Week 6: Characters and Animation Complete

I lagged this week - I should have had these models complete a few days ago. All that remains to be done on the art side are the UI and Menu art, then I gave myself 2 weeks of polish time. I gave myself lots of time for the Menu and UI stuff because my graphic design skills are a bit rusty.

The textured models:

Now I have to hook them up to the animated rigs and make any necessary adjustments, then ship them off to Jeff to get plugged into the game!

-Anders

Week 5/10: Character Work

OK! I think I'm still on schedule! Awesome! I finished the character models a few days ago and I sat down to do the rigs but then realized I forgot everything I knew about rigging and didn't have the time to go through tutorials. So I contacted an acquaintance from school who I know to have a good reputation(George Lam) and asked if he would like to contribute to the project by making some rigs. He referred me to his friend Justin Fong who cranked out the rigs faster than I expected =) The characters are ready to send off to be animated while I work on the textures.

Here's a shot of my silly character models:

So hopefully by next week we'll have complete, animated characters!

-anders

Week 4/10: Beginning Character Art

 Character Models Complete: Week 4 (3/10)

I finished up the environment art but have had little time to begin work on the characters - Steff has been visiting and I'm trying not to get caught working on the project. Between this and GDC next week its going to be tough to stick to schedule.

Got ahold of Jeff (my programmer buddy/knight in shining armor/frequent collaborator) - he let me know that everything was on track and he would be kicking me out a build in the coming days. What a relief!

I think I will end up spending 2 weeks on characters instead of the 1 week I initially planned for. So the character models and rigs will be due on week 5. This should be fine because I have an animator and don't have to do that work myself.

I managed to sneak out this concept art while Steffany was away visiting her cousin today:

Should get one of them done by late next week and then will rig it and kick it off to Courtney (animator) to do some cycles while I work on the other model. Its gonna be a stretch but I'll try to buckle down this week!

-Anders

Week 3 Deadline Approaching

Static Art Complete, Placeholder UI Dialogs System Complete Week 3 (3/3)

I know I am posting these retroactively - hopefully I'll get on top of these blog updates eventually. This week I'd like to share the concept of the game and some of the planning. From the spec I wrote before kicking this whole thing off:

High Level Overview:

    The goal of the game is for Anders to propose to Steffany in a creative, fun way. The game must be simple to understand, impossible to screw up, very quick to produce, and be cute as hell. 

    To achieve these high level goals:

1.       The game play is to be modeled off of Pac Man, a simple game that almost everybody knows.

2.       The player will be guided by pop-up dialogs that must be read before continuing to inform the player of changes in game state.

3.       Game logic will facilitate "not screwing up" by forcing the player into the desired situations.

4.       The game must be in a limited arena with limited art assets (like Pac Man). The maze walls will be constructed by 5-10 or so extremely simple building block models and will remain static.

5.       The game art and presentation must be as polished as possible - this includes start menu, end credits, music, in-game art and animation. You know how we roll with our production values.

 Mockup

Week 1/10: The beginning of the project..

Hello, my name is Anders Howard. I am a 24 year old Junior Game Designer at the beginning of my career in the games industry. I am keeping this blog to record the happenings surrounding the production of a small game I am making in collaboration with some of my friends.

The purpose of the game is to propose to my girlfriend of 5 years, Steffany.

A little more than a week ago now I decided that this is what I had to do. I had heard that a friend of mine was planning on proposing to his girlfriend in a spectacularly romantic way and I knew that there was no way that I could outdo him. I was sitting on MUNI wishing there was something that I could do to impress my girlfriend when the idea that I could make a game crept into my head. It wasn't the first time. But this time I decided that I simply had to do it. I am a trained creative professional and if I couldn't make a game for an occasion like this, well...then that would just be lazy.

I wrote the spec in my spare time over the next couple days and recruited a couple friends to join me. My hope is that we can churn out the game in 10 weeks in time to surprise Steff when she flies back home for her birthday at the end of April. Here's our projected schedule:

11 Week Development

1. Kick off + Design Complete:
1. Week 0 (Feb. 10)
2. Basic Game Engine/Mechanics Complete + Food Models Complete
1. Week 2 (Feb. 24)
3. Environment Art Complete, Placeholder UI Dialogs System Complete
1. Week 3 (Mar. 3)
4. Character Models Complete:
1. Week 4 (Mar. 10)
5. Character Rigs + Animation Complete:
1. Week 6 (Mar. 24)
6. Menu & UI Function + Art Complete:
1. Week 8 (Apr. 7)
7. Polish + Game Complete:
1. Week 10 (Apr. 21)

So it'll be tough to pull off, but I'm optimistic. As of the time of writing, I have already completed the Food Models 100% (more on that in later posts) and am moving on to the environment art while my friend and frequent collaborator Jeff Aydelotte is programming the main mechanics.

More to come!
-Anders