Week #2.11

This week I did a lot more coding than I usually do.  I put an elevator object for the Mountain Level.  To do this I need to find out the offset for the ground of the image which took awhile.  Also, I fixed the buoyancy zone so the objects in the water are easier to jump on.

 For the end of the level I changed the end point so it is still the checkpoint picture, but has fireworks going on around it.  It took me awhile to figure this out because there cannot be two animators in one class.  So I had to make a new fireworks object that the end point creates.

 The biggest thing I did was to redo the first level (the tutorial level) so it is longer and a little more tricky.  The first new puzzle I did was to introduce shadow monsters (shown below).  The other one used towers (shown in the picture above).

Week #2.10

This week was again a lot of organizing and communication.  The best thing I did was make it clear to the artists what we need by Thursday in order to make the levels.

We first found out that we need all textures in the game in order to compress them for the Xbox.  Here is the e-mail I sent to the artists:

Hey everyone!

So we found out that we need to have the dimensions of the textures be multiples of 4.  We didn't know this before but it makes it easier to compress the textures for the Xbox.  As of now you won't have to redo the textures, but that may change.  Just from now on make them multiples of 4.  If you have any questions please e-mail me back.

Thanks,

-- 
Sarah Ripley

I then worked with Cristine on the color palette for the new houses.  You can see what they originally were to what they went to:

Finally, I worked with Alice to come up with the needed art for the Palace level and what dimensions they need to be.  Alice got it done really fast and it looks great!  Here is some of what she did:

I also came up with the wording for the scrolls in the tutorial level:

1) Use the left analog stick to move left and right

2) Press to A to jump

3) This is a checkpoint.  The most recent checkpoint is where you will spawn.

4) Push objects by running into them.  Hold down Y near an object and use the left joystick to pull.

5)  While in a light press X to enter the Shadow Realm

6) Use your shadow mode to get past guards

Week #2.9

This week I wrote out what the artists need to make for the village and mountain levels.  Cristine was put in charge of the village level and Alice was put in charge of the mountain level.  Here is the e-mail I sent to Cristine describing art (because the village level didn't need much):

small bridge = 1024 (width) height doesn't matter

tree = 1024 (width) 1024 (height)

big bridge = 2048 (width) height doesn't matter

blossom = 100 (width) height no more than 420

wasp = width doesn't matter, height nor more than 420

For Alice I drew up what we needed and wrote out a description.  Here are the drawings:

I also worked with Taylor to get all art we can into the game.  Here is a small light I put in:

I also put in the fishing pole.  This was hard to do because the points of the collision box had to be put in by hand.

Week #2.8

This week was getting ready for the play test and then planning what needs to be changed after the play test.  One of the most important things I did was create the survey for the play test.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGdDMkVSbXYtU0QzQlNoNlVlUTllVnc6MQ#gid=0

I then worked with Russell to figure out why the shadow boar was drawing in physical mode.  It turns out that the boar's shadow was being drawn and so we just needed to override the drawShadow() method in the shadowboar class.

I also put in the art for the checkpoint and made it turn green when it was activated (temporary).  Here is a picture:

I also made sure who would be at the playtest, got as much art from the artists as possible, and just helped people in general.  At the playtest I took notes and pictures.
Here are some pictures from the playtest:

Week #2.7

This week I mostly just worked on getting the art incorporated in the game.  The first things I did was implement the firefly and floating lantern as shown below: 

This took a little bit because I had to incorporate the light circle with the light image.  I realized after awhile I was having problems because there was white space around the light circle.  I also forgot to mention that last week I work with Taylor on the buoyant zones and made the boat classes.

Week #2.6

This week was mostly about making design decisions.  The biggest decision we made was to have toon shading on the art instead of gradients.  There was a great back and forth with this and it was crazy.  Here is an example that Leif made that helped me make the decision:

We also made various decisions about the level.  Here are the notes from our meeting:

10 min levels?
- optimizing in code
- Taylor will build level to determine limits
- sleep things that aren’t on screen

Texture switching based on level
making real world objects transparent/disappear when in shadow mode
Garrett working on making level look like paper

Farm level - tutorial
- Drew needs to make background loopable

Village
- cherry blossom

Mountain
- cave

city
- random peoples houses

Palace
- vertical level

SAME SIZE!!!!
Pushing object
backgrounds
circular light
directional light
platform indicator
shadow monsters/ guards

Week #2.5

This week I was full force designer.  My main thing I did this week was take a level that Leif drew and organize it into art that the programmers could use.  Here are the drawings I did to show my ideas:

Here's what I requested from the artists:

Things that need to be made for level:

*These are the things that are most important to be made for the level on Tuesday*

1. Towers – (bottom of second page) For the towers I specified how tall each level of the tower needs to be (it's an approximation you can make slightly higher if need be. NOTE: not drawn to scale). I had to change that puzzle a bit because I'm not sure if we can do everything on Leif's drawing. So look at the art and let me know if you have any questions. Also, if we can have the middle part of the first tower be more faded (indicating you can jump across to platforms on other side). Then on the second tower have the middle part stand out indicating that player can't walk through.
2. Tall grass – background indicating what shadow is cast on
3. ground block – (used throughout level) for player to walk on the top of (whatever makes sense)

4. special water block – (first page of drawing) water where player needs to use fishing pole to jump across. Needs to be at least 550 pixels across so player can't just jump across. I will include example of water I found that might be cool.

5. Regular water block – (top right corner of first page) blocks we can use to show the flowing of the river

6. fishing pole – (first page of drawing right before the water) at least 250 pixels width-wise

7. Water wheel and flat building – (first page) stand alone water wheel with 250 pixels between each paddle. Building with flat roof.
8. Boat – (second page) big boat that guard walks on.

These items are in order of importance. So if you feel like you don't have enough time please get as much of the top items done before Monday night.

Sprint #2.4

This week I mostly tried to get everything organized design-wise.  The decisions we made are as follows:

1) We need at least 2 themed levels at least drawn out for the professional showcase day.
     - Leif drew out the farm level
     - Alice drew out the city level

2) Collectible hierarchy
    - Shooting for a collectible hierarchy of: statues, paintings, calligraphy, coins (in order from more points -> less)
    - higher point items will be harder to get
    - need to have at least statues and coins

I also helped fix collision categories again because we found a special case we needed.

Sprint #2.3

This week I reorganized all our collision groups so they are more coherent and understandable.  The collision groups are now:

public static Category PhysicalCollisionCategory = Category.Cat1;

public static Category ShadowCollisionCategory = Category.Cat2;

 public static Category GroundCollisionCategory = Category.Cat3;

I had a problem with defining the collideswith on the player and so it took awhile to get everything organized.  Also, I made a directional light for the game.  I didn't have any art for it so I had to improvise, as shown below.

While I was looking up how to do the vertices for the light I came across an algorithm that will calculate a fixture based off of a texture.  I don't know if we'll be able to use it but it sure looks cool.

Sprint #2.2

We didn't actually have anything assigned for this sprint, but I ended up making the level for testing with the Masters students.  This took me a good amount of time.  Mostly I revamped our alpha level to make it more fun and coherent.  It also involved:

• working around the level editor problems that had not yet been resolved
• changing art work so jumps matched up
• changing the "weight" of the barrel
• other little bugs that stood in the way

Here are some pictures from the level:

Sprint #2.1

So this is the very beginning of the semester.  Last semester went pretty good, but I think we really need to kick it into gear this semester.  I was able to do a few things over the break.  The first thing I did was organize the files in our Visual Studio project.  This included code and art.  The only thing I didn't organize was the level editor project because I was too afraid I would mess something up, but maybe we can do that later.  Here is a picture of our newly organize files (Note: I also cleaned up code and commented as much as I could):

The other thing I did was come up with some level ideas.  I didn't come up with a level but I drew out some puzzles.  Here they are:

The above puzzle has the basic logistics of the puzzle written on the paper. Things to take in consideration

1. This may be too easy.  We can make it harder by using the same idea but with multiple platforms.
2. Having "omnishadows"- shadows with ambient light - haven't done those yet. 

The above puzzle I did not write out how to solve the puzzle.  Here are the instructions:

1. Player jumps on the lowest shadow platform and then to the platform to the right of it.  Then they jump up to the upper R switch and switch it so the light travels to the top of R path.
2. Player jumps to platform by P switch and switches it.
3. Player must jump on shadows cast by light traveling along P path.  If they are too slow or don't jump right they must go back to beginning.

Some problems we might encounter:

1. Timing of moving light jumps and height of the platforms casting shadow.  Want to make sure the player can actually get across while still in light.
2. I made the guard have a lantern so that the player can go into shadow and sneak past.  Not something we have talked about before so need to see about that.

I also had one more idea for a puzzle, but didn't draw it.  It's more of a cool aesthetic than a puzzle.  It involves having a whole bunch of platforms casting shadows.  Sometimes you use shadow mode to go to the next platform or just regular mode.  There will also be various paths so the player can get collectibles or avoid enemies.  The reason that I did not draw this out is because I didn't know how the shadows would work with a big overhead light so we will have to try that out.