Week 18

This week, I focused on finishing the environment props, retheming them, and exporting them in a way that makes them easy for JT to import. To do this, I lumped the foreground and background props of each environment together for export. Here are a few examples of assets I got done:

Red and blue banners for the field. Serves as a point of reference to help the player discern where they are in the field.

 This is what the red barracks looks like in game...

 And this is a single art asset I exported for all of the red barracks props. Makes JT's life way easier.

 And here's a shot of the blue spawn room.

Each room has a unique prop layout. I reskinned the vases to complement the color tones of the given side.

I've also been working on generating very specific screenshots for the How To Play menu. This has proved trickier than I initially thought, since capturing the right frames in-game is hard, but staging those frames in the editor is often nearly impossible as well. I've settled to accomplish this task with a mix of 'faking it' in the editor and grabbing actual in-game screens.

I've also figured out how to use Audacity to edit voices to sound robotic. First, I added 5 short echoes to the sound file to make it sound robotic, and then applied an equalizer to reduce the base to make it sound tinny. It's not perfect, so I'll continue making tweaks until I make something I'm happy with.

Meanwhile, Shane has been working on the Die-Katana animations. He's finished up the idle and run animations, as well as the normal and special attacks. Next, he'll need to retheme them for the various heads and armors, for both teams.

JT implemented a combat solution this week. Essentially, hit boxes and hurt boxes were drawn to match exactly where a given character or attack displayed onscreen. This was leading to a problem with colliders where weapon attacks had massive vertical hitboxes, and arrows got caught by doors and walls. I realized that if we switched all hitboxes and hurt boxes (weapon hit boxes) to exist on the ground below where the attack was taking place, it would resolve all of these issues. I suggested the fix to JT, and it worked perfectly, resolving some major combat wonkiness, including the arrow collision issue. A big step forward for gameplay!

JT inplemented the flaming head visual effect for the samurai armor, implemented the new armory menu layout that I designed based on playtest feedback, added in the environment props, tuned the katana hurtbox  for gameplay balance, and implemented 'bow charging' (holding the fire button for the bow now charges the bow, allowing the player to shoot a more damaging arrow).

Next week, we'll be implementing the Die-Katana, Sensei's Silks, robot voices, HUD makeover, and the final sound effects.

After that, we'll have a few days to revamp the credits screen, add kill-streak messages, robo-godzilla, and throw together a final trailer. It's going to be super-stressful, but that's life! See you in a week!

Week 17

We've come a long way, haven't we?

This week has been one of those unpleasant 'maintenance weeks' for Shane, who has been cleaning up animation and memory issues within the game -- namely, reducing animation sizes, shifting sprites to align with their shadows, etc. It's a tedious job but it needed to be done.

Meanwhile, I've been working on creating props for the environment and creating the How To Play menu. I also redid the armory for easier initial understanding. I also made the pause menu.

I received feedback from a level designer at Made In Mass who said that the armory had misled her -- she believed she could only pick one weapon or armor. I attempted to alleviate this confusion by adding a small blurb in the armory and changing some background art so show how the weapons and armors are grouped separately. Furthermore, I redid each item description to explain the passives and abilities of each weapon and armor. Hopefully, this will help players hop right into gameplay rather than having to figure out what each weapon and armor does.

I've considered eliminating the armory and replacing it with weapon and armor racks in the spawn room where players could attain new equipment. However, it appears the risk/reward ratio for testing this would be too high at this point in development, and I will probably focus on making the armory as simple as possible for new players.

Here is what the new environment props look like (I haven't converted them for the red base yet):

Meanwhile, JT implemented the pause menu, did other miscellaneous menu implementation work, added our music to the game, and implemented several other sound effects.

Next week, we're planning to add a new weapon and to implement all of the level art I've created into the actual game. I'll be finishing up the environment art and how to play menu, as well as starting to create dialog for the bots.

Week 16

Yo!

This week our team went to Made in Mass. We got both praise and feedback from real industry insiders, which was a real privilege. We're still slaving away to get features into the game, so keep your eyes open for bot voices, new weapons and armors, a fully implemented menu system, and more!

Between PAX and Made in Mass, it's been a tough week to get together and work. I wrote up all of the item descriptions for the game, and JT got them in -- but looking back, I'm thinking that the special abilities need clear descriptions, to help new players. I also set up our final report, which outlines our design and development processes, as well as a post-mortem and references and all those goodies. I've also begun planning the props I'll be adding for the environment to fill it out (empty rooms aren't very exciting).

Shane did this stuff.

He insisted that I also mention that he did "a hundred times as many head animations as that", as well as animation alterations and flaming samurai head stuff". So there you have it.

JT added the functionality for the samurai armor ability, along with a makeshift animation that Shane supplied until he can get the flaming head working correctly (it's some tricky nonsense, I tell ya). JT also fixed a ton of bugs. There are always more bugs. He managed to set up a tech demo for Made In Mass, which was great, because it let people try out all the functionality without any multiplayer. He also added some changes I requested for the bow -- bigger arrow hitboxes, faster draw, stuff like that.

Week 15

Hola!  (French for "Pizza!")

This week, we've been focusing on getting the game trailer-ready. That means getting the game into a beta-state where almost all of the content is in. As such, I have taken the liberty of finishing the level art and passing it on to JT, who worked overtime to get it in for Monday.

Shane has been working vigorously on adding alternate heads to the game. It's a nasty, tedious task that I've forced him to do, as an eternal punishment for his crimes against the Greek Pantheon. You'll be seeing these badboys next week.

In addition to adding the new level art, JT has added pushback to the spear attack, hit effects (sparks and oil), and the peasant armor ability (which I'm calling The Goldfish, because you're fishing... for gold).

It's all available for you to try out right here!

Check out the trailer!



Adios, amigo! (That's French for "get lost, kid!")

Week 13/14

Here's what the team was up to during the week preceding our Senior spring break (which I spent having my wisdom teeth removed - and what a thrilling experience it has been!):

Shane has been doing this stuff:




On JT's end:

• The game now features a Name Entry screen on startup. Killed your best friend with an arrow to the heart? (Admit it, you've thought about it once or twice) Now everybody can laugh about it, as it's clearly displayed in the top-right corner of their screen.

• There's finally Xbox controller support! At last, the mild unpleasantness of playing Bushido Bots on your keyboard has become an un-necessity! (Okay, that's definitely not a word.)

• A finalized credits screen. Credits all around!

• Bug fixing!!! We got all exterminator up in here.

• Armors affect movement speed. No more Samurai in full body armor keeping pace with those pesky ninjas. Sorry, samurai! (Always wanted to say that).

And on MY end, I've been working on creating a new area for the players to perform acts of violence in. Check out this (no longer) serene field of Sakura.

We even made a powerpoint about all this sweet sweet progress, for our Faculty Advisor. Go ahead and check that out if you're vibin' it.

Attachment (1) from wyattgray1

Vibin' out,
-Wyatt

Week 12

JT

Spear Grapple:

Goo Shot:

SHANE

Peasant Armor Ability and New Death Explosion:

WYATT

Barracks:

Wooden Room:

Third Floor Pattern:

Week 11

Want to see some new stuff in action? Check out this video that JT made this morning:

So what's new this week? Shane has been busy getting the peasant armor 100% finished. He also added animations for the bow and spear abilities. Check out these awesome new animations:

I did some HUD work. I redid the HP Gears and replaced them with 'ticks'. These are much easier on the eyes, easier to count, and they compress well. You can see them in JT's video. Note that they will be adjacent for next week. Also note that they change color to yellow / red when the player's HP drops to 1/2 and 1/4, respectively.

I converted the main menu into symbols and uploaded it all into the SVN so that JT could make it usable. It is also available to view in JT's video. You can also see the new HUD layout I've designed as well -- note that everything is compressed at the top of the screen so that nothing will obscure the player's vision of the battlefield. I've also located some more sound effects, this time for the ninja, spear, and bow abilities. I'll be editing these and they'll be in-game for next week.

Lastly, I've been working on creating some finalized level art. It may not look like much, but I think I've nailed down the style I'll be using. Here's a sneak peek:

The room - first pass

Close-up

Mountains of gold

Cobblestones

JT has been working to resolve issues with the school firewall (interfering with network play) as well as a nasty memory issue where all the art we've made is hogging a ton of resources due to an annoying feature built into Ex2D that increases each file's size.

He also managed to add some new UI elements, and shift the UI around towards a finalized version (it's not there yet, but it's getting close!) He added the weapon/armor ability cooldown icons and got the main menu working as well.

Should all go as planned, you'll be seeing peasant armor in-game next week, and maybe a new environment for the bots to battle in.