http://sdunfee.com/screens.html

Wait for the images to load (they’ve a decent size), and then mouse-over them to see the difference between the whitebox and the final version!

This is our world! I’ll update with before and after shots soon!

Hey guys, we’ve graduated! I’m going to started the Synchrony media parade with our box’s manual! In the next few days (and yes, days, not weeks :P) I’ll post up screenshots, concept art, and videos.

Wow! Long time no post eh? Sincere apologies to everyone, it’s just been crazy over the past few weeks! To sum it all up, our final project Synchrony is complete! We presented to the industry on the 4^th, and the project was received very well! Since then we’ve been working hard on our portfolios, as well as resuming normal classes… I must say, it definitely feels good to have free time again! I’m by now you guys would actually like to see more of the project… so stay tuned! This week I’ll post a ton of screenshots + videos!

Our game hits Beta on Tuesday! Just a few more weeks until industry presentations We’ve started thinking about our presentation format, as well as what media we’re going to be showing. I think the general idea we have right now is to deviate from the standard “we are students this was a journey blah blah overcoming problems” powerpoint, and instead showcase, you know, the actual game. We’ve put a lot of hard work into the project, and we want everyone to see it.

Tomorrow we’re heading back to the classroom. We’ve had a very productive week-and-a-bit off, and I’m looking forward to seeing the other groups’ progress. Over the break I managed to do an art pass on our courtyard area (our second location), and I think it turned out pretty decent! Still to do is the lighting, emitter effects, sound, and post-processing. I’m sure we’ll put up some new screenshots very soon on our team blog!

Speaking of the blog, Shadi (our programmer) has uploaded a new ambient track! Programming and piano, who would have thought? Check it out and give it a listen!

Hey guys, sorry for not posting last week! Our entire class has been working extremely hard to hit our next milestone! Officially milestone 3 (Alpha) was last Wednesday,  but we’re not being graded until the week of May 5th, so we’re working really hard to get everything up to snuff. Alpha is defined as “feature complete”, meaning that we’ve got every mechanic working in our game. We’re making very good progress towards May 5th, as our most daunting features have been implemented by our team wonder known as Shadi! This guy doesn’t sleep. Seriously.

As for me, my whiteboxing (bare levels that feature gameplay) days are pretty much over, and I’ve begun to pretty things up! We have this week off (…”off” :P), so I have tons of time to spend devoted to the glorious unreal editor. Hasn’t been crashing lately. A sign? I think so.

One last thing! In case you haven’t had a chance, we’ve updated our team blog with a ton of stuff! Check it out for screenshots and design insight!

We had our first “official” playtest on Friday! A group of students from a local high school were on a career-prep fieldtrip (or something like that), and we took the opportunity to get some fresh hands on the most recent build. Everything went very smoothly and we got some great feedback! However, I must say that watching a non-gamer stumble around with a keyboard/mouse combo is absolutely unbearable… We’re almost at Alpha (2-3 weeks away?) and progress is continuing to be made.

Things are chugging along as usual, we’ve had our second milestone (more for us, no grading like the first one), and we’re progressing nicely. I’ve begun to explore the UI features of Unreal 3, and am now taking on the role of UI designer thingy person in addition to my level design duties. As mentioned in earlier posts, almost everything is functioning to a decent degree for such an early stage, and soon enough we’ll have more permanent solutions.

One of last week’s problems we tackled was our enemy AI. Our design calls for enemies who are for the most part idle, and only attack the player when a certain radius has been entered. Some of our level design scenarios include the removal of level elements (such as a bridge) from beneath the enemy’s feet, causing them to fall to their death. By default, the UT3 AI instructs bots to jump to safety when footing has been compromised, and disabling this proved quite the challenge. Eventually Shadi (our coder) came up with a solution, and now our bots fall… like dominoes. Yeah, that was lame.

This week has been our milestone 1 “presentation” week! Basically, we showed off all the stuff we’ve been working on! The reaction has been very positive and we’re very pleased that our mentors have confidence in our project. What we have is several whitebox levels that have gameplay implemented, as well as the core functions of our device working + near final visuals. We’ve also got a “3D” HUD element working. Milestone 2 is this Thursday, and we’re on track for some pretty cool stuff by then.

On another note, yesterday we had the pleasure of joining Devin Seto (VFS instructor and EA QA master of everything) at EA Canada. We split into 2 groups and had a grand tour of the studio, and I must say, this place is simply amazing. It’s got a university-campus like feel, and looks like a fantastic place to work! Outdoor soccer pitch, full NBA-sized basketball court inside, huge gym, open work environments, and enough food to feed an army… literally. EAC houses 1700 employees, and the campus was definately built ground up with that in mind. You could live there. They even have their own Starbucks. After the tour, we had a nice long question and answer session with a senior producer, a couple of project managers, and some of the QA team. It was a great experience!