David Monteleone, Week 7 Journal PPJ, Blog post 7, GMAP 378

Content with Hours (Examples included):

                My first task for the week was to capture the footage of the game for the video draft. Not an entirely big deal, but it does take time to configured Open Broadcaster correctly, capture the game, and then to run to campus to upload the video. However when I got to campus, due to the virus that knocked out AWExpress, I didn’t have the authentication to upload. I eventually got the files to Cory through other means!

 (.75 hrs)

My next task was to add the Quiz Game art that Jinghan made. That was a rather simple task, and the game looks great now!

(.25 hrs)

                My efforts then moved onto fixing numerous bugs with the current build. The first bug I tackled was the Space Aim texture bug. Somehow the textures linked to the feet and the Lego models got lost in the game. This took a fair amount of hunting around the Unity project to eventually find. The textures are back where they should be and are no longer a bright pink!

(1.25 hrs)

                Last, the bulk of my work for the week was based around configuring the original 5 mini games and my current 3 micro games to work with Ryan’s new control scheme. This involved me going into each game, finding the code that controlled the controls, and then rewriting the code such that they talk to the new input scheme. Ryan’s new control method is definitely much better to use. Taking this time for each game has really made the controls much more reliable. This also links us to the initial player select screen that Xavi made last week. ie: player 1 in each game really and always is player 1 now! The games that took the longest to fix/configure were Runnerz and Mech Warfare. The reason for this is that they use the standard asset controllers. Ryan helped me configured a controller prefab to work for Runnerz. I then made my own FPScontroller prefab for the Mech game and added it to the array of tools we now have. This means we can reuse those prefabs for other FPS games and change the controls around easily. As you can see below, we simply change the text (of Horizontal Input, Vertical Input, …etc) in the inspector to whatever we want to control the movement, jumping, or looking. These control changes took plenty of time, but I agree with the group that they were worth the effort!

(3.75 hrs)

Content Positive (Duplicate hours from above):

-          I captured footage for the new trailer (.75 hr)

-          I added art to Quiz Game (.25 hr)

-          I fixed the material linkage bug in Space Aim for the feet and the Legos (1.25 hrs)

-          I configured the original 5 and my new 3 games to use the newer more reliable controls setup (3.75 hrs)

Content Negative

-          Old code is still haunting us, but it’s slowly being removed and fixed

Total Hours for the week: 6 hrs

David Monteleone, Week 9 Journal PPJ, Blog post 6

Trailer, tube man, UI, Stello Says, Runnerz, Space Aim, Foot, HighScore, PPJ

Content with Hours (Examples included):

This week saw the tweaking of many pieces of our game by myself. My first task was to capture the gameplay footage that Cory would use to make the trailer that is due this week. I went through several mini game captures and had to find decent video capture software so that our trailer is high quality and looks professional. Along with this, Cory and I captured some clips of the motion base moving. For this we had to schedule time at the motion platform on Tuesday.

 (2 hrs)

After capturing the video for the trailer was accomplished, I moved my efforts towards redesigning the UI to pop out more. Using Angela’s new UI/HUD icons I put the control icons on the main dashboard. The timers and the score were placed in the top left and right of the HUD. To provoke the players to read the control icons, I made them pulse. From my Wednesday play testing, with it on the motion base, all players did pick up the controls and figure out how to play the games. The new UI/HUD is visible below.

New HUD and new Runnerz textured

(2 hrs)

My effort was then focused on Adding art to both Space Aim and Runnerz. Space Aim, required Riley’s foot model to be placed in the field of view for the player. Thus, I added it in. I also placed some of Angela’s textures onto the walls of the tunnel. For Runnerz, it was meant to use art from the other games. Therefore, to indicate to the players to jump, I used the foot model as the marker. I made a cylindrical skybox and textured the platforms after that. Before I finished working on Runnerz, I redesigned the course to be simpler and straight forward. The new texturing and design for Runnerz is viewable above.

 (1.5 hrs)

Riley was able to finish the tube man model along with the animations for him. I added the tube man into the Stello Says mini game and had to figure out how to activate his animations. I’ve never worked with 3D animations in Unity so this entire process was a learning experience. After much frustration the tube man now moves according to the input from the aliens outside the motion base.

Tube dude added to Stello Says

(2.5 hrs)

Throughout the duration of this week, I accomplish various other small tasks. This includes updating the sell for content and integrating fonts and video into it. I had to step in and texture some of the mech assets such as the terrain. I had to go to open lab hours to try and fix a Space Aim motion bug, but that will be dealt with next week. I fixed a Stello Says controller bug that prevented player 2 from inputting anything. Finally, I had to make it so the player’s score is highlighted on the high score board.

(1 hr)

Content Positive (Duplicate hours from above):

-          I captured all footage for the trailer draft. (2 hrs)

-          I redesigned the UI/HUD to allow players to quickly grasp the controls of each game. (2 hrs)

-          Space Aim and Runnerz have art fully added. (1.5 hrs)

-          The tube man along with his animations we added by myself. (2.5 hrs)

-          Various small tasks were accomplished that helped other teammates during the week. This includes texturing and the SELL. (1 hr)

Content Negative

-          Space Aim motion bug was found.

Total Hours for the week: 9 hrs

Tags: Trailer, tube man, UI, Stello Says, Runnerz, Space Aim, Foot, HighScore, PPJ

David Monteleone, Week 8 Journal PPJ, Blog post 5

Drexel Ride bug, Space Aim Art, Unify UI, UI art, Game select, mech warfare bug, Runnerz, PPJ

Content with Hours (Examples included):

The Drexel Ride bug is fixed! After a couple weeks of being a pest, I was able to implement a fix to all mini games so that scenes can transition from game to game without destroying communication to the Drexel Ride. This took a solid amount of time and a large amount of debugging at the Drexel Ride itself. I had to schedule two sessions at the Drexel Ride and work on concept fixes at home. Xavier came up with the idea and gave me a base implementation. I got it to work with each scene. At the same time, after fixing the bug, I got some playtests from players actually inside the Drexel Ride!

(3 hrs)

After fixing the bug, I moved onto unifying the UI so that the feature of our UI is in the last Alpha Build. I unified each game so that the UI and all UI elements are located in the same places for each game. After implementing that, I added several of Angela’s controls UI art to display what the controls are for each game. Now players have a way to know what controls should do what in each mini game. After fixing up the UI I moved my efforts onto removing the ugly game select screen that was present in all of our previous builds. Now the aliens on the outside select games on the main menu screen. I also added a counter that displays the number of games left for the aliens to select. There was also a critical bug from the mech game that didn’t allow users to use the mouse of the main menu after playing the mech game. I went through and found the bug’s source and fixed it. Below is the UI I organized and unified.

(4.5 hrs)

Last week I added a new minigame called Runnerz. I added red indicators at each jump in the game so that players now know when to jump. This is definitely a balancing piece that will be worked out in the coming weeks. I also made my timer and scoring system utilize the same code used in Mechanized Warfare and Space Aim. Less code means less bugs!

(1 hr)

Last, I added Cory’s Lego grill artwork to Space Aim. Now players are going through a Lego grill in space aim. It’s a crazy idea, and it looks awesome! I had to add box colliders to his model and test that it works for the current version of the game. The Stello Says art was not ready and thus I couldn’t implement it.

(1.5 hrs)

Content Positive (Duplicate hours from above):

-          Drexel Ride bug is fixed and players have played all mini games in motion. (3 hrs)

-          The UI is unified and using artwork. The ugly game select screen is gone. The mech mouse lock bug is fixed. (4.5 hrs)

-          Runnerz has red flags added for balance and uses the same code from our other games. (1 hr)

-          Space Aim has the Lego grill art added with the proper colliders. (1.5 hrs)

Content Negative

-          Stello Says art was not ready to be added.

Total Hours for the week: 10 hrs

Tags: Drexel Ride bug, Space Aim Art, Unify UI, UI art, Game select, mech warfare bug, Runnerz, PPJ

David Monteleone, Week 7 Journal PPJ, Blog post 4

Content with Hours (Examples included):

This week involved a large update to Alien Arcade with plenty of work from myself.

First I had to implement a transition scene for each mini game to move to when it ended. Now when each mini game ends it loads the transition and the next mini game. The game now acts as a seamless fluid piece.

(3 hrs)

I added in music to fit each mini game along with art for the menus and transition scenes. I then added scoring that persists throughout the duration of the game. Now when players score in each game it adds into a cumulative total. I added a high score screen at the end of the game that tells the players how well they did altogether. The new main menu can be seen below with the art from Angela:

(3 hrs)

From the input given from the group, I decided that Slapz should be converted into a new mini game called Runnerz. This new game takes the platforming concept from Slapz and makes the game entirely about jumping and moving about a platform world. The base grey box mini game was added to the build and can be accessed from using the blank panel on the main menu on the far left.

(3 hrs)

Last, I attempted to fix the Drexel Ride scene transition bug. The ride will break when the object talking to the motion base is destroyed. Thus, we implemented scene transitions that do not destroy the object. Our first implementation only worked for Stello Says and jumping back and forth to the main menu and Stello. Besides that the transition scene broke it. This will be my main priority next week. Our attempt to fix the Drexel Ride bug is the snippet of code below, sadly it didn’t completely work:

(3 hrs)
       
        GameObject myObj = GameObject.Find("TransformWrapper");

        myObj.transform.parent = null;

        DontDestroyOnLoad oldDont = myObj.GetComponent<DontDestroyOnLoad>();

        Destroy(oldDont);

        myObj.AddComponent<DontDestroyOnLoad>();

Content Positive (Duplicate hours from above):

-          Mini games now transition from game to game. (3 hrs)
-          Music, Scoring, and High Scores are in the game. (3 hrs)
-          A new mini game called Runnerz has been added and is a grey box. (3 hrs)

Content Negative

-          The Drexel Ride scene switch bug continues to be an issue. (3 hrs)

Total Hours for the week: 12 hrs

Tags: Music, Scoring, High Scores, Transitions, Runnerz, Drexel Ride bug, PPJ