The first d(r)eadline.

We have little over a week before our first big "hand in", that includes, our game idea, all the concept art we had drawn and the technical prototype (no art or anything, just a show of mechanics). I'm really dreading the next week since we have a lot of work still to do before it's ready, Ben's calling it "crunch" time, so we're basically working 11 hour days to try and get stuff finished, tough times ahead.

We have also settled on the game's main character being a lost rabbit, but Simon and Phil had made some changed to the game, we're kind of reverting to the original idea of being able to switch dimensions mid level, at any point, in order to overcome obstacles (sound familiar?).

The dimensions are now;

The void dimension
In this dimension, the rabbit will be his original beat up scruffy self, and the void will be full of lost items.

The paper dimension
In this dimension, the rabbit will appear as an origami rabbit, and the level will be full of stationary items.

The robot dimension
In this dimension, the rabbit will appear as a robo-rabbit, and the level will be all mechanical and industrial.

The biscuit dimension
In this dimension, the rabbit will appear as a gingerbread rabbit, and the level will be full of biscuity goodness!

I'll include some of the sketches I made;

Dimension rabbits!

More dimension rabbits, and a possible fall animation

Critical thinking, show and tell!

This week we had our first "show and tell" kind of set-up on the monday, in the form of a group crit session, this is basically the 3 groups talking about their ideas to far, and where they wanted to go with their games, to the rest of the groups, if that makes any sense :S

Unfortunately, I didn't make it in, so I can't write too much about how it went, only what I was told, and that was that it went well, and the other groups seemed to like the ideas we'd come up with so far!

This same week, I had finally started writing code, YAY! This is what I had been waiting for, back into the programming fray, we split the coding up between me and Phil, and my first task was to code all the movement into the game, which I immediately dove into.

We also started using a site called ClockingIT which basically let's us all keep track of what tasks we need to do and when the deadlines are, it's free and really useful! Simon's basically the manager of our project, he's our dad :P

Gecko, Geckone! Time to worry?

Ok, so this past week Ryan had offered (since he gecko was his idea) to draw up a two-page pitch document for the unnamed game, this resulted in excitement, followed by us decided to scrap the entire game completed, now I know what you're thinking... WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?! Well, I'm not too sure myself actually, we just weren't completely sold on our own idea, and all the other groups around us appeared to be moving on, we were beginning to worry, just a little :)

We decided to leave our lecture, and go into the common room, get some snacks, and sit on the big comfy leather sofas, this was to be our new design area, away from all the noise, just the 5 of us. We were quickly throwing out new ideas and had a really good 3 hours solid talking about everything.

Just to re-cap, our idea had to be based around multiple realities, this was set in stone! So we really liked the idea of the player being able to shift dimensions while playing, but we needed a reason why, why was the player in this situation? Why could he shift dimensions? Why did he need to? I proposed the idea that the player could be stuck somewhere, and he needs to progress through levels, defeat a boss, therefore unlocking a new dimension to travel to, so rather than frantic, fast-paced switching, you unlocked the dimensions just like unlocking the next level in any game.

The idea received a lot of praise, and we worked off this idea, so, where was the player stuck? THE VOID! A place not in time and space, where all lost things end up, car keys, tv remotes, odd socks, and even ATLANTIS! Then there it was, I missed a lesson, and next thing I knew, the stories protagonist had become a toy rabbit who had been lost by his owner, and you could travel to other dimensions like we had previously designed, the paper (which was stationary) and some new ideas from the team in the form of a metal dimension and a biscuit dimension, that's right.... biscuit.

We continued to add and remove certain aspects and the whole team really came together and we collaborated for hours, it was a super productive meeting and I feel like we've made great progression, time to worry? I think not !

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!

UDK Level: Pit of DeDesspair!

Ok, ok, ok! After some time working, my UDK multiplayer map is complete!

So, in the end I went with my original idea, I created a map loosely based off the old roman coliseum, I big open circle "ring", where players can duke it out to the death! Sounds fun, right?
When designing the PoD I tried to make it as fun and crazy as possible, I added many tiers to the pit, giving some players to hide and ambush enemies, I also added weapon spawns, ammo spawns, power-ups and a whole spew of spawn points, which i'll get to later. It's sunday night and tomorrow this will be shown and played by the class for feedback etc, I'm hoping it will receive a good reception and people have as much fun playing it as I had making it! Let's have a look at some screenshots;

So this is the entire map overview, it's not exactly a coliseum, but hey, it's round and full of death! I added walk ways from the inner to the outer circles, and no floor, hence the name, Pit of Despair! So if a player falls, it will be to his/her death!

So this will be the spawn point for 11/12 players, You can see the other opening around the outer circle in the distance, I designed it this way so as soon as the game begins, the action starts, there'll be no searching for people in this map!

Just a closer look at the bottom of the pit, you can see a walkway below, these leads to the inner circle, and the bottom tier of the outer circle, the only place of refuge! but as these bullets are showing, once you fall off, there's no savin' ya!

This is the core of the inner circle, this was the place was designed for all the players to try and flood to, there are weapons/armor/healthpacks and other goodies in here, if you can manage to hold this area, you'll be the king of the arena!

This is the final spawn place, the top tier of the inner circle, just you. A rocket launcher, and 11 surrounding players spawning. Have fun!

Level Design using UDK

This. Sounds. Brilliant!

So, we're using the Unreal Design Kit (UDK) to design and make a 3D map... I know right!
The map is going to designed to be a FFA (Free for all) death mach, up to 12 players all going ham on one another, I can't wait to start designing.

We also looked at and played Unreal Tournament today in class so we could get a feel of the design, I've never really paid too much attention to why levels are the way they are in competitive FPS', but power-ups, and level structure really do "force" the players to converge on certain areas, to make sure there is always action and fighting, and not just people searching vigorously for each other to no avail.

My immediate thought was the have a Colosseum based level, since I've always loved small, tight levels, that are over quickly, and there's just insane amounts of chaos!

Obviously, I can't just make a flat battlefield inside the middle though, So i'll have to get my creative juices flowing in the next few weeks!