Update on Assets and More!

So it has been awhile since my last post in regards to Fake Cake’s game development on Black Friday, but lets just say that the team has been busy with modeling assets and preparing the texture maps to be used. Clearly these guys and gals know how to model low when it comes to poly count, and the big picture with this is that with lower poly counts you will have a more optimized game. And since the goal of this game is to be placed onto the mobile devices we use every day, any amount of optimization is key. So enjoy a few of the groups assets and their texture maps, perhaps this week or next we can get a glimpse of what it looks like in engine 😉 Til next time!

So Here’s The Plan…

We’re finalizing our Game Design Document with everyone’s assignments and by the end of this week, that’s it, no more changes can be made

 

We have some new updated concept art of characters, environments, and assets by our Concept Art Team (Alex, Andres, and Asa).

We have a set color scheme, where the Main character, PowerUps, and Shopping List items will be bright colors. The security guards are the only characters that will wear a blue color. And finally, the rest of the environment and shoppers are dull colors, so it does not take away any visual interest or cause confusion to the player.

 

Our second shred session of the quarter was productive. Each person presented their work to the class and if it needs tweaking, they have until Wednesday midnight to finish and turn it in for a second round of critiques.

 

On a side note, we have a new member that joined our team Monday.

Joshua Murrill! He’s a recent programming graduate from Devry, is joining our team working alongside Cody Blower as a scripter/programmer.

They’re currently working on PlayerController, UI-Menu and UI-In-Game. If you have further questions you can ask Cody Blower.

 

The level designers! Here’s a sneak peak to a level map for our very first level, by Matt Thomas.

 

All the workload as we begin modeling in Maya, is broken up. We have 4 teams currently.

1.      3d Modeling (Assets) – Alice Fong, Josh Camargo, Adam Frega, Quinton Hanifen, John Pepper, and Elli Tilja.

2.      Level Designer – Matt Thomas, Domingo Lopez, Nathan Storz, and Asa Payan

3.      Concept Art –  Alex Kalashnikov, Andres Tostado

4.      Scripter – Cody Blower and Joshua Murrill

Overall, we’re all working together, communicating constantly whether it’s through e-mail, text, phone calls, or meeting up at school to keep continuity within. We don’t believe in giving out assignments, and just not hearing back from them until the assignment is due. This is not a project or environment where anyone works alone. You need to confirm certain things with everyone.

That’s about it for the updates for this week. So far, we’re working down the pipeline with finishing the GDD Week 6 (this week) and for Week 7 we will have some of the main assets built (which require rigs) and also a level block out.

 

A Great Journey Begins With A Single Step

Hello world! So this is the first post a development blog for the team Fake Cake Studios and the game is Black Friday! The last dev blog I worked on was for Lab 231’s Tinman Takedown and I am happy to be able to help this talented team with their game in any way I can. So, LET’S GET STARTED!

Week #1 of Production (Week 5)

After the game pitch last Monday (August 4th @ 6pm), the game Black Friday was chosen.

Tasks were given to each team member, and work officially started Wednesday that week.

Our main focus for two weeks is the Game Design Document.

The entire team (all 13) are working together to finish the Game Design Document for Week 6.

Each person is given a task/job title to fill in various parts of the document, while Alice and Domingo, works on the core of the GDD (Game Play Mechanics and Story), and compiles everything into a complete GDD by Week 6.

Art Director – Alex Kalashikov – Oversees the art direction of the concept art.
Working along side him is Adam Frega, Andres Tostado, and Asa Payan.
Adam – Asset Concepts
Andres – Character Concepts
Asa – Environment Concepts

John Pepper – Level Abstracts for our 3 main levels (DerpMart, FestBuy, and BulkGo)

Quinton Hanifen – UI design

Josh Camargo – Enemy behaviors

Elli – Character animation list and working with Cody

Nathan Storz – Level Design

While we’re all working on different parts of the document, we’re all checking in with each other to make sure there is overall continuity. Cody Blower being our main and sole programmer, a majority of the mechanics are verified through him.

Something we have every Monday morning is a “shred”/critique session, where each team member will put their work on the projector, discuss what they did over the course of the week, then criticism is given by Jason Green and Joy Horvath. After that, it is open for everyone else to critique (if needed).

During our “shred”/critique session on Monday morning, we solved a few issues that we had with UI, so now we have a solid UI WIP. More updates on that possibly next week, when the GDD is done.

Wikipage is in the making at the moment by Alice.

Our main challenge this week is focus.
A lot of the folks wanted to get started on modeling assets, characters, and other stuff, but the GDD is the most important asset of the game right now. So after one-on-one discussions of each student’s assignments for the week, we were able to regain the focus on the GDD, rather then wasting time working on something that will not help move the GDD along.

Goals: GDD a polished/finished version Week 6 Monday, then modeling will begin.