Homework 7

For this homework, I decided to make some clouds by putting together many spheres, and giving them a blue material. I made two clouds, and made the larger one the parent of the smaller one, to simulate how clouds often all move together in the sky. I then animated them moving across the sky by making an animation on the large cloud, which causes the child cloud to follow.

This fits in to my group project because we will have clouds moving along in the sky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h0EJ9lLN1U&edit=vd

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4_3eQMuV0A4ZHlVZUxlWjhyMmM/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4_3eQMuV0A4eWJEVF8zd0JmRnc/edit?usp=sharing

Homework 6

1. Mechanics is addressed in our game by the way in which the game is played, that being a first person view through a camera lens, the taking of pictures which reveals different things about the game, as well as potentially a score system based on the accuracy of the picture taken by the player, or puzzle elements solved by taking pictures of certain key objects.
Story is an important part of our game. It tells the story of a photographer uncovering the misterious destruction and depopulation of a city.
Aesthetics in our game will be made to feel a little eerie, without being dark, with a little of a cubist art style rather than a realistic art style.
Technology in our game is of course limited by our production software, Blender, as well as the processing power of our computers, and our ability to create environments and objects that arent computer intensive. For the most part, we wont have any new or different technologies that will set the game appart.

2. Yes, all four elements work towards our themes of mystery and exploration

3. Simply, theme and experience are like input and output. Theme is what feelings and behaviours are projected by the game unto the player. And experience is that players reactions and interpretations of those feelings. So for example a theme could be of terror and darkness, which could lead a player to experience fear and exitement, and could have another player be unmoved.

4. Our games themes are primarily mystery and exploration. It may at times be more eerie and at times more bright. It also covers themes of destruction and recreation, and of societal and family elements and values.

5. Our mechanics reinforces this theme because it puts the player physically in charge of exploration, and by not revealing everything to the player and making them uncover elements of the story through exploration they uncover the mysteries of the environment. Likewise story reinforces our themes because at first the story of the town is unclear and the player must uncovere the details.

6. In my opinion what makes our game special is the mechanic of "peering into the past" by taking pictures, and how it helps build the story and aesthetics.

Homework 5

NOTE: Because of technicality constraints, I could not use the game engine with my object in ways that "made sense". My object is a swing, but since we have not yet learned how to create pivots, i did not attempt to make my swing swing back and forth. I simply made the object do other motions as an example. Note that I talked to Professor Erlebacher about this before doing it. Furthermore, because of how I made the chains in the swing via the add chain addon, I could not "join" them with the rest of the object, so they will not move in the demo. In our game, my object isn't actually supposed to move in any way. The object will undergo change during the game but it is not motion, and it is not something that I can do until we learn how to use pivots, and I learn how to make the chain work with the rest of the object. In the final game, this object is supposed to change from a "broken down" version, to a "healthy" version. This will probably be accomplished by modeling both versions, and hiding one and making the other appear based on user action.



For this assignment, I made my object rotate along different axis based on which keys were pressed, and I made the object disappear if a combination of keys was pressed.



The use of the game engine will relate to my team game in that, we will have the user be a first person camera that when he "snaps a picture" will temporarily show the city as it was before a disaster. We will use the game engine to alternate between "broken down" versions of objects and "healthy" versions of objects to simulate this "photo into the past". We will also in some cases perhaps permanently return objects to their "healthy" version, to rebuild the city.

Video Link:

http://youtu.be/6T3PeJx2KS8

Homework 4

Do you love your project/game. If not, how can that be changed? 

Yes I love this project, its a great idea, and its a good size for a school project.

Does the team as a whole love the project? If not, what can be done? 

It looks like we all really like the project and the idea. We have some conflicting opinions on smaller details, but we all love the idea.

Are the team members communicating with each other?

Yes, often. We communicate our ideas and messages via email to the group.

Does the team have a regular meeting schedule? What is that schedule? 

Yes, we meet Mondays, and sometimes Wednesdays around 1 or 2 pm at Strozier.

Describe the modes of communication between the team members. 

During meetings we communicate by taking turns sharing our ideas, and waiting for someone to finish speaking before we offer a reply or a countering opinion. Over email, we express the full extent of our ideas, and offer solutions.

Regarding game documents, what must be remembered while designing your game? 

We must remember the complexity and time restraints that come with an art based game in a team full of members with no modeling and animation experience.

Homework 3

PART 1:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4_3eQMuV0A4eFlGTFdVbmNrNjA/edit?usp=sharing


PART 2:

To construct this object, I started by adding a cylinder and scaling it to look like a rod. I then copied this rod and tilted them both such that they intersected at the top. I then copied this structure to create the four legs of the swing. I then made another rod to connect the tips of both pairs of legs, and then added a sphere to this intersection to make it look neater. Then to create the seat I flattened out and elongated a cube to create the main section, and then extruded the outermost sides outwards and upwards, making the seat curve a little. Finally to add the chain I used the "Add Chain" addon that comes preinstalled with blender to create the chains that hold the seat, and then just put all the pieces together as neatly as I could.



PART 3:

This object fits into the game because one of our scenes will be a playground, and this is an element of it. In the real world of the game the object will be somewhat destroyed, perhaps by disjoining one of the chains and having the seat fall over. In the past world the swing would be intact as it is here.

Game Links

https://picroma.com/cubeworld

A pixelated RPG where you can alter weapons on a voxel-by-voxel basis.

https://www.everquestnext.com/

The next game from an epic franchise, large scale MMORPG, with a twist, a sort of editor tool that will allow you to create buildings and alter the environment, permanently, in a multiplayer environment.

Image

This is the image I made for my first tattoo. I looked around for Celtic knots that weren't too common and I found a variation of the above. I altered it by turning it 45 degrees so it was more of a diamond than a square, and then I put it inside a thick circle.

Test Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyuwn2oaoOE&feature=player_embedded#t=0

This is the test video for the videogame design class.
In this video i briefly talk about myself and my career goals.