Progress Despite Distractions -- Week Ending 23 Feb

This was an interesting week. A number of events occurred that took time from our usual core development hours (like critiques of both the capstone class and cohort 3's current games), but we were still able to get some things done. Since time is of the essence, we can't afford weeks like this very often, but this one doesn't seem to have upset our deadlines--as long as we keep our heads in the game for the next two months.

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Last March of the Dodos
Sadly, it seems that Dodos took the biggest hit of missed work for the week. It certainly didn't help that a few team members fell sick, either, so we've got a little extra slack to pick up next week. Luckily, Charlie has a new model of our landshark nearly completed (it is what it sounds like--how awesome is that?!), and Derek still crunched out the engineering for several achievements/goals we're implementing.

My work was pretty much what I expected this week: a lot of testing and determining the aforementioned goals. Hopefully we'll get a jump on our sound process this coming week, and I'll be cranking out the design of more goals.

A Videogame With/out Rules

What was once known as The Leonardo Project has its first official working title: A Videogame With/out Rules! We had another playable prototype this week, this time with a functioning joystick. We tested it along with Charlie's rule-selection form and the chip-tuned music that I put together, and it made a pretty cool showing.

We even had Rachel (our assistant program manager) and Bob (the head of our program) test it together, and they enjoyed the experience. Bob particularly felt that the idea behind the game is fascinating and that the concept and system are truly fun to explore.

In addition to my usual distribution of notes, team communication, meeting scheduling, and GameMaker practice, I also found a viable selection of arcade trackballs to order and created the music for our prototype.

Reveal

Reveal keeps pushing forward, and the engineers are doing awesome with tackling all the tasks they've been assigned. Our artist Isaac is also doing a great job keeping a steady stream of 3D assets coming in. As of our midweek sprint review, we have all the core mechanics functioning in the prototype, and we'll be plotting out and starting the construction of test level designs this weekend.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much interesting to capture for a public video yet, but I think this coming week will yield that video I promised! However, like usual, I headed of the sprint review and set up the next week's sprint with the engineers. Acting as SCRUM master has proven easier with this particular group than probably any of the other teams I've been on so far. Everyone updates their tasks and hours punctually, so it's been simple to keep up with everyone's work remaining (and, therefore, any adjustments that need to be made). This is truly an incredibly talented and dedicated team. It's an honor to work with them.

Elders of the RuneStone: Sealed Souls

Notice the new title! I decided that I wanted it to reflect what the hook of the game is--the fact that the heroes' souls are bound to each other via the "RuneStone," which allows them to physically take the place of one another as the acting character at any time.

This is not exactly how it works in the canon of the comic book, but it gives the player a chance to use each of the characters' unique abilities when and how they see fit while playing the game. Think of it as the immediate/real-time weapon-swapping of Devil May Cry, but with characters who have unique traits instead of weapons that do.

I made a bit more progress with the wall and floor collisions this week, as well as cleaning up some of the programming so that adding new characters with distinct movement abilities is quite simple. I'm still trying to figure out the best style of momentum and physics to really nail the feeling of movement that I want in the game. While I continue to work on that, the next step is to get attacking enemies working! That's the bit that will really make this game stand out the way I want it to.

Once again, try out the current build of the prototype **here**.
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In other news, I'm all set up with travel, lodging, and my ticket for GDC! I'm stoked to capitalize on the opportunity this year, and I'm excited to go with one more year's worth of developed skills and experience. Let's make it count!

- Troy