studio-gameOn

Tuesday…has always been one of our toughest days of the week. Monday we come back fresh, prepared for the week and start on those tasks. Tuesday, however is a day that we realise how huge a task we have in store to complete the next build for the board by Friday. Everyone is frantically trying to work their way through their list for the day. With the pressure of this become cracks within the team, as differing personalities each with their own agenda no longer have the patience to persevere the other. Because of this Wednesday started a little different instead of our usual dailies, we had the “We have a huge deadline ahead, keep out tasks relevant to the time frame allowed and lets work more closely together” type meeting. The building up of the teams being able to see their part contributing to reducing the pressure of others, gives them huge personal satisfaction. The benefit we have being in week 5, is we are starting to prepare for the end. The goal is in sight. We each have huge expectations of what we want to achieve out of this and giving our all is not flagging.

I spent much of the day talking to everyone in the team to see how they are going; not just their work flow but how they are handling the pressures of this week. While I may be a hard taskmaster, I really do care about each and everyone.

I have been really impressed with how the team has responded on Wednesday. This was probably one of my best days, watching them all start to work so well together. With the help on Pixel commandeering members of the team to become voice actors, saw yet again the fun of working with this team. Ian who wished to be strictly a ‘behind the scenes’ type of guy, did not feel he had what it took to fill the shoes of the voice of Chester Chestington, however through the encouragement of the team, who have voted him ‘the sexiest chin of all the team’ and the slight help of a bit of bad luck in an arm-wrestle, he decided as he was dragged into our makeshift sound booth, this would be a fantastic opportunity to unleash his hidden talent.

Today saw yet another move of studio-gameon. This time it’s not a sleep over but a week of holidaying in a luxurious apartment…not, although it is a room with a view. We are using the computers up in the lab there, which saved moving all our equipment however I must say we are getting really good at moving, which will come in handy if anyone needs to move house.

We have no major concerns at this stage as long as the red box issue is resolved. Tomorrow  Duncan and Marko (from 3Blokes) are coming in to help the programmers deal with a large work load and a short time frame. I don’t want these guys stressed and totally over the project in 3 weeks because of this. One of their concerns was having to ask for animations etc that weren’t done. This is where the streamlining comes in…things like working on a model for the scene yet the render for one of the sets has not been completed. If this had of been done, then someone could of been adding the ground level states in for example. At this stage, it’s just about making sure things get completed and in order of priority and stop having so many unfinished parts of the game and alot of work dumped on the programmers at the end of the week. A complete bar scene etc would be good before working on the next. There is no major changes - just focus on priorities- prior to their need.

We now have the room next door also with a view, for user testing, which is much more convenient. The more feedback we get the better the game will be. The designers will be doing a full dress rehearsal tomorrow to make sure we can get the full benefit of this testing.

This week Rory is on work placement and therefore can’t put in the hours during the day however he does stop by and checks our progress and is working on the mini game programming of a night. I’m finding I’m doing more of my emailing/desk work of a night so that during the day, I can give more support and guidance to the teams to cover this off. While we have big expectations this week, our experience of what we have learned previously is starting to show in our work ethics and understanding of time frames, which is why we are now spending more hours. All of the team are now pushing themselves to strive for more.

Some of the artists and all the programmers were going in on Saturday. They had released the next version late Friday afternoon, of which we all had a test and found within minutes, multiple bugs. The majority of the bugs where fixed on Saturday. I believe they wanted to fix those bugs before uploading to the board, at this stage.  Rory will be away next week and has handed over the reins of production to Ian.
The teams as a whole are working together much closer as one unified group. Much more communication and procedures in place to streamline work flow. It felt as if last week was going slow as far a progress is concerned until everyone started to add to the next version. The Pubic Holiday didn’t help. A lot of parallel work going on, which will help towards the deadline. Reducing the scope has meant that more emphasis has gone onto better graphics however this is one area that I am monitoring as far as scope creep. Over the last week has seen a great change in the moral of the team. They are much happier, and with more individual responsibility comes a greater sense of pride and  ownership. This week will be a really busy week as we hope to get all the artwork of the levels in and the programmers continue to improve on the code. We also begin our Kleenex testing on Wednesday.

Monday was a critical turning point for Studio-GameOn. We presented our Western, which has improved out of sight and waited for the feedback from the Industry Board.

Their advise… to reduce our scope and focus on the polishing off of Movie 1 the Western. They were impressed with the graphics and the physics within the game, which is why I believe they want to see more.
Even though some of us believe that Movie 2 was going to be awesome, there is something about making something that will give goosebumps to even the most avid gamers.

With the new approach came new enthusiasm, laughter and creativity filled the air with boisterous suggestions bouncing off one another. Unlike towards the end of last week, where the pressure was mounting, along with a few tempers showed of the intensity and passion of the team.
While we realised there is other ways of dealing with how to be heard, the lessons we learnt was invaluable and in actual fact, is what will make the team even stronger.

They have been working well together (sounds like a school report) and have become far more productive by streaming their workflow methods and increasing the communication within the team.

The team have now begun testing the game and creating many post-it notes on the to-do list of the programmers. Hence to say the game is improving everyday and sometimes I think it necessary to look back on the first Prototype to realise where we have come in such a short time.

So, today I spent time creating a simple mini-game in the style of Balance Beam games we all know and love. After schooling the other members of my studio at my own game (with a grand score of 2:16 before one of them lashed out in a jealous rage and made me crash) I took a deeper look at integration, menues and scoring, and did a few of my more general producer-like duties.

This week has been incredibly full-on. I came out of last week feeling like we were in a good position, however, after a few days in to this 3rd week I realised I had made a number of critical errors. My first major error was not editing the design documents for each level stringently enough. As much as I tryed to guide people to implementing the features and artwork I thought was of highest priority, unfortunately some of the ambiguous wording in the design documents resulted in people implementing unnecessary features that had been removed or changed, resulting in wasted time and work.

The second issue stemmed from the previously mentioned issue of the first level’s design being lost. This eventuated in the printing and distribution of an un-approved design document for the first level, before it had actually been finished or locked in.

The difficulty comes in from inter-team communication, in that, on the one hand it’s great for everyone to have a cohesive idea of what everyone is doing, and how a particular element should operate- on the other hand, if you have all the team members communicate with all the other teams willy-nilly you inevitably get a series of “chinese whisper” inspired miscommunications, resulting in me finding out someone is implementing something completely differently to how it was originally agreed upon, which, as you may expect, results in both parties getting a little upset if tempers are not kept in check.

Of course, all of these issues are part of the learning experience. The studio now has a more stringent process in place for the locking in of particular level designs such that we should have a more coherent, and cohesive design document in which to distribute among the teams.

Anyways, it’s now time for me to pass out for the weekend in an attempt to recuperate.

… Oh, who am I kidding- tomorrow some of the more dedicated members of the team (read: those who lack any form of life) will be coming in to the studio and continuing to work on the project. Who needs a life, right?

~Rory

So much for my attempt to try and blog more often then once a week.

This last week has been a rollercoaster ride of stress levels, as we come closer and closer to the completion of our first level. We’ve survived being kicked out of space for a day, the cleaners throwing away several crucial level design diagrams (and thus the movement to a digital system), and a vast array of bugs.

Yesterday I spent part of my time working with Colin, one of the programmers,  on tweaking and refining player movement. It is my opinion that a platformer game can live or die on how their character acts and is controlled, so it was important we got them to a level that felt ‘right’.

While this was going on, the other two programmers, Josh and Alex worked on merging 2 days worth of work in which we had no access or the internet, or the SVN.

The design for the second movie is currently being worked on, and in my opinion it might just be even better then the Western movie. Hopefully by the end of this week, or early next week we’ll have a playable demo ready for the public.

~Rory

After the jubilation of seeing Stunt Man come to life on Friday, it was back to the grind on Monday. The task of establishing all the details of the first movie proved to be a huge ask. However by Tuesday afternoon we had finally written documentation of all the tasks required for the week. The disruption of having to move out of the studio for one day, while this was happening proved to be a timeline challenge but also presented an opportunity for TV to come and film Studio-GameOn. We had two huge projection screens linked to the monitors of the Art and Programming Team, the show reel, which I created with some of the concept art and screen capture of Abbey’s drawing of Godzilla played in the background. This all created a fantastic visual experience of the studio. Unfortunately the media did not come however its not Game Over for marketing, just yet.

Unfortunately for Josh Mullins, the increase of his commitments to his paid job, did not allow for him to dedicate the time required to fulfil his Marketing Role and he has chosen to resign from the team. We wish him well with his work and his studies this year and hope that he continues to stay in contact.

The importance of clear achievable itemised tasks is now relevant to the members of the team. Scope creep continually tries to push out our deadlines, the difference now, we have seen how time is our greatest threat and we have more of a greater understanding of the time involved in achieving those tasks. We can materialise any concept the designers come up with, however now, once the level has been documented the team are beginning to understand, alterations to this, is not debatable for the rest of that week.

Today in the Studio, we are much happier. The sharing of Internet connections proved to be a major hindrance to yesterday’s progress. We have our checklist and are continually pushing through knowing that Friday approaches.
Our goal for this week is to have Movie 1 completed and ready to present to the Board on next Tuesday. At this stage we are on target and the team’s outlook is far more confident.

I also had the benefit of seeing the original demo version playing beside the latest new look version stunt man. The difference is absolutely amazing. The programmers are doing a great job and really doing justice of the fabulous artwork. What has been achieved in such a short time has to be seen to be believed. The day ended with a fire alarm and evacuation of the building complete with firemen …. could this be the inspiration of a new movie for stunt guy or is the studio-gameon team smoke’n hot? I have to admit I am becoming one of their greatest fans.

For a couple of days now I have watched our little Stunt Man walk, run, fall and pick himself up: a tiny figure trapped within a white screen. You couldn’t help but feel sorry for him and wonder how exhausted he must feel completing cycle upon cycle of animation. But today at 4.50pm he was officially released with the blaring of typical western music. Released and free in a world created from blood, sweat and tears; a world that was his own. He ran and jumped like there was no tomorrow, but I think someone must of slipped caffeine into the script.
The gathering of the team all smiling around one small screen to the blaring of a western themed tune, gave instant gratification of a week well spent. I didn’t need to see the screen, their faces said it all, but when I did, it blew me away. This was a great moment for all to share. Congrats to all the team on an absolutely fantastic and rewarding week. Next week your challenge is to switch Stunt Man over to decaf so he’s not as hyper. Rest Up and Thanks

Monday was the first day for our weekly meetings. The challenge was to create a storyboard of the level one sequence so that this could happen. While the team was waiting for the designers, there was a lot of frustration amongst the others, which was an indication of their eagerness to begin and now we have commenced, the importance of having a continuous work flow contingency.

With the elements now complete and stronger direction, the team has settled down into a great working relationship. The atmosphere is certainly fun with a great mix of personalities amongst the team. Even though I’m experiencing a lot of challenges, planning and coordinating, I love coming to work.

On Wednesday we had the pleasure of one of the members of the board, Duncan, who has the ability to spread his charm and make everyone feel so much more confident. He offered advise to all the teams helping them to see the importance of maintaining the scope and what is expected of the first demo version of which our expectations were so much higher and unpractical – more like a first level really.

We also had a surprise visit from John Passfield (Pandemic & Board Member of Studio-GameOn) and his family, which was a nice surprise and always welcome. It is their support and interest that drives us and for  them to take time out of their busy schedules is a reflection of their dedication and genuine interest in not only the gaming industry in Brisbane but of the Studio-GameOn Project.

We have had QUT Publicity and photographers taking photos of some of the team, to promote the studio in local papers. Yesterday and today we have had 2 members of the team in the Queen Street Mall with the library pod creating more of a presence and awareness and getting ideas from the public for our game. On the marketing side we have so much more planned, but you’ll have to wait and see…..

Well, it’s been a week since my last post- but wow, what a week. Tuesday we continued to brainstorm ideas, developing the idea of a unique platformer in which the player plays through the production of a shoddy, no-budget action film as an underappreciated stunt man. With a solid idea finally coming to the surface, I took no hesitation in getting our talented art department to knock together some fantastic concept art to further inspire our designers.

On Wednesday, we further refined the idea- I got the programmers to continue working on their flash skills, introducing them to the Box2dFlash physics library. The designers also came up with a second idea floating around between a number of different directions until finally settling in as a isometric/top-down turn based strategic battle game. The game, code-named ‘Golem’, followed the story of a young girl with the ability to craft Golem’s from magic clay. Moving away from the common convention of Turn-based battle games, Golem focused on the girls to craft generic clay golems who could then assimilate different terrain features to gain special abilities which are then used for solving puzzles and defeating enemies.

Thursday we continued to refine the prototype, develop concept art for Golem, and continue to define gameplay elements.

Friday was the big day- the meeting with the industry board. As you may be able to guess, I was a little nervous to hear their feedback, how they thought we had progressed, and whether or not they thought either idea had any legs. It was a pleasant surprise to see them really happy with the amount of quality work that had come out of all teams, and the feedback received was extremely useful. I hammered Adrian, Duncan and Marco for technical details when it came to implementing the anim engine, system timing and a few other details.

The board listened to Pixel and Alex pitch each idea, before weighing the pro’s and con’s of each and giving us feedback as to which they’d choose, however, unfortunately we had to choose just one, and the decision eventually came down to what I thought we could complete to a high level in the time allocated. While I really had begun to love the Golem idea, I didn’t want to have to brutalise the idea in order to get it done on time. Stuntman, on the other hand was a more accessible idea that scaled far easier within the timescale, and it was eventually this fact that seperated the two concepts for me.

Now the important second week begins where we become focused on the real work!

~Rory

PS: Hope to blog more often then once a week!