Angela Buchanan, Week 1 PPJ, Blog Post 1, GMAP 378

Mock-ups, Flowchart, Organization

The two teams are integrating into one giant team relatively smoothly. It's nice to have some fresh ideas suggested for the game. 

Organization for the art side of things caused some minor confusion as to where to put files onto perforce. Hopefully new organization will be easier to understand and navigate.

As for work, last meeting we discussed the integration of a slot machine. I based my mock-ups around the idea of having a slot machine for our game selection and came up with an interface built around it. Because the slot machine was implemented, I also modified the flowchart from last term to include the slot machine.

It hasn't been a particularly active week for me, but I expect to see more action from myself next week

Positive Content   

- Teams have merged relatively well

- Flowchart reflects new changes in the game

- Organization is being improved

Negative Content

- Organization was a minor problem in beginning 

- Phone had some issues sending/receiving slack messages (the issue should be fixed now though)

- Cat has an ear infection :(

Work and hours

Flowchart (1.5 hr)

- I used the basic frame of last terms flowchart and added in the slot machine mechanic.

I expect some changes to be made in the future, but this functions as a good rough-draft of how the slot machine will function.

Slot machine mock-up screen (4 hr)

- A potential layout for the slot machine. I stuck with one row to keep things simpler, but this may change based on team feedback. I also incorporated a potential "time bar" to the right based on feedback from last term.

Organization update (1 hr) 

-Major changes made in art organization on perforce. One change includes splitting ArtAssets (In game art) and ConceptArt (design aids) into their own folders. 

Organization has been improved significantly, though still not complete. I plan on addressing the art team for some organization decisions. 

Total Hours: 6.5 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)

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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!)

Angela Buchanan, Week 6 PPJ - Blog Post 3

Angela Buchanan, Week 6 Journal PPJ, Blog post 3

Concept art, Interface Design, Flowchart

This was a lighter week in comparison to previous weeks. For the most part, my tasks could be considered completed. I would've liked to go a bit more in-depth with the interface design, but what I have currently is sufficient and likely won't have to be revisited. This week it was hard for me to participate in a good, quality group meeting due to schedule, so there are some things I would like to go over more thoroughly with the team. I also took care of the Status Report this week, since I knew I would be making a later post.

Positive Content

- The interface design is available to the team now, which helps convey the game more.

- I made icons for the flow chart to make it more exciting and easy to understand visually.

- The icons used in the flowchart are cute and work as nice decoration for other things.

Negative Content

- Meeting was difficult for our team this week due to do schedules.

- I wanted to be more in depth with the interface design, but I spent too much time focusing on other projects.

- I felt my production was a bit low this week.

Work and hours

·         Flowchart – 2 hrs

• I made a more exciting visual representation of our game’s flow. It didn’t take too long, for I stuck to simple representations for the chart.

·         Interface Design - 5 hrs

• I worked on making concept art of how the menu interface would look when choosing a game. I also designed how the score and time would look during the mini-games. I made multiple versions of each (with fairly minor differences), but I’m only going to post my personal favorites.

·         Status Report & Sell touch up – 30 min

• I did the status report this week since I knew I would be making a later update. I also did some minor editing to the sell.

Total weekly hours: 7.5 hrs