SO MUCH has happened in the last couple weeks. I’ve hit the ground running at my new internship at Jumpstart. I’m already writing content for them! It’s amazing. My coworkers are frikkin’ awesome. I’m looking forward to coming back from break and spending more time there!

Also, also, also… check out our Skyrim mod video! The mod itself still needs work, but we plan to release it on Steam in February. So far, we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback and constructive critiques:

Oh, yes… My thesis. Madbots is going well. Though we didn’t complete everything we wanted to during Spring semester, we still got all the mechanics in. I’m very proud of that. Now we just need to iterate, squash bugs, and get the rest of the art and sound into the game. We also have a site! Yay! http://www.madbotsgame.com/

And we also have a shot from the trailer, pushed all the way through the pipeline and rendered:

I fly back home to Seattle tomorrow and will be taking a much needed break from the computer for a couple days. Thanks for reading! I’ll be back in January.

Because of my new path, I am devoting more time to my Skyrim mod and studying storytelling in games. On Tuesday, I plan to attend an IGDA event called “Creating Meaningful Games with Jeffrey Yohalem of Ubisoft Montreal” in Santa Monica on Tuesday night. Jeffrey Yohalem is a lead writer at Ubisoft; he was part of the core writing team of Assassin’s Creed 2 and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. I’m a huge fan of his work! My sketchbook will be at the ready as soon as he starts to speak.

Here’s another demo snippet of our Skyrim mod. We’ve put in all the characters and their dialogue. Now we just need to add in the last few voice over files, place the characters in their proper locations, set quest stages, and record: (please excuse the Facebook notification sounds and the temp voice over part!)

It has truly been an amazing week, just two nights ago, I got to listen to the legendary animator Glen Keane talk about his new film “Duet”, created for Google Android Devices. My notebook is filled with his inspirational quotes–I even managed to get an autograph from him on the back cover!

Although we’re a little behind on Madbots Beta and a tad behind on the trailer, the gaps in my progress are not that big. January will be devoted to catching up. Thankfully, all the important functionality is done and the art is nearly there. The only thing stopping me from a bright, fulfilling end to the project is myself. I’m so thankful for my hard-working team, my helpful professors, and my new job. I must harness all these good things and channel them into Madbots!

Here is this week’s paper concept. Now more than ever, I have to keep my mind brimming with creativity: ShizukaTeahousePaperConcept

Calling the shots is tough. I don’t know if I could ever be a producer for a living. Prioritizing is hard, and things get cut. We all knew that was a reality — even big companies cut huge chunks out of their AAA games. The biggest lesson I’ve learned from this experience so far is that nothing is easy and even the most commonplace game mechanics like walk cycles, inventories, and looting take time to make from scratch. In one semester (four months), some game ideas are just not feasible.

Thankfully, Mad Bots is feasible. It’s just very ugly right now. You can DO everything, but it’s not intuitive and the GUI is rough. I’ve decided to save the HUD beautification process for next semester. There’s simply no time right now. The biggest priority is getting the enemy AI working. Currently, both the Generator Bird and the Vacuum Shark get stuck when they run into their ‘fears’ aka puddles of water and sparking outlets. We simply don’t have a game without them! Jose’s done a great job so far, and he’s really skilled at the RAIN AI system. The behaviors and conditions are there, just bug-infested. We must destroy!

Also, animation. Dear gawd, WHEN am I going to have time to do all those? I guess I know what I’ll be doing over Thanksgiving ‘break’… Maybe my lovely artists will do some animations for me.

Good news is… Generator Bird is rigged! Hooray!!

To end the week, another random game concept for your viewing pleasure: Runic-PaperConcept (1)

The sad thing is that since Robobunny isn’t skinned (his geometry is just parented to the joints) Unity’s Mecanim refuses to bring in my animation correctly. Learn from my mistake: SKIN YOUR CHARACTERS! Or somehow cache the animation to the geometry. In my case, it would be quicker for me to just skin it and reanimate.

Cute, isn’t he?

In the meantime, we are taking care of business in terms of bug-squashing, AI-adjusting, and beautifying everything. Especially the inventory.. dear God.. we need to change it. Another issue to address is that it’s relatively easy for the player to just run out into the floor and get attacked and die. Very quickly. It’s tricky and fun, but is it too quick? I’m used to it, so we’ll have to start playtesting soon.

Also, I don’t know if I mentioned this but I am making a Skyrim mod for my Writing for Video Games class. The creation kit is pretty neat! We’ve already created some custom NPCs and done some dialogue branching and voice overs. Check it out!

My paper concept for this week is a draft of our script and a breakdown of the quest stages. We worked on dialogue branching all day yesterday. Pretty happy with our progress so far!

ModScript

Things have been crrraaaazzyy. Trying to make a game and a cinematic game trailer at the same time is tough. However, this is no place for whiners.

I have some encounter design to show you. Oh, and a textured and lit scene. Still a bit rough but we’re still in Alpha after all:

This shows the first couple encounters- Vacuum Shark and Generator Bird. Here is the mini-boss encounter with Security Bot once you’ve defeated those two:

I have a couple wonderful sophomores, Blake and Hannah, helping me fill the scene with props! They’re placing them in Maya, grouping them by rooms, and then exporting them as FBXs so I can drop them into the Unity scene. Since they are artists, they don’t touch Unity or the repo. I think they prefer it that way as much as I do.

Version control is the bane of my existence. Everyone can access the new repository except for me! I can’t seem to push to it through http or shh… But I won’t give up. In the meantime, I will pass off my files to one of my programmers to commit and push for me. It’s so irritating! But I’m grateful for all the progress we’ve made. Things are getting rigged, textured, and scripted. Triggers are appearing in the scene, the inventory is functional, and all the models are done. All we have left to do is pretty up the inventory, finish the AI, and implement the player health script. The rest of the work after that will be aesthetic – saving it for Beta!

Last but not least, I’d like to end with a paper concept. This one is for a mod for Skyrim that my writing team and I are working on. I love the story myself! We have yet to make the environments and NPCs but I think it’s a solid quest: skyrimModprogression

As part of our Prototype package, we also drew up a layout of the level:

Designing the AI and behaviors of each different enemy is our next step. We have 3 main enemies for level 1: the vaccuum shark, the generator bird, and the securitybot. We have also throw in some Centrifuge bots as well. I’m sure you can discern which is which from this little line-up:

How exciting! Meanwhile, we also have to build the ‘mine crafting’ system, located in the inventory. We’re playing around with the idea of using different materials besides metal to build the mines. For example, using plastic or glass for the casing of the mine may affect the spread (radius) of the explosion or cause more damage.

Now that the prototype is finished and the other programmers have started working on the other mechanics of the game, I will resume rigging the characters and prepping them for animation! Rigging Molly is taking a reeeeaaaally long time. My deadline is Oct. 10th. Wish me luck!

Here’s another random paper concept for your enjoyment. I like this one: Jackalope Guns paper concept

So I apologize for writing this blog in media res… but this is real life.

Let’s start with this – here are the two stars of our game. The player controls Robobunny and is guided by his creator Molly, the scientist. The first level involves destroying all the robots on the level so that Molly can come out of hiding and run to the emergency exit. From then on, Molly guides you from the security room where she watches the camera feeds, helps you open doors, hack into terminals, etc.

The goal of each level is the same – destroy all the enemies on the floor so that the scientists can escape. However, there are multiple ways to accomplish this goal. Robobunny lacks any built-in weapons, so his main method of attack is by building and setting mines. There are currently three types: Shrapnel, Shock, and Napalm. He constructs these from raw materials found in various laboratories and storage closets. There may also be an EMP button on the floor, though heavily guarded, and the fire sprinklers may also be utilized for water-phobic enemies.

The point is: this will be a relatively simple game with solid mechanics that will allow us freedom with the level design, AI, story, and polish. That’s all I have time to explain right now. Rest assured that the prototype will be done very soon! Maybe I’ll post some gameplay footage.

I’ll end each post with a completely unrelated paper concept! It’s always good to break away from long-term projects and rough out random ideas. Here is one for an idea my team and I created for our ‘Writing for Video Games’ class: In Midst of Spirits

I am making a third-person stealth game that involves observing enemy behavior and constructing traps to exploit their weaknesses. It takes place in an underground robotic research facility where someone has hacked the system and all the robots have gone mad. You play as a little robot bunny with a soft spot for humans and no weapons but you can build mines and set off the fire alarm. But enough run-on sentences! This is much more concise:

Mad Bots Paper Concept

Behold, a paper concept. I also have a GDD, but that is some heavy reading. My eyes get bugged out just looking at our task breakdown Google Sheet.

..and it just keeps going. There’s a second tab on this Google sheet for the artists. Currently, we have around 15 or so people working on the project. Several of them dedicated as hell, and the others pop in occasionally to lend a much-needed hand. I love both types and will be intermittently introducing the team as the blog goes on. They are my saviors. My graduation from college- and possible my future career if I ever decide on what I want to do- depends on the success of this game! (kinda)

It’s about the journey not the destination, right? And that’s why I’m blogging about it. The ups, the downs… you need to have both to have a good story. I’m so excited to see what comes out of the months of preproduction we put into this monster, so let’s see where she takes us! Onward to PROTOTYPE-LAND!