Team work is key!

Last week we added in the early level design into the main game engine. Due to good early planning most of this went very smoothly but there was one issue that caused concern. We were finding that the collision system used was doing far too much work and slowing the game down. Luckily for us we employ the author of the collision system and I was able to call him in to help out. Within a few hours he had fixed some bugs and improved it to work great for our needs.

Coding this week has very much been making the new level work and some fine tuning had to be reported back to the level artist. I am quoting what the programmer reported to the artist so that anyone reading this can get some idea of the sort of issues that come up when developing a game.

• The vertical route (i.e. on the z-axis) down through the 4 generators is too narrow. The scale I gave you for the width of the man must’ve been slightly out. The player almost gets in there, but gets stuck once almost inside. I would suggest moving the generators outwards from each other by 1/5th of the distance they are already apart. That should be enough.

• The bricks near the emplacement, because they have some height, can’t be walked over. I could probably fix this programmatically fairly easily, but if it’s just as easy for you to provide the bricks as a separate model, then I could import them that way and exclude them from collision. I’ll have a bash at a code tweak first and let you know.

• Aside from that, there were no problems with the geometry. If you can tweak those generator positions, and then re-upload the level, I’ll confirm they work ASAP.

• One other issue. The forklift texture was a TGA, but in the .X file, it’s referred to as a BMP, so it couldn’t load. No problem though, since this was just a test level!

Later the artist reported back with a new version of the level;

• Corrected collision around generators/ furnaces
• Converted the map to use separate meshes for collision and visuals
• Added detail to the warehouse area and broken wall
• Added collision meshes for complex geometry
• Added test texture to walls
• Testing the Multi-sub object material on walls
• Created a layer system in 3ds max to make object selection easier
• Export no longer looks for BMP textures

Here’s an image of the current test level from within 3ds max;

Cheers, boos and excitement!

As reported in the blog last week the lead programmer was going to experiment with crowd sounds to add atmosphere. Using just some basic sound effects the game has taken on a whole new dimension. Now when you cut someone down the crowd cheer you and get excited but if you’re taken down the crowd boos at your poor performance. We’re looking to add to this in the coming weeks by adding more sounds, music and voice overs.

Unlike its name, Carnage cannot be created add-hock! Many decisions need to be made that will have knock on affects later if they are not considered properly. Last week was a typical development week for a game, we’re very much in the bare bones area of coding and design, lots of foundation work has to be set in place and agreed before the game can come to life.

It’s also worth pointing out that we are developing our game using our own game development technology called Dark Basic Professional. This is a BASIC programming language for the PC, geared towards making games. It’s a great tool for getting your ideas to the screen. With only three months for prototype time available we’re using DBPro to make the game more of a reality.

The Coding Area

This is what we’ve focused on last week from the programming side;

• Some tweaks and bug fixes to the camera and particle code.
• We began work using an “Enhanced Animations” plug-in for Dark Basic Professional. The lead developer needed to familiarize himself with how it works and will be using it once the character models are ready. This extra functionality will allow him to quickly prototype the animation moves of the game characters for the prototype.
• Sound and music will be a significant ingredient to Carnage. So we did some work on the crowd sound effects, and recording sound samples of “Ohs”, “Ahhs” and cheers etc. from sound libraries. We’re also playing around with a sound engine to have ambient crowd noise in the background, and then cheers and boos when players die and other cool things happen. We’re not sure how good this will sound yet, but it’s worth a try, to see if this adds atmosphere for this “game show” type idea we have. If it does, we will try out a few “Leeeet’s get rrreeeeady for Carnage!!!” type sound bites, which could be used at the start, and also start to consider the music snippets idea. This morning I (Rick) was listening to some classical music that I had purchased at the weekend. One of the tracks started and simply blew me away – it sounds perfect for when the player picks up the Reaper bonus. The track is “Tuba Mirum” (meaning Days of Wrath) and the first 30 seconds will instill fear in any player who knows the Reaper is racing through the level killing all who pass his path.

This coming week will see the implementation of the new test level that the artist has created.

The Art Attack

Our level artist has moved the level design forward. He’s changed the layout slightly and begun to add details and props. The walls have all been converted into elements now, in-line with the template. Although it saves polygons by making it a contiguous mesh, the programmer’s method of hiding non-visible elements will probably be better for performance.

The level is still un-textured but it’s now in a format that can be used by the programmer to test within the main game project. This is the key to good prototyping, do as little as possible and then test your ideas. You don’t want to end up down one avenue of work and find you have to back track and start again.

The artist has also added a forklift truck prop with a texture. We’re aiming to have a number of props to populate the level, ensuring the game looks as polished as possible. Here’s a render of it;

Also a note about the polygon count on the above image, because we are using Dark Basic Pro to make the prototype we would like it to run smoothly in any realtime demos we make. All models in a PS3 title will have many more polygons – so the wheels will be nice a round and smooth.

The artist has warned us that he thinks some proxy collision objects might be necessary for some of the more complex props such as the generators and forklift. Again, this is nothing to be worried about right now, that’s all fine tuning work which will not affect the game’s chances when it comes to present the idea.

Another solid week of development for Carnage, see you next week on the blog.

Rick Vanner

The Game Creators Ltd

www.thegamecreators.com

The 2 day workshop had lots to recommend it.  Over the last few years we have attended many similar events but this was by far the best.  We really enjoyed the whole ‘x’ statement idea (see earlier blogs for more info) and will apply it to all our project development from now on.

We now have to come up with a prototype or visualisation for our Surgery concept.  We at Onteca all really enjoyed Trauma Centre on DS/Wii, though it is really hard!  We are interested in pursuing this kind of fun take on surgery but have to deal with the challenge of the control system.  Conventional surgery simulators use Haptic control systems.  We do not have this on the PS3 so …. we are going to have to do some hard thinking.

Jon

Howdo,

I really enjoyed attending the GITG 2-day workshop. It was well run, well organised, correctly thought out and they even provided chocolate. Just fewer than 20 people attended from a variety of backgrounds, some gaming some not. It was really refreshing to see the ideas of the teams from outside the typical gaming industry. Their original thinking, drive and enthusiasm took me back 20 years to a time before publisher rejections, too many night shifts and missed milestones )

The structure of the workshop worked well, with the first exercise being to develop a concept for an already released game and then pitching it as a PSN title. The group was divided into 3 groups and then given time to formulate their idea for selling this game. This exercise showed just how much work was needed to take a game’s pitch presentation to the next level. The key findings from this exercise were.

· Understand the market

· Understand the people that will buy your game

· Explain what are you pitching for

The next session was given by SCEE and focused on the ‘X’ process. Although I’d seen this presentation on several occasions it still strikes me how effective, yet simple, this approach is. It was great to get a refresher course on it. The two practical breakout sessions covered which games had the best X statement and also which X statements fulfilled the slogan v function balance.

The third and final session of the day saw a presentation on ‘Audience Research.’ The presentation was a series of thoughts that kicked off a discussion on designing games for sociality.

The second day opened with a brief discussion on what people thought of the previous day – all positive. This discussion was followed by a presentation on ‘developing prototypes’ and covered topics such as user testing, digital design software and building a community for continued exposure. After a short break, there was another presentation entitled ‘Life’s a Pitch.’ This open and honest presentation showed the do’s and don’ts of presenting, my personal favourite being – death to powerpoint. Then, after lunch, it was on to the main event with all the companies pitching their game ideas to the panel. There were 9 pitch presentations and what I really liked about this was the fact that you had to pitch to everyone, not just the panel. This was really useful to see what worked and in one particular case, what didn’t.

So now on to the next stage of development……………..

Our goals for the end of March are to,

· Further develop our idea into a high-level concept overview

· Create a Ripomatic movie that shows the look& feel of the game

· Outsource the playable demo development work

· Provide full costings and a schedule for full production

Stay tuned for more updates as they happen.

Laters,

Ivan

The first full week of work has past and we have already made some good progress with our prototype.

The prototype game level has its first design layout which you can see below. It’s not set in stone and needs some talking about within the team:

Carnage – first draft map design 

On the programming side we now have;

Camera control

The camera view now follows the player around as the screen scrolls. It also zooms in on the player when he dies.

Dust

When bullets hit the walls, they kick out dust sprays (that’s been in there for a while):

What’s different now is that the dust now fills the immediate area with airborne dust. This thickens the more bullets hit around the area, and lingers for some time. It’s a cool effect, as it thickens the atmosphere of the room where heavy fighting has been. In this next image you can see that the player is obscured by a cloud of dust from his continual firing in the confined space:

If we add in other debris effects like brick pieces and mortar flying around and lingering about, it should make the battles more intense.

Battle Recorder

We don’t have enough time to add in multiplayer gaming to this three month prototype. Because of this we wanted to be able to show what the game will be like when this becomes possible. The solution was to create some code that records one player at a time fighting in the scene. We keep recording lots of players in the scene and then run a play back routine that just plays these all at once. It’s not perfect but it will certainly show what the game should look like when it’s done.

We’re pleased with the progress so far.

Remember that the artwork shown here is just temporary and will be replaced by high quality artwork as and when those assets are completed by the artists and added in by the programmer.

Rick Vanner

The Game Creators Ltd

Get in the Game. Great idea (round of applause for those who came up with it).

Nice to attend the launch and get invited back to the workshops. Plenty of people I’d worked with (and for!) with new ventures and great ideas kicking around. And plenty of creative folk I hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting before.

Great to hear from the guys from Sony. Constructive and enlightening.

Rewind a bit. Last year. We had this cracking game idea, let’s call it B. We thought this is pretty original. Surely this is the type of original IP that publishers are looking for. We decided this is the idea to develop in the background while were doing the stuff that pays the bills. But Get in the Game came a little too soon for B it needed an art style and we hadn’t quite nailed it down.

Cue some time spent evaluating the other game ideas wed had over the years that hadn’t quite stuck. They weren’t good enough. Or similar ideas had been released in the interim. So the game, originally bearing the working-title Cosmotion was born the weekend before the application had to go back to Pixel-Lab. Based on what Phil said at the launch, Cosmotion (AKA the game with numbers in the title) was a focused attempt to come up with a concept that would give Sony a gaming experience not yet available via PSN.

A couple of the other companies at the pitch to the panel were coming at it from this angle, with very different but cool ideas, and it’ll also be good to see how their games come together over the coming months.

Until later,

Chris Morland
Citrus Suite

Welcome to our blog for our pitch game “Carnage”.

Carnage’s X Statement is; “Explosive, limb ripping, mulitplayer mayhem!”

The planned format is for PS3 but we are also investigating to see if it’ll work for PSP.

The game is very much aimed at an 18+ age range and it will please any gamer who likes a mad gun battle!

Well, with Christmas already a distant memory, we come back to work excited to have been chosen to take our game idea forward for the next three months at least.

Our main goals during this time is to improve on the graphic quality of the game and to also impliment more game features so that we can show that the game idea has real potential. We also want to explore areas that we are uncertain about so that we can be more sure of the project when we next pitch it.

We will be using freelance artists and I have already got them up to speed with what’s required. One artist will be making a level design – this will be 2 screens x 2 screens in size. The other artist will be designing the main character and we also want to add in the Reaper character to show what happens when you gain a power up.

Rick Vanner
Director