studio-gameOn

Hi again all,

Today has involved a variety of tasks in design from interface concepts to environment and interactions ideas to incredibly blocky level design. The art team requested 2D level drawings made entirely of blocks so they can pretty it up while still getting all the key dimensions right. It seems we were  making our drawings for them too messy and random, so now it’s being replaced with precise blocky fun.

I worked more on the interface again and pretty much got it decided, before continuing on to conceptualising and working out the basic mechanics of the second ‘movie’ for B-Grade. Here’s a sneak peak: it involves NINJAS! How could it possibly fail?

Gemma went to the Queen St Mall to promote the studio in the GameOn showing there along with B105 radio, and rumours suggest she spent the entire time playing Rock Band and Midnight Club: LA they had set up there.

Well, it’s almost 5pm which means time for most people to leave except for what seems to be growing into a new ritual: UT2004 with Rory, Toby, Liam, Pixel and myself. We have yet to best Rory, who we suspect uses hax. Or at least we like to tell ourselves that.

Alex Baldwin (AJBaldwin)

Fellow citizens of earth let me tell you the news

As I sit here distracted by an argument between the finer elements of halo 3 and half life 2 I find myself comforted that I’m surrounded by idiots. Half Life hands down.  HAH who has the last word now?

But I digress, maybe just a little bit on purpose for we have our game and while I am ecstatic I feel that a little bit of soul was put into the project that I worked on all this week. But in the end it was decided by all that Golem was too much for 5 weeks. I will miss it like a friend who has moved to another country. You wish them well but a little bit of you is sad.

But putting that aside we truly move into the hectic world that is last minute game development. We even started to get in to the nitty gritty such as sound lists and scripting writing, something that I might be doing from now on.

It’s the top of the hill we crawled up to the very tip this week and we shall be running (and sometimes rolling) to the bottom over the next 5.

Thank you to the board who came in and gave us there expert opinion. They even said my ideas were… unique. GLEEEE

As Allways

Signed the ever illustrious Pixel

Day Three and we are all still alive… just.

After much deliberation (arguing and mud-wrestling), the second game idea was finally nutted out and drawn up on the whiteboard (much to the delight of those with the markers).

The design team (that’s us!) were then sent away to do our jobs: Ian and Pixel got busy with the game synopsis(es) while myself and Alex got stuck into describing characters and working out the first game idea’s more intricate details as far as game mechanics and actions went.

The second game idea underwent some major changes by the time it finally came back to us (at which point we were happy to see something that didn’t involve B-Grade movies) and has proven to be very popular with everyone at the studio. The most impressive change was the shift from a male to a female protagonist (finally, a game where you DON’T save the princess!).

While Alex contemplates the fascinating mechanics and Ian grapples with the hardships of the synopsis (aided and abetted by our beloved Pixel), I have been concentrating on the character descriptions. Today, I have made the acquaintance of Ima Starr, Chester Chestington, Clee Shayd, Ava Ridge and an interesting young lady by the name of Agatha Gideon…

Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

What kind of game will we end up making?

Will Pixel defect and join the Art Team?

All of these questions will be answered in time. But for now, I’m returning to the catacombs beneath the opera house…

~@ Phantomess_Jekyll (Gemma)