Thanks to Dr Octoroc

I’m pretty sure you guys know what happens when you have two artists and no programmers.

Several truckloads worth of art without anywhere for it to go. So we decided to do the only thing, as students of media, we knew how to do. Steph started storyboarding a trailer. And, I think, four weeks into the semester that we finally sat down and had the long talk of what we were going to do.

Due to our lack of technical expertise it was decided we would come out of this semester with two things to show:

1. A trailer that appropriately created the context and thematic style behind the,
2. Proof of concept demonstration of gameplay, which basically was a tiny miniscule part of the game, that gave a user the idea of “oh yeh! So that’s how it’s sposed to work”. I mean… seriously… the game we were thinking about making could have been a full length movie… It had 46 scenes.

That there was our “Sticky Note Wall of Doom” that we created in semester one as a way to work out the incredibly complex storyline. As you will probably never see the rest of this story line a quick summary is… Mum did it. I think, the thing is, during this year, having Christian as our supervising lecturer thingymajig, we were exposed to different ways of developing, such as this sticky note wall of doom, creating documentation organically through a blog (which is AWESOME!), and using a cyclical iterative production lifecycle, as opposed to standard production lifecycles that we tried to commit to during Games Lab in 2008 (I’ve never said it, but thanks Damo! The angry man that motivates, its a fine line to straddle ) , and we weren’t afraid to branch out into other technologies, so, instead of using 3DS Max and the UT engine we went with Flash.

Oh boy… Then this happened:

So, basically, the story was, in semester one we had been working on our project using ActionScript 2. This we had inhereted from Sonya, who had pretty much mastered Flash (even creating visual content in flash… I know! I KNOW! ITS REDICULOUS). In semester two when I took over the bulk of the programming, using CS4, the default had become ActionsScript 3, which, stupidly I must now add, I decided, “Sure. New generation of script, must be more user friendly, right?”

HOLY SHIT! It was another programming language!!!!!

Programming Language + Artist =! anything coherent

It took me a week to figure out how to get mouse clicks to work! Compounded by the issue that the Flash Compiler was the buggiest thing to ever come out of a human orifice (I spent half a day trying to figure out why my project wasn’t compiling, only to close Flash to get a drink, come back, and it worked perfectly… INCONSISTENCY MUCH), I think the biggest issue at this time, and we were halfway through the semester, was the fact that we had to relearn ActionScript. You’re probably wondering why didn’t we just scrap that project and start again in ActionScript 2, and, my answer to that is:

“In retrospect… Yes”

Anyways, back to the project, we, at first decided to follow the style we had created with our final prototype in Semester 1, that of dark, gritty colour ( or as dark and gritty as we could manage in Flash).  I started creating a new HUD for the prototype, while Steph was still working on the trailer.

We pretty much kept at this for about three or so weeks, just nutting out the assets, what functions needed to be completed and creating prototypes of these functionalities. I think we ended up with about 6 required functions, which were a GPS function, which allowed a user to move between scenes, an inventory for evidence, a media player to view certain peices of evidence, a mobile phone that was demoted from being central to gameplay to merely aiding the story progression (i.e. you would get phone calls and messages subtly indicating what you were supposed to do next) and a log that would automatically fill up as you began interviewing suspects (again, another aid to story progression).

And, when we finally got together after this bout of furiously working we had a look at it and went… Oh yeh? Hmmmmm maybe not. I think this was about the time that every other game out there decided that changing art style by adding some lines to characters was a good idea (OK by every game I’m probably only talking about Borderlands).

So after 8 months of work, we decided to go Black and White with colour splashes, going to film noir dated look using Madworld as an inspiration.

(Yes… I know… copyright pfft)

At this point, I think, it stopped becoming about the functions and more about the aesthetics – the visuals and the audio feedback. We had very little time to do a backflip and redraw everything in black and white. Cutting down again, we settled on creating one new theme and rehashing our original final prototype in semester one as a good starting point as well as redrawing the trailer in black and white with flashes of colour.

I’ve always been a pretty organized fellow and usually, things like this, I have sorted well before the event occurs even if it still requires all nighters before the deadline, and this was a whole new ball game for me (I’m not sure about Steph). Like running after someone with pants that are too big for you, I was pretty much “winging it” from this point. And, after handing in the materials yesterday, on time, I think it was the most valuable lesson I learned this year out of this subject.

It wasn’t the reminder of how sucky flash was to work with. It wasn’t how not to follow a production schedule in every way. It wasn’t even about this blog (even though it was an awesome idea). But, I think it was learning how to cope with massive change on the fly.

So, 43 blog posts, a trailer, a two flash files later and it’s just like the end of high school graduation all over again, that was how we laid to rest Games Project 2009, Mums the Word and our undergraduate education.

Heres the timeline of our production schedule I forgot to incorporate earlier

The story of Mum’s the Word was that it was, originally, supposed to be a text-based murder mystery game. And, in the beginning, I thought, and this probably due to my overly philosophical head, that this could be an incredibly immersive game like MUD’s used to be.

However, I kind of forgot about the human factor. The immersive-ness of these types of games was only limited by a player’s imagination. Right, sounds like an advert you would find on the back of just about every shiny next-gen game. The problem with that, and the reason that MUD’s are now a facebook oddity, is that the imagination of the average Joe was that of a small, and sadly demented gerbil.

I think, the first thing we learnt was that there was a reason for the liberal application of “Shine-ination” (texturing for those not used to industry jargon). Unless something shiny was thrown in an audiences face, they would frown profusely, a little wheel would spin inside their head and, eventually, like all things, the mouse running the wheel would expire, without anything fruitful to show for it. What a waste…

So, after two weeks of being killed by an ogre in The Hobbit (yes… It was just the one ogre… For some stupid reason, despite all of the commands I smashed into the command box I always ended up at this particular ogres clearing (the one with the path to his cave house behind him) and then, subsequently dying to a club in the face), we decided… maybe we should go for some proper well good visual feedback after all.

We decided that we could hybridize the two genres. Using text based commands to activate visual elements on the screen i.e. our awesome stick house. And, I think, our will to maintain creative integrity meant we developed like this for at least a four to six weeks. Firstly experimenting with how to produce meaningful visual feedback from text based commands. Then coming up with the library of text commands and the parameters for them to be used and then sticking the two together.

After a fairly fruitful month of production we found another thing out. As a consequence of having not been popular for at least 15 years no one had any idea of how to use text based commands.

Was it, “Open Door”, or was it “Open the Door”, or was it “Door Open”, or was it “enter <this> room” etc. People had not used such commands for a long time. It was like trying to get an oompaloompa fresh from oompaloompa land to use DOS (the most commonly used commands in our prototypes were expletives including “wtf”, “goddammit” and, none other than the oft used “F&$K YOU!” (heh looks like fask you)).

So, the last few weeks of the first semester came around and we relented. So it was “point and click murder mystery here we come…”



(Remember this scene kids?)

So. Interested readers out there. I suppose you are wondering:

a.) Why did it take 6 months to create approximately 5 minutes of gameplay with approximately about a third of that being interesting?
b.)  Why did we decide to have a dramatic art direction swerve
c.) What has this to do with the heading

To answer these three FAQ’s firstly, in reality, we were probably only effectively working for about 2 months considering we threw out or redrew the majority of the assets when (and this leads onto answering the next question) we decided to go film noire black and white. The reason for the change in art direction was mainly, despite the effect created with the existing art, due to two factors, including the creation of the original trailer entirely in Flash, as well as a brainspark I had while outlining all the art assets. The resultant ambiance can, we believe, can create tension all by itself.

Lastly, the heading has everything to do with our production cycle. Firstly, due to the fact that we no longer were relying on production gateways (Christian! That was a terrific idea! Do it again!) attention skipped from the project to sometimes more or less pressing matters in other subjects and our day to day lives (Steph has a notoriously busy work schedule), and, probably most dastardly, the implementation of ActionScript 3, we often spent long nights either at home or living in the library basement pulling our hair over Flash CS4. For the love of god! ActionScript 3! What were we thinking?! Although I was previously comfortable working in Flash, despite it’s moronically often hiccups, ActionScript 3 threw a whole new curveball at us and required us to learn what was essentially a complex programming language in a month (we didn’t actually start putting assets within a canvas until the latter half of the semester), coupled by the fact that our ex-programmer was out of action with respiratory issues, it was mighty slow going (OMG! Stop saying Error  #1009, it gives me no idea what is going wrong!!).

Subsequently, tonight, (mainly) I ran out of coffee, and, after opening and closing the same cupboard several times just to make sure I hadn’t missed it, I had to settle for weak green tea (how’s that going to keep me up). This doesn’t help trying to coax two massive flash project files to merge together, with all the added cursing (I found out that it was something wrong with Flash itself later, i.e. I had to restart flash and there was nothing wrong with the files =_=)

To tie in with the last thing in the heading, I was singing along to mellow music simultaneously to keep me from completely blowing my top (you know… when you’re in the shower or home alone and absent mindedly singing… What… You don’t do it as well… OK now I feel stupid)

So, comes the hand in deadline, a slight respite and then the finalizing of our Pecha Kucha speech for the Friday presentation. 6 minutes right?

P.S. I hope to never see Flash again, but common sense is telling me some idiot will make me use it again. Also, Steph sends her regards for Friday due to personal matters.

This is CHUM signing out for, possibly the last time.

(Unless I decide to place the Pecha Kucha speech online as well as something a little more coherent to finish the documentation for the semester… Hm… Time for a post mortem? let’s lay this thing to RIP)

]]> http://mumsthewordproject.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/all-nighters-coffee-shortages-and-musical-sobfests/feed/ 0 thechum Prototype12_redraw_B&W Screeny http://mumsthewordproject.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/putting-it-together/ http://mumsthewordproject.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/putting-it-together/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:48:48 +0000 thechum http://mumsthewordproject.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/putting-it-together/ ]]> Hullo chickens! It has been a little while and, I suppose, we have been preoccupied by the all encompassing end of semester cramfest. Anyways, while smashing out other assignments we slowly started putting together the jigsaw pieces that was the preview of this game.

The movie player is working (YAY, although it streams from a source and because megaSWF doesnt really host sources it doesn’t really show up… it’s better this way so we can swap and change the video that needs to be streamed rather than monolithic embedding (which… is pretty much everything else… ew) and the animated background (seen below) is almost finished (just need to be stuck together) and all of the frames that need to be in the game are in the game. The only thing that needs to be done is a conversing interface with the bum on the corner of the block in the animated background that will basically spout nonsensical philosophical jibberish to disorient the player (basically take him, or her, nowhere – the point of the preview is to demonstrate our ideas, because, to this point, we still haven’t got a firm grasp of that damn AS3! BRING BACK AS2), so here is a preview of a preview:

http://megaswf.com/view/c2a645ef099df82575bfa0c257519d06.html

http://megaswf.com/view/b88b695d55e9a798cd2e5cbeec24fd6b.html

Unfortunately, I am stuck using an old version of the background due to my inability to sync my computers this morning. Should be updated tonight!

EDIT: Here is the completed background! Check it. It is a major component of the demo UI as it provides the atmospheric foundation.

http://megaswf.com/view/ab2d6199581dbae240a32c329fc7abdd.html

Basic Menu Media Viewer Logs Inventory with Item Selected Inventory with Nothing Selected GPS FunctionBackground has been incorporated

So! It has decided this game will be almost like Oblivion without so much of the giddying movement, slashing of swords, shiny graphics, medieval setting or proverbial gnashing of teeth when your companion gets stuck on a rock and you cannot possibly finish the next quest. Imagine that it has been crossbred with Sin City (…what a mongrel).

Now that you have an idea of the kind of world that the player will be stepping (or more correctly, pointing and clicking) into, how he, she or it may interact with it becomes the next question, that is where the UI comes in (I think I’ve already elaborated on this earlier, it being the conduit, suit, mask, rubbery glove that the user uses to fully interact with the world as he, she or it would do so in reality. Providing similar experiences that would be familiar to the player, while still retaining the atmosphere and glamour of the game, through the UI is the hurdle, really… I mean, you can’t possibly put every single thing into it… Do you really want an interface function that allows you to relieve your character from the pains she must be feeling in her bowels?).

So, the functions I have outlined already, but have yet to explain are:

- A Basic Menu System
- An Inventory System (housing evidence)
- Including and Inventory Analyzing system (i.e. when you click on evidence it will open another window explaining its function etc)
- A mode that allows the user to view the character
- A logging system with current missions or to-do lists
- A phone and messaging system (send and receive phone calls and sms’s) including contacts
- A viewing system, which identifies suspects explicitly
- A media viewing system (i.e. to open saved audio files and video files inhabiting the inventory)
- A help system (i.e. on mouse over it explains function)
- A conversing system (allowing the user to interact with NPC’s)

I have also decided to include a rudimentary GPS function, which featured prominently in the trailer, and, despite this, I completely overlooked earlier.

P.S. Screen shots to come! For now, amuse yourself with these

The Basic Menu:

Indicated by the button in the top right of the screen with a computer on it. Every game has one, even if it’s not so obvious as this. The basic menu will allow a player to perform all the usual tasks such as exiting the game, loading a previous saved version or saving their current play state, as well as options to modify sound (which reminds me… I need some of that), graphical quality (although on flash… if you need to lower the quality (which is possible) in order to fully appreciate the game… go get a new computer) and other sundry items. Next to the Basic Menu system is a rudimentary help function (this is currently low on the priority of functions to complete). This will allow a user to mouse over buttons to discover their function and, in the odd instance, give hints as to where to go if stuck, hopefully, this isn’t needed too much.

The Inventory System:

Identified by the  button with a kind of round top half of a person with a magnifier, this will allow a player to take and store evidence to use later, a storage place for the knowledge about a case the player may have acquired. Within this system, a player will be able to select an item and view its intimate details on a screen on the left of the storage bank. While nothing is selected the player will be able to view the vital statistics of his, her or it’s avatar (proverbial stoking of the ego).

The Log:

Indicated by the button with a writing pad on it, the Log contains all the details and scribbles of each still open case the player is working on at the time. Not only will information be added to each case file as suspects are interviewed and evidence analysed, but it will also allow a player to scribble (type, really… very few computers allow a user to scribble coherently) any extra information the player may come across, that is not explicitly added, or to remind him/her/itself to do something, etc. You know how diaries and notepads go, god…

The Phone:

A major part of the game earlier in the year, the phone has been scaled back to fill a role on par with the log and inventory. It will allow a player to phone their relevant police headquarters for possible further information. But, it’s main use will be to prompt the player to follow an optimal play through. It will allow the user to receive messages and calls from the headquarters, which will give the user important clues as to how to solve a case.

The Point of View:

Pretty self explanatory, it’s what the player sees on the screen behind all of the menu buttons and screens. In the point of view a player will be able to mouse over people, and, if that person is a suspect listed in the Log, that person will be explicitly identified with a halo (I am thinking yellow) around them with a little side window showing all the information the player currently has on the concerned suspect, and, consequently, allow you to question them, which can lead to further clues and, if you’re lucky, an arrest!

The Conversing:

Which leads me to conversing. Once a suspect is selected, a dialogue box will open showing the respondents face in the screen above his responses followed by your options for reply. The screen will display a suspects emotions, whether it is fright, anger or curiosity, it can provide great insight into a case.

The Media Viewer:

Similar to the inventory, this allows the player to store surveillance footage and audio and view them later to squeeze what little information you can get out of them. Within some of these media files will lie important hidden clues, which, if found, will further an investigation considerably, consider these easter eggs.

Background Art for the Demonstration UI

Updated character

http://megaswf.com/view/d185d4ad34748ce8784fb633bee4ef98.html