Attraction Post #10: Verbal-Walkthrough

Hey everyone!

      School is back in session, and we have had some major revisions to our game.  Our professors sat down with our team and took us through a verbal-walkthrough of our game.  In other words, they actually talk through each part of the game, from the start screen to options menu to the actual game itself, so that we are all on the same page as far as how the game will act in the end.  For example, Roger will say, "So I'm in the options menu.  What do I see and how do I navigate through it?"  We each initially have different opinions of what should be included in the options menu, but after we talk about it in the verbal-walkthrough, we all are on the same page.  The whole game becomes more structured, and many specific features and mechanics of the game are nailed down.
      After doing a complete verbal walkthrough, we had some major changes we wanted to implement into the game.  First of all, there will be no more robot head you carry around that will act as a magnet.  Instead, the protagonist's own head will be used as the portable magnet.  We decided to create the head as the "portable magnet" because, for one, it gives our game a huge thing that people will remember.  When people talk about our game, it'll be, "Hey remember that magnet puzzle game where you were a robot who could take off his head?"  It's very memorable and people will cling to the idea.  At first, I thought it was going to be incredibly creepy seeing a robot take off his own head, but after thinking about it for a while, it actually seemed more silly and more towards the liking of our game.  We had thought about using another inanimate object to replace the enemy head but there was no real motivation without adding more story toward why our robot was picking up such object and using it.  Second, with using an enemy head, there would be a lot of dialogue that comes with the interactions between it and the main character, (if not dialogue then animations).  Our group had a chat and discussed the use of dialogue for the game, and since none of us are amazing writers, we decided that any dialogue could be more harmful than helpful to our game, even if it happened to be a very small amount.  Third, this opens the doors to very comedic moments in the game.  For example, near the end of the game the robot will probably lose the head temporarily and will have to do puzzles without it.  He may miss having something on the top of his body, so while the robot searches for his head he could place an inanimate object on top of his shoulders to replace his head for the time being.  Imagine a robot with a lamp as a face, wearing that until he finds his real head.  Then a little later the robot may find his head being used as a shell for a crab, with a very frustrated look on the face of the robot's head.  We loved the idea of an enemy robot head babbling dialogue to your character as the two try to escape an underground mine, but we think we could make a tighter, more memorable, and easier to convey game with no dialogue, and with using his own head instead.  
      Our team also decided that the actual body of the robot can only be moved by the magnets placed in the environment and cannot be pushed around by his own magnetic head.   This was done because it may cause some cheap ways to get through puzzles.  For instance, say the player throws the head up to a ledge that goes across the map and swings across the entire map with the head, bypassing all the puzzles below.  If we have the head be controlled by the body, and the body be controlled by the environment, it makes more sense volume-wise as well.  It's like a pyramid, the head is smaller than the body, and the body is smaller than the environment.  If an object is bigger that the other, it should have the means to fully control its movement.  It also makes puzzles more unique in that your head is a specific object no other magnet can be: a portable magnet that your body can fully control.  You can direct it to hit buttons, shoot it to land on specific places, and use it to pull objects to you, (Say you throw it behind a small rock in the way of a beam that will open a door if the rock is moved.  Press the attract button and the head will drag the rock towards you, possibly dropping it down into a hole in the floor, and opening the door).  These are puzzles that will make the player think more about what he or she is doing, (presenting a slower but more thought out puzzle to the player), instead of always on the move platforming across levels.
      Phew!  That was a lengthy blog post, and if you made it to right here, bravo.  To recap, our game is going to be a lighthearted game where you use magnets to make your way through puzzles.  Our main character will be able to take off his own head and use it as a portable magnet, but only the head, (not the body), will be manipulated if the player uses repel or attract on it.  We have nailed down much of the game's mechanics, story, and structure, and now we are well on our way towards the second half of development.

Attraction Post #9: Critique, Anyone?

Although it is currently the beginning of winter break, our team won’t stop working on Attraction.  A couple days ago, I set up an account with Xbox Live Indie Games so that our team could start reviewing other indie titles.  So far, we have reviewed 6 games that were up on Microsoft’s website, and we plan to review as many games as we can over the break.  We have also contacted multiple development teams that made the indie titles we reviewed, and gave their games a personal critique, as well as shared our Facebook page with them so that we could network together in the future.  So far we have heard responses back from 3 of the development teams, as well as gained their support for our game as we support theirs.  Our team will continue to push Attraction out to the public as much as possible, and will keep on reviewing games and gathering support throughout our development cycle and beyond.

What I accomplished this week:

• Created an XNA development account with Xbox Live Indie Games for Tripleslash Studios
• Reviewed 3 games and contacted/received support from 2 of the development teams

Attraction Post #8: The Alpha

So yesterday we presented our game at the EAE open house and it was a huge success!  We had students, industry professionals, and news reporters come from all over the community to see the games being presented in the EAE South Lab.  Our team had done an incredible amount of work within the past two days to polish up the alpha.  Not only that, our programmers made minor tweaks to the alpha while people were demoing the game at the open house to make the experience even more enjoyable!

After each participant demoed the game, we had them fill out a quick survey with the following questions:

• How fun was the game?
• How difficult was the game?
• Were the controls simple to use/understand?
• What was your favorite thing about the game?
• What do you think should be changed/tweaked?

The responses were overall incredibly positive, except for one aspect: controls.  Because we mapped the magnetic beam's aim controls to the right analog stick, and jump control to the A-button, people had a hard time simultaneously jumping and aiming because both require the use of the right thumb.  This is a change we will fix for the final version, but it's great that we are getting critical feedback for our game this early in the development cycle.

It was great to see the community be so intrigued with each and every game at the EAE open house, and ours was no exception.  While demoing our game, people couldn't help but smile because of how much fun they were having with the magnetic mechanics.  Swinging from magnet to magnet, dodging obstacles, and figuring out just how to get through each section created a creative challenge for every participant.  Our game was also demoed by people of all ages, old and young, and it was amazing to see kids as young as 11 run through our game, and then restart it because they wanted to play it again.  The alpha was a success not only in getting our game critiqued, but because it was an opportunity to get our game out to the public and press.  The University of Utah Chronicle interviewed one of our programmers about our game and it became the front page news this morning along with 3 other games shown at the event.  All in all, we had a blast presenting our game to the public, and, if any of you readers came to the event and tried out our game, then we want to thank you for your time and support. Here is a link to the article if anyone would like to read it.

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/?p=2581577

What I accomplished this week:

• Created a gameplay trailer for the alpha
• Created the survey for people to fill out after they had demoed our alpha
• Rigged character poses and spliced together gameplay screenshot in preparation for the open house

Attraction Post #7: To Alpha and Beyond

Welcome back from Thanksgiving!  Did everyone have a good holiday?  Well, while you guys were eating, (and going crazy over some awesome Black Friday deals), our team has been working hard toward getting Attraction ready for alpha.  All the art assets are now complete for the alpha version of the game, and on Saturday we will be implementing them into the playable demo.  We had both our instructors play our game today, and they gave us some very good tips on how to make our game even more fun for next week.  By Tuesday, every feature of our game will be implemented and our team will be doing a ridiculous amount of playtesting to tweak everything so that the public will have an enjoyable experience once they get their hands on it.  Everything has come together incredibly well so far, and we are burning to let everyone test our game next Thursday when we show it off.

What I accomplished this week:

• Shortened and polished one of our character's idle animations
• Created a start jog cycle and end jog cycle animation
• Textured the main character for alpha

Hopefully we will see you next week when we reveal our the first playable version of our game!

Attraction Post #6: Skin It Then Rig It...Wait What?

Hey everyone.  Sorry this, (and the post before this), is so late.  It has been an extremely busy week, but I can finally write some blog messages now!  Woo!

So, as far as the art goes, we have a final mockup for the alpha environment level.  The programmers have a level editor all in place and our environment design will be implemented shortly.  Also, our protagonist robot is now rigged and skinned!  As you can tell, we have all been working extremely hard to get ready for the alpha.  It has been a long process, but our team is in crunch time getting everything done before November 20th, (our art lock date for the alpha).

What I accomplished this week:

• Rigged, and skinned the protagonist character of our game
• Created a rough idle animation for the protagonist character

Below is our protagonist that has been rigged and skinned!  Now it's time for me to get back to work.  See you all next week!

Attraction Post #5: Model Me Up Scotty

Hey Attraction fans!

So this week went really well.  Because all the artists had their silhouettes turned in on time, I was able to start modeling the protagonist character, and now the model for alpha is finished!  I'm really excited to see it in action.  This week the artists are coming up with environment concepts for the alpha level.  They are each making an environment based around a basic template.  As far as the programmers go, they are looking to finish the level editor, as well as tweaking the game's controls and physics.  The alpha is coming up soon, and we want our game to be the best it possibly can be.  These next few weeks will be incredibly busy, but, in the end, our game should be as polished as it can be by alpha.  Not to mention incredibly fun.

What I accomplished this week:

• Modeled and iterated on the protagonist character
• Helped design the alpha level
• Updated our social page on Facebook

See you next week!

Attraction Post #4: Why Are Silhouettes So Dark?

Hey everyone!

This week we have been carefully designing our protagonist from the ground up.  Our team created around 100 concepts of characters since last Tuesday, and we narrowed it down each meeting little by little.  Today we got down to six concepts.  We all took a vote on which concepts were the best out of the six, but everyone on the team had something they liked from 4 of the characters, so we will be splicing off parts from each concept to form a final character, Frankenstein style!, (I know, I should have used that line yesterday during Halloween, but too late now)!  By Saturday our final character silhouette will be completed and critiqued, and then the modeling will begin.

For this week's sprint the artists are creating a value and color pass on each of their final concept characters.  Cory, (PR Chair/Artist), is also creating test textures for the programmers to use for the level editor.  Becky, (Art Lead), is working on creating the final character silhouette, and, after it is critiqued, I will begin modeling the character.  My goal is to have the model done by this upcoming Tuesday.

As far as the tech side goes, each programmer has been assigned a specific task from Brendan Wanlass, (Lead Programmer).  In brief, this week the programmers are working on the character controls, physics, collision detection, and a real time level editor.

To wrap up this week's blog post, here are some of the final protagonist concept silhouettes that we have created!  Our final character will be revealed next week, so stay tuned!

What I accomplished this week:

• Created 15 rough character silhouettes iterating on the original silhouettes chosen
• Created 3 refined silhouettes based on the critiques of the 15 rough silhouettes
• Created 1 final vector character silhouette based on the critiques of the 3 refined silhouettes