A Leader, but a Terrible One

Yo!

Edwin here, reporting from my personal quarters aboard the Fleet.

I read an article during the semester that not only made me laugh, but also made me think critically about how I've done as the pseudo-leader of this team. This is a picture of a key section:

"By the next morning, your house has become a unicorn with two humps." This almost perfectly reflects the relationship I've had with the artists on the Fleet on this project. I thought that giving them the creative freedom to concept how various things would look at the beginning of the project would be enough. I thought that after that, they would be content with following guidelines and instructions, since they already had the freedom to express themselves in the beginning.

I was very, very wrong.

Creative individuals—actually, individuals in general—like to express themselves and have a major stake in what they are working on throughout the life of the project. Giving freedom during one phase and taking it away the next is not ideal. How can one give enough freedom, however, without sacrificing the near sacred vision one has for the game?

Like the article mentions, as a leader, it was my job to INSPIRE. If I would have inspired the artists, perhaps they would have shared my vision (or at least the majority of it), and we could have worked with less friction. But I did a very poor job on this. We had a vote at the beginning of the semester to decide which game concept to work on, and mine came out on top. I thought that with this binding vote and a minor pep talk, the team would be willing to listen to my guidelines and instructions.

But I realize now that even with the binding vote, it's hard to work on something that you are not creatively invested in. The only way for anyone to be truly invested in a project is through a sense of ownership and impact. This is a lesson I will not soon forget.

That's all, thanks for reading.

Long

Live

The Fleet

Edwin Guerrero (Narrative Designer, Project Manager)

New Art Added To The Game

These will be the gun images that will appear when the character picks up the guns.

This is the colored images of all the main characters in the game.

This is the aim cursor and the reload cycle animation. 

These are the gun icons that will be used as the images that show you which gun you have selected.

Heath Regeneration Coin

Power Up Coin

Speed Up Coin

The Fleet Marches

The development of our game, Kids VS. T.H.E.M., is in full swing. We, the members of the Extinction Fleet, are beginning to understand the stresses that come along with game development as we get closer and closer to our deadline. The first half of our game development experience was a piece of cake compared to the second half so far. We are faced with a short period of time and much greater workload. This semester is going to be the definition of crunch time.

            

By the end of the first semester, we were able to produce a working prototype that showed off the core mechanics of the game. By the end of this semester, we are aiming at having five complete levels that coordinate to bring the story together. Over the past month, the team has accomplished a lot. We have met most of our goals in the first two milestones, and we plan to finish the same way we began, strong.

            

Our team has one unique element that no other team in the class can claim. Unlike the other teams, we have been working with one additional team member the entire time. The programming for our game has been getting worked on by an external, out of class, partner. With that being said, there is no shame in saying that we have run into some issues with this situation. We have currently gone through two external programmers and are currently seeking out another replacement. Yes, this definitely adds difficulty to our development schedule, but there is a bright side. We are experiencing, first hand, the realities of developing a video game. The video game development cycle is filled with bumps and hiccups along the way. We have been introduced to real world obstacles, and we are taking them on head strong. The Extinction Fleet is a strong team, and nothing will get in our way of reaching our goals. 

Bryan Beasman (3D Modeler)

Macgyver's Kids

With making this game, not only do we get to act on childish dreams and fantasies, but we get to be super creative with weapon creation and other elements of the game. Each of the guns we put in the game will all be made from everyday items and toys that kids have and have access, to make super cool powerful guns. My gun for example is a crossbow fashioned from paper towel tubes, wooden planks, a soda bottle, boomerang, slingshot, and suspenders. Kids put the gun together bit by bit and fire arrows made of Lego. Since a kid I've learned one the greatest weapons a kid could have is an imagination and a set of Lego's, so with those two in mind I made the weapon something kids could easily put together with ammo that every kid has had or should have had at some point in their lives.

We don't give children enough credit for the things they do and are capable of creatively. A child's mine has got to be the most powerful and magnificent, yet under appreciated element to human life there is. They are capable of absorbing everything they see, and creating new things from them. Everything from baby talk and the way they communicate with each other to the things like toys, pictures, and stories they come up with. Because of this level of untapped ingenuity we have had such a fun time with making weapons, the kid's base, and other elements of the game. By tapping into that old childhood imagination, the possibilities of features we can add to this game are endless.

Patrick Noel (Concept Artist, 3D Modeler)