Get in the Game gave us a unique opportunity to step away from contract work for a while and focus on our game proposal. Over the months we have really defined the project from a design and production point of view. We used the time to go away and concept an area of our game and produce artwork for this segment. After our final production meeting it was suggested we focus our efforts on our pitch and the accompanying PowerPoint for the final weeks of ‘pre-production’ and we were keen to act on this advice. We got some great one to one quality time with Matt Southern to help us sort the PowerPoint. 100s of slides and two ripomatics later we were ready to go.

Stepping in at the 11th hour, as I rested in my sick bed, Steve – Citrus Suite’s own Super Mario (a bit inappropriate considering the pitch was to Sony) – did the presentation and as the icing on the cake we showed a simple demo illustrating gameplay on the target hardware. Seeing that Sony are still talking to us I guess Steve stuck to the script!

It’s been great to be part of this process and I’m sure Get in the Game will go from strength to strength. Thanks for inviting us along.

Chris Morland

Well the final presentation to SCEE and the GITG panel was given on Wednesday 22th and luckily, due to an afternoon appointment, Catalyst were able to go first. I had rehearsed the presentation several times and had decided to do the whole presentation on the PS3. This enabled me to show the slides, images and the ripomatic movie all on a HUGE HD screen and controlled using the PS3 pad. My script was prepared and printed and ready to go. I know the argument of should you read from a script to present or memorise your presentation will always rage but through numerous presentations I feel more comfortable with my script printed in front of me. I’ve seen too many speakers lose it during presentations and stage fright and winging it are no way of providing confidence. The mocked up PS3 screen shots worked well and the ‘photo gameplay talkthrough’ did exactly what it needed to do. The feedback from the panel was positive and also provided some new areas of consideration. Overall I was pleased with the final presentation and hoped the panel thought it was polished and professional. Besides the nerves that are always there for these type of presentations, I really enjoyed it and felt happy that I had conveyed what we want to do with our game. The project as a whole has been enlightening and it has been great to see things from the other side of the fence and being able to explain something simply is actually harder than you think. It doesn’t matter how many time you do something, you can always learn more and improve.

I appreciate that I haven’t mentioned the name, type or style of game I’ve been working on and this might frustrate some readers, as my comments without being put into context may appear very vague and pointless. However IP protection is something I feel strongly about and without signed publishing agreements, it’s really the only thing a developer has.

Now it’s just a case of watching my inbox to see what the final decision on moving forward will be…..

Cheers,

Ivan

The final Pitch to the Sony executives happened last week. We had achieved everything we wanted to and I had practiced the pitch many times to ensure the key points would be covered. I also ensured I incorporated the feedback from the previous meetings.

I made sure I left early to avoid possible delays on the M62. Luckily I was OK and had time to have a tea at McDonalds close to the Sony offices.

The plan was to show the powerpoint presentation which includes a video file. This part should all work fine. The game itself had developed a long loading delay due to all the new artwork we had added in. So we devised a way for me to load the game and leave it in the background until needed, I would then press a key and it would play the game. I knew from a previous meeting that my laptop worked on the big Sony screen. When I went into the room I discovered they had an even bigger and newer screen and typically my laptop refused to work with it! We eventually used the original screen but then my laptop forced itself to change modes and so my mid presentation video did not play and I had to come back to windows and run it through media player. Then the game crashed and had to be re-run due to the mode changing. Even with all these issues I was able to stay on message and deliver my pitch. The game seemed to be well received and now we wait to see if Sony wants to move ahead with us on the title.

The key insight I have leant through this whole process is that my team and I have to own the game idea, concept and plan for making it happen. It’s no good hoping someone else has the answers for you. The various meetings helped identify areas we had not defined and resulted in a crystal clear plan for the game.

• My advice to others would be;
• Understand the technology you’ll be coding for.
• Know your target market and define why your game will stand out and be different.
• Work with people who can create great results, both visually and coding wise.
• Create a buzz within the team about the game and get everyone singing from the same song sheet (with the aid of an X Statement).
• Don’t be afraid to change things. If areas need to be improved, removed or added, then do it.
• Get plenty of feedback. Not just at the meetings but from other game players and friends.
• Do your best to clarify the end vision for the game, visually, audibly and if possible with a simple game play prototype.
• Spend your budget wisely. Until your game is green lighted and given full funding it’s best to spend with caution. We used freelancers for the artwork, so when they were done on these jobs we did not have to keep paying them.

We’ve enjoyed the whole process, it’s been exciting to be involved. Finger crossed now for Carnage!

Rick Vanner

Financial Director

The Game Creators Ltd

First Person Surgery  – It’s a matter of life and death.

There’s been a lot of bloodied action in Onteca’s ‘This is Surgery’ operating theatre over the last few weeks. We’re now all quietly confident that we could successfully undertake a coronary bypass op’ (off pump obviously – so you can see the heart beat) with possibly a small tonsillectomy thrown in for good measure.

Since our practice pitch, we’ve been working on Player journey experience from Newb House Trainee to potential Lead Consultant, developing artwork and watching numerous research YouTube surgery vids in our lunch hour.

We recommend : http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-6218906821548692571&hl=en for the non squeamish amongst the ‘Get in the Game’ companies.

We’ve now got a ‘This is Surgery’ Lead Consultant Surgeon to mentor Player progress

and a Super Surgeon to make career progression just that little bit more painful.

The second production review took place on 18th March 2009. This was intended as the dress rehearsal before the final ‘X-Factor’ moment of pitching to the Sony panel. It was excellent to see how far each individual company had progressed with their games. Questions posed at the previous review had been answered with confidence, and some impressive developments had been made across the board. The companies had obviously worked hard, and had taken into account comments made at the previous review- they were much more focussed about their individual games, and had more concrete ideas about what they were pitching. I got the impression that everyone was very proud of their games, they have become such personal triumphs for each of the teams. A couple of the teams had working models and rip-o-matics which were exciting and whet the appetite. One of the teams has started working with a writer, which was really interesting to see.
Although the games have been substantially developed, and milestones have been met, it is still important for each team to take on board the comments made about their pitching skills. This was the focus of the review for a very good reason. The game has to be strong, but so does the pitch, and it is important to spend time preparing, learning the pitch, building confidence in delivery. Get in the Game came about primarily to encourage Sony to enter into a dialogue with the games creators in the North West. Now is their chance, they’ve got to get these presentations right.

Last week I presented Carnage to the Get In The Game advisory board and I’m happy to report that it was very well received. The main feedback was more about my PowerPoint presentation. I need to lose a lot of the text from the slides and ensure I deliver an emotional presentation in early April to the Sony guys.

A great deal has happened on the game since my last post on this blog. I missed a week because we have some cool new visuals that I wanted to show for the first time in the meeting. Now that’s all out of the way I’ll share it here.

Coding Carnage

On the coding side a ton of new features have been added;

• The higher quality level and the high poly characters are now added to the game, including the grim reaper. When the Reaper power up is picked up the game alpha blends smoothly from the main character form into the Reaper form. The player can then run around the level at a faster rate and cut down anyone in his way – it’s a lot of fun!
• Power-ups like the reaper and the shields now re-appear (respawn) after a short delay.
• A special check had to be added for the shield. There are some weapons that don’t work with the shield – one example is the grenade launcher, using it with the shield could result in you blowing yourself up! Valid weapons for the shield power-up are pistol, shotgun, ak47, uzi, flame thrower. Dual weapons are not allowed. If you pick up an invalid weapon when you have the shield, the shield is dropped.
• One of the main coding blocks completed included the AI for the BOTS. It’s now possible to see 8 vs 8 battles! Even with the simple AI we have at present there’s a lot of carnage being dealt. They can even pick up the reaper power-up and go on a killing spree!
• An intro screen has been added to the start of the game and the voice over introduces the background to the game. This is the script we have used; “Hello ladies and gentleman, and welcome to the filthy and stinking ghetto of North Bridge, hosting city of one of our favourite arenas – the industrial complex we lovingly refer to as The Butcher House. Prepare yourselves for another evening of quality dismemberment, with your host Randy McBane. And without further ado… let the CARNAGE commence.”
• We added an INI file control to the game. It’s wise to do something like this. It makes it easier for the person who has to do the demo. For example, I might want to set the game up for 2 human players and 4 BOT players. I can do all of this by just text editing the INI file.
• We also added PS3 controller support. Due to other priorities for the meeting I decided not to use them. Hopefully I can demo using two PS3 controllers in the final meeting, they just need testing more.
• During the game the commentator will make announcements on what’s happening. Here’s just a small sample of some of these;

“Rest in pieces!”
“Where is the justice?”
“Oooo. That’s gotta hurt.”
“Now isn’t this quality family entertainment?”
“Checking out!”
“Another one bites the dust”
“Taken a licking, and he sure aint kicking”.
“Ooooooo. I hope you’ve all eaten already.”
“Just another arena misdemeanor”
“Replicator to the rescue”
“It’s all pain and no gain!”
“Extinction!”
“Call a mortician!”

This is by no means an exhaustive list. A lot of other smaller tasks have been carried out, these are just the head liners!

Artwork
The main level is now complete, here’s the final render;

The characters are all textured and animated too. Just after our meeting we completed the giblets and charred textures for the poor soles who suffer the world of Carnage (look away now if you’re squeamish).

The first shot shows two different textures for team White and team Black;

After a blast from a flame thrower you’ll end up looking a lot worse;

Once your body has taken a few bullets, you’ll look like this;

And should someone take a long sword to you, you’ll be in pieces (literaly);

Now the carnage begins…

So for the remaining two weeks we have identified the following areas we want to improve/add;

• Add an environment floor pad which triggers a circular saw to cut up anyone in it’s way.
• Add support for all the new animations
• PS3 controller support
• Death camera views (close in shots as you die)
• Change the voice artist to another one
• Add an animated intro
• Animate the “Reconstructor” which brings warriors back to life
• Code pick-ups for Health and Steroids
• Make the game play for about 2 minutes so it can be won
• Create a fence around the arena to make it feel more like a live game show
• Improve the AI of the bots

Rick Vanner

The Game Creators Ltd

www.thegamecreators.com