Week 23 - Creating Game

Our team supposed to meet John at 10 AM, and this week is crucial because, we have to catch up with any lapsing works by the end of this week. Me and Callum arrived at right time, Andy came in 15 minutes late, and Stephen came in at almost end of the session. Basically, John want us to upload all the paper works in to our late panda website, and the individual blogs need to be completed as well by the end of this week, the latest for marking. Since, he played and enjoyed our working game last week, and today, he is up and ready for marking the game at any time. John told us to complete the player feedback analysis by today. The Player feedback analysis worth of 25% mark, and that is 1000 words only report. To equalise the marking and team member effort, John suggested each member to write 250 words of the total report. So everyone gets the same mark for the equal effort, and also based on the quality as well. If any member fail to write a 250 words, then simply he loose that 25% mark, as simple as that. That is a fantastic deal John offered us. We promised John that we will complete all the pending works in order for the marking by the end of this week, so that he can mark it and give us feedback in next week. :D

We back in the lab and allocated 250 words each, and what each person writes about. I chose to write about, "What we ended up doing" based on our quality and assurance plan. I have completed it in the lab only, and also uploaded in to our Facebook group page that, so any team member can view it.

Andy, Stephen, and Callum also provided their 250 words of feedback analysis. Andy put them all together and made one single document of 1000 words. Andy also combined both scanned feedback forms and electronic feedback from the website to make it a single pdf file. Until now every documents are completed and uploaded in to our Late Panda website. All we have got left to complete is updating our personal blogs. We are aiming to finish it off by this Friday, and hopefully John will mark everything and provide the feedback by next Wednesday

This will be the last blog entry for this academic year, and thanks everyone for reading.

Week 22 - Creating Game

As per the schedule, after Alistair's lecture on Monday, Andy and Stephen took part in game testing and feedback session. Me and Callum never participate because, Stephen told us that we don't need to come. Later evening, I came to know that the testing and feedback session went well, and seven students tested the game and provided feedback. There are several people played the game on-line also provided the feedback electronically. We gathered that feedback in our late panda weebly website

During the meeting with John, we provided him the game testers feedback forms and he commented, "It look very constructive". Later he took his time to play the game with Andy' help, especially the navigation scheme. He was  so happy with the end product and it's performance. He said, "You have a game to play!"

He asked us to upload every documents in to our weebly website in two weeks time for the marking. As he seen and played the game already, the score is already in his mind, I believe. But, we have to wait couple more weeks to know the mark. He also suggested us to think about our honours project for the next year from this point onwards.

John was eager to know our future plans with this game and game studio after the completion of this academic year. Andy, Stephen, and Callum will be staying as a team, and decided to continue building this game in to next level. Since, I decided to take my ordinary degree, I am almost at the edge for saying good bye to my team. Honestly speaking, it was a great pleasure to work within this team, and of course being part of this game development.

Week 21 - Creating Game

Al right we are back from Easter holidays. We team catch up in the lab prior to going for the meeting with John in his office. Andy showed me the official feedback sheet with 10 questions in it. Now it looks very professional with a panda logo on it, which easily identifies our game studio.

Around 11 AM, we went in John's office for the meeting. Andy showed him our new looking feedback sheet. He quickly gone through the questions, and then appreciated the professionalism behind this work. We requested him to arrange a testing session today afternoon with some 2nd year students, if it's possible. Shockingly,  he revealed that he had spoke with DR. John Nixon last week, and arranged few 2nd year Computer Animation students for the testing session on last Monday. We thought it was for today that he agreed. It was so disappointing and we believed there was a bit of communication error between John and team. But anyway, he asked us to go and see John Nixon to schedule another time slot with the testers at some point next week.

After the meeting, I had to stay in John's office for an enquiry regarding transferring the degree program this year. I decided to put a stop to this current degree program. I told John that I wish to take the ordinary degree and leave, then thinking of undertaking another computing degree. We had a discussion about this matter for a 30 minutes.

By the time I finished conversation with John, my team mates were already seen John Nixon, and booked a time slot for the game testing on next Monday.

Week 20 - Creating Game

I have missed today's class, as I had to travel to Edinburgh along with my mum due to an NMC court case related to her. I have already informed DR. John about my absence. I know the next time I see my team will be the week after because, the university will be closed next week for Easter holidays.

Actually I have missed all the classes this week. The case was running from Monday - Wednesday, so I didn't manage to do any course work at all. I was so retarded both mentally and physically.

I will catch up with my team, as soon as we back from Easter holidays. I talked with Andy in Facebook, and he said, everything is going well. 

Week 19 - Creating Game

For today, I produced few feedback questions based on the game play and these are the questions that I would expect to answer, as a mind of a player. According to DR. John's prospective, we have to nail down a top 10 feedback questions. Strictly no more than 10 questions because, the feedback session would be expected to last about 5-10 minutes, and people don't want to sit down for an hour to face the fiery of questions. But, I ended up with writing 19 questions, and  struggled to choose the top 10 out of them. I thought it's best to share it with my team mates, and with their help, I thought of scaling the questions down to the top 10.

In the lab, I discussed the questions with my mates and manage to identify that 10 unique questions. Stephen said that he will edit those questions to make it look more structural, and Andy was agreed to format the outlook of the feedback sheet for the professional look.

Week 18 - Creating Game

Today during the meeting with John, he enquired about each team members assigned role for tasks. At this stage, I had to admit to him that my arms are crossed. Since, I produced the QA plan in the week 15, I have no tasks to do what so ever. All I did during this period was concentrating on other modules studies. 

Finally, as per John's suggestion, I have got some task to do. I accepted the task of producing 10 unique feedback questions, and arranging game alpha testing session with a bunch of UWS students. He recommended us to go to the Hamilton campus to arrange a feedback session, as well as another session with few students in Paisley campus.

It was quiet inconvenient for us to travel to Hamilton, especially me,  so we decided to arrange a feedback session within Paisley campus with a bunch of 1st or 2nd year Computing students. First of all, what we needed was 10 unique feedback questions. I agreed that task to get it done for the next week. John promised us that he will arrange us few students from the 2nd year when it's come to the testing stage

Week 17 - Creating Game

Yet another day that I left with nothing to do for the team, but the game is very much progressing. Does it mean that our team is producing such a quality and speed. Even John said that, he is very much happy to see our progress, and he likes our game very much than the other two teams. He considered our game is much more functional and productive, so no wonder he is quiet impressed.

We discussed the game progress with John during the meeting. He was so curious about knowing the marketing of this game in Twitter and Facebook. Our Late Panda fans are incrementing day by day, and we assume that means our studio is getting among popular.

This week, I decided to continue working with Jim's assessment. I think it is due for next week, and I must get through it. Hopefully I will.

Week 16 - Creating Game

Like regular routine, we had a meeting with John. He asked about the current progression.This week, I have no task to do. As usual, Andy is full time active in programming. Callum is developing new tile sheets and character sprites, and I am not sure what Stephen is up to.

I took this opportunity to do Jim's 1st assessment and Alistair's 1st Lab assessment. 

Even though i don't have any task to do for our team, I regularly check the game updates from Andy's personal website, and I am very pleased to see that the game is improving in every aspects.

Week 15 - Creating Game

Since the last week's failed attempt of QA's 1st draft, I personally met John for some guidelines for re writing the QA. This time it gave me more of sense, and it helped me to re write the QA report for today. I checked it with my team members and all they said was, "It should be al right". I think the reason they gave such a feedback, may be they were not sure yet, how a QA plan look like, and I am in that same confused situation.

During the meeting with John, I asked him for a feedback, and he said, "it is better than before". This time, I produced a constructive draft including few charts that describes the way, we are going to approach the players with our game. He also suggested us to update the QA plan if, we make any changes during the further processing.

                                                                                                       

Week 14 - Creating Game

Last weekend, Andy requested me to produce a 1st draft for QA & RO plan. As, I was always working on weekends, I told him that hopefully I am able to produce a 1st draft on this Monday. But, I didn't manage to time well, so didn't produced any. When I came in class on Monday, I knew my team mates were quiet disappointed with my absent work. That ended up in a heating conversation in our team when, Stephen claimed, "He didn't produced any quality work at all even in the last trimester, and he is continuing the same this trimester too". I came to know from Andy and Stephen that they had a conversation before about my inconsistency and it forced them to take a decision of firing me from the team. But, I know that, as a designated role of game artist, I did produced character sketches, main menu image, and sprite sheets for the game in last trimester. Some how , they decided to overrule my sprite sheets with Callum's without giving me any notice, but I was quiet happy with his sprite sheet too.But at this instance, I requested them to give me another chance to produce a QA plan because, I didn't wanted to left out of the team half way through. They agreed, and I produced a draft one for today. 

During the group meeting with John, we shared it with him, and he said, "this is a software engineering type of QA plan and you need to re write it." I wasn't disappointed because, I tried at least rather than not doing anything, and taking criticism from my team members. I took the responsibility of re writing the QA for the next week, as the way John expecting.

Andy told me that they don't have nothing else to give me to work on, as Andy doing the programming, Stephen doing the scripting, and Callum doing the character design. That's why, I left with doing the QA report only at this stage. Also, he suggested me to learn the HTML5 in more depth, so I may help Andy with some programming in later stage.

Week 13 - Creating Game

Hello Again :)

I am back after a terrifying winter holidays, as I was working full time. So I didn't enjoyed even the word, so called "HOLIDAYS"! The good news is, we mange to pass the 1st trimester module with a high B1 that is a 69.2/100. Honestly that was really disappointing, because, I and Andy lost an A grade just by 0.8%. Any ways, I am happy with my score and looking forward to score better in this trimester. The reason we scored a bit low  mark was our presentation attempt. That was a terrible performance completely, and  a hilarious moment occurred when I forgot the name of my team member during the acknowledgement. LOL

By the way, we started our second session of our Game Project called, "Creating Game" by scheduling  a group meeting with DR. John.  He spoke about his holidays, but soon drifted the topic in to course work. He explained the assessment components, marking scheme for each , and the expected deadline for each task. So far he is happy with our effort and outcome, but this time, he is expecting a great start from the beginning itself. He asked us to complete a Quality Assurance and Roll Out Plan report for the next week, which worth 10% mark of the total. This report is completely new to us, and have no idea how to do it. John gave us a few tips and guidelines about it, but seems like doesn't make sense.

We back in the lab, and discussed our upcoming plans for the project development. QA plan strike in our plans, but still it's unknown, whether the facts - who is going to do it, and how it need to look like. 

We declared the day after having no plans for doing the QA and RO plan. 

Week 12 - Game Design & Plan

This is our final development week for 1st half of game development and the last blog entry of this year. Expecting the game development will be continued over the Christmas and New Year breaks. Blogs won't be updated weekly until we begin the second half of the game development which is in January 2nd week.

Today was our team's final presentation. We forced our self to be the first team to do the presentation even though none of us have proper rehearsal. We did managed to deliver it in 20 minutes time slot in such an awful manner also couldn't time to speech the final bit which is the "Future of the game" but at least John is happy on the fact that our prototype is working and it is plenty enough to get a clear concept of the game. Each team individual, especially me, faced the lack of confidence and nervousness. Still we managed to get a nice round of applause for our bravery to do the presentation first. Compared to ours the other two team's presentation was brilliant as they never faced any difficulties that we faced and i think they got the confidence from our brave attempt ;) After all group's presentation we had a chat with John and he congratulated us for doing it first also advised us how to do it more precisely on next time. 

Phewww thanks god that's the end of a tight module. See you in January for the 2nd half.

Wish you all a Happy Christmas :)

From Tuesday (11/12/2012)

I met the team in flash lab afternoon to prepare for the presentation.Andy and Stephen already made a slide note for me based on what i should speak. It's not a biggie talk but felt some fear because i am doing the opening talk. I guess i can do it but let's see in action tomorrow.

Week 11 - Game Design & Plan

As usual we started the class at 10 today and DR. John delivered a special lecture for us that lasted for an hour.  It was very much interesting and the purpose behind it was to make the students aware that how 'to/not to' get a job in game/software industry. He talked about the development kits, future of gaming platform, important graduate skills and strengths, building a portfolio and website by going through a slide show "A survey of dev's". After the lecture our team got the first chance to have a meeting with John. During the one hour slot we discussed our progression and the current risks that could slow down our prototype release. A fair amount of functionality's need to be done within programming sector but it's not a concern yet as we got still a week left. Overall John is happy with the progression me have made so far and he agreed to have a formal prototype presentation for the next week.

We team back in the lab and talked about how we are going to present our prototype for next week. Since Callum decided to modify the sprite sheet, whom also doing the level design and tile sheets, i have been told to produce/search some legal sound effects e.g. door opening and closing, empty gun and reloading, picking up objects etc., which could apply to our prototype. We dropped the idea of recording and editing some sounds live due to lack of time but certainly do that for our complete game. I have produced a first draft slides for our presentation which will be reviewed and updated by Andy or Stephen accordingly. I finished off lab and decided to find out some online sound effects at home. I have offered some help to Callum with the tile sheet and level design but he said he is well in control. I didn't manage to take the tutorial for Melon JS so i couldn't help with the programming part. My main plan for this Christmas holidays is to learn how to code in HTML5 and it might help me to program something for the second half. I will be at work the whole weekends so can't really work on anything until Monday. One more week to present our prototype and the pressure is building up

From Tuesday (04/12/2012)

 

We had a team meeting after the flash class to discuss about the progression. Andy implemented a basic structure for first level but not used any tile sheets also made the character sprites (hero & guards) working. I came to know that last day team decided to substitute a much more impressive sprites than i made. It doesn't look the real top down that i made as been told but technically yes. The one i made in Photoshop was a simple sprite with head and shoulders viewed from the top only but what Callum made a sprite (full figure) in paint that can be viewed from any angle as it rotates. Personally it was the idea i went through in the beginning but team decided not to go with it so i sticked with the simple top down (sprites can be find above and on previous blog) sprites/objects. Now team happy n decided to go with the new sprite sheet Callum made for all the characters. I have been told that to find suitable sound effects for the first level. That's all from today and i see you guys tomorrow in lecture.

Week 10 - Game Design & Plan

Started the class at 10 and as like told last week Team Batman well presented their game prototype and it was super awesome. We never presented ours because Andy found out the prototype was not working because of some minor code error which was rectified later on. But we did manage to share the prototype with DR. John during our team meeting. Prototype means no working level has been done but just the game title screen with music and a first level layout with a controllable sprite!

I did manage to draw a top down look alike character sprite (left) but unfortunately that didn't met the expected standard. It doesn't look like a drop down version right! So back in the lab i tried to draw out some images on a paper but my team said it's better to develop the images using digital software's as it's easier to edit. The images itself need be in 32*32 pixels so i found harder to draw it out in paint after some several tries. Then using the photo shop "like a master" and nailed down a top down version of the main character. My team mates were happy with my drawing concept and i was like yaaass! I left the university afterwards and decided to finish off the images at home, the only place i could more concentrate.

Graphical Assets which i should complete in 2 weeks are allocated as below:

* Section 1 character (Done by 28/11/12)

• Civilian
• Carter without weapon
• Carter with fibre wire
• Image of fibre wire
• 1 white and 1 black computer terminal

* Section 2 characters (Done by 05/12/12 attempt by 28/11/12)

• Security guard
• Carter with knife
• Image of knife 
• Piece of paper 
• Red key card 

* Section 3 characters (Done by 05/12/12 attempt by 28/11/12)

• Elite PMC guards
• Carter with gun
• Image of gun, dynamite
• Security camera
• Another top down person pick a random colour this will be used as a main objective character for a demo level

          

                 

I have managed to make half of the sprites/objects which highlighted in red and sprites are above. Andy advised me to take a tutorial for Melon JS that could help me with map editor and how sprites and tile sheets (for level design) are to be layed out. I also thought that i could help Callum with tile sheets using a portable application called "Tiled" while Andy and Stephen working on the major coding. I didn't manage to get time to look at the Tiled and Melon JS due to my weekend job and looking forward to work through it next week only. 

Week 9 - Game Design & Plan

Came in to class a bit late by the time all teams were about ready to share the game updates and progression. When it reached our turn we shared all the evident and updates such as artworks, fan page, group page, team websites etc. During the one hour private section with DR. John we talked about the current risks that could affect the game.

We back in to the lab for further discussion. As we are flying towards the deadline we are aware that lot of tasks need to be completed so we reallocated the tasks again for each team member. I had to leave quite early today due to my work. Stephen gave me a list of assets (top down game character sprites) which must produce in two weeks time. I left university at around 2 PM.

During the rest of week i went easy on game artwork but spent most of the time working on other module assessments. I will try to produce some images by next week but confused which application should i choose - paint or photo shop?? Andy made a stunning game cover screen was another major development happened during this week :)

Week 8 - Game Design & Plan

Today we have no class/meeting with John or Group. Couple of my group mates and John went to Dundee to attend an Enterprising Youth Conference. I didn't went due to some personal matters so i don't know yet what's all about the conference, but i assumed that it was interesting when i gone through one of my colleagues blog. I will definitely try to know more about the conference in detail once i see my group next week. Still i wish i was there :(

Since last week i didn't made any contact with any of the group members. During the week days i concentrated more on the other module assessments as I know it is the best time for it since we are all having a short temporary break (I mean no class this week). As i agreed last week, i have developed the full shot image for our hero in Photoshop. I also tried to draw out some additional images for the project i.e. weapons, communication interfaces, enemies, but none of them are at the completion. I am thinking of adding those images to my blog next week after a final validation with my group.

On our team website i see the changes in project name “Late Panda” and logo as per out decision last week to alter the project information to attract and get support from more people. A rapid increase in fan database along with a fair amount of followers noticed since we renamed our project :)

That’s all from this week and looking forward to meet up the team next week ;)

Week 7 - Game Design & Plan

We groups went through the game progress during the lecture slot. Team Bane now got a menu screen working also a demo type game play with nice graphics but less interactivity and that too they developed their game in Unity 3D. Still they dominate our group and team Batman, based on the work done so far and we think we dominated Team Batman, when we compared.

After the lecture we had our meeting with John. We discussed the current progress, risk and the qualifications needed to become a computing teacher at school/college/university level. At the moment the risk we are facing is an unresponsive fan base, without them we cannot promote our game neither release the prototype. At the moment we know the consequences of changing the studio name but we decided to change it from "Joker Team" to "Late Panda" to attract more fans also we are thinking of developing a new game together over the next summer so we need a real studio name anyways.

We are back in the lab and Andy updated my images using some effects in Photoshop. I got my villain image also, again hand drawn, ready for today to finalize the game design document for Stephen. In the meantime Andrew is working on the technical analysis document. Still i need to create a full shot image of hero, which needed for our game title page. I will try to do that for the next week. There is no class next week due to Dundee trip but i will post it in our group page in Facebook. We called off the day

Below are the updated links :-

Team Website - Facebook Fan Page - Game Documents

Week 6 - Game Design & Plan

Started the lecture at 10 and all three groups don't have a presentation today on game progress instead John talked about an event in Dundee called "conference in youth enterprising", take place in two weeks time. I manage to produce a hand drawn mugshot image for the main character and second character for our game design document. All my team members were happy with these character images and they said this is more than they could ever try.

Later we look through some websites to find some game sound tracks. We found this website useful and manage to find few sound tracks for the title screen and levels and it is free of use as long it is not for commercial use and attribute his name on our work. 

Mean time Andy and Stephen updated  the game design document. At around 1 PM we met John in his office. He asked what are the current risks affecting our progress but to be honest i would say it's the programming sector as every team members are totally new to html5. Then John chat about the Dundee trip, ticket fares and etc.

We called of the day.

Week 5 - Game Design & Plan

At 10, we started the lecture where all three teams done their game presentation. During our team meeting with John, Andy showed him the Game Audience and Competitor Analysis document and Game Planning document, which he later impressed with the document layout.

The major part of game development begun this week as Andy started the marketing campaign in Facebook, aiming 100+ fans, for whom get the prototype totally free to play upon release. We named our game "Spy Green". Andy and Stephen together started working on the Game Design document. Due to unforeseen circumstances Kieran is no more part of our development team so i decided to help Callum with the level design. During out discussion about prototype, we decided to do a complete working level as a prototype that might appear in our final game.

We then discussed on what everyone doing for next week. We really need some artwork for the game plan so each member decided to create their own interpretation of main character even though i am the lead artist in our group. Also we agreed to do some research on html5 by doing some online tutorials.

We called off today

Week 4 - Game Design & Plan

Today we had a team meeting right after the flash lecture because there is no meeting with John tomorrow as per the original schedule. Andrew created both fan page and group page in Facebook. I found the group page is very useful to get updated by team members also easy enough to clarify any doubts or share any files.

Today we have managed to allocate the tasks which are very important part of the project. Andrew will do the main programming based on Stephens design concepts. Callum and Kieran were asked to work together on the game level designs. Our team need someone who is really good in artwork. I accepted that task due to my previous experience in drawings also i agreed to produce all the assets which needed for the game. I told Andy that i could also help him with the programming, not like a co - programmer but as a learner. I am more than happy because i can produce something for the team. I discussed about the game characters in details with Stephen. This is what i need to produce right so i must know what's in his mind and a list of assets need to be produced based on his design concept.

I dropped the full time work to part time now so just working only 2 days only. Now the pressure is off from me shuffling between work and study. I can spent more time concentrate on studies and for our game too :)

That's all from today ;)