Angela Buchanan, Week 2 PPJ, Blog Post 2, GMAP 378

Interface, 2D art, Status Report

This week I focused on getting some of the interface elements up to date, with the biggest task being the UFO dash. Because the UFO is visible at all times, I felt it was important to put a lot effort into creating it. 

I took advice suggested in class. Instead of texturing the 3D asset, I made a new 2D vector asset that has two screens. I agree that it does make it easier for the viewer to grasp player 1 and player 2 instructions.

I also made the time bar. Because the UFO abduction suggestion had popularity, I scrapped the battery idea and implemented abduction instead. 

The only issue I ran into this week was with the UFO dash. I underestimated the amount of time needed to recreate the UFO from scratch. Originally, I wanted to have the slot machine vector complete and animated, but the time invested into the UFO dash prevented me from completing that task.

Positive Content   

- Got a good amount of work done

- Took advice from class and made a UFO dash with split screens to make it easier to understand player roles

Negative Content

- UFO dash took longer expected, preventing me from finishing everything I set out to do

- Slot machine will have to be completed later than planned

Work and hours

UFO dash (7 hr)

- after thinking over what I could do with UFO dash, I settled on redesigning it in 2D. Anything that allows the user to grasp instructions quicker is worth the time and effort. Duel screens also look rad on a UFO dash.

And I felt that texturing the 3D UFO would take roughly the same amount of time anyways (since I'm more familiar with 2D than 3D)

Working from scratch also allowed me to add a stronger carnival influence to the UFO's design.

Time bar (1 hr)

- I modified some previous assets to make a minimalist alien abduction time bar. The bar will be used to allow the player to quickly grasp visually how much time they have left.

I added an effect to make it look as though the graphic is being projected onto the UFO window.

slot machine update (.5 hr) 

-Nothing major was changed aesthetically to the slot machine. I mostly spent my time adapting the asset I made for the mock-up for in-game usage.

I just need to add something to the last slot to indicate that is a boss game selection opposed to a normal one.

I also plan on adding a simple animation to the handle.

Total Hours: 8.5 hrs

Angela Buchanan, Week 11 PPJ, Blog Post 7

Interface, Sell

I knew ahead of time that this would be a low production week for me, so my planned tasks were based around tweaking or assisting others.

Unfortunately, I ran into a significant amount of trouble after having my wallet pick-pocketed off of me. Combined with scheduled interviews and critical due dates in other classes, it was a struggle to get much of anything done.

While I wasn't as useful as I would have liked to have been, I did minor updates to the select screen parts and made it easier for my team mates to find the assets.

And because I felt guilty about my asset production, I put a lot of effort into making the sell presentation look more aesthetically pleasing and exciting. The implemented video is not playing smoothly on my computer and power point's compression damages the video too much. I believe this may be a problem on my end, for I run into the same issue with the older version of the sell. 

Positive Content

- Awesome looking sell

- I managed to get some work done opposed to none

- I had a nice Thanksgiving 

Negative Content

- Very low production week

- Critical assignments in other classes had priority

- Stolen wallet caused a lot of problems

Work and hours

Select screen tweaks (.5 hr)

-Tweaks were minor. I broke the file up a bit more and modified the folder in perforce to make it easier to find them.

Status report (.5 hr)

- Compiled everyone's updates like normal

Sell Update (5 hrs)

- Made a lot of changes to the sell to make it more exciting and aesthetically pleasing. I also did minor edits to content to make them fit more thematically with the presentation. I ran into an issue with implementing the video (It is lagging significantly), however I have the same issue with the old presentation. I believe it's a problem on my end. 

I attempted to use power points video compression, but I did horrible things to the quality. Thus I promptly reverted it back to it's original form.

Total Hours: 6 hrs

Angela Buchanan, Week 9 Journal PPJ, Blog post 6

Interface Design, art assets (Both 3D and 2D), Scrum, Logo

Had a very busy schedule this week. Surprisingly, I got a lot done compared to what I was planning on being able to finish. Most of my work this week was filling up spaces where art was needed and updating assets that needed to be updated.

Normally, I work on the 2D assets of the game only but I volunteered to make the 3D cutout models so that Corey wouldn't be overly burdened with work this week. This wasn't a big issue, for I'm completely fine with working with 3D modeling. The only skill I lack is knowing how to make models optimized for games. Since these were simple cardboard cut-outs, I figured it would be hard to mess up and make something too complex. Overall, I didn't run into any problems and I haven't heard of any issues caused by my assets.

A lot of my assets were posted onto perforce early in the week, and other assets were still posted at reasonable times with plenty of time for them to be implemented. I had to sacrifice the importance of other classes to achieve this, but it wasn't a significant issue and it was worth getting the assets up.

I also added instructions in some of the folders along with my assets to help direct how/where they are to be placed.

Positive Content

- A lot of work done this week added a bunch of usable assets to the game.

- Everything was posted with enough time to be implemented. No assets were posted the night before.

- I didn't run into any major issues when working on assets.

Negative Content

- I turned my focus away from other classes this week to be able to quickly produce a large quantity of assets. This may affect my productivity for next week.

-I'm exhausted (I'm sure I'm not the only one though)

.

Work and hours

3D cutout Models and their textures (8 hrs)

- Using my 2D assets from last week, I 3D modeled and textured the cardboard cutouts needed for the mechanized warfare game. The modeling went smoothly and I haven't heard of any concerns regarding them.

More 2D Textures (4.5 hrs)

-I made a collection of 2D assets to fill the places where textures were still needed. I made it so that  they could easily be mixed, matched, and reused in multiple games. I recommended placements for these assets, but overall I allowed them to experiment with placements and pairings. 

Updated Interface (1 hr)

-Updated all the controls assets to reflect all changes. (I'm just posting a few examples since they are similar to last weeks). P1's  controls were  all swapped with P2's. Some buttons were changed and some were removed. 

Select Screen Icons ( 2 hr)
-Some games did not have icons and other games no longer reflected their original concept art. I went ahead an made a whole new set so that they would stylistically fit together.

 Logo (.5 hr)
-Our team realized we didn't have a logo for our game, so I made one. I used a UFO shape from another asset I had made for this game and paired it with some nice font.

Total Hours: 16 hrs (new record!)

Vincent Slifer Week 8 PPJ

This week was fairly unproductive, on my end.  I tweaked some features of the Mech Game, as well as implement some of the art that was finished.  Beyond that, I tinkered, for a bit, with an idea of another mini-game.

Positive Content

• Implemented Mech Game Art (partial)
• Tweaked Mech Game components
• Debugged issues that came up with overall game implementation

Negative Content

• Did not flesh out mini-game idea
• Essays halted productiveness

Work and Hours
Programming (2 hrs)

• Implemented Art assets
• when available
• Debugged issues that came up
• Reworked older code to singularize processes
• Tested mini-game concept

Research (2 hrs)

• Methods to simulate boat physics
• Methods to calculate buyoancy
• Scripts to create realistic boat movement
• Movement tests on Drexel Ride

Total Work Time:  4 hrs

Angela Buchanan, Week 8 PPJ - Blog Post 5

Angela Buchanan, Week 8 Journal PPJ, Blog post 5

Interface Design, art assets

I had a productive week and managed to complete a lot of 2D assets. I made some mistakes with the early versions of the control icons. These were fixed and now all the control icons are complete and are ready to help the player quickly understand the controls for each game. 

I made a nice collection of vector images for the beach scene in the mech warfare game. The game allows the player to shoot trash into sexy items, so I have two versions - trashy and sexy. I made each trashy/sexy pair similar in shape to effectively communicate a connection.

There was some miscommunication regarding the creation for cardboard cutouts, so now we have double assets.  But I don't anticipate it to be a major issue, and it may simple lead to more assets for that particular mini-game.

The double assets are in the wrong format (Objecy, not cut-out stands). But I may have an idea to make them still usable. 

Positive Content

- all control icons for the ship interface are now complete, allowing players to quickly visually understand the controls for each game

- A lot of 2D cutout assets are now down and ready to be applied to cardboard cutouts.

- Most assets were up early at the start of the week.

Negative Content

- My message regarding the posting of art assets was not received, which lead to miscommunication problems.

- Looked at old documentation. So there were mistakes in the control icons that had to be fixed later on in the week.

Work and hours

Interface assets - 2 hrs

-Early in the week, I made quick versions that could be implemented into the game. Unfortunately, I accidentally looked at an old version of the GDD so there were some missing buttons.

The ones listed here should be up to date, and ready to be placed into the center console as planned.

Cut Out image assets trashy - 4 hrs
- I did my best to push these out early as well, so that the cardboard cut out models could be made for them. Below, sexy versions of these assets are finished as well. The images were designed so that the counterpart has a similar shape/form.

Even though, I had them posted, my message wasn't received. Therefor there was communication problem. I don't expect it to hurt progress significantly, though I may try doing the cut-outs myself next week. 

Cut Out image assets sexy - 4 hrs
- Sexy versions of the above assets. Listed in the same order, but visually you should be able to see which ones are related. I gave everything lipstick stains for comedic purposes and to enhance the "Sexy" appearance. 

Backgrounds - .5 hrs
-The cut-outs took most of my time, so I didn't get as much work done on background assets.
However, most of the backgrounds can the used in multiple locations.

The biggest background that still needs to be done is the aerial carnival scene for Stello says, but the concept art can work as good quality placeholder.

Total weekly hours: 10.5 hrs