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) 

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)