studio-gameOn

Hey all,

Nearing the end of week four and what seemed to be a great four day week has left us wanting an extra day.  Rory was missing for the majority of the day with other commitments but the design team tried to do their best in his absence. Alex was busy working on a fourth scene for the western level, Pixel and Gemma went into the abyss of the conference room to sort out scripting/audio for the game and I worked on a tut level with the artists and began the level creation of scene 2.

Thats bout it yall.

Cheers, Ian

Okay so I forgot to post yesterday. But I shall make up for it right here right now. Things are okay, we are adjusting our scope to adress issues of not finishing on time. Very serious stuff, but never fear there will be something to show at the end of this. We shall focus of fine tuning what we have to the point where we can show it without hiding our heads in shame. There are things that we have to cut but allthough we shall miss them we shall never forget.

signed Pixel Lord and Master of …things

Well, today has been very very interesting…

It was time for official industry board meeting #2, with the guys from 3 Blokes, Wildfire and Pandemic returning to check on our progress and dole out their praise and/or punishment.

Today was a bit of a reality check, mostly in the scope of the project. While most of us were prepared for 2 movies and some still optimistic for 3, the industry suggested just sticking to the first and polishing it up to a glossy sheen. The advantage of this would be a slightly lower level of stress around the studio, and hopefully a much better end product.

The art, programming, design teams have been working much more cohesively so the studio dynamics have been great (with the occasional stress-induced exception). With the scope reduced I’m much more certain of our success ready for the presentation in 2 weeks.

Alex B

Well, we’re half-way through the six-week period and I’ve been working non-stop now that Josh is gone. That means there’s three times the work - as the jobs of two marketers and one designer. Luckily, I’m working with a great team of guys who are awesome designers themselves. So today, props go to my team-mates: Ian, Alex, Pixel and Rory (when he drags himself away from the programmers long enough to put his two-cents in). These guys are possibly the most awesome people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. They’re focussed, intelligent (batty and annoying… sorry, sorry, this is a good thing!) and really nice. So, well done guys! You’re a credit to the studio!

From my perspective, the ninja movie is progressing well and we should be starting on movie three by Tuesday at the latest. As a marketer, I’ve been working hard. REALLY hard. Ridiculously hard. I have to thank the kind forums that let me advertise our studio at and letting us reach more potential game developers. Big shout out to “bittman” from tsumea who has joined the forums - thanks! Anyone else who is reading the blogs and who hasn’t actually signed up to the forums, please do so! We’d love your input! ^_^

What else to say… I think this week was all about the catastrophe curve. Things are snow-balling now and the pressure is on. But the other teams (and the designers) seems to be holding up well. Though I think the change in weather has made us all a bit sluggish. I know my brain isn’t working at top speed today… curse the overcast skies! This is no time for a nap!

The prototype should be ready soon, with any luck…. and it is with these words that I leave you all and head back to the many, many, MANY forums (about nine, I think) and keep working.

Ahhh, the things a Phantomess must do to stay ahead of the pack!

~@ Phantomess_Jekyll (Gemma)

Allo,

Busy busy day for designers. Finalised documents & level design for scene 1 & 2 of second movie with the third one being up in the air untill tomorrow. A collision of views over the level design between one designer and the entire team put the afternoon on halt. Hopefully tomorrow either majority rules or a happy medium will be met. If neither happen I’ll personally be cracking skulls and taking names. Frustration…

Ian

Greetings and salutations explorers of the digital world

It is I Pixel bringing you the latest and greatest news from the studio.

Well we are looking good and on schedule. Looking to have finished the art assets for the entire first movie. That’s three stages for those who arn’t following at home.

The design team has moved on to the next movie and designing levels for it. Ninja is the theme and we are having fun. But there is one thing that is missing. Imput from the public. We needs it, we wants it. If you have an idea go to the forums and tell us. But don’t listen to me, if you did you would turn into a minion and I don’t have a dental plan.

This is Pixel Live from the Studio

After 2 weeks in our glass fishbowl Day 12 required us to make a complete change - moving into a place of darkness, artificial light and great floors for racing on chairs with wheels. An external group had booked our fishbowl so for the day it was next door in The Block we needed to reside.

There were definitely some advantages, other than said floor for rolling along. Numerous huge projectors were hooked up to the programmers’ and artists’ computers so we were aware of their activities without moving (not that it stopped us abusing the wheely chairs). Also, because of the unusually high ceiling (about 3 storeys tall?) we could hear every whisper in the hall. There was one major problem though - a severe lack of internet ports meaning the day was filled with running between teams with flash drives and sharing what few internet ports we had. Not even the hubs would work.

In the end we’re back in the fishbowl and missing the freedom but with a brand new table and computer setup - the artists somehow managed to get 5 2-person tables for themselves and a nice rearrange in our design section means we all have a nice amount of room. The programmers are also now grouped with our producer Rory.

Now, I haven’t mentioned what actual work was done yesterday but there was quite a bit - finishing up ALL documentation, diagrams, lists and explanations for the for first chapter to the point where no further changes would be made.

And now onto chapter 2…

Alex B

Well, it’s official: we’ve been kicked out of home (sad face). But the upshot of all this is that we are now in a lovely spacious studio across the way from the Glasshouse (sadly, this is only temporary) with lovely air-conditioning, dim lighting but nearly no internet. Yes, that’s right. We are all stealing each other’s internet access when no-one is looking (since the designers have now decided that stealing the programmers’ chairs isn’t fun anymore and what does classify as fun requires the word “wench” to be randomly added to any conversation. Oh, the perils of working with a studio near-full of guys!).

Turns out there’ll be news crews here tomorrow. Good thing we moved into a studio with lots of room. The Glasshouse gets pretty packed with the fifteen of us… oh yes. Today we farewelled one of our number – Josh Mullins. Sadly, there were outside commitments that he couldn’t avoid and so he decided to leave. It’s sad, but we’re just going to have to work twice as hard. We can’t let everyone down!

Today, Alex B and I were down at the SLQ again. It was a little slow today, but then again we weren’t there for very long. When we got back, we had to dismantle the computers and move across to the lovely studio we’re in now.

But all was not lost! Thanks to some hard work from Ian, Alex and Pixel, we have now got some decent carriage designs for the western! Woo! Sounds very exciting, doesn’t it?

As for me, it was business as usual. Update this, check on that, register here… monotonous yet vitally necessary. But the buzz is growing… oh, it’s growing.

Keep your ear to the ground and you’ll hear the singing.

~@ Phantomess_Jekyll (Gemma)

Today we met our milestone, getting a prototype of the first stage out. We have animation playing, pixels jumping (on the screen, not in real life though it did come close to that to) and music blaring. Problems are still apparent but we are not that far from seeing a more refined version.

The design team worked together on the nitty gritty stuff like a scoring system and how the cut scenes played out. Is this a sign, are we going to finish on time or are the storm clouds gathering and are we going to fail. I don’t know and if I did I wouldn’t say, ruins the tension.

This is Pixel at the studio, signing out.

Tis supposed to be young Pixel’s entry today but I suspect he forgot so here I am picking up the slack!
The majority if not all of the design elements for the first three levels of the game have been completed. Good news for all designers to now bury it and move on. After working on the same idea for so long gets rather… Well you get the idea.

On my end I got to go to the city today to rep studio game on in a fancy new shirt. Mainly volunteered to get outta the studio for at least a few hours and see day light and fresh air. But also to play Rock Band. Which in my opinion is fail the guitar doesn’t work properly. But hey now im ranting.

Ian.