Teammate - Jack Bushnell

Working with Jack is always a blast.  He's one of those guys who can get stuff done and have fun doing it.  On this project he work primarily with the main character and level design on top of making sure the other art was getting done.  Jack is one of the most dedicated people I have had the pleasure of meeting at SCAD and I would gladly work with him again in the future.  Below are some images of the stuff he was working on.

The Alchemist

Background Assets

Run cycle animation sequence

Alchemy casting sequence(s)

Player Idle

Jump animation

Slide animation

Run cycle 2

Level tiles

That's a wrap!

What a strange, long weekend it has been.  Or has it been an extended day?  It sucks having horrid time perception after hours and hours of work.  Soon we will be presenting our game to the rest of the local competition.  I am beyond excited to see what everyone has come up with.  I want to express my thanks to the rest of the team for being as awesome as they were.  When something needed to happen we all pulled together and got it done faster that I would have thought possible.  I also want to shout out to the other students here at SCAD that competed in this year's game jam.

I wish you all the best of luck.  I've glanced at some of your projects on my beaks and can't wait for the opportunity to play them!  Be sure to post them up on the GDN Facebook page too and make them easy to find.

It has been fun, I'll be using the next few days to post the work of my teammate and the stuff I couldn't get up in the craziness that is Global Game Jam.

Now, to the presentations!

Running on the edge of a sword.

I have come to see crunch time as essentially running along a very narrow cliff way up in the clouds.  You run as fast you you possibly can to get stuff done or fall down.  Generally at the moment we're building levels and trying to finish the code.  Three of us are on stand-by should anything art wise need to be done... or anything else really.  Our coder could say "I need you to dance NAOW!" and it would happen.

This is the first time we've run into serious problems.  I have to say that fixing and creating problems at incredible speeds is both funny and infinitely stressful.

With that, I must go to get some stuff done.

The Final Stretch

Just wanted to let anyone reading know that I will more than likely not be able to post until the game has been complete.  We are down to four hours to complete the our game so we're crunching.  I will say as this stuff gets put into the engine it is looking awesome!  Can't wait to show you all!

13 Hours (or... 48127 Seconds) to go.

A lot was accomplished today.  I've been posting some of it but it's been happening fast enough that I haven't had time to really keep it up to date in real-time.  I'm amazed at what we have and can't wait to see it finished.  I will say though, today came with some sacrifices.  I had to give up eating dinner with someone close to me so I could discuss with my team where we needed to reallocate work efforts.

It's rough when you have to give something up to complete a project or job, you can only hope that the end product makes up from the sacrifices you made along the way.  That is my lesson for today.

That all said, I'll do my best to put up some pictures tomorrow morning.  I have yet to hear feedback from anyone, please feel free to shoot me an e-mail at mallen30@student.scad.edu, me and the team would love to hear what you have to say.

With that, I say goodnight.

47830...
47829...
47828......

Updated Images

Nothing much to report.  Been working on some pixel special effects, which is funny to me the thought of special effects being pixely...  Anyway, updated background and some particle effects have been my life for the past few hours.  Enjoy!

These are enlarged so you can see more of how they actually are done.  They will look much better in-game.  I look forward to posting some screenshots.

Updated Backdrop

Explosion Sequence 1

Explosion Sequence 2 (part 1)

Explosion Sequence 2 (part 2)

Smoke Effects

Setting the Setting

Made quite a bit of progress on the background.  In fact, it's one of the more interesting pieces I have worked on, mainly because I'm still new to Pixel Art.  It intrigues me how much time is required to create a detailed, 2D pixel environment verses a "rendered" 2D environment.  I look at what I've accomplished and think about what I could have done were I digitally painting.  The contrast in end-result is eye-opening.  I used to consider pixel art as a short-cut to creating environments instead of rendering them out in a more traditional sense.  This project has taught me that it is equally difficult to work in pixels as it is in strokes.  Below is a JPEG of the current backdrop.

I'm still toying with it a bit, but that is the general feel of our setting.  Another challenge in this work has been we don't have a storyline or setting that is really set in stone.  Our goal with the art and environment has been more to create a world open to interpretation by the player.  For example, what destroyed the city?  War?  Alchemy?  Time?  We don't say, it's up to the player to create a setting in which they feel more immersed based on the information we have given them.

Working on this environment has broadened my thinking in how to approach environment design and concept.

I can't wait to play this game, the idea was exciting and working on the art has been fun!

Get the picture?

Hey all!  Going through and saving everything as a JPEG to upload would take more time than I can spare, but I did get some of the earlier work converted and wanted to share it.

Alchemical Circle - After researching the Ouroboros, we decided to use alchemy as a driving force in our game.

Early layout sketches.

We were weighing perspective against a direct side view.

Another layout sketch.

Small walls and ladder.

Concrete wall center.

Concrete wall right side cap.

Another concrete center piece.

Left wall end cap.

A rather "divine" center if you catch my drift.

That's what we have.  Currently, I have been working on the environment background which is a bombed/destroyed city or industrial center.  Been a pretty exciting day so far, hope it keeps up.

Until next time!

Break 2 - Sleep (Comes After Death)

Sleep becomes a luxurious commodity when you're working to complete a game in a very short amount of time.  I've been told that GGJ is very similar to how a crunch feels in the industry.  If that is the case, I look forward to the challenges.  This has so far been some of the most fun I've had while still being very intense work.  Here's what we've accomplished (that I can remember in my semi-conscious state).

- Been given a theme.
- Developed a unique spin on a set theme.
- From our idea, quickly laid the foundation of our game design.
- Move straight from design discussion into creating assets for a 2D platform world.
- Created detail assets to compliment environmental foundations.
- Started working on character and entity designs.
- Kept a constant communication between team members to achieve goals quickly.
- Coded the game engine.
- Started coding both "sub-games" to our game as a whole.
- Continuously tested current code.

An finally, certainly most importantly...
- Eaten at IHOP late at night.

Hopefully tomorrow morning (check time)...  later today I will have time to upload some images of our work so far.  I will also shout out to our last-minute recruit Nick.

Good Night/Morning!

First Break

My stomach finally convinced me to stop working and run home to grab some food.  Granted, microwaved sausage isn't exactly my idea of a perfect dinner but hey, you run with what you have.  That aside, these first few hours have been fun.  I was amazed at how quickly we developed our concept and rough design.  With Jake focused on programming, the rest of us have been working to crank out some artwork.

I myself have been focused on background environment design, currently in a run-down industrial setting.  I've made a few walls to be modular in how they all fit together.  What I'm thinking about now as I eat is how to add more detail to the concrete I've made so far and what else I need to make.

Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Batten down the hatches!

The work has begun.  Quick overview for ya; we're essentially taking the Ouroboros in an alchemical sense and creating a platform game in which two players share a single screen.  One player will control the movements of the avatar/character while the other player is in control on the alchemy or spells.  Our focus is more on mechanics and gameplay, so backstory won't be as intensive and the world will be 2D Pixel Art.  The game is also going to be procedural (NEVER ENDING!), this also reflects the idea behind the Ouroboros.

As for my role, I'm currently working on designing some of the art that will be in the background environment.  It's certainly exciting to think that in a few hours the stuff I'm working on will be part of a game.  Setting wise, think old/overgrown industrial center that is the headquarters to a secret cult!

Buwahahaha......

Back to work.

3... 2... 1... Games!

What we know and what we're thinking...

Theme: Ouroboros
Keywords;
   -Never ending
   -Never dying
   -Dreams
   -Divine
   -Pyramids
   -Changing Seasons
   -Sigil
   -World encircled by snake
   -Alchemy
   -Rebirth
   -Rings
   -Mythology
   -Self-eating
   -Self-dying
   -Self-mutilation
   -Eternity
   -Soul of the world
   -Multi-cultural
   -Secret Societies

Points of Interest
   -Alchemical Circles
    -Philosopher's Stone
   -Transmutation

Style: Platformer

Working on more details, will post again when I can!

Pregame

Know that feeling when you're waiting for something epic to happen?  You're standing there waiting on the muse to speak and push you into a rush of furious work and before you know it you have a finished project.  That's sorta what I'm expecting...  except with games this usually happens multiple times over the coarse of months to create a good game.  We have 48 hours.

I will be working alongside Jake, Jack, and Brock to get this done.  I am personally nervous but Jake has quite a bit of experience in this and seems confident we can finish it.  So with him at the helm we're about to charge head-first into what has been described as a two-day hell born gauntlet.

Let the games begin.