Production Schedule Revision 1

X Week 1 - Wednesday, Sept 2 X

X Week 2 - Wednesday, Sept 9 X

X Week 3 - Wednesday, Sept 16 X

X Week 4 - Wednesday, Sept 23 – half way finished with prototype 1

X Week 5 - Wednesday, Sept 30 – Prototype 1 – Finished controls with moving enemies and a

mocked up level.

Week 6 - Wednesday, Oct 7

Art - Concept art for main enemies (builders/non-builders being similar)/Work done on background

Code – Screen Scrolling, drag and throw(dramatically lower max speed when dragging as opposed to throwing), slow down enemies.

Music

Week 7 - Wednesday, Oct 14

Art – Main character animations for various stages of running(with trails)/Second character concepted

Code – Mouse joint added to the throwing, Combo system started. Enemy AI started.

Music

Week 8 - Wednesday, Oct 21

Art - Hit and hitting place holders are made/Background finished/Secondary character run animations/scientist placeholder created.

Code – Combo system finished and inserted sans graphics. AI for the scientists and grunts inserted.

Music

Week 9 - Wednesday, Nov 4 – Prototype 2 – Tested/finish controls, enemies in place with screen scrolling and collisions with a goal to hit a set combo number for the player. Finished animations for the character and finished first level background.

Week 10 - Wednesday, Nov 11

Art – Hit and being hit (weak, medium and hard front/back) animations completed for grunts/scientists

Code -Momentum system put in place(enemies now knock player down/deal damage)/Combo system finalized/Detecting front and back hits.

Music

Week 11 - Wednesday, Nov 18

Art - Health animations for player and enemies

Code – Crowd meter is linked to the combo meter, scientists can now decrease the crowd meter when in position. Second character controls implemented.

Music

Week 12 - Wednesday, Dec 2 – Prototype 3 – combo and crowd meter working together, Two characters controlled by the player. Scientists and enemies behaving like they should.

Week 13 - Wednesday, Dec 9

This is when the actual play test starts. Be ready for this.

Art – Damage states animated for player characters and scientsts/grunt enemies

Code – Breakable objects inserted. Health and damage added, player now able to lose and revive downed characters.

Music

Week 14 - Wednesday, Dec 16 – Alpha – One finished level.

Prototype 1 Background

Music Reference

The obvious references for the first two songs are Black Sabbath and Metallica. Now let's see who else we're stealing precious knowledge from:











So now let's move into another tier of metal. This means I get to play a synth and that's sweet.



Children of Bodom won't let me embed their video so here's the link

Production Schedule

Week 1 - Wednesday, Sept 2 X

Week 2 - Wednesday, Sept 9 X

Week 3 - Wednesday, Sept 16 X

Week 4 - Wednesday, Sept 23 – half way finished with prototype 1

Week 5 - Wednesday, Sept 30 – Prototype 1 – Finished controls with moving enemies and a

mocked up level.

Week 6 - Wednesday, Oct 7 – Tested and refined controls/Music implementation is discussed

Week 7 - Wednesday, Oct 14 – Collision system implementation

Week 8 - Wednesday, Oct 21 – Enemy AI inserted into the game for the scientists and grunt enemies and Music is implemented.

Week 9 - Wednesday, Nov 4 – Prototype 2 – Tested controls and working collisions with momentum system in place.

Week 10 - Wednesday, Nov 11 – Combo system is put in place

Week 11 - Wednesday, Nov 18 – Crowd meter is inserted into the game

Week 12 - Wednesday, Dec 2 – Prototype 3 – combo and crowd meter working

Week 13 - Wednesday, Dec 9 - Enemy AI is inserted for Large Angry Guy, Spike Trap

Week 14 - Wednesday, Dec 16 – Alpha – One finished level with placeholder graphics, tested and awesome.

Meet the Testers

This is my rambling cohort of misfits and scalawags who've been rejected by society and have no choice but to come test for me.

Hardcore Gamers/Metal Fans
James Melville
age: 26
hardcore cred: Glitching 7 million gamer points on Xbox Live/Got a blood clot
from not moving enough due to video games.
metal cred: Stands in the middle of mosh pits and doesn't get hit because
everyone is scared of him.

Richard Gutierrez
age: 21
hardcore cred: Hitting Prestige mode within a week of Call of Duty 4's release
metal cred: Lives at Starland Ballroom, doesn't own a t-shirt without a metal
band on it.

Patrick Forgione
age: 25
hardcore cred: Defeating 5 guys in a row on Guitar Hero while playing In
Flames on expert
metal cred: Metal is the only music genre that can keep him suitably calm

Hardcore Gamers/Non-Metal Fans
Sloat Levine
age: 21
hardcore cred: Owns every Castlevania game ever produced

Ashton Merritt
age: 25
hardcore cred: Working at Gamestop specifically to influence opinions and
trends of fellow gamers.

Casual Gamers/Non-Metal Fans
Kunal Patel
age: 25
gamer cred: Playing every DDR machine in 3 out of the 5 boroughs

Non-Gamers
Alana Debiase
age: 24
gamer cred: Being forced by me to learn to use Netflix on the Xbox

Who what why where when on Mosh Pit

Lawrence
1.Audience? The audience is the casual gamer, ages 16-30 and people of same age interested in heavy metal music. Someone who has played games before but not a lot of them. Not a lot of time to invest in learning a huge control scheme. People who play web-based or mobile games.
2.Where? Online or on a mobile device. Would be found through game portals.
3.When? Requires full attention when being played
4.Why? Users want to hear good music. Work out their frustrations. Why would you play a first person shooter? Visceral experience of violence against your fellow man.
5.What aspect of the project? The controls
the whole game. Gameplay is everything.

Bibliography

Rules of Play
by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman
This is a great general primer to the world of games. It's good for getting things I didn't think of.

Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation
by Steve Swink
This has been my bible in order to make my game have the proper feel. If the controls fail then the game fails with it.

A Theory of Fun for Game Design
by Raph Koster
Another good primer that makes sure I don't miss anything in the core game. Especially the learned behavior bits.

Creating Emotion in Games: The Craft and Art of Emotioneering
by by David E. Freeman
The game has a story that I'll need to express so it's best that I figure out how to do that well.

Foundation Game Design with Flash
by Rex van der Spuy
This has some good formulas in it.

Beginning Java Game Programming Second Edition
by Johnathan S Harbour
If and when I move to the Iphone I'll be needing this.

Foundation Actionscript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move!
by Keith Peters
This has some great formulas in it.

Programming Game AI by Example
by Mat Buckland
This was a huge weak point in the first prototype so now I'm going to learn how to do it right.

Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI
by Dave Mark
See above. I love the smell of mathematics in the morning.

Let's Talk Music in Mosh Pit

Solo Mode

Every song in Mosh Pit has a solo and during that solo the screen will fill with easy enemies to smash. In later levels a few very powerful enemies will be scattered in giving more of a challenge.


The stage music order will go like this:

Purposely Terrible Country song for the training level (with extra banjo cause I'm that fucking cool.)

70s Black Sabbath style song

90s Metallica song aka Metalesqua

Metalcore style song with influences by All That Remains/Killswitch Engage (This is the song that will easily blow my voice for a few days)

Death Metal style song with faux classical layering I.E. lots of cellos, violins, a giant chorus etc. etc.

Boss fights will have a looping hardcore track without vocals



\m/

Animation Precedent: Shank

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/pax-09-shank/55492

It has to be done with the model broken into pieces then slightly drawn over on each frame.

Mosh Pit - Movement Diagram

How you'll be using the mouse to move in the game. Hope this clears things up.

The character follows a few paces behind any move the player makes and mimics it exactly till he's thrown. When thrown he takes on the curve of the throw if it exists.


Enjoy.

Random Collission Idea

I was watching rams battle for dominance on the discovery channel.

There needs to be a function in the game where when a player or an enemy of equal momentum collide you have to rapidly tap the action button in order to win the engagement or keep moving. That'd be so sweet.

Control Testing 1: 9/6/09

Motion 01

Motion 02


So I tested Motion 1 versus Motion 2. The fluidity and the ability to immediately receive feedback made Motion 2 the winner. Player's wanted to know where they were going and that just was not readily apparent in Motion 1


Things to do with Motion 02:
Disconnect it from the Mouse
- The way it always runs to where the player's mouse is when you're throwing it seems obnoxious. I want the player to be able to make the gesture while it's moving so it never gets entirely off track or they need to find it.

Make it keep moving after the initial throw

Make it go in the proposed curve/angle

The beginings of a level

This is how it should go, click it for huge version:

Main enemy research

I wanted to make a scary guy and my first thought were the Victorian era plague doctors. Their masks are trippy and if I can combine them into a military gas mask it'd be tits.