studio-gameOn

Apologies for the tardiness with which this blog was produced, the programming team fell asleep the moment the CD was burnt Friday 5:30pm, and have only just woken up.  While the final three days of studio game-on are a blur of complex code, b-grade western music and cartoon cowboys, I’ll sort the facts from the fog and give this ambitious venture the sound-off it deserves.

On both Wednesday and Thursday, Alex and I spent the entire day attempting to fix every bug and incorporate every feature that was essential for the game.  Both nights saw us working well into the midnight hours, only to return the following mornings for more.  Christina joined us on Thursday as well and was more than ready for the long haul.  Even as 1:00am Friday loomed, she was keen to work through every possible bug on the final “must fix” list before heading home.  A lot was accomplished … we were very focused with nothing to distract us, particularly at night, and we worked very well as a team, providing support and encouragement with each fix knocked off that to-do list.  Josh also came in for a couple of hours each night after his co-op placement stint, and assisted Alex with a couple of crucial fixes.  The producer, Rory, and designer/audio guy, Pixel, also made their presences felt Thursday night with valuable contributions towards the menu system and game audio respectively.

And finally, after the massive shifts the days/nights before, Alex, Christina and I were back by 9:00 am, ready for that one final charge, our last chance, to have the game completed to a satisfactory standard, for burning by 5:30 that afternoon.

While Christina and I struck at the most serious remaining bugs, Alex and Rory began making the great merge, putting all game content and levels into the final game package.   Even at that late stage, some additions to the game were suggested … and, unless they required seconds to implement, were flatly rejected by the programmers … it was far too little too late.  Christina and I tested and polished up each level one last time, then passed it through the production pipeline to Alex, who again tested, tweaked and compiled the very final build for each, which was then passed on to Rory.  By late afternoon, the final level was ready, and for the first time since this event commenced, we could only sit back and watch.

At almost exactly 5:30 in the afternoon, 7 solid weeks of very hard work came to a conclusion, as Rory went to burn the first B-Grade: Spaghetti Western CD.

While this was a momentous occasion for the studio, for the entire team, the programmers simply sat back down, and surrendered to the mental exhaustion.  I largely just felt numb, and judging by the look on Alex’s and Christina’s weary faces, I guess that’s what they felt too.  There were no cameras up there, capturing the experience, and most of the studio team had departed for the celebrations … it was over, but for me at least, it didn’t really hit me.

When we finally went down stairs to the Glass House (from the Animation studio in which we had endeavoured), the noise alone was enough to indicate that the party had began.  Many people associated with the studio organization, Truna, Lubi, Ruth Christie, the honoured industry board, as well as studio members family’s and friends (including Josh who’d recently arrived from his placement) were mingling.  Several computers were set up for everyone to playtest the game … the programmers honestly had zero interest in playing at the time though … both Alex and I had been dreaming recently that we were in the studio, trawling through code, fixing and testing stunty … and beside, the music was driving us crazy.

We mingled for a while, receiving great encouragement (and business cards ) from the industry board team (who insisted we sign their copies of the game) and went through the presentation.  We were frequently told we had done an outstanding job, and that we looked exhausted.  But Alex, Christina and I soon said our goodbyes and departed, though Josh stayed longer.

Retrospectively, I am quite happy with the final product.  I think it was Duncan and Marco from 3-Blokes Studios who said that, as programmers, we are unlikely to be as satisfied as others, since we see every minute increment.  But from their perspective, and that of others who weren’t so close to the code, they see improvements in leaps and bounds with each build.  We were always going to be pushing to make this a bug-free game that satisfied every design spec, but we came THAT CLOSE that even some of my honestly critical friends, whose opinions I hold in high regard, praised the game.  Of the final product, I am quite proud to have been involved.

Regarding the studio event, and some of the empty feeling upon it’s completion Friday night, I would put some down to fatigue, but I think the fact that the team is no more … in the end, I can honestly say that I really did enjoy working with this team.  I hope to work a lot more with Alex, as we share a couple of common subjects next year and he has proven himself to be extremely talented and dedicated.  Josh will still be on co-op placement, but I look forward to seeing him during semester as well.  I hope the placement works out really well for him.  As for Christina, she’ll be leaving for her home in Indonesia, and I wish her all the best as her studies are now complete, and she’ll be looking for work there.  To all three of you, my friends, it has been a pleasure to work with you.

And on behalf of the programmers, I would like to once again thank Sheryl and Rory for all their support and encouragement.  Their vital efforts frequently go unthanked but are constantly appreciated.  Thanks also to the other team members, who gave their all for seven weeks to see this game developed to a very respectable standard … you are all very talented.  Special thanks also to the Industry board, Adrian, Duncan, Marco and John, who stood by us, guided us, motivated us, and took a genuine interest in this project that made it all the more rewarding for us.  Thanks to Keith Novak, whose photograpic talents I hold in very high regard, your discreet, artistic documentation of this event is one of the highlights of this project.  And finally, Ruth Christie, Lubi, and Truna, who put in a massive effort to organise this awesome opportunity and make it as  rewarding as it was.  Truna, towards the end of Semester 1, last year, when you first asked if there might be interest in a special opportunity like this … you exceeded all expectations!  Thank you very much!

Thanks all!

Colin

Tweak week is turning into a hurry-up and finish putting all the assets in week. We fixed plenty of bugs and finalised the player states. Alex was banging his head against the scoring system, the audio, and plenty of many other features deemed necessary for the game’s completeness. Colin and I worked on the states system, incorporating small but important changes to improve the character’s game flow. Josh is planning to drop in and lend a hand for a couple of hours later this afternoon, and tomorrow night, all four of us will probably be putting in another late effort.

The industry board visited and even though we didn’t have long to see them, they were very encouraging, and extremely happy with our progress. They told us to ignore most of the bugs (which is still a large list, but we managed to cut it down a lot) and focus more on making the game play fun.

~Christina

This morning, it was all eyes on the programmers!  Today, it was all supposed to come together … all the design, all the art, all the code … all 4 levels … in one massive working game.

It has already been a week of early starts, late finishes (for those without work and urgent family commitments), insomnia and exhaustion in general.  Adding to the frustration is the fact that many others in the studio have so little to contribute now … so while they start playing games other than ours and mingle nearby for chats, we’ve got our eyes glued to the screen and continue to code this game into existence.  It’s not necessarily their fault that they have little to do, and there were others who were still working … I’ll just say that this team could really have benefited from one more programmer and one less designer …  ’nuff said on that …

At these late stages, we could certainly have benefited from Rory being available, but for the most part, he’s been ill or tied up with co-op work commitments, and he has put in an effort to contributed where he can.

On a programming note, Pixel seems to have split away from the design team sometime during this week, and has tried his hand at menu programming as well as putting together many of the audio elements which has been very helpful.

After recent changes were merged, Alex began incorporating the end code into level 2 and Josh polished level three.  Meanwhile, Christina and I began eliminating QA bugs from level 1.  By the afternoon, all serious bugs, and a dozen more superficial ones, had been eliminated, but a few still remained.  During these later stages, Josh and Alex turned their focus to the main menu system and the linking requirements.

I had to leave for a couple of hours that afternoon to deal with other commitments, but when I went back there that night, Alex and Josh, with morale support from studio manager Sheryl, were still at it.  I continued to tinker away on level one while Josh and Alex continued to argue (in a very lighthearted and humorous way) over the compilation of the game.  At around 8:00, Rory arrived and helped resolve the final issues situation.

So, after working at it all day (all 6 weeks in reality) by 9:00, it was time to start putting everything into the game … all three main levels were complete (though bugs existed, particularly in the second) and the tutorial level needed it’s ending code.

However, only level 1 made the final cut … for now.  Linking in the other levels as well was just required too much work (and is nowhere near as simple a process as it sounds).  While we would very much like to have been able to have done more, we had started before 9:00 am in the morning after coming off the back of a hectic week) and the midnight (the deadline) loomed menacingly close.

But all hope is not lost, and the programming team can feel very proud of their efforts.  Next week is tweak week, and the ultimate deadline is Friday.  We are certain to have all levels in and well polished by then.  We have been relentless in fulfilling the programming requirements for this game … we’ve put in countless extra hours, we’ve dealt with the ever changing design requirements and we’ve worked very hard, together as a team, to pick up a new language, AS3, to build this game and do justice to the incredible art assets we’ve been provided by five very talented artists.  And when that curtain closes next Friday night, everything will be ready.
Can we build a fully polished game in 6 weeks?  It’s THAT close, it’s unbelievable!  Can we do it in 7 weeks? No doubts here!

On a final note, today was Josh Taylor’s final day in the studio before entering his co-op placement.  I met Josh when we first started this course nearly 2 years ago today, and I have nothing but enormous respect for him.  We have worked together on many occasions together, and regardless of the task, the attitudes of others in the group, or the circumstances, he has always been relentless in getting the job done to the absolute highest standard possible … a standard and attitude he has maintained throughout this project.  He is a pleasure to work with, and a very good friend.  Good luck with co-op, buddy, and thanks for giving it your all!
Colin

We asked the designers to put a QA check-list for issues that are yet to be fixed in the gameplay for each object/section of the levels. Today we fixed some of these issues, added more player states (hopefully the last ones) and animation to the game. We also tried to finish Level 1, 2 and 3, in particular the starting and ending part of the game. Alex has been fixing the camera, Josh has been polishing the mine level making sure it works properly, I have been adding Map Two By One state and polishing the other states to get them work properly with the game levels’ objects while Colin has been fixing the player movement for the crates in the train level. Tomorrow we will be working further on the gameplay issues, linking the game levels with each other, and hopefully touching some of the tweaking parts prior to next week.

~Christina

It’s difficult to nail down the atmosphere in the studio at present.  On the one hand their is excitement and laughter, an air of camaraderie and the scent of impending victory as the project completion date draws near.  On the other, there is the frantic click of the keyboard and groans of frustration as weary squinted eyes search reams of code and carefully crafted artwork to ensure that every proverbial ‘i’ is proverbially dotted and every proverbial ‘t’ is proverbially crossed before the looming final deadline.

While stress was relatively evenly distributed among each individual in the team at the start of the project, it has now shifted from the design team so that the bulk of it is on the artists and programmers.  Producer Rory’s absence for most of last and this week has compounded things, particularly as he has the final say in many important design decisions.

So now, the programmers are scrambling to implement as many features as possible, and complete the four levels we’re working on before Friday.

Christina, being absent today and yesterday, due to her part time status, will be back tomorrow, so she will relieve some of the pressure on debugging the state system and developing the final action types, such as when the player straddles objects of specific sizes.  This will pick up from her and Alex’s work earlier this week.

Alex today implemented a lot of the business end code into level 1, such as the cut scenes at the level’s commencement and conclusion, and the scoring effects built off Josh’s efforts in the last few days.  He is on the verge of finally completing that level, and anticipates that, aside from a few state related bugs, by around lunch time tomorrow, level 1 will be done.

Josh again tangled with the massive level 3, no small task, particularly as there are several game modes built into that one.  It almost feels like a separate mini-game was tagged onto the end of it, and it may well have been easier if that section of the game was a separate mini-game.  This week also marks the final week of Josh’s contribution, as he will commence his co-op placement next week.

As for me, today I incorporated new features into both the introductory level and level 2, and I merged a lot of the code … something that was quite urgently required since so much work has been done but not shared since early this week.  Now it’s all about incorporating all those changes into all levels.

Tomorrow, I hope to work on the player state system, debug it and add the very final states so that these levels can be tested properly.  There is still so much to do, and so much to fix … the workload is massive, but our team is determined and competent, and rather than focus on the fact we have deadlines, we will continue to focus on getting the job done.

Colin

Our busy busy team has continued filling each level with content and updating functionality. Josh worked on updgrading the scoring system and cleaning up the appearance of level 3. Colin worked on Level 2, which is nearly ready for the final scenes. I worked on finishing Level 1, made various engine and framework upgrades and getting all the code ready for another major compilation.

Alex

Finally the last week is here. There is going to be a mammoth effort put in by all teams this week to get the game to where we would like it to be. All the content is there and so is a vast majority of the programming. It’s pretty much a matter of tying up a lot of loose ends and finalising what we will be able to accomplish before the end of the week. All in all though the game is coming along well with all of the stages almost complete.

Josh

Another week draws to a belated end, and all of a sudden, the team are charging headlong into the face of this project’s inevitable conclusion.  Six weeks, they said! At times, it feels like this project has lasted twice that length, but with the end looming and much to do … blink, and you might well miss it.

All 4 programmers again volunteered their Saturdays to bring us closer to the brink of success.  Josh continued touching up Level 3 today, and he tackled the remains of the scoring system and player feedback to make it clear and effective.  Christina continued to develop player state assets, particularly the canned animations and more map features, which has been invaluable help in setting up the levels and polishing up the player actions.  Alex again revamped some of the behind the scenes code to improve efficiency and make more of the game’s features easier to implement.  He put some finishing touches into level 1 that should hopefully see to it’s conclusion.  I completed the tutorial level’s functionality as required by the designers, and continued to put key features into Level 2.

So, for next week … there are still a couple of minor player states to add, and there are still some issues with the player states and controls that require fixing.  There are still some level features to implement for most levels … and most levels need their points systems fully incorporated and/or BALANCED so that the player has enough scoring opportunities in the game and will be properly rewarded for their efforts.  Much of this could not be done today as Pixel was the only member of the design team on hand and he is currently occupied with other task and Rory was not in, so we could not confirm certain design aspects.  Game playability will also need tweaking, with changes made to adjust the difficulty of various actions and to make sure the controls respond perfectly.  There are also several ideas the programmers are developing to enhance the ’stuntiness’ of the levels which we will put forward to the designers.  These are thing we’ve discovered we can easily incorporate that will add to the functionality and fun of each level.  These may be a lower priority, but assuming we manage to get on top of everything else that is thrown at us.  Last, but not least, this week entails a great deal of debugging, as we trawl through an endless list of bugs, from niggling animation glitches to frustrating “how did I get stuck all the way up here???” type errors.

Before I sign off, I have to congratulate the art team … these 4 levels are visually looking great!!!  We were all impressed with the visuals for level 1 (which we laboured over for so long while developing this game that we couldn’t wait to move on to later levels).  The final background for level 2 was put in today, and it’s looking greatly improved over the earlier version.  Level 3 looks quite spectacular … very beautifully coloured.  And then there’s Clyde’s Tutorial level … that boy just schooled the LucasArts team!

Colin

Today the team created a build for the industry team based on the Feb 5 version. It’s still a little buggy and needs fixing. Most of the fixing was done by lunchtime with player states still being tweaked and mended. More work was done on scene two and three. The actionbar has also been enhanced with the addition of the actionbolt now in the lower right hand corner of the screen.

Josh Taylor

Today the programming team has started the work for the Train scene There is still work to be done on player states but it’s all coming together smoothly. After some more focus testing and feedback, the programming team has made some adjustments according to the designers recommendations.

Josh Taylor