Alright, here's how I think we could divide the work for the prototype (assignments as of 2/3):
Player: we need to integrate the shooting code from another game into the Ballworld and fine tune the controls/feel. (Evan)
Level Design/Art: we need someone to design a level and create the art. Platform positions need to be determined. (probably Kangas)
Platforms: we need to figure out how to use Dambuilder's platforms in our game. (Kangas)
Items/Enemies: we need to have two seperate things we can run into, ie. Critters. We need them to have different functions (adding or removing fun) and need to tune the generation (hopefully coming from both sides). (Janna)
Misc. Art: we need sprites and perhaps a title screen. General artwork and feel.
Things to keep in mind:
Fun zones -- might be able to implement as platforms.
We've agreed to meet again Saturday afternoon. Team members are expected to understand what is needed if they haven't finished coding by then. We have agreed to concentrate on player controls/physics and platform implementation. We also want the background art for at least one level completed for the first prototype. Items and enemies are pretty complete in Pop, so we won't be as concerned with finishing that for our prototypes but hope to include them.
-- EvanParry - 04 Feb 2004
Today we came up with the following topics for our DesignDocument?. Please change what you think is wrong or insufficient and add what you think is missing.
Premise
Game Mechanics
UI: camera, info boxes
Controls
Platforms
Funzones
Enemies
Items
Progression
Scoring
Schedule
Prototype
Final Product
Documentation
-- EvanParry - 05 Feb 2004
We met Saturday afternoon with our customer, Michael Tuck-Lee. He seemed generally supportive of our game and we were able to explain how we are going to handle the vast majority of the issues he raised. Adam already had a fairly functional prototype to demonstrate at the time. Janna explained her work with the items. We all agreed to meet back Monday night to integrate our code and tackle any remaining issues.
-- EvanParry - 07 Feb 2004
We are having a meeting now. Adam and Evan have been working on the player physics for an hour. We got jumping working on platforms and made it so the player can only shoot left or right. Janna joined us when she got out of class. She has the two item/enemy types working along with some nice sprites to get an idea of our graphics. We are still struggling with the crazy aspect ratio thing, but we think we might have a lead with the Real to Pixel Converter code which hopefully will allow to specify our box sizes with pixels to ensure they correct boxes.
-- EvanParry - 09 Feb 2004
We have all met at the LAC lab to iron out the remaining gameplay issues. We would like the game to be essentially functionally complete today, with only tweaking, level design, and art/sounds left to work on over the weekend.
We have come up with the following list of items still requiring attention:
Fun Zones -- done.
Limited Ammo -- done.
Fun Meter -- sorta.
Circle around guy -- done.
Better enemy movement
Nerd Gun item type -- done.
Level loading -- done.
-- EvanParry - 13 Feb 2004
We spent 3 hours working together to complete almost all of our items for today. We are very pleased with this progress and we are on schedule for the code freeze on Tuesday. At this point, from a programming perspective, we need to iron out some few remaining issues (notably the fun meter) and tweak the game for fun and challenge. From the game design perspective, we still have a bit of work to do. We need to come up with our final art for the enemies and items, as well as design all the levels and backgrounds. Our current test level will be a good start for a fully functional first level, but we still need complete background art for the other 2 levels we are planning, as well as platform placement.
All in all, a very successful day. Don't forget to update your personal pages with any group work you do.
-- EvanParry - 13 Feb 2004
JannaMilestonesEvanMilestonesAdamMilestones