Vincent Slifer PPJ week 09 & Personal Post Mortem

This week was not the greatest, but not the worst week for me.  On a massive note, I got sick on Friday, which put me almost out of commission for Saturday and Sunday.  Other than getting sick, I was able to polish Popcorn Popper, Item Dodge, Ram the Planet, and Mechanized Warfare.  For Popcorn Popper, I added in the texture for the popcorn machine, increase the number of spawned popcorn to make it easier to fill the machine, as well as change the method that machine is simulated. In Item Dodge, I just change some colors to better fit the themes of the game and give the shooter a more recognizable model.  For Ram the Planet, I got rid of the power bar, as well as adding in assets to for the players to, more easily, recognize the speed that is supposed to be read.  For Mechanized Warfare, I changed the target selection so that the targets are now given a color overlay, rather than changing the material of the object itself.

New method for motion on Popcorn Popper

Ram the Planet

Positive Content

• Updated Popcorn Popper, Ram the Planet, Item Dodge, and Mechanized Warfare

Negative Content

• Was not able to get people to attend playtests
• Got sick

Work and Hours

Alterations (~2 hrs)
- Changed assets for Item Dodge to better read how the game plays
- Edited Ram the Planet so the sense of speed is better understood
- Made Popcorn Popper spawn more popcorn per button press for humans
- Edited Mechanized Warfare so textures show up before they are shot

Final Art Implementation (~1 hrs)
- Implemented final art for each game

Total Hours: 3 hrs

Personal Post Mortem
What went right
1. Iterative Design
A major part of the process for my games was the iterative design the games went through.  Planet Ram is the biggest example of this process.  Originally, the game allowed the players to move around in the space as they attempted to reach the goal.  This was found to be too difficult to both play and discern the goal of the game.  So, the game was changed so the players only had to just hold two buttons in order to win, reflecting on the original intent of the wacky nature the game was intended to have.

2. Influx of ideas
A major plus with a larger team was the new set of people that could provide in team feedback and ideas for the games.  For me, it was extremely helpful to have other members take an objective look at my own games, to provide concise feedback on what was originally envisioned versus what I had produced.

3. Cooperative Goals
A major element of successfully developing the game was that we were working together in each game.  What I mean is, each element of every game was designed to cohesively work together, to create a more consistent feel, rather than five different programmers designing separate games.

What went wrong
1. Playtesting
My own personal issue, I was not able to get people to playtest the game.  I was unable to get people to play the game on a local machine due to the fact I only have one controller, and I was unable to get people to go to the Drexel Ride in order to test it on the motion base.  This is more reflective on how I do not press people to go out of their way to do tasks that other people do not know if it would be fun or not.

2. Communication
This term, I was not as communicative as I previously was with others on the Slack.  I was more attentive of the slack, but I was more hesitant to actually communicate with others.  Again, this is more reflective of my hesitance to reach out to others and worrying about bothering others when they have their own work to do.  I did reach out to others when I absolutely needed someone else to complete a task, but otherwise, I tried to accomplish it myself to the best of my abilities.

3. Initial Team Growth
The start of the term was a little rocky, with the initial team growth.  We intended to continue with how we were operating from the previous term, but we quickly realized that with so many people, it was apparent that we would not be able to meet in person on Sunday.  There was also a major influx of catching people, from the other team, up to what and how team was doing things.  These issues, however, were not that troublesome because the teams, fairly quickly, assimilated into one.

Lessons Learned

• Work cooperatively
• Ideas and feedback from anyone is a must
• Take a critical look at everything
• Adjust to keep everything consistent

Vincent Slifer PPJ week 08

This week was fairly good for me because I was able to reconcile aspects of my games that were either too complicated or I did not receive feedback on how they played.  While I was aware that the games were flawed, I needed the feedback provided to push the games in the right direction.  Because of that feedback, I was able to edit Ram the Planet to be more of the crazy situation, meant for a laugh, type of game it was envisioned to be.  I was also able to provide better visual cues for the players for the other games I developed, Popcorn Popper and Item Dodge, allowing both the aliens and humans to clearly see what is happening on screen.  Without proper feedback, I would have been lost in not knowing what flaws my games needed immediate fixing.

Positive Content

• Added background music to Popcorn Popper, Ram the Planet, and Item Dodge micro games
• Altered the games to reflect better controls & playtest responses

Negative Content

• Was not able to fully test out the newer versions of the games
• Will need to fix for next week
• Was not able fully complete the Item Dodge Variant
• Needs better art from artists for the controls

Work and Hours

Alterations (~3 hrs)
- Added music to Ram the Planet, Popcorn Popper, + Item Dodge
- Edited games to be easier to play + understand

Variant Creation (~1 hrs)
- Finished creating the variant of Item Dodge

Total Hours: 4 hrs


GDC Vault Post-Mortem Reaction
Presentation: Far Cry 4: Gameplay Team Workflow, Iteration and Philosophy - By: Marc-André Saulnier

The first thing that struck me with this post-mortem  was that a single department for the game had a diverse set of skills collaborating in close proximity to each other.  In contrast to us, from the perspective of someone in a similar position to Saulnier, we separately developed parts of the game that was then put together in the end.  This includes the fact that the group itself was split into two core teams of art and programming.  The difference being the Far Cry 4 developers had people with various skill sets working in the same team, unlike us that divided ourselves because of our skill sets.
The second key item I noticed was how Saulnier kept talking about how the players were important to the game making process.  He talked about how the team developed ideas that would give the player a variety of choice where they can accomplish something cool.  Feedback would be given to those ideas, be it within the team, from other departments, higher ups, or testing; the department would receive constant feedback on the ideas, features, and the design of the game as it is being developed made.  The difference compared our team is that our primary feedback was from playtesting, after the feature was complete.  Parts of the feature would be shown, but it would, more than likely, not receiving as much vetting as a complete feature.  Every feature was tested at every stage and was given feedback with every iteration, where features were either pushed further or scrapped.
The final topic that caught my interest was the communication within the team.  It was not just the fact that members were constantly talking with each other, it was that ideas and troubles that someone might have were dealt with help from other members.  The core difference, that was already said before, was that the teams worked together, in the same building.  Not only does this allow for better communication, but it allows members to be more proactive with each other.  Our team was able to ask for parts from each other, that would later better be integrated.  The difference there being the Far Cry 4 developers were able better and more quickly develop ideas for the game on the fly.  Beyond that, having the close proximity with each other would allow for more ideas to be thrown around and aid from peers to be available.  Saulnier presented a few items that describe how successful games are made by teams whose members are effective at working with each other.

Vincent Slifer PPJ week 06

This week was fairly unproductive for me, in my eyes.  My focus was adding instructions for the games Popcorn Popper, Item Dodge, and Ram the Planet.  Along with the simple task, I also created a method to visually show how much time the players have to complete each game.  The only difficulties I had was implementing the timer so it could universally be used in all of the games.

Positive Content

• Added Human and Alien Controls to the UI for Item Dodge, Popcorn Popper, & Ram the Planet
• Created method to visually show the time in the games

Negative Content

• Popcorn Popper & Item Dodge need more finalized art and textures

Work and Hours

Research (~2 hrs)
- Methods to move UI elements a set distance
- Method to easily set up the visual timer

UI + Aesthetics (~2 hrs)
- Added instructions for Popcorn Popper, Item Dodge, + Ram the Planet
- Added art to liven up games

Total Hours: 4 hrs

Cory Zicolella, Week 5 PPJ, Blog Post 5

Preparing for GDC presentation - 6-8 hrs
Creating Powerbar - 1.5 hrs
Creating Pointing Hand - 1 hr
Website update - 30  mins

This week was largely taken up with time needed to prepare for the GDC presentation that was on February 5th.  Some of it was spent at the motion base gathering people to make testimonials towards Alien Arcade, some of it was tweaking the presentation and brainstorming what we should add, some of it was creating the Testimonial video from the various footage we shot, and of course lastly we had to practice the live demo and presentation multiple times and troubleshoot things as we caught them.  Needless to say, it was a very busy week!  Just in this portion alone, we ran into some editing issues, scene loading issues in the demo, and overall technical difficulty.  We powered through it though, and now as a byproduct of our hard work for that presentation there is also more content to market Alien Arcade with.

The actual plan for this week from the art team was to divide what was required for the games we were making for midterms week.  As it worked out, each person basically got assigned to two art related tasks and had to complete them.  For me, these were the Powerbar for the Ram the Planet microgame (and others that may need it moving forward), and the Pointing Hand for the Poke the Alien minigame.

For the Powerbar, I decided to make it blend in with the dash of the UFO and the menus we already have set up, this way it naturally looks as if it is an extension of the ship in some manner.

As for the Pointing Hand, I thought taking a (more) realistic approach would be silly and accessible in Alien Arcade, so I created a vector hand based off of an actual photograph and tried to get it to match.

The website update was just adding in and formatting the content that we had made for the GDC pitch, which included the gif of the motionbase and the Testimonial video.

Content Positive:

- We worked really hard to get our demo and marketing material up to snuff for GDC!  Everything we needed clocked in at under the 5 minute allotted time and we have things to use for the site now.

-  A Powerbar was created primarily for Ram the Planet, but also can be universally incorporated into games that require it.

- The Pointing Hand is finished and I think came out quite well for what I was shooting for.

Content Negative:

- All of these things took a super large amount of time out of my (midterm) week

Total Time Spent: 9-11 Hours

Vincent Slifer PPJ week 03

This was a fairly productive week for me.  I finished up some of the finer details for Ram the Planet and all it needs now is to be given actual art and fine tune it to play well.  I also started the greybox for the new game Popcorn Popper.  I had some issues though, as I had lost some sight on what the final product should be.

Positive Content

• Finished the greybox for the micro game "Ram the Planet"
• Created a method to simulate motion for players
• Started to build the micro game "Popcorn Popper"
• Created method for all players to mash buttons

Negative Content

• Had to handle signing leases
• Was not able to fully flesh out the entirety of Popcorn Popper

Work and Hours

Research (~1 hrs)
- Methods to smoothly rotate objects and reset their location based on speed
- Methods to handle button mashing

Programming (~3 hrs)
- Finished greybox for "Ram the Planet"
- Created initial greybox for "Popcorn Popper"

Total Hours: 4 hrs

Vincent Slifer PPJ week 02

This week was a disappointment for my own work.  Due to certain circumstances, I felt that I delivered a subpar component to the project.  While I was able to develop a basic greybox, it barely has any of the functionality I initially envisioned it to have, nor any noticeable motion for the players to experience.

Positive Content

• Created a greybox for the micro game "Ram the Planet"
• Created basic method for player to accelerate towards the planet
• Created a script for an object to orbit another object

Negative Content

• Other classes had essays to write and documents to read
• Was not able to fully flesh out the entirety of the micro game
• Research into certain aspects of the micro game were scarce to non-existant

Work and Hours

Research (~2 hrs)
- Methods to get relative position objects and the camera
- Methods of creating realistic acceleration

Programming (~2 hrs)
- Created initial greybox for "Ram the Planet"

Total Hours: 4 hrs