There is always a job to get done.

I have experienced many group projects over the 4 years of college; this is by far the most eventful and successful. Most group projects last a few weeks, this one was a whole semester. Luckily my group members were all people I trust and can rely on. I have to give a lot of props to Ed he has done a great job keeping things organized even when things has taken a minor turn, but we are the kind of group that communicated well with each other and any problems we had were solved without any loss of progress.

My part in this group was to create concept art for the army, main characters, and enemies. As the project moved forwards we realized that it wasn’t efficient to just split the tasks up. Me and Patrick got together and realized its best to do a little competition and see what concepts the group likes as a whole. The end result was a lot more interesting designs. A new responsibility that was laid to me was to create the environment that was being described. Edwin had an idea for how to lay out the environment but he just didn’t know how to show it. Me and Patrick did our best to create his idea and eventually me design seemed to suit his idea and the groups seemed to like it too.

One day our group got really serious and we brainstormed ideas for names, we have plenty of random names and plenty of “glory halls” but eventually I throw out the name “Extinction Fleet” and everyone loved it. The name was a combination of “fleet” the word that Edwin was hell bent on using and a word I thought was cool “extinction”. After some good laughs about “glory halls” I thought to the next part of this project. I love graphic design so when it came down to creating a design for a logo I jump on the opportunity. With many other projects I was slow to create them but when I was finally able to get it done I popped out some amazing designs. My favorite was of a Robot design but after a group vote being a tie we left it to a coin flip and sadly my design favorite design was not the one chosen but on the bright side the other design was also my own creation.

Later on we had a bit of a crisis; our programmer seemed to be hiatus. So I had to quickly learn how to use unity and create a user interface and a working health system. I was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done; I had to learn a new program and programming over night pretty much. I have to credit you tube for my success in this step a great tutorial done by TornadoTwins.

The project is no way near done but I feel as if we have done a great job so far. Our new challenge is to find a new programmer but besides that we are well on track to getting done and having a great game.

Paul Singh (Concept Artist, UI Designer, Logo Designer)

"A Thoughtful Post"

            This semester is what we Simulation and Digital Entertainment majors have been preparing for throughout our college experience. The Capstone courses take all of our knowledge, gathered in previous classes, and puts it to the “test.” Now that we have come to the close of Game Development Project I, I have realized just how important and necessary the Capstone experience is. This past semester has been an extremely vital learning experience for me, as well as the other individuals within my game development team. As a team, we experienced ever single aspect of the beginning stages of video game development together.

            Challenges arise inevitably during the course of any development process. This is especially true with the development of video games. As a team, my team members and I were faced with a few challenges along the path of development. One aspect of this past semester I believe to be a challenge was working with an external team member. Do not get me wrong, there was no doubt in my mind that Mike would be able to keep up with the tasks that we gave him. It was just the thought of not meeting with him directly that kind of scared me a little. However, throughout the semester, Mike has dedicated time out of his busy schedule to get our game exactly where we planned as far as development. We are satisfied and appreciative of the effort he has put into the project.

            Another challenge we faced during this past semester was with decision making. We believe, as a team, that we should not move forward until a mutual agreement is made; this is where problems arose. During our concept phase, many ideas for final asset appearances were being thrown around, and the problem was that opinions became conflictions. There was a point where agreement on concepts became arguments; this is not uncommon in the world of video game development. It escalated to a point where we just could not move forward. Enthusiasm for the video game began to dwindle, and it almost seemed like our team was falling apart. However, where there is a trough, there will eventually be a peak. The issues were addressed, agreements were made, and that original enthusiasm was restored.

            Our team was originally set up like this: Edwin (Team Leader/Story Engineer), Patrick(Artist/3D Modeler), Bryan(3D Modeler), Paul(Artist), and Mike(Programmer). This division did not become a “Bible.” Everybody in our team did their own parts, but did not stop when their parts were finished. Where there were open opportunities to work on other parts, no one hesitated to help (unless one did not have knowledge of how to complete the task at hand). So, our team is made up of individuals dedicated to picking up excess slack in order to keep the whole team on tempo with our development process.

            I, Bryan Beasman, have been put in charge of part of the 3D modeling within our game. The 3D assets included within the finished prototype of our game include: the main character, enemy robots, weapons, and buildings. Of those 3D assets, I produced all of the enemy robot models including the Maverick robot, the Tank robot, the Flying robot, and the Exploding robot. I also produced the “flash gun” the main character is holding, as well as some of the town buildings and houses. Since I am aspiring to become a professional 3D modeler, these models will make great additions to my file.

            

          Overall, this has been an amazing semester! It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with my team members on such a great game. We have been through the ups and downs, but nothing can take down the Fleet! 

Bryan Beasman (3D Modeler)

An Artist Perspective

Our game is special to each of us in its own way, and while I can’t speak on which ways for my group members I can for myself say that the character development is probably the most fun for me. Timmy, the main character for our game was so much fun drawing out, because as Edwin told me the story and a little about who Timmy was I immediately had a picture of him in my head. Timmy to me is a shy kid who doesn't know any better, who is scared and timid and I wanted that to reflect in physically. I remember when I was little I got teased for being a big kid, and the challenges I had to overcome because of that. Because this is an adventure for him I felt these things would make sense for him to go through so decided to make him a chubby little kid. What better way to make an unusual hero shine than have him stand out from the rest of the kids, be physically challenged being short and thick, but also have him wear glasses.

                I grow tired of almost every game hero being this muscle clad or super heroic archetype, that is just so generic and bland. I want to see more characters that don’t look like the usual heroes. Characters that the players will doubt and end up surprised at how they start to like them as they play with them. I want players to see Timmy and either mock him because of the way he looks or relate to him. Because either way they will all see his hidden talent and true heroic nature shine through in the end. For those who will mock him, they will think because he his fat, wears glasses, and is timid that he will run from everything that he won’t be able to make good decisions, that he shouldn't be the main characters. However, after playing him and get to watch him grow, they will realize that he isn't so helpless after all, that he can be bad-ass and do everything anybody else can. And for players who believe that they can relate to him, especially those who have not discovered this for themselves yet, I want them to realize that no matter how you look or what you have, that each and every one of us can be a hero when we need to. People everywhere come in different shapes and sizes and we should admire that difference and glorify it instead of bash it.

                With Timmy’s creation I want to take a stand, and challenge everybody from other indie developers to AAA game makers, even comic book creators and movie producers. I want everyone to start thinking more outside the box, we should see more Peter Griffin Sized Peter Parker's, or Wolverine as a little person rather than a big muscle clad guy. Things that keep people guessing and will get people to realize that not everyone is the same inside and out.

Patrick Noel (Concept Artist, 3D Modeler) 

Some Thoughts and Takeaways

Yo!

Ed here, reporting in from the toilet of the observatory deck in top left quadrant of the middle section of the principal ship of The Extinction Fleet. I’ll be taking this opportunity to share some of my thoughts and opinions on my experience this semester.

At the start of the semester, The Fleet took turns pitching ideas to each other, and then we all voted on which idea to move forward with in the class. I was extremely excited when my idea won the voting session, but I knew full well that being project manager and “creative director” wouldn't be easy. People don’t like being nagged, and they like being told what to do even less. Triple that when the people in question are your friends. As excited as I was to be working with good friends who I knew had the skills to see the idea though, I was borderline dreading having to be a sort of boss. But I knew that sometimes I would have to put on that hat, in order to get things done and to meet our goals.

Since the very beginning of my game idea, I was thinking of ways to incorporate everyone’s input and to make it feel like our game, as opposed to my game. I tried my best, but being a perfectionist with mild OCD, sometimes it didn't work out so well. I remember obsessing over the angle of the spike on our main robot’s head for several minutes, and it only took five of those several minutes to get the artists of The Fleet very annoyed. Don’t get me wrong, that spike had to be DAMN right in order to fully portray the sexiness of such a perfect mechanical creation, but it was something that could have been worked out over time, instead of having to perfectly nail it before moving on to more important matters.

Another challenge was the relationship with our programmer. I knew I wanted him on the team well before the start of our class, for his programming skills and his “take matters into your own hands” attitude. But due to our evil school credits, he was not able to get into the class! That created all sorts of issues. One, as our professor warned us, someone who is not in the class might not be as driven to complete their tasks and drive things forward, since they are not worried about their grade. Two, being external and not attending UB any longer, he was not able to join us during lab time. And three, having a demanding job that also required programming, he was not as available to work on our game as much as we would have liked. All these issues came together to create long wait times in order to see our game, and some disappointments when it was time to present during milestones. He tried his absolute hardest, though, and The Fleet is thankful for all the work he put into the game.

Despite the asteroids and turbulence in our journey so far, it has been well worth it. It feels amazing to work together with other individuals you trust and see a creation of your own slowly and steadily come into fruition. The greatest reward though, hands down, was the rest of The Fleet telling me they appreciate what I did this semester. After our disagreements, duels, evil eyes, silent treatments, lightsaber battles, gladiator matches, decapitations, and rib pokes, it was good to know my team members were glad to have me on board. Three highly-talented individuals are trusting me to do my part to get this project done, and I don’t plan on failing them.

That’s all for now, citizens. You may leave me to my bowel movements now.

Long
Live
The Fleet

Edwin Guerrero (Narrative Designer, Project Manager)

Dec. 3rd Prototype

Congratulations to everyone on completing their prototypes! Here is ours, edited slightly:

 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ytiwv620fgz42pc/EtgnqT6Sy_

As long as both the executable and the files folder are in the same folder, it should run just fine.


Over and out,

The Extinction Fleet