studio-gameOn

But since I’m really done for today (and there’s not really much left for me to do), I thought I should update the blog. As I write, the guys are de-stressing with some Warcraft -at least, that’s what I think they’re doing- for a little bit before they have to dive back in and work some more. In two days time, it will all be over. The game is almost complete, which is certainly an achievement. Who would have guessed that we would all have come so far?

*feels the need to play “How Far We’ve Come” by Matchbox Twenty*

So today was spent organising art to be printed, slicing up flyers and tracking down the last of the people wanting to attend ENDGAME. Now all that’s left to do is do the showreel with some camera-work (we have another tester due in tomorrow, I believe!) and then my job is done. Well, almost. I shall be working out glitches with the rest of the Design/QA team to perfect the game before launch. It’s all so exciting!

It’s been really interesting working in a game studio environment, but I really think that I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else. Having come from a background in science (microbiology), it feels like I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here (I’m sure that’s a song, but I can’t remember who by).

The programmers are upstairs and have decided to order pizza tonight for dinner. It’s going to be a late one for them, I fear. I really respect everything they have done for us. A lesser team would not have been able to do the amount of work they have taken on. It’s incredible the effort they have put in. So kudos to Colin, Alex, Christina and Josh (I suppose we should also include Rory!). You guys have been incredibly awesome!

So with these departing words, I should say to you all that this has been a blast and I have enjoyed updating like a madwoman over these last six weeks. Who knows? You may just see us again in the near future (P.S, check out Kongregate. Just… check it out. Over the next couple of weeks).

With much love, your obedient servant,

O.G

(~@ Phantomess_Jekyll -Gemma)

Yesterday morning a pep talk was given by Lubi involving the trade of alcohol for a finished game come Friday. And if the game was not finished by Friday then there would be no alcohol. Needless to say this was a regular call to arms for any average person since alcohol was on the line. Nope. We are game designers. In my opinion she should of bribed us with food and she would have gotten a much better response. In Lubi’s defence though she did leave us 2kg of choc chip cookies which were eaten immediately by the resident dreadlocked cookie fiend Abbey.

Anyways myself, Alex and Gemma have been doing whats left of the design work which is not much and doing QA testing.

He rode a burning saddle. A tale of a man in a world doing things. Things of awsomeness. Not really much to tell you. Over the last week or so I was making the sound effects for the project. I also did the sound for the FMV (Full Motion Video: despite what others have said) That’s been done except for a bit of fine tuning that might be acceptable in a destruction derby but not on the racetrack (makes sense to me). So what next, a little programming, a little bit of art, maybe some more sound what can I say I am a man of all trades. Granted people might laugh at my work but at least I’m trying. In other news…. nothing. I guess thats it. Stay tuned for the traffic report and my complete lack of interest. Not in you my loving public I’m not much of a blogger that’s all. No really it’s not you , it’s me. I mean I’m practically a hermit. Living in my cave to be gwaked at by others. Well I’ll show them I’ll show them all MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA. *Cough Cough* where was I oh yes I was ranting. The thing about ranting is that when do you end. At what point can you stop on a note that is acceptable to all peo….

Signed Your Lord and Master Pixel

Igor! THROW THE SWITCH

Okay mashter

*Sound effect of Switch hitting the ground aftyer a long decending arc through the air*

Thank you thank you I’ll be here all week. Try the veal and don’t forget to tip your waiteress.

While this morning involved lots of tweaking and QA testing, this afternoon was moving back into the Glasshouse.

The dividing wall between the studio area and the conference room was pushed open, so now we’ve got a mega-studio ready for our FINAL week of Studio GameOn.

Not really much more to say for today, but looking forward to next week to cram as much into the game as possible without breaking what’s already there. Wish us luck!

Alex B

It’s weird to think that barely six weeks ago, we ushered in a new year and trudged sleepily into Kelvin Grove on a Monday to face an empty room.  Now we’re like family; joking around, getting mad at each other, working together… and it’s all going to finish soon. It’s a sad thought, but we all have bigger and better things to go on to. Maybe someday we’ll all be back together again, but when this is all over… I know I’m going to miss everyone. There’s been no day when I don’t think about how lucky I am to have been a part of this. I have some great friends that I have made here and I hope to stay in contact with them all.

Now that I’ve my sentimental blubbering, I should tackle today’s events. Today we had a visit from Tim and Matt from Internode Games Network. They toured the studio (while I buzzed around taking happy snaps which you can find on Flickr) and learned more about the project. Meanwhile, Alex and I were working hard on breaking things. Yep, that’s right. Breaking things. We managed to get into Rory’s mini-games and worked on trying to break the builds in the most imaginative ways possible. This may be construed as harsh, but think of it this way: if we break it, chances are other people can too. So better that they find our breakages before the game goes public rather than it being released completely bugged-up.

The board are due in tomorrow (le gasp!), so I had to put all the recording equipment on charge tonight so that they would be ready for tomorrow morning when I arrive. All the programmers (the ever-stressed Rory included) are wringing their hands in despair, but I think… no, I KNOW they’ll come through for us. We have a great team.

And so, in our final days, I say to you this:

Singularly, this has been a blast. I am proud to have been a part of it and hope that the higher-ups decide to run it next year. Because who knows, maybe next year there’ll be a young woman with a background in marketing and a head for design who can have fun and learn so much from her friends.

Just like me.

Take care,

~@ Phantomess_Jekyll (Gemma)

Well, the title pretty much sums up today for the design team. =)

However, I don’t think I could get away with a blog post so short so I’ll go into a bit more detail, shall I?

Scene 1 is pretty much behind us except for tweaking and now the rush has begun for getting the train and mine scenes finished. Most of the day was spent for Ian and myself around with the programmers making hasty changes to level design and object positions as sections were tested, rearranged and tested again. I really can’t say enough how lucky we are to have such skilled programmers with us.

The breaking doors refers to the way the stuntman will open doors on the train - kicm them opn, or break them down? Looks like we might have both! There’s now even a dolly loaded with crates that smashes through 3 enemies, breaking through the train door behind it. Epic stuff.

There was also lots of discussion of the name of the final game, something we’ve neglected to think about until now. Needless to say it ended up going in one big circle and might end up being our project name.

The afternoon for the 3 designers was focus testing a brand new game at Halfbrick Studios. While our wonderfully complicated NDAs forbid us from releasing any details, I can say one thing…..no, no actually I can’t. So stop asking. STOP IT.

So that’s the story of today in the design team. Could have just read the title and gotten all that info in one bite-sized chuck but noooooo you had to read this entire blog post didn’t you? That’ll teach you. =)

Alex B

Sooooo,

Once again design team falls behind blogging… Still aiming to finish the game by Friday then have a week to do tweaking. So yeah fun fun. Rory returned to the studio yesterday back from a week of being an intern. He fell back into the role of producer he left quite easily and I got knocked back to lead designer. In turn knocking Alex from being Lead Designer and returning to being Alex. Resulting in Gemma becoming Gemma again instead of being Alex. It would make sense if you were here…

Totally pysched to wrap this bad boy up  by Friday!

Ian.

Well, here we are again, studio fans. What to tell you in my latest blog?

For most of this week, I have been in the back room with Alex (good lord!), focus testing. I’ve called in all my favours from some of my closest pals (thanks to all me mates who showed up! Hurrah for you!) and we’ve had a few people from outside the studio’s friend-group who have been press-gagged into helping us out. So last night, I was here until seven, data-dumping and making movies out of the sony handycam results to compile our list of results.

The testing continues next week, hopefully with the return of studio favourite, Xybyt. On the marketing side of things, our facebook group has grown by leaps and bounds. It truly is incredible. Thank you all so much for your support, we really appreciate it. Quite a few online game site have run features on us so even if we fail (and fail masterfully), we’ve still made a name for ourselves. At least WE tried…

But we will not fail. Most of us are headed in tomorrow for more work (heaven save us) at an ungodly hour of the morning, but that only speaks of our determination and commitment to the project. We will not be beaten! We will not fade quietly into the night! We are studio-gameOn and we WILL be victorious!

Now that I’ve finished my Independence-Day-esque heroic chant, I suppose I should talk a little about the design issues that we’ve faced. The mine level (today) saw a bit of a HEEE-UUUUGE overhaul, partially because the design document wasn’t correctly followed. Never mind, because like the awesome design team we are, we swung quickly into action and rectified a great deal of the problems. But we still face a lot of problems (though possibly not as many as the programmers are. I can hear one of them shouting and groaning at his screen. Sounds like things aren’t as rosy for them as it seems).

No-one ever said life was fair. Pity you have to balanace a game.

Still, onwards to the victor’s crown. See you all at the finish line.

~@ Phantomess_Jekyll (Gemma)

Few days behind blog but its alll goooood.

Been getting busier and busier with this being a crucial week. Stuff we thought was finalised was apparently not etc etc. So clutch in and going hard. I’m in Rory’s position for this week and it has definatley been a learning curve. Now there is no meat shield between myself and the other teams since Rory is gone. But oh well its good good fun.

Laters, Ian

Well, it’s the end of another week. The boys have been working very hard and, sadly, we will bid farewell to Rory for a bit next week while he goes and does his internship or… whatever it was he said he was doing. I don’t think I was paying attention. Anyway… since Rory is departing for the week (and it WOULD be the week we’re shifting, wouldn’t it?), Ian is taking over as studio producer. Which will be interesting, to say the very least. I’ll be interested in the direction that Ian wants to take the game compared to Rory’s vision.

The marketing side of things has been going relatively well. The forums are alive with ideas, some of them translating to the final game. Over the last couple of days, Pixel and I have been hard at work scripting audio work for the role of the director. Where this will slot into the game, we have yet to finally determine, but rest assured that it will indeed be awesome.

Anyway, like I was saying, next week we are being shipped out of the glasshouse for a week *sadface*. But I think there’s not a lot we can do about it. So if you’re heading in to do some focus-testing for us, check what rooms we’re in. We don’t want you rocking up to the wrong rooms!

In short, things weren’t as productive this week, thanks largely to the public holiday but I think that next week we’ll really be getting serious. Not long now…

Your humble servant, direct from the O.G.

~@ Phantomess_Jekyll (Gemma)