Noah Van Nest – Blog #1
And
so it begins. Here we are, another year, another group, and another round of
classes. My expectations are high for this year as I move through my final half
of my university career. Here we go.
Environment Concept – Joshua Liew
First:
I learned a bit of Unity over the summer and familiarized myself with some more
programming concepts. I quite like Unity with its ease of use and its excellent
interface however when doing some tutorials on how to work the various
functions of Unity I found myself doing a lot of copy and paste simple work. I
then realized I had no idea what was going on underneath the pretty face I was
looking at and wanted more. So I then looked into making my own engine and
realized I had nowhere near enough programming know-how to accomplish such a
task. That being said, I am optimistic that this course can give me the push I
need to get my programming up to snuff and do it.
Boss Concepts – Mark Spolitakiewicz
Second: I have a new group this
year. Intermediate Graphics broke the spirit of 3 out of 5 of my group members.
Sadly they are no longer with us (They’re not dead, they just dropped out)
however this does mean that I get to work with some new people for the first
time in a long time. The last 2 years I have mostly stuck with the same group
throughout and it is nice to get some new people in the mix who have new ideas
and a fresh mix of talents that I have not worked with before. I have a very
programming intensive group which can be both good and bad. On one hand, our
game will (hopefully) run efficiently and use many features but on the other
the art may suffer and our direction might get lost. As the producer it is my
job to guide them and though I may not be the strongest programmer but I need
to know what needs to be done to meet deadlines and meet expectations.
Concept Stage Design – Liam Svirk
Third: The game my group is making
this year is a 4 player, 3D action platformer in which all players must work
cooperatively to take down a large scale boss in an arena. Our main inspirations
are Shadow of the Colossus for the gameplay and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
for our art style. This will involve a large effort to achieve the balancing in
the game in regards to the gameplay and a strong knowledge of shaders and
colours to achieve the art style we want.
Concept Visual Styles – Joshua Liew
Lastly: We have made some progress
already. Myself, I have been working on gameplay and design decisions in order
to make our game achieve the feel we want. Our lead programmer Kenny has
already make our camera system we want to carry into the final game and has
been able to load in textures all in the 2LoC engine. Our artists; Josh and
Mark, have been working non-stop on concept art. The lead level designer, Liam,
has already made a concept level map for our players to explore and has been
working with me to make design choices. And finally, Nemo has been writing some
music for our game that will help set the tone of the game.
Boss Concept – Joshua Liew
So
all in all I am very optimistic for this year. I have a solid group who is
passionate about making games and I have a new found drive to succeed in both
programming and game design which I believe I can carry throughout the rest of
my time at this university. I have also littered this blog with concept art and
other things involving the game.
