Introduction:
Snipe Hunt was the prototype made for the Mechanical Engineering department. The apparatus on which the Game was being deployed consisted of a tread-port, three giant screens and no mechanical interface between the player and the game. So, a player could just walk to play the game. Why such apparatus for playing games? This apparatus is for helping people with spinal cord injury to start walking again and regain their confidence and games are the medium by which people forget about the therapy and push themselves to succeed in the game. This is why Neuroworx asked us to make a game.
Game Idea:
After a lot of discussion, Chris came up with the idea of a tower defense game. The player is a farmer and he needs to protect his food which he has just harvested and piled up, from the snipes. The player can set up traps or baits on the field which which trap or lure away the snipes. So, the mechanics of the game were walk to a trap spot or a bait spot to acquire a trap, stop walking to set up a trap or a bait and walk towards a snipe to manually capture a snipe. We divided the work according to different components that are present in the game and their behavior in the world.
Division of work into different parts according to components in the game and their behavior
My Role in Snipe Hunt:
My work was to manage the movement of the snipes on the field. I used the SnipePosition Vector and the FoodPosition Vector for doing it. I used the approach shown in the image below.
My approach for randomizing the movement of Snipe in the world
Angle between the current Snipe Position and the Food Position was checked. Then within a margin angle of 'X' at a distance of 'Y', a point was selected randomly. The snipe makes its way to the selected sub-target and then finds a new sub-target. The motion between this two points was sinusoidal. The margin angle decreased after every iteration by a small amount. Hence, the snipes were directed towards the food. After the snipe is at a certain distance from the food pile, it will make its way towards the food pile without creating any sub-target.
Problems faced during this prototype (Postmortem):
One of the main problems that we faced during this prototype was merging the code that we wrote individually. This problem was caused because there was a lack of structure to the code. A proper interface between two systems was not defined and because of that merging was not possible. We ended up having two copies of the same game.
What I learned?
Defining the structure of the code before starting the code. For example, Part A of the code needs x, y, z from Part B. So Part B should be written in a way that it gives x, y, z to Part A and not something else.
Sticking to what work is assigned or what work we take up.
Take up more responsibilities if you know you are capable of doing it.
Hey guys, this week was awesome. Everything was just great. Me and Max worked really really hard for the game and all the work paid off. Everyone liked it. Nathan gave some amazing art to make the game look beautiful and our producer, Andrew, helped us on every step. I was lucky to have a great team in my first prototype in the EAE program.
Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Screenshot 3
Click here for Monty's Quest Trailer
On Monday, we had a dry run pitch. We had a white box working on Monday. From that white box, making a complete prototype was a tough task. We worked hard on Tuesday and yes it was done. On Wednesday, we had our final demonstration of the game, which went really well. This was followed by postmortem. Bob explained us how a postmortem should take place and how it helps. And I think it really helps to improve yourself and make yourself ready for the next challenge.
Postmortem of the Game
(All my friends in EAE, you all should know this.) I was talking to Roger during the break in the Game Design class and he said that he was surprised (in a good way :P) and really happy that all the prototypes were so amazing.
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS PROTOTYPE?
1) First of all, what exactly is a prototype?
2) In a prototype, learn what is needed. You don't have time to learn everything and then start programming.
3) When things aren't available with you, try to do it yourself.
4) Your co-engineer could go faster than you. You should catch up with him. (what say Max? : P)
Complete experience of making the game was fabulous. It started with a quick prototype followed by a running game. Then the pace slowed down a bit because of few reasons but then all ended well. Looking forward for the next prototype. See you soon C# and XNA :D.
Our team is making good progress with our game, Promo's Adventure. We have the skeleton of our game. Now we need to work on it to make it a good prototype. We have a week to make it as good as possible. Prototyping is helping us to learn MOAI in a very short span of time. MOAI SDK has support for various platforms like iOS and Android. It has classes and functions for handling lot of things like the physics, collision, audio etc.
During the start of the week, we got to know about the concept of stand up meetings. (I think our team always did that since the start of the program. We always used to stand during our meetings. I don't know why? :P. But yes, we got to know how to do it correctly.) So we had a stand up meeting and we decided about the level that we intend to create for the prototype. Me and Miao(Max) are the programmers in our team. So we started designing the level. We divided parts of the level and we completed all the elements that we decided. Now we just have to put together different parts of code.
I am looking forward for the final pitch. I hope everyone likes it and its fun to play. My first game in EAE has taught me a lot :).
Hi Guys!!! Waddup? This is my first week in the Entertainment Arts and Engineering: Master Games Studio and everything is already so exciting. I knew that we would be creating games but was not expecting at all that it would be for a client who may purchase it. We are creating a game for the Bee-Hive Cheese Company. That is GREAT!!! :D
Our Profs, Bob Kessler a.k.a. THE GODFATHER and Roger Altizer a.k.a. THE GAME MASTER, challenged us with MOAI. Oh, you don't know what MOAI is? Even I don't know yet :P. But yes, I am figuring it out and enjoying it. How can we not enjoy it? We are creating games :D. MOAI is an SDK for making games on various platforms. Lua is the programming language used for MOAI. But the problem with MOAI is the documentation. Proper documentation for MOAI is not available. It's difficult to understand how to use the functions. So that increases the challenge. Lets see how it goes.
This game is created in teams. Working with a team is a great experience. It is, in its real sense, preparing us to work in a professional environment. Co-ordinating with the team members, discussing the issues faced, sharing ideas etc. is what gives us this experience.
This First Week in EAE was much better and amazing than expected. Looking forward to the great experience in the coming 2 years. I will be there with my next blog post very soon :).
