Day Four ------------------------------ Mar 21st 2007

another handout this week. This time it's a little lighter than the previous weeks but still involves a bit of reading. Unfortunately i don't have an exact copy of this for you this time, but I do however have a link to a site that provides a similar document.

our lessons are becoming more and more like a studio. I've already witnessed less direction from Jason (tutor) and more student driven work, and i like what i see. We continued pretty much where we left off last week. We as a group decided our two best for story writing and two best logic / puzzle writers. The Class stated with our four nominees, Joseph, Cliff, Jared and Cody reading to the class a section of their written works (anything they've written E.g. Cody; a section of a script for a movie he directed some time ago.) and on their work we decided the split. with Jared and Cody becoming our story writers, and Joseph and Cliff our logic / puzzle writers.

our next challenge as a group was tell a story, individually, for one minute. then the person to the left told the same story. the only catch being that, the story we told had to be similar yet different to the previous. proving challenging but interesting. for example i had an omelet made with eggs and bacon may be told with i had an omelet made with worms and crushed maggots.

After a well earn't break we progressed with the story development. I felt that I had a fairly large input into this story and I personally love the outcome, and could easily see myself becoming entrapped within the story (not giving anything away). I just wish that others, not naming names, would also tell us what they think about the way the story is going, i don't want to be working with someone whom doesn't like the story and doesn't say anything until its too late. a typical speak now or forever hold your peace. oh well I'm happy

Elected Project Manager for now, may change later, may not. love it! Means a sh*t load more work to do but I'm definitely up for the challenge. If your in my class and your reading this then be sure to tell me if the power goes to my head. Thats the last thing I want to happen.

Day Three ------------------------------ Mar 14th 2007

I've just realized that this is going to become less and less informative about what the storyline and actual game play is going to be. we don't want to release any information that could lead to theft of ideas etc. however what I will be writing about is what i do in each class. whom I get on with / don't. how i felt overall etc...

beginning of the lesson were handed a hefty 19 pages of "Genre and the Video Game" handout. haven't as of yet been able to finish it but do plan on it. The pages are available for download from this address.

would you look at that, were slowly upgrading our in class game play. Initially it was hopscotch, as seen below. then chess and poker, and today we played defender! A cheap large pixel type game with similarities to space invaders. don't have a link at present but if you drop me a comment or email, I can find it for you. the game shows use of A.I. (artificial intelligence), a scrolling map, a radar system, and my talent drew a high score of just 6,000

the remaining couple of hours were spent as a group. This is where the nitty gritty starts. we began with a group brainstorm, nothing said was wrong and everything was considered. once a full A3 page of ideas were thrown into the mix we narrowed our ideas down to the few that appeared more often than others. We came up with a rough genre, (hence the handout) and theme. will say no more.

AGS Forum

Heres a link for those who have been following this blog. if you've any ideas/constructive criticism anything at all you would like to say to us about our game design then post it here

University Paper "Game Design" feedback

Day Two------------------------------ Mar 07th 2007

Today was just as interesting as the previous lesson. this week we went over strategy games and some life concepts. the replacement to Hopscotch and BullRush was Chess and Poker. we learnt that by watching a game of chess you can not only learn others strategies but their personalities come out in the way they play. this concept was pointed out to us when we watched Cliff and Cody challenge each other in chess. Cody's personality was that he tried to taunt/weaken his opponent by continually talking and genuinely trying to weaken Cliffs spirit buy second guessing his moves, e.g. "was that such a good move?"

Absolutely loved the next challenge. 5 class members including myself challenged each other in a Texas hold em high mini tournament. We were given chips that totaled 100 points. Initially the chips meant nothing but did when we were told that each point was a percentage mark for our final grade, e.g. if we got 60 percent in our paper and had 70 points of chips left at the end of the game then our mark would increase to 70%, but this works in reverse, so it could lower our final marks.

To be honest I wasn't the best at this game. I know the rules and how to draw a bluff etc but couldn't quite win. I went all-in in the final game to spice things up and inevitably lost that round too. not to worry the sweat and pounding heart subsided when we were told our marks were safe. what I found most interesting was the emotional involvement in the game, with the thought of loosing something of value to me.

again personality was shown in game play. Jared was a quiet player but was not underestimated after taking an almighty haul of chips. his giveaway was he clenched his arm when he got a nice hand. something I didn't pick up on during game play but will try to in the future.

We finished today off with going over the concepts of:

1. Fight or Flight
2. Risk or Reward

You have two or more options to take and each option has both advantages and disadvantages.

we also went over reproductive simulation but this concept has left me, must have been distracted with other thoughts. ha!

Day One ------------------------------ Feb 28th 2007

Didn't really expect too much for a first class, a rundown on what the years going to hold for us was a given but i was not expecting to be playing BullRush and hopscotch in the 4 hour long class (brilliant). with an overview we went initially went through the different types of games.

we talked about how a game is not just what you play on a computer screen or with a pack of cards. life itself is a game. we've been playing games from birth, be it the simple school yard tag or hitting a ball against the wall. Emphasizing this point the catch phrases, "get your game on", "step up to the line" etc. As a class we discussed the most basic concepts behind games, that they are there to entertain, challenge you physically / mentally or both, teach you a lesson.

Games all have the one concept in common they are all governed by rules and end with either a win or a loose situation.

we went through a quick story for a game. i stress the word quick here. where a speech impediment boy went on a quest to get laid. the game was basic but gave us a quick insight to what we need to work on.

Rules for Hopscotch

1. All body parts must stay within the marked area and cannot touch any lines.
   
2. Hopscotch is played by hopping on one foot, progressively up the marked area, two feet must be placed where squares are adjacent i.e. left foot in box 2 and right foot in box 3. see image >>>>>>
3. A pebble is thrown at the start of each round. whatever box the pebble lands in is the box in which the competitor must miss.
4. The competitor must first get his / her pebble in the box labeled [1] , next round [2] and so on.
   
5. If the competitor's pebble lands outside the box they are attempting to get it in they are out.
6. If the competitor's feet placings are wrong then the competitor is out.

The Win Situation

To not break any of the above rules, to be the last man standing.

Adventure Game Studio

This will be our benchmark program, the one we use to put all our pre-rendered scenes, flat images, create coding etc. to be honest I've only opened the program once so I've yet to learn what its potentials are. Heres a link to their site.

Adventure Game Studio Homepage

you can download the full free version from this site if you are also interested in creating point and click games. There are a few demos also available for download from the site.

understanding the blog

Ok so we've got an interesting year ahead of us in game design. from what I understand our class of 20 will become a fully functioning studio, split onto smaller groups for example animators , story designers, coders etc. As far as I'm aware we've got the whole year to produce a point and click game (will post examples later on) which will be released for anyone to play later this year. The major advantage with creating this blog is for feedback from those most important to us, the people who will be playing our game come the time of release. I will update the blog every few days at max once a week, after our game design class.