Project Update 29/10/2010

So time for my first Project Post. As I stated in earlier posts there isn't a set format yet, but that may change the more I do as there might be a regular pattern that starts to show up. But in the mean time, it's all done freestyle.

Things done to date

• Arrange team and assigned roles. Full list below (Team)
• Made temporary Time Line with most important dates filled in. To see go here (Myself)

Things to do

• Come up with a group name. I just don't feel that Group Z is good enough.
• Come up with a Game Concept.
• Meet with whole group and set clear expectations.

Summary so far
For our final product we need to make something that is based around the game Flowers Vs Zombies. Please note how I said BASED ON. While I do believe we will get a pass for a clone of FVsZ (Short hand for Flowers Vs Zombies from now on) we will lose marks for originality.
FvsZ is a Tower Defence game where you need to protect your house from a onslaught of Zombies. The weapons at your disposal for different types of plants ranging from the Pea Shooter (fires a pea in a straight line at the on coming Zombie and has a strong resemblance to Bellsprout) to Wall-Nuts that slow down the oncoming assault. The way that plants are deployed is by "Planting" them on your front lawn using a grid system. The picture below demonstrate how the grid system works.

Picture from http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/05/plants-vs-zombies/

Some games that follow the same concept as PvsZ are as follows:
Space Invaders. You control a space ship that is trying to stop aliens from reaching earth (or in case of the game the bottom of the screen).

Guitar Hero/Rock Band. Many people are probably going "WTF" at the moment but take a moment to think about it for a second. The overall aim of both of these games is to preform to a crowd. You achieve this by playing "Notes" that come down the screen. Miss a "Note" and the crowd become unhappy but if you hit one then the crowd becomes happy. Just think of the "Notes" as the Zombies and it should start making more sense.

Frogger. Again I can visualise a lot of people with very confused looks. One concept of PvsZ is to prevent the Zombies getting from one side to the other. Why can't that concept be turned on it's head and be made that the aim is to help them get to the other side. Frogger demonstrates this by getting the player to control frogs that need to cross a road and then a river, all of which have various obstacles and hazards.

Just thinking of these games alone should be enough to get a rough idea of a good game concept.

Also while writing this post I've arranged a meeting with the whole group tomorrow (30/09/10) hopefully we'll be able to get this boat a sailing.


Quick list of the team and roles are as follows.

Executive Producer- Vladimir Sivc
Assistant Producer Jakub "Kuba" Klitenik (That's me in case you didn't know)

Lead Artist- Arron Pommeroy
Artist - Ed Wulf-Vanderpuije
Artist- Arkin Buhara
Artist- Liam Crossan-Maguire
Artist- Craig Fitzgerald

Sound- Sam Stead
Sound- Helen Dunne

Writer- Reese Newton
Writer- Tim Moore

Designer- Anton Korubov

Programmer- carlos el-kaadi
Programmer- Alexander Jones

Currently Listening to Bloc Party, The Prayer (Hadouken! Remix)

Motion Tween, Flash

Learned
Basic Animation in Flash. How to use the Motion Tween.

Key Points to remember:

• Every sprite that is to be animated needs to have it's own layer.
• Layers work the same way as they do in Photoshop (the layer at the bottom will be behind the layer at the top).
• Key point in the animation are marked with "Key Frames". (Say there is a change in direction then a Key Frame will show where it happens)
• Any item that you would like to Tween needs to be a "Symbol". This is easily done by selecting the item and pressing the "F8" key.
• Label every thing. You can easily lose yourself amongst all the Key Frames, Layers and Sprites. Meaningful labels/names make life easier for you.

The Motion Tween feature is a very powerful tool in flash. You can use it not just to move Sprites, but also to change it size over time, rotate it on the spot, to fade in and out (like a ghost) or even a combination of all of these things.

How to do a Motion Tween:

• Select the item you want to Tween. It can be anything as long as it's a symbol (remember the key point above?)
• Now right click it and select "Create Motion Tween"
• Move the item to where you would like it to travel.
  
• If it worked then you should notice the following.

1. There should be Green Line on the screen that starts where the Item was and end where you placed the item.
2. On the time line you'll be at the frame number that is based on your frame rate (Normally 24fps)
3. Also in the frame you're in there should be a black diamond symbol (this for all extents and purposes is your Key Frame)

• Did it work? Good. Now to see your work in motion just press the "Enter" key. Or press the button combo of "Ctrl+Enter". The latter is more preferable as it will show you what your audience will see.

Extra Points

• To start a new Flash File, open Flash and then select "Actionscript 3.0". This will take you to a blank stage for you to tinkle with.
• When making Sprites make sure you draw it at the size it is intended to be used at. While you can draw one and then shrink it using the free-form tool it will still retain the original data size, which means longer processing time (not fun for any one). Remember you got the Zoom tool. Use it.
• If you're using a Mac you zoom in on any area on the screen (this applies to anything outside of flash to like Firefox). To do this just hover the Mouse over where you like to zoom to, then hold "Ctrl" and roll in using the roller ball on the mouse. This is handy to show people certain areas that are needed.
• Say you want to extend a layer so that it can be seen through out the whole animation but you don't want to tween it (e.g back ground). Well this is easily done by selecting the frame in the layer you would it to appear till and then press "F5". You should have a blank Rectangle appear.
• Just as "F5" adds a normal frame, "F6" adds an extra Key Frame. This is handy to add a little stop gap between an animation that has to processes going on. Let's give an example. You have a fish growing and moving across the screen. But when it reaches the middle you want it to stop growing but keep moving. But after it's past the middle it starts growing again. You'll need an extra Key Frame to handle that. (BTW the fish needed to stop growing to get past the bollards).
• There are 3 Symbols in the layers box that can become your best friends if you use them properly.

1. The eye. This makes that Layer invisible or visible.
2. The Padlock. This locks or locks the layer. Great to avoid unintended movement of Sprites.
3. The Coloured Box. Super Handy if you learn how to use it properly. When the box has colour in it everything in that layer has it proper fill colour. However when the box just has it's outline then all the items on the layer also only show their outlines. Useful if you want to move something in relation to a sprite on a higher layer. To change the outline colour you just need to double click on the Box.

And that's it for today's lesson. David also recommended to read "Animation With Scripting For Adobe Flash Professional CS5 Studio Techniques". Try and say that after a shot or two. It gives you great tips for Flash animation but remeber that we're on a games design course, so if your money is tight or you not to interested in animation you might want to think about it.
Oh and if you are looking for it check out Amazon here. However when I was on there last they were sold out of first hand ones.

Currently Listening to Fall Out Boy, Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes

First Entry

I really want this one to be really big and massive. But this is a diary and a production one at that, so I guess it would be best to keep it to what I've learned and done today for my 2D Game Design Unit.
As a general rule each post will either be about the most recent lesson or about what I've contributed to the project and if there any major changes to it.

Lesson will have the format of the following:
Title: What was learned and what Program
Learned: What does the what was learned do.
Key Points to remember: Do you really want to read an explanation of this?
How to: How to do what was taught.
Extra Points: Bit like Bonus Points, not really needed but handy to have to get that 1up.

Project Posts due to their nature will not be as formatted but will have in the Labels and Title "Project".

Hopefully you will find this useful as well. I'm hoping that the Lesson posts will be like mini tutorials, so please leave feedback on them in the form of comments of e-mail.
Koobs