Danny Dale-Tucker Development Journal

@dannyrwdt

46 posts

Day 98: Hand In Day Gecko Gaming

Today was the final deadline for the game and we still had not done a voice over for the game. Ali.V, Sam.F and I had to create this voice over for 1.00pm with up to date gameplay that would accompany the voice over. Luckily thanks to us and a couple other teammates we where able to get this completed and handed in with the game on a disk.

My overall review of the creation of the game is; I think we created a well working, enjoyable game but half way through creation of the game half of the team had lost enthusiasm and had given up on the game which was really disappointing for the rest of us who wanted to make this game and enjoyed making it. It caused a lot of tension between teammates and a lot of stress for the people who where left to pick up the pieces. One thing that I have learnt from creating this game is to not overscope from the beginning but if I do I need to realize it earlier so that I wont have to rush when it comes to near the end of the game to try and get everything done. Another thing that I personally need to work on is time management so that I don’t leave things to the last minute and end up rushing the final product.

-Art by Georgia.H

Day 93-97: Gecko Gaming

This was the last week to get all of the game finished and ready to hand in for the 9th of May. Like other teams we were working really hard to try and get the game done and complete to a professional standard but unfortunately a couple of the team members had given up by then and decided not to help with the polish and bug testing anymore and some even decided not to turn up at all. This was a really big hit to the four/five team members and me who still cared about the game. This meant that we had to work even harder to get it done and complete ready for Monday.

Day 88-92: Final Pitch Gecko Gaming

This week we had to plan for our final pitch which was on Tuesday 26th at 10.00am. Ali.V was able to get the presentation done with help from most people on the team but not everyone. He added in slides for each route and had a look through the marking criteria before creating the presentation. When it came to the presentation everyone was really nervous as a couple things had gone wrong already that morning. When the presentation was complete we had ran over time by quite a lot and still had stuff missing from our presentation, also a lot of the information that was presented was repeated by a couple team members which the lecturers noticed and took note of. Once the presentation was finished we decided to carry on with bug testing and polishing the game. The team and I were starting to stress out a bit knowing how little time we had left to get the game in.

Day 83-87: Sprint 4 Plan Gecko Gaming

On the Monday when we got back we had our final sprint planning session. This was basically making sure everything was up to date and working out what need to be implemented, but only if it is really necessary, and what needs to be polished. For the rest of the week we mainly did bug testing and fixing models and textures that needed to be improved. I was also able to add in a couple of models, one being a door which lets the player have something to walk through to get to the next room and the second being a health pack which the player is able to collect health from, giving them more survivabilty in the game. Luckily Hallam.W was able to implement these features in quickly and sufficiently meaning they were added straight away with no trouble.

Day 68-82: Easter Holiday Gecko Gaming

Over the Easter Holiday I didn’t get up to much regarding the game as I was working on an art project that was set before Easter. Due to me working on the Art Project I was only able to get a couple of models made and finished waiting to be implemented into the game. I was able to finish and map the armour for the character and also get some environment assets done and completed. I wish I had worked more on the game over the Easter holidays as I still have some stuff to do instead of having everything complete and just polishing off models and textures.

Day 63-67: Sprint 3 End Gecko Gaming

This week was the last week before the Easter Holidays so we had to get most of the game done by the end of this week. We had the Easter Holidays to do work but none of us wanted to do work over Easter, we all wanted a break so we tried to get as much done this week as we possibly could. I was able to complete the Boss model and have it all UV Mapped and sent off to the animators which was a big accomplishment for the game and the programmers had the model in game as a place holder until the animations are added. I was able to start on the armour models but was not able to finish them by the end of the week so that is what i will be working on over the Easter Holidays and little other bits if needs be. An improved loot system was added into the game this week which was better than the old one and Geaorgia.H was able to get the UI completed for it too. Near the end of this week people started bug-testing, ready for the final polish sprint.

Day 58-62: Show and Tell Gecko Gaming

On Tuesday we had a ‘Show and Tell’ day where we went into the Phoenix cinema in Falmouth to present our games to the rest of the year and the second years. For our presentation Lewis.G and I presented it in the morning, we were the first people to go up so it was pretty nerve racking but once up and presenting it was a lot easier than I thought and everyone was really enthusiastic about our game and that gave the team a massive confidence boost which was really needed at this time. Before the presentation Ali.V and I created the presentation and video which was to be used, I really enjoyed creating the video as I was able to do some video editing which was a nice break from the modelling. Luckily I had learnt how to use Adobe Premiere at college so I was able to create the video with ease and little transitions between each clip with audio over the top which was generously given to us by Luke.H. Overall I think the ‘Show and Tell’ day went really well I just wish we had planned it better earlier instead of leaving it until the end. For the rest of the week I started to create the boss for our game which was tricky as he is meant to have four arms but I like the challenge of creating a more detailed model.

Day 53-57: Sprint 3 Plan Gecko Gaming

On the Monday of this week we started off with a Sprint 3 planning session after the sprint 2 review on Thursday just gone. During the planning we decided that we had overscoped a lot and that we needed to cut down on some of the ideas. We decided to cut having more than three enemies, the female character was now definitely not being implemented and a couple more features were cut unfortunately. Hopefully with the cuts we had made we would be able to get the game done and complete by the hand in date. For the rest of the week I made weapon icons for the UI and created some more weapon parts for the random weapon generation. Also during this week we had to start planning for the ‘Show and Tell’ day for the 15th which is being held in the Phoenix Cinema in Falmouth.

Day 48-52: Sprint 2 End Gecko Gaming

This week was very productive, especially for the programmers. Hallam.W and Ben.AC were able to get lots of things implemented into the game like the ranged enemy’s AI meaning the enemy will follow you if it has seen you also it will start shooting you trying to kill you, there are quite a few problems with this at the moment with the enemies trying to walk through walls to get to you but hopefully by next week Hallam.W and Ben.AC will be able to get this fixed. They were also able to implement an inventory system into the game, this lets the player pick up different weapons and ammo types and swap them to better ones if needs be. Meanwhile I was able to get the enemy models finished, mapped and sent of to the animators by the end of the week which was still late for them to have them but I was glad about how they looked, also Georgia.H was able to get another enemy model completed and handed over to the animators so overall art wise this week was very productive. Sam.F has been keeping up to date with our production and making sure we are on track as well as doing the ‘Game Design Document’ which has become a real big help for everyone, it means if we are falling behind Sam.F will let us know about it and help us with ways to get back on schedule.

Day 43-47: Gecko Gaming

After last weeks sprint planning I was able to come straight into the studio and start my work straight away. My plan for this week was to get at least one of the enemy character models completed and UV Mapped ready for texturing and animating. To start with, the models were hard to create as I had to learn the software which I was using as well as create the enemies in time for the animators so they weren’t waiting. I was able to get one of the models completely modeled by the end of this week but not unwrapped which was a problem as the animators needed the models as soon as possible so they didn’t fall behind on work. Once the first enemy model was complete I started the next enemy model which, looking at it now, I probably shouldn’t have done, I should have completely finished the first model, including mapping it, then handed that to the animators instead of making them wait for both models to be completed.

Day 38-42: Sprint 1 End & Sprint 2 Plan Gecko Gaming

This week started with the first sprint review of the project on the 15th, we were able to see how people were getting on with their work and whether they were on track. For my personal sprint I was on track and had completed most of the things for sprint 1 but still had a couple things left over. Overall we were all on target of sprint goals apart from a couple of people who hadn’t put a lot of effort into the project so far so hopefully that will change for sprint 2. On the 16th we had Sprint 2 planning and for this sprint we decided to get enemies implemented into the game. The programmers job this sprint was to get the enemies to interact with the character and get the AI working so that the enemies would track the player if they saw them. By the end of this week I have been able to get a start on the enemy character models but for these models I am using Autodesk Mudbox which I have not used before meaning I have to learn the software in time so I don’t fall behind on my sprint goals. I was also able to make a start on the main UI and get it nearly finished but Georgia.H is going to make a couple of tweaks here and there to make it look better and easier for the player to read/use.

Day 33-37: Gecko Gaming

So this was the last week of the three week production time. We were able to get a lot done over these three weeks and I am very grateful for these weeks as I was able to get a lot of the main models done and ready for the game and for animating. For this week me and Georgia.H have started the Style Guide and have been working hard on it to try and get it done ready to refer to later on in the project. Once the Style Guide was done I moved onto creating the first weapon for our gun and that is a pistol. I had created it in an earlier game project but unfortunately it was not used so we decided to use it in this game as the starting weapon meaning it wont go to waste. For the pistol there were still a couple tweaks that i needed to do to it to get it complete and ready for the game, once this is done the animators can do a walk cycle with a weapon in hand and with the character holding the gun up ready to fire.

Day 28-32: Gecko Gaming

This was the second week of the three week production period. This week I was able to get the Male character completely finished and UV Mapped. The UV Mapping of the character was fun because it was completely different compared to things I had UV Mapped before, luckily the guide that I was following also came with how to Unwrap a character like this and multiple ways to do it so it fitted your style depending on the model. Once the UV Mapping was complete I was able to hand it over to the animators Ali.V and Marco.R they are planning on animating the characters and enemies using Mo-cap but they will not be able to check whether they can use it until next week which is a bit of a pain. The female character is nearly completed but the team and I have decided that we should have one character in the game, completed and polished, and work on other models instead of extra things that are not needed for the game to function properly but are a nice extra so we are leaving the female character on Trello just in case we want to implement her at a later date.

Day 23-27: Gecko Gaming

This week was the start of the three week production time we have to just work on the game, this meant we have no lessons or lectures for this week and the next two weeks. This will mean we have more time to work on just purely our game and not have to worry about anything else. This week I started creating the characters for our game. This has been taking me a while as I have not created a character before so this means I have been watching YouTube tutorials on how to create characters with correct proportions and typology in Maya. This, so far, has been very interesting and I have also learnt a lot about Maya as well as creating characters. I was able to nearly finish the male character at the end of this week and start the female character, the only thing I have to add to the male model is his head then it just needs to be UV Mapped and then sent to the animators to animate. With the female character I have only just started so I am getting the figure down now to look realistic and not cartoon-like. Hallam.W was able to get random generation for each of the rooms completed by the end of the week but it has a couple of bugs that he needs to fix but hopefully they wont take to long to finish, either way Hallam.W and Ben.AC have made real progress with the game which is really encouraging for the rest of the team.

Day 18-22: Sprint 1 Plan Gecko Gaming

This week started with our presentation on the Monday. This was alright as we had completed the pitch completely over the weekend but there were a couple things we had missed out and had repeated a couple of things multiple times. Either way the presentation was a good learning experience as this was my first time that I had to present an idea in this type of format and formality. On the Wednesday we had our first sprint planning session to complete, we decided that the most important thing to do this sprint was to get the characters done and in the game as playable characters, with working levels and lifts so the player can progress through the game. My job this sprint is to create two characters, a male and a female, that the player will have an option to choose between. This will be a fun and exciting task for me as I have never created a character before and I really want to. One thing that Hallam.W was able to get done this week was having random weapon generation. This was really impressive as he was able to do this really quick and fix any bugs with it straight away.

Day 13-17: Gecko Gaming

This week we started to concept proper ideas for the game and I was able to put my full attention into it this week instead of having to concentrate on other projects or work. We decided that we will have multiple enemies for the player to go up against and that they would have to go down floors to go up against harder enemies giving the player more of a challenge and would make the game more fun and interesting to play. Later in the week the programmers Ben.AC and Hallam.W were able to get the basic build of our game working and playable in its basic form. Also next week we have our first pitch so we had to plan for that and having a really basic version of the game was really good for explaining how everything would work and how it would play. We finished the pitch today with only a couple things to add over the weekend meaning we were ready for presenting on Monday.

-Art work by Georgia.H

Day 8-12: Gecko Gaming

This week was not a very productive week for me game wise, this was due to poor planning by me. My art assignment was due today and I had not planned my time very well over the holidays so most of this week I was completing my art assignment and trying to get it handed in on time. This was not fair on my team as they were able to do work on the game and I was not. This held back art concepting by a week due to my mistake which is not acceptable. On the plus side I was able to get a little bit of concepting done with the help of Georgia.H, this was mainly of environments and little bits of character art.

Danny Dale-Tucker Development Journal @dannyrwdt - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag