Session 5 2024 Production Project

SUMMARY

Role

Gameplay Programmer

Intention (SMART Goal) for the Session

By May 10, as part of TEAM 6 as a Gameplay Programmer, I will have evidence of a functioning card combat system by using the Unity Documentation for Session 5.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Mega Crit Games, The developers of Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire Gameplay

Training Source(s)

Unity Documentation

Project Timeline

March 11th through May 10th

Pre-production Milestones

  • Trello Board Filled
  • Game Flow Chart Made
  • Game Design Document Put Together

Production Milestones

  • Functioning Combat
  • Cards and shuffling
  • Ending

Post-production

  • Thing 1
  • Thing 2
  • Thing 3

Proposed Budget

  • Make a copy Film Budget Sheet or Game Budget Sheet and fill it in
  • Link to your team budget sheet HERE
  • DELETE ALL OF MR. LE DUC’s INSTRUCTIONS DETAILED ABOVE AFTER COMPLETING THEM

Evidence of Team Planning and Decisions

Place screenshots of the following…

  1. Trello Board
  2. Storyboard (FILM) (with comments for each role) OR other planning documents like sketches, flowcharts (GAME DESIGN), etc.
  • DELETE ALL OF MR. LE DUC’s INSTRUCTIONS DETAILED ABOVE AFTER COMPLETING THEM

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

Skills Commentary

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

Reactions to the Final Version

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

Grammar and Spelling

Editor

Game Design Document Template v.1

Overview

Genre/ Setting/ Theme(s)

Genre(s)

how does this game feel to play

Setting

where does this game take place

Theme(s)

what is the game about in abstract terms

Story (Brief)

What is the goal of the player, how does the player win?

Target Audience

who is this game for

Core Gameplay (Brief)

  • Gameplay Mechanic #1
  • Gameplay Mechanic #2
  • Etc…

Technical

Target Platform(s)

which platforms is this game made for

System Requirements

what systems are going to be able to run this game

User Interface

What UI pieces are in this game, eg: inventory menu, Health bar, ammo counter, etc…

Game Flow Chart

Include an image of the game flow chart

Artwork (Design)

Heads Up Display (HUD)

HUD DISPLAY 1

location: where on the hud is this display

information displayed: what does this display tell the player

Characters

CHARACTER 1

who: who is the character, and what is their history.

why: why is the character a player in the story.

images: include some concept art of the character.

Levels

LEVEL 1

what: what is the level’s purpose in the game.

where: At what point in the game does the player find this level?

images: include some concept art for what the level should look like.

Audio

Sound FX

MENU FX

audio clip

uses (when will this sound play?)d

SOUND 1

audio clip

uses (when will this sound play?)

CHARACTER FX
SOUND 1

audio clip

uses (when will this sound play?)

WORLD FX
SOUND 1

audio clip

uses (when will this sound play?)

Music

MUSIC PIECE 1

Music clip

uses (where will this music go?)

Story

how does the player progress through the game. Are there important character moments? how does the world change?

Proposed Budget

how much would the game cost to make?

Me Against Bad Performance Optimization

Goal

I am going to create a loading system that does not have loading screens and is easily expandable.

INFLUENCES and EXAMPLES

The primary influence is dark souls area loading system, because it runs pretty well and is easy to work with. A secondary influence is Quake because of how optimized the game’s loading system is. Thanks John Carmack

Session 4 Year 2024 Production Project

SUMMARY

Airplane Loading” by World Travel Adventures/ CC0 1.0

Role

Solo Development

Smart Goal

By March 1st, as a solo developer, I will create a fleshed-out loading and de-loading system with help from this tutorial for my Session 3.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Exemplary Work

Primary Source

From Software’s Dark Souls

The way that Dark Souls loads and de-loads is very fast, and seamless, and creates a system similar to that could allow a developer to iterate on levels faster and with fewer roadblocks than other systems.

Secondary Source

  • 0:00 – Intro
  • 1:22 – Blighttown and the Great Hollow from Firelink Shrine
  • 5:40 – The Other Burg
  • 7:31 – Views from the Undead Burg
  • 10:47 – The Duke’s Archives and Anor Londo
  • 16:59 – Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith
  • 20:50 – Ash Lake and the Ash Lake Expanse
  • 26:03 – Oolacile and the Darkroot Garden
  • 30:09 – New Londo Ruins
  • 32:35 – The Catacombs
  • 34:25 – The Kiln and Closing Thoughts

Analysis Method

I am going to be using DSMapStudio made by Katalash to figure out how From Software handles their data, then I am going to try to understand how I can make that system with C# in Unity.

Project Timeline

The First 5 hours of work will be dedicated to looking over Dark Souls using the previously mentioned method, and then I will spend some time writing down what I want to do with the loading and de-loading. Finally, the rest of the session will be dedicated to making the system and debugging.

Evidence of Planning and Decisions

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

Slideshow

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

I studied the work of other professionals and took what I learned to make something new.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

I used a blog to learn how to translate a temperature to an RGB value.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

I learned how to not copy and paste code.

Reactions to the Final Version

Nellie, who is the Design Director of Xbox Game Studios, said that having the skybox and lighting change when loading a new level looked good.

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

I am pretty happy with the final result, I completed all of what I wanted to get done, and it looks pretty good.

Grammar and Spelling

Grammarly

Editor

Odin

Session 3 Year 2023 Production Project

SUMMARY

Role

Level Artist

Intention (SMART Goal) for the Session

By Jan. 12, as a solo dev, I will create a shader that mixes textures using the vertex colors and a tileable mask, by following a CatLikeCoding guide for my Session 3.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Chris Avellone

Chris Avellone worked on Fallout 2, and the art assets in it are incredibly good looking and clear.

Training Source(s)

CatLikeCoding

  • Mixing Textures : The first texture is now modulated by the splat map. To complete the interpolation, we have to multiply the other texture with 1 – R.
  • Gamma Space: Gamma space refers to gamma-corrected colors. Gamma correction is an adjustment of the intensity of light. The simplest approach is to raise the original value to some power, so valuegamma. A gamma of 1 means that there is no change. A gamma of 2 means that the original value is squared.

Evidence of Team Planning and Decisions

PRODUCTION – ACTION

Skills Commentary

Slideshow with the stuff I did

I made the texture mixer from the vertex shader and a mask.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

I wrote the code myself, and tried to problem solve what came up by myself.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

I found sites that contain definitions for CGPROGRAM that I can use in my code.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

In the industry it is important to be able to create things without the help of a guide, and this project helped me use critical thinking outside of someone else’s code.

Reactions to the Final Version

“The Texture Mixing Seems like a useful tool” – a student in the class.

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

The texture mixing seems functional, but I worry about memory management as I create a bunch of unnecessary variables.

Grammar and Spelling

Grammarly

Editor

Odin

Year 2023 Session 3 Week Work Log

Summary

My Goal for this week was to create a shader that could mix two Textures using the vertex colors to decide where the textures should be, and the texture’s height map to add more detail to the mixing

What I Did This Week

I have made the texture’s mix with the vertex colors and some influence from one of the texture’s height map.

How I Did It

I followed CatLikeCoding’s Tutorial until I thought I understood the concept, then went off on my own to figure the rest out, and only returned if I needed a refresher on the specifics of a function.

What I Learned

I learned how to better structure code for expand-ability.

Problems I Solved

Most of the functions that I tried would create a very blurry result, or would have the mixing effect be placed across the entire texture poorly. I resolved this by using the desmos graphing calculator to visualize how functions would affect the end result so that I could quickly iterate on the concept.

What Was the Result

How on/off Track Was I?

I am on track with what I intended to do this week

Someone or Thing Fighting Someone of Thing for Someone or Thing Pitch

PROTAGONIST

The player character is a blank slate and will express only from what the player wants to express.

PROTAGONIST CORE WOUND / MOTIVATION 

The primary motivator is getting enough money to keep racing, the secondary motivator is not dying on the rally stage, and the tertiary motivator is getting first place.

GENRE

The genre is Racing in line with Dirt 2.0

Long Term Game Play Loop

At the start of the game the player will have very little money and will struggle to survive. At the end they will have the economic strength to win the Races.

Short Term Game Play Loop

The player creates their car and goes racing, if the car survives they fix and upgrade it, then go racing. If the car is destroyed they restart the loop.

INFLUENCES and EXAMPLES

The primary influence is Dirt Rally 2.0, because of the tuning mechanics and rally.

The secondary influence is FrostPunk because of the difficult economy and the long term negatives from early choices.

Nov 13th 2023 Weekly Work Log

Session Number:2
Week Number:4
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week: 10 Hours
What is/was your overall goal for this week? My goal is to start work on a good track that feels nice to play.

Work Tasks 

Date Task Description Time SpentWas / Were your choices and work Best Practices? Why? 
11/13/23Create the basic track view, then if there is time add some details to it.90 minThis gave me some practice in level design, practicing a variety of skills is always good to prevent stalling while working on any project.
11/14/23create the itch.io page, and work on the slideshow60 minThis is required for the class
11/15/23Fix some issues with revving, and made a torque curve so that the starts look less like a drag race180 minAsking for Help: The game would crash occasionally, and I needed to ask for help on the Godot forums

Mon, Nov 6 Weekly Work Log

Session Number:2
Week Number:3
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week: 10
What is/was your overall goal for this week? My goal was to get the game feeling good and looking good

Work Tasks 

Date Task Description Time SpentWas / Were your choices and work Best Practices? Why? 
11-6Retune how the car feels to drive to make it feel better at higher speeds1 hrit was best practice because it benefited the end product strongly
11-7Upgrade the car asset to look more car like, specifically in details like an exhaust, tires etc 2 hrThis greatly brings the game together because the car is on screen all the time. 
11-8 Upgrade the car asset further, added wing, splitter, and better tail lights2hr  Just more upgrades, its the main thing on screen so its good
11-9figure out why the suspension sucks and hopefully fix it2hr this is good for problem solving practice, 
No School   Veterans Day Observed

Personal Comments (Optional) 

Remember reflecting on your own choices and work can help you improve both. Are there any other comments you would like to include for your own reflection? If so, please enter them here: