totally missed it. I am so sorry. I am glad you caught that because I didn't see that. But its cool i am sending it right now to you so that you can take it. So here you go ARCHER. http://www.sendspace.com/file/l8yc32

It's over 300!!!

I have some updated charts in BOX. The final comps are due tomorrow 7/21/09 at 4pm. The ones in there right now are almost complete.

Hey Everyone!

Guess what! Our game lags...a lot.

"But Tom, why does our game lag? It's (insert generic game complement here)."

Well I'll tell you.


So it seems that Flash doesn't like art. It may have something to do with the constant for loops in the code. However, that is a small thing compared to the massive amount of art we have. I can decrease lag by clicking the cache as bitmap button. I can only click this button on MovieClips. A lot of you have been turning in Graphics instead of MovieClips. So if we could add a rule to only turn in MovieClips that would improve our game like mad.

So to sum up if you don't like paragraphs.

Graphics = bad.
MovieClips = good.



On a side note please check the comments in older posts. There are some things that need to be done to prepare for Tuesday.

Hey Tom...

Are we using the "bible" for the game doc? If so, on Tuesday I would like to get the page format for it so I can setup the maps correctly for you to just drop them in there.

Note: I have removed the blockout pics that were in my BOX folder, they are currently under construction.

Attn - Justin

Hey Justin, is it possible that we can meet up on Monday some time? I need some help with the vine and water animation.

CONTEST, LETS DO IT GUYS

So I was talking to kim on thursday and she was like we should enter a contest. I think it would be good for us. And I really want to do this. It could open up so many doors for us and there is money involved I don't know about you guys but I like money and getting a job so I will put links up so you guys can look at them. But i think we should be able to pull this off we are a good team. So here are the links. http://www.igf.com/ and http://indiegamechallenge.com/?or=nl

Hey we need to decide on which team activity we want to do.

Hey you guys I just thought about something. We really need to figure out what team activity that we want to do. I would like to take a vote and you guys can post under the comments. So I hope to hear from you guys so that we can talk. A good team is a team that talks to each other. Oh and Joe can you check out those sounds for me so that I can get your opinion on them thanks bro.

Hey you gyus here is the ground.

So I finished the ground and I am setting up the link right now so that you guys can look at it. So I will talk to you guys later.

Attention Interface Designers!

It has become very difficult to keep putting the interface in the game every week. I've made it easier on myself by making a main fla for the menus. I uploaded the Pause Menus fla to box.net. This has all of the pause menu screens in it. If you two could work out of this file instead of separate fla files that would be great. It works right now to the best of its ability outside of the game.

There's also a slight disconnect I noticed in the menus. Malina's file has black boarders around the title and it's a different color. She also has a back button. Adrianna's file has no black boarder, a lighter color, and still keeps the resume game and quit game instead of the back button. If we could match these screens and upload them again I'll put those into the game instead.


Any questions just ask.


(and don't worry about the volume slider inside of the menu, I have to add that outside of it)

Ok sound lets roll

So yeah the sound is up and I updated it also. And the ground will be up later on tonight so see you in a while.

Finally!

Everything is up and running. The very last Flash file I had to upload was working for almost an hour. Finally I just gave the file to Tom and he managed to get it uploaded into the box for me. THANK YOU TOM!

Water

I have uploaded what I have for the water. I am finally on the right track for the water and guess what.. Flash crashes on me every three clicks now when ever I have the water file up. So.. you can guess I am frustrated with the program. I know that I'll have the animation done before Tuesday, but when... I have no idea.

I have to get ready for work now, but as soon as I am off of work.. I'll head right back to the animation and try to get it done by the end of today. Like I said before, if you guys want too use what I have as placeholder until I figure out what is going on with the file.

Highly Irritatted!

I've been trying to upload flash files to the box for the past hour and a half.

3 files! 90 minutes!

I have only one left to go but all the swfs are up for your approval and I'm uploading the poster now.

Justin

I have a question, when the raptor is loose on the ground he moves slower than with the player. When I finish the run should I make a slower version for when he is one the ground and the regular version is for when he with Zalien?

Level 1 map update...

I have completed the map for the "solidFloor" collision blockout and loaded it to the BOX. The pics are in my folder, (Joe_Serra_INDEX, the gold stars will help you) I also have targa's too. The map is rather plain, it's more for my personal use and the level blockout that's due this Thursday. Some of it my not make sense to you until Tuesday, don't worry about it. Try not to lose any sleep over it. I will have the, (pretty) completed flowcharts, with assets, obstacles, character paths & placement, and color on Tuesday.

The lower heading on the maps are FPO and do not represent the format of the GDD.

Eeeugh

So I'm hoping that I've fixed everything that needs to be fixed on my end, but if I've missed something do let me know! So far I have uploaded to the Milestone folder a fixed Jump and Shooting animations up for Zalien, and hopefully the Pterodactyl's stun is something better than the previous one (that was bad to begin with, but ehh).

Let me know if you think they still need work, have suggestions, or know of an animation that I was supposed to fix and didn't!

Animations Part 2

Okays, I have updated the Vine and Water Animation. Vine is done. Water is 75% done. Still trying to figure it out how to add some details to it.

Also can you guys please check out my other animations that are done in my previous post. All in are my folder, in box.net under my week4 folder. I really want to make sure that I have everything right before I uploaded/move them in to milestone week4.

Reason why everything is bold?

Cause I ask everyone in my last post to comment on animations but nobody did! and I posted it at 1am this morning and all of the later post that followed mine.. everyone commented so.... and if you don't want a pissed off red-head on Tuesday please comment on one of my animations.

Thank and have a nice day.


Update - I have updated vines .. and switch them back to version 8 and smoothed it out, a lot. I have played around with the stars, hopefully it looks less bouncy. Unfortunately, the water will not make the deadline for today. But I am still working on it and hopefully I should get it done by the time I go to work at 5. If you guys want to put into the game for a placeholder... I will be keeping the names for the movie clips the same.

Tom

Which version of the game is the latest? V8 or just the one without a version name, or something in Justins folder?

Glitches

So I'm trying to get the little bugs worked out. I think I know many of them but I'm not really good at breaking the game I helped program. So this is where the team comes in!

If you're playing the game and notice a small problem that shouldn't be there just write it down and comment here or tell me. Heck you can even make an entirely new post to tell me that Zalien collects the Earth Element a little too far away from them.

MALINA!

1. I talked to Kim Last night and she mentioned that the reason our age choice was bad because it was a bit too young and we did not give good enough reason for our choice. 13+ owuld be a better choice we just need to research more and give good reasons as to why we choose it.

2. Are you going to do the Quit Button in a different screen or in one of the flash files?

Final Posters

Here are the final posters for the game. I changed our target market, fixed the copyright symbol, and put everyones full name (Names are in alphabetical order by first name). Adrianna I did switch Zalien to the right side like you said so when we print the posters the two images will be looking at each other.

New Instructions Interfaces

Okay so I searched in box.net for the updated game controls with no luck. I know the ghostrig was changed to "R" so I did put that in. For the new instruction menus we now have rollovers to show the player what each control is.

Please go to box.net and look over the swf files to see how it works. Tom or Justin I will need the new controls if we switched them. I will drop these in the milestone folder since they are due today. I dont know if I can do a lot of changes before todays deadline.

Adrianna I tried all kinds of different buttons on the arm but the arm is a lot lower then when I first designed the page last term. Having a button there is not looking right. So I was thinking we just go with the back button. If the player wants to quit in-game they can hit the back button where they can choose to quit.

Animations

In MY folder in box.net, I have upload a week4 folder. Reason for doing this, I want to make sure that I have everything right, before I uploaded(move) into the Milestone Folder. I need you guys to comment on any animation that you see that needs to be fix. All animations that have final in their name are consider final but are willing to update. I am still working on the vine, so that it can match the leaf tops, and water animation. The water animation has became what the smoke animation was to me in week3(2?), so right now I am frustrated with the animation. But it should be done soon......

List of animations in folder:
LeafFinal
SmokeFinal
SparkFinal
StarFinal
WaterSplashFinal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Currently working on)
Water6
Water7
VineAnimation8
VineAnimation9

Scrolly Codes

Malina, I got the scroll code done-ish for you. As it sits right now you use arrows to scroll the text. I'm no good with the maths and moving a movieclip up or down in a percentile relationship to the size of the movie clip itself and position of a scroll tab on a scroll bar makes my brain rebel against my skull.

All you have to do is replace the text in the "text" movieclip with the text you want in it. The black square is a mask that hides any text that is above or below it. The text will scroll up until the bottom of the text movieclip lines up with the scroll down button. And likewise the text will scroll down until the top of the text movieclip lines up with the scroll up button.

Let me know if anything is unclear. I tried to make everything as simple as possible so that you need only to put the movieclip into your interface to impliment it.

The fla is in my folder on box.net.

Team Building Excercises

Team Superfluous is a machine and like all machines sometimes it could use a little oil. We all have been working incredibly hard on this game and we are all tired, grumpy, and frustrated due to our workloads. For the past 4-14 weeks (depending on when you joined the group) we have had to change our work processes and time lines to include our teammates in a class where we get to experience working as a team for what could be categorized as the first time. Some of us prefer to work alone, only with certain people, or in pairs. Even our assigned roles in the team require us to work
by ourselves or with only 1 or 2 other people in the group of 9 that has been assembled.

I propose that we participate in a team building exercise or two on Thursday, with the substitute's permission, after the critique. If that isn't possible I think that the team should put the idea on the table to be implemented at another time. By doing this we may be able to sharpen our teamwork skills and improve communication in the team. All of which could stand some improvement.

Possible Exercises:


Human Knot:

The team stands in a circle and extends their right hand and grabs another team member's hand, as if they are going to shake hands, they then extend their left hands and grab another hand. The team must then work together to, without releasing anyone's hand, untangle themselves and form a circle.

Green Glass Door:

Team members take turns guessing what can be taken through the "green glass door" while a facilitator, someone from outside the group, decides on the pattern of what would be allowed through. An example of a possible pattern would be items that have double letters, so apples would be allowed through but not oranges, Jelly but not Jam, etc..... The team must work together to guess what the pattern is and during their respective turns can either guess or select an item to be taken through the door.

Robot:

One team member is a "controller" who must navigate one or two of their teammates, the "Robots", to a designated point or goal by giving unvoiced commands such as patting their head to stop, their shoulder to turn left or right, etc... The "Robots" are blindfolded. This may improve trust and team work, especially if the team members are paired with someone they do not normally work with.

Question Cup:

Team mates write down questions to be put in a cup and each team member draws a question and answers it honestly. Rules could be changed so that every team member must answer all the questions pulled. Also any time a question is asked concerning personal opinions, such as "What prominent problem do you think should be addressed within the team?", there is to be no dissent from the other team members as it is a personal opinion and all issues can be addressed after the exercise.

Common Threads:

The team splits up into pairs or mini teams of 3 and must, within a given time period, find at least 5-10 things they have in common. The team or pair that discovers the number of required things in the allotted as well as the most creative things, wins.

Back 2 Back Drawing:

The team is divided into pairs, If there is a 3rd person that person becomes the observer, then sit back to back with each other. One of he pair has a pencil and paper while the other is given a picture of an object, the member with the picture of the object must then describe it to his/her partner who must then draw the object exactly as it seen in the picture. So one member cannot just say what the object is and win.

Ah So Koh:

Start with the group standing (or sitting) in a circle. Use hand gestures for the folowing:

• Ah (hand under the chin palm facing the floor)
• So (hand at forehead, in salute fashion), and
• Ko (arm and hand out in front of you pointing at another player).

One person starts with “Ah” (hand to neck). The direction the hand is pointing, that person follows with “So” (hand to forehead). Similar, the direction of the hand signals that person to do “Ko”. And so on... If someone “messes up” or forgets to act they are “outta the game.”

At that point, they step out of the circle, and the person to the right has a silent 3 second count to start the game again with “Ah”.

Game continues until 2-3 people are left (up to you whether the last 2 compete for AhSoKo champion title!).

One Optional way to continue to involve everyone: The people who get “out” can become “hecklers” whose job it is to try to get the others to mess up. Rules of being a heckler are, hecklers must stay on the outside of the circle, cannot obstruct vision, physically touch anyone, or be cruel.

These are the ones that I feel would be most helpful, efficient, and doable in a small period of time. What do you guys think? If we were to do 1 or 2 of these which ones would you want to do?

Tutorial Testing Data...

...is in the BOX. I've uploaded two docs. One has the questions, and the other has a quick list of all the results. I am putting together an excel sheet for this data on top of getting more results. I have the latest version of the game; testing will continue.

Interface Testing

Aside from my marketing and Interface Design I must test ze theories!

1. Collect Test Materials:

Updated version of the Game
Set of test questions

2. Implement testing:

Let's try for that 10-15 again.

3. Document Test results:

A copy of the questions to be put in the document and maybe I can create a sort of table to share the results.

Interface & Marketing Jobs

Malina
Interface revisions - Main menu and in-game instructions screens. Make quit button for the arm.
Two Posters - Update target market, Team members name, & Fix borders. (Posters are 11x17).

Adrianna
Interface revisions - In-Game menus (exception instructions menu) Fix hollogram height, place quit button on arm, and fix static line to meet the edges of the hologram.
Flyer - Fix ground to look like games ground, move to illustrator instead of flash for flyer.

!!! RULES FOR CREATING TIME BLUNDERS !!!

---Uploading new files to Box.net---

1. Upload all files that you want put into the game into the milestones folder.

2. Use intelligent file names with dates.

3. Remove the old versions from the milestones folder.

---Creating art assets---

1. Do not use photoshop.

2. Collaborate with other artists to keep color schemes consistent.

3. Animations must be smooth. 3 frames != smooth.

4. Use tweens to smooth things out if needed.

5. If you are creating an animation or poster or whatever it is ultimately up to you do decide if it is final or not. If no one "votes" on your work this does not mean it's OK to turn in unfinished work.

6. Do not use graphics, everything should be a movie clip to help eliminate in game lag.

---Posting to the blog---

1. Post things to the blog in a timely fashion. Some people have tight schedules and can't check the blog as often as others. To get everyone's opinion you need to post up things as early as possible.

2. Do not make it seem as if comments are being ignored. If a question is asked via comments, answer it and apply it to your work.

---Misc---

1. Most information about the game, and authors, is available via the design doc or just through the blog. Please no guessing on information.

2. The cuffs are UNBREAKABLE. <---- Thats a period. 3. NO MORE EXCUSES.

This post will always stay at the top of the blog. Read it over since it will change from time to time.

I think I over though the raptor animations, I have a run, stun, idle, jump, falling,and landing. Thats 40 animation frames. I think that's too much. I will ask every in class today what I could do to trim them down.

Bed!

I need one after all this.

Everything is turned into the Box. EVERYTHING!

I'll see everyone in class tomorrow.

Tom I had uploaded everything before I saw your post so it's not set up in weekly folders. Things that are on the "Document" folder are all set up to be in the document, in this weeks' case it would be the poster main image and the poster thumbnails. The iterated loss screen is labeled "Stat_Loss_2".

Super Special Awesome Confusion

So I will say this tomorrow in class, but just for an official post.

I don't know about you guys but as one of the two people that puts this game together I'm getting very confused. Between the new things being put into the box.net folders for the week and the updated stuff from previous weeks. No two people on the team has the same set up. This leads to me searching the box.net folders to see what's new. I'd like to put in a system if I could.

When you're done with all of your stuff (new or revised) is it possible to put it in a folder with the name of the week on it. For example all things you fixed from last week and all new stuff for this week will be placed in a "Week 4" folder. If we can all do this that will make my life easier (and we will avoid sleepy/angry Tom...nobody likes him).

Thank you for your time.

...

...

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KNIBB HIGH FOOTBALL RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Slowly getting there!

I'm so sorry that I've been so slow this week guys, it's been a really bad week. :( I have the colored versions of the pterodactyl, shooting, and riding animations up on box.net, along with the image for Adrianna's poster. If Todd hasn't already got the stun animation for the raptor up I can start working on that now, and I need to get another image done for Malina's poster. I'll try my hardest to get them all by tonight, but oh my gods so many.

I Don't Want To Be Spam

:(

Blog being block?

I don't know if you guys have seen this or not, but for some reason blogger thinks that are blog is a 'spam blog' and if we don't unrequested the block... they will delete it. So please click on the request unlock review. Until they look it over.... every time we post, we have to put in a word verification thingy every time or we will be block from posting anything new.

SHELBY!

Have you got that Zalien riding the Raptor art that I asked from you on Tuesday yet? I can't finish or do much more with the poster until I get it from you. I also haven't seen you on your AIM this week so hopefully you'll see this and comment.

Posters

Okay guys and gals here is some poster renders (11x17) these are jpeg because the png took to long to download so dont worry if they seem pixelated there not. I worked with what I had so hopefully these will work. I was thinking we have one dino and one Zalien poster since were going with two posters. If not we can go with one of the Zalien ones and one of Adrianna's posters. Also this whole word verification process to post is not making me happy.