Lab Rat Games - The first task!

Now that everyone's first week in their new groups was over, people had already stated getting stuck into the new, exciting project.

The first thing we need to do is think about what kind of game we want to create, we were told that if we all had 100% freedom of this everyone's games would end up rather similar, so instead, each group was giving a "core idea" that they had to work around, our idea was "Multiple Realities".

After going away and thought about ideas to do with multiple realities, while constantly keeping each other in the loop on Facebook, there were a lot of good ideas, and a lot of bad ones too! I think it was rather healthy though, seeing as i'd rather have that than no ideas whatsoever.

After some team talks, it was decided we wanted to keep the game "within realistic limitations", we didn't want to design the next assassins creed with all ground breaking HD and super detailed mechanics, so we decided on a cheeky little 2D platforming game, like the games we loved and grew up on.

Ryan had came up with an idea we all agreed on, the character would play as a little Gecko trying to escape the jungle you live in ,due to it being destroyed by humans (scumbags). While running through the fast paced levels you would have the ability to change dimensions on demand, each different dimension would allow the players mechanics to change, and the dynamic of the level in front of you, this would be used to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles.

We had a lot of ideas floating around for what the dimensions could potentially be, and how'd they actually be impact  the game, once more, a lot of good, and a lot of bad ideas, which again, was better than silence!

We wanted the game to have a super meat boy Esq feel to it, a fast part, hard punishing game, that was as frustrating as it was rewarding, and we were thinking about keeping the dimensions as generic as you can imagine;

- Forest Dimension
- Ice Dimension
- Fire Dimension
- Under Water Dimension

Apart from those we had some ideas that didn't really suit the game, such as the biscuit dimension, and the stationary dimension, although this was my idea, I don't think it would make sense in the kind of style we're aiming for, since we wanted the level layout to NEVER change, just the look and interaction of things, i.e in the forest you can bounce off a big spider web, but in the ice dimension it's just a block of ice, that you'll just slip on...

Anyway, I feel like this has been one big ramble and a long post, so i'll end it rather abru.....

A wild new project appears!

Now that our UDK levels are completed, we're starting a big group project, which everybody is really excited about, since we're going to be making a game from scratch! This is what we've all been waiting for!

Our group, adequately dubbed "Group C" will be the team of epic people to share first adventure into the wonderful world of game development, Group C's lovely members are;

Myself  (Design and Programming)
Phil Owens (Programming and Art)
Simon Gilbert (Design and Programming)
Ryan Roper (Design)
Harry Wood (Design and Art)

The 5 of us are to use the skills we've acquired in the last 1 year and past few months to come together, and make a game, start to finish!

First things first, we needed to name our development team! We had the duration of a lecture to decide on a name, but we never managed! Instead we came up with a long list of potentials! Including;

Cosmic Studios
Eclipse Games
Perpetual Games
Blue Whale Studios
M-Theory Games
Underdog Games
Fallback Games
Black Hole Studios
Parallel Games
Flux Studios
Lab Rat Games
The Evolved Monkey Studios
Spotlight Studios
Groundhog Games
Ninjasoft Studios

We have since, as a team decided to call ourselves Lab Rat Games.

...And thanks to Phil, we even have ourselves a logo!

Lab Rat Games was born!