Game Pitch #2

Tomorrow I have to present a new game pitch to the class, and this time around I decided that I would make it much simpler and more nonsensical than my first attempt (ala Under Siege). I wanted to go a completely different route with this new game that (if chosen) should be a lot of fun to make. I decided to give you all a sneak peek of the idea first, before my class gets to hear about it!

Have some super secret copy-pasta!

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Tentative Title: 'Escape the Biebs!'

Story/Premise: Meet Doug. Doug is a fifteen year old boy with what his mother calls an ‘unhealthy’ video game obsession. “You should be spending less time playing video games and more time outside exploring the world and getting exercise! Video games are useless time wasters. You know what you learn from video games? Nothing!” Poor Doug gets kicked out of the house for a day to gain some perspective on what he’s been missing out on while he has let his brain “rot” playing games. Dejected, he wanders about town to look for something to do.

All of a sudden…

An impromptu Justin Bieber concert springs up behind him! Gross! Hating the prepubescent pop star as much as his own acne, Doug turns to leave and faces a crowd of rabid fan girls bearing down upon him. Shit! Will Doug manage to navigate through the impossible crowd of excited fan girls and escape the Bieber concert, or will his ears be forced to endure the worst singing (in his opinion) that his generation has ever created?

Short Term Goal(s): Avoid the crowds and survive!

Long Term Goal(s): Make it home without having your ears bleed!

Gameplay: The gameplay will function almost identically to Mario Party 5’s penguin mini-game, with some added bonuses and tweaks.

 

Levels – There will be multiple levels to signify the perilous journey Doug has to take in order to make it back home. Some potential locations could include: Downtown, Town Park, Waterfront, Sewers, Interior of Store [eg. Wal-Mart], and Residential Street. Work-in-progress: Each level will have a set timer counting down (60 seconds, 120 seconds, 180 seconds, etc) and Doug will complete the level when it reaches 0. The mob of fan girls will increase in density the longer Doug survives, and they will also get faster in speed (which realistically could be explained by their fear of missing Bieber sing).

It’s game over if Doug gets pushed to (the side of the screen that corresponds with) the concert!

Power-Ups – Doug’s obsession of video games actually comes in handy. With his knowledge of games, he is able to use items from various franchises to make his escape easier. Some potential ‘power-ups’ could include:

Invincibility Star (from Mario; picking this up will give Doug invisibility frames to plough through the fan girls and knock them out)

Smart Bombs (from Star Fox; blows up all fan girls within the vicinity of its blast when set)

Ocarina (from Zelda; plays ‘Reverted Song of Time’ to slow down the speed of the fan girls, might also affect the time counter)

Bumper (from Super Smash Bros.; any fan girl that runs into it will bounce out of the way)

Star Rod (from Kirby; fires out stars that will dissipate any fan girl that comes in contact with them)

… and perhaps more from there, or tweaks to the current set.

Controls: Control Doug with the arrow keys to move around the level to avoid the fan girls that will push him back towards the concert. When you have picked up an item, push the ‘Shift’ key to use it. A second player (Doug’s friend Bill) can be moved with the ASDW keys; the F key will use the item picked up.

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Completely ridiculous - told you! Hope you enjoyed this sneak peek! 

Learning Experience

*Warning: Slight rant ahead*

As the title suggests, I have been in a situation that has been quite a learning experience for me. I have had to participate in many group projects before, but this one has easily been the most trying and testing of my patience. I've ranted or suggested the nature of this Under Siege project before, but truly the last two weeks have left the biggest salty impression yet. Four out of the six group members remained completely uncooperative, refusing or ignoring my emails (which detailed exactly what they should be doing to contribute to the project). I've never been in the leadership role of a large group before, but I had the most unreliable collaborators to work with ever. I fired off an email to the professor and TA about the situation, and they responded by sending an email to those four to see him (the prof) in his office. They did not attend this prompting, which only serves to solidify my case on their relative uselessness - though today in tutorial they were obviously nervous about their position, because they were all ears and eager to get assigned to do something from me. They were still being wimpy despite my assigning them the easiest tasks left available (since my programmer and I had done mostly everything else by this point), but we'll see where it goes.

We have a presentation tomorrow that I have also done all the work for, and since I'm the only one who really knows what it's all about... Of course that means I will do all the speaking, too. .____.

Here's some of what I'll be presenting on (yay for screenshots!):

Everything made and designed by me, for better or for worse. :p

Reading Break

Is not so much a break, but more an excuse to do MORE work. Somehow, the week that most people use to go on vacation I have managed to get myself neck deep in work. Mind you it is mostly self-inflicted, as most of it is either not due until the end of next week or even further along in March, but... still.

I think the worst problem I'm having right now is that 4/6 of the members of my Game Strat & Design group have been entirely unresponsive and unhelpful for near the last two weeks, and with the game being due next week, I've been left to do all the art design for it (units, maps, interface, character portraits) and the music. This one project alone is consuming all of my time, and that's not even paying attention to the reading I need to do for English or the papers I have to write!

I'm mighty unlucky when it comes to group members... so I pray that we (the awesome FA 245 group) can get it together without too much hassle. Please. That would be great. 

Well, heading off to bed so that I can wake up nice and early and start tackling more homework... Night all. 

PS: To leave you with something creative I've done, I tried to whip up a theme for Under Siege - for the title screen, at least. I've never done anything musical, so try not to laugh too much! I'm happy with how it turned out. Nice, simple 1 minute loop. :)

Reflection

So far, the assignment to develop a (technological) autobiography has been an interesting adventure for me. When I started it, I first felt apprehensive because I've never been too keen on creating a blog, let alone keeping up to date with it... and to be honest that's not something that's changed at all, but for all intents and purposes I think I am updating it enough. Or at least, I sure hope so! 

This project has definitely highlighted my key interests for me in the year 2012 so far. I am living and breathing Red Rogues; I like to occasionally game or at least discuss about one with another person; I eagerly anticipate every Saturday's episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic to see what kind of adorable shenanigans they will be up to next; I have a lot of group projects running concurrently (Under Siege, Romeo & Juliet, the TBD FA 245 topic) [Group projects are, for the record, the bane of my existence - no one ever seems to want to pull their weight, it's stressful and inappropriate for a university setting]; and I have a profound interest in the material being covered in my English class right now - I'm thrilled to be covering classics such as Pride & Prejudice and The Canterbury Tales! English has the potential to either rock or suck based on who is teaching it, and I'm glad to report that I'm experiencing the former. My professor is an inspiration.

This assignment has provoked me to try new things, or at least have the courage to put myself out there. Though that vlog is likely a standalone title in the series (it is one that does not need a sequel, certainly), I never before even would have dreamed of doing something like that, let alone being capable of it. Mostly everything I have posted is already doing a bang up job of representing myself; for the most part, I like posting about artistic endeavours I've been working on. I am usually a person that likes to hold her cards close when it comes to personal projects - to discuss details is to demotivate me from actually working on them, strangely enough (especially concerning writing), but I am trying to make the effort so that this blog is somewhat more personalized to me and not just another billboard for pre-existing material that I happen to take interest in. Which is certainly an easy enough thing to do, as what I choose to surround myself by is certainly an aspect of what defines me, but it's not the whole picture. I'd like to think that showcasing personal works are the final pieces to the puzzle. 

In relation to what I've been working on today, I've decided to try my hand at making sprites - that is, character pixel art for video games. As one of my group projects involves making a game from scratch, it would make sense to try to incorporate new skills into my arsenal.

Each individual image is considered a 'frame' - in order to animate them, you need to link the images together in an indefinite loop. It gives off the illusion of movement - though I suppose it's not an illusion that the poor sod will be marching and running for the rest of his digital existence. He will lead the charge as probably the weakest 'enemy' in Under Siege - those poor blue spiky-haired guys can't seem to catch a break!

Here is a look at what they look like in movement:

Forward: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/LadyHood/Long-Sword-Forward.gif

Left: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/LadyHood/Long-Sword-Left2.gif

Right: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/LadyHood/Long-Sword-Right.gif

Back: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/LadyHood/Long-Sword-Back.gif

I just notice I never bothered to include the sword in the back images, oops! The hilt and glimpses of his blade will be added in a future installment.

Hope you all have a great night! Happy Friday!

Follow-Up

This post is a short follow-up to the one preceding it, titled 'Personas'.

I hinted that I was working on a third character biography template in the previous entry, after showcasing Vanessa Balette and Skye Emerson's respectively. Now the third member of the crew has been completed, so I felt like posting a short update so that you all could view it.

Meet Theora Mariposa, third member of the Red Rogues crew!

I will not be explaining any more specifics about Red Rogues for quite some time because I mostly want to keep it under wraps while I work on it (I find it easier to write about material I have not discussed with the world). I can tell you, however, the main point behind these images - inspiration!

I've printed them all out and have arranged them just so (which explains how they are organized on the pages themselves; Theora's was more due to concern of overlap, because the space is not 'perfectly proportioned' for three 8x11 sheets of paper). Every time I look up from my computer, this is what I see - and it is the most motivational and heart-warming sight to make me get into the Red Rogues zone. It has also made it exceptionally difficult to focus on school work, which might perhaps be a bad thing, but it has yet to cause any harm, so... no worries! 

Happy Wednesday!

Personas

Tonight in class we touched upon the topic of having a virtual identity and how some feel the need to have multiple personas, introducing the concept of identity fragmentation. Most were uncertain what they wanted to post on their blogs, finding themselves automatically censoring potential material they had to offer because of the fear of being judged or for perhaps not following whatever few parameters this semester-long assignment has imposed on it. I came to the realization very quickly that I have not been this way inclined at all. Yes, upon my introductory post I may have suggested some apprehension on my part for having to start a blog, but the worry stemmed more from the fact that I would have to regularly update it rather than how others (and particularly my classmates) would choose to perceive me from the content I shared.

Think I'm a loony for being a fan of the latest generation of My Little Pony (Friendship is Magic)? Good for you. Think I'm awesome for being a Zelda enthusiast? Kudos! I see absolutely no reason to hide or ignore potential interests that may be disagreeable or unseemly to others in an autobiographical blog. Whatever is a significant event or has some form of impact in my day will very likely see itself being posted here, regardless of whether it appears relevant or not in the grand scheme of things. In this virtual form, you will see what composes 'Vanessa Hood' in the rawest elements - my interests, my opinion, my life. It's a new year - it's time to stop sitting idly by and grab the bull by the horns. Lead the charge!

In regards to today, I have been entirely preoccupied with a personal project. I have alluded to or mentioned it by name in previous posts, but I've never once actually explained what 'Red Rogues' is. In a brief summary, Red Rogues is a collaborative project between Skye Braham and Vanessa Hood; chronicling the adventures of a trio of sky pirates as they traverse the world, treasure hunting specifically for profit as they seek to establish an infamous reputation for themselves. They get into much trouble and mischief, looting for fun and landing in many a sticky situation. Red Rogues saw its inception in September 2009 and was originally designed to be a fan-fiction for the Sega Dreamcast title 'Skies of Arcadia'. It grew so fast and had so little to actually do with Skies of Arcadia that it became its own original work juggernaut. My passion has always been for writing, so Red Rogues marks my first major foray into the art of writing a fiction novel. Skye Braham (who is, to be said, my best friend) has always been a drawing enthusiast and has been constantly improving her craft by documenting our stories in the visual art form. It is truly something beautiful to be able to create and share a world with another person on equal grounds. Her artwork and dedication to the project is not only highly appreciated, but serves as an excellent motivator to keep writing and work hard to ensure that our collaborative creation will someday find its way to the bookstore shelves. It has always been my dream to write novels - so it is without saying that this project will be my primary focus for the entirety of 2012. Everything else is secondary, for better or worse.

The two images that you see above are my first ever attempts at creating 'Character Biography Templates' - each will have a visual of the character and some important (though not entirely inclusive) facts on the kind of people they are. You may have noticed from their names - Vanessa & Skye - that they are exactly the same as their creators. Despite sharing the same first name and a similar likeness in appearance, they are entirely different people otherwise. I don't know about Skye, but I certainly wouldn't be kosher with getting into fights and stealing from people for leisure sport! I am currently working on the character template for the third main character in Photoshop CS4. That is on my main list of priorities to be done tonight.

To show how truly spontaneous (and totally inspired) this blog can really be, tonight I will dine on overstuffed Chef Boyardee ravioli. For desert I will eat a brownie with vanilla ice cream. Truly the markings of a rebel, right there.

Have a great night, all! Don't be too stressed with how others might perceive you... in the end, the only opinion that really matters is your own. Take pride in who you are.


Edit: In my conquest of encouragement and happy babbling of Red Rogues, I completely forgot to mention the other main event that transpired today! Look what I (finally) received in the mail! New pony shirt!

Octavia Nouveau by anjila (Red Bubble)

It seems at this point that I am starting a collection of pony shirts. I will most likely not get any more beyond these two, because my next order of business (as I'm sure Skye will agree) will be in designing our own Red Rogues T-shirts. Nothing would be cooler than an artistic representation of myself on a shirt! This shirt of Octavia joins the one seen below in the "I Feel Awesome Wearing This" catalogue of my wardrobe.

Fluttershy and Butterflies by Northern Dash (Red Bubble)

The fun has been doubled! A second bidding of a pleasant night-time to you all. <3

The World Is Saved: Gamer Music Video

Pretty much the anthem of my childhood. While I do not play games nearly as much as I used to (unfortunately, I simply lack the time, and now I've reached the point in my life where I am working on creating my own worlds to explore), they will always be part of my life in some shape or form. This video is a beautiful reminder of some of the experiences I had playing games with friends or by myself in the past. Some people might see video games as a waste of time, but I see them as an amazing interactive art piece. They all tell their own story (whether they're entirely cohesive or not is another point altogether).

My favorite video game series, as you may have guessed from the blatant praising in a previous post, is The Legend of Zelda.

Thanks for the memories. <3