Presentation finished, Demo - nearly!

Okay, Presentation is done - read it here:

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWu12LJfJsACZGM3bmgycV8wc2dkNTh2aGs&hl=en_US

Demo's showing off most of what I need, but can still be improved in a few ways!

Off to Melb soon!

Research Project Update

I have been working on my Research Project more and more recently - though with job applications and Clo wrapping up it's been hard.

I have started writing up my final presentation and once it's done, and I know exactly what I want to show with my project - I will start really focusing my project towards that. Not to say that I'm going to be delaying work on the project in favour of the presentation.

Topics I want to cover in my Presentation:

Behaviour Trees vs. Scripting

Pros and Cons of BTs

Creating tools to aid the creation of BTs. (Tool Investment vs. Ease of Use)

Optimising BTs (esp. with multiple entities using the same BT)

Interesting BT uses. (Genetic BTs)

Conclusion

So yeah, going through and writing that now!

Research Project Update

Hey guys, update on my research project.

I had a big break from it - mainly because I was focusing on the group project (too much, perhaps) - but, it has come to the time when I should have started really digging in a month ago, so I'm still, as always, behind.

I started looking over my project again about 2 weeks ago - looking at areas where I could improve, and the implementation I have now is not very good.

The choices that leaders and people seem to make almost seem random because of the ridiculous number of factors I've implemented (usually only affecting one-off choices too...) - and so it doesn't really seem like there's much AI at all - there's no cohesion.

Similarly, many interactions within the game don't make sense, for example, when a natural disaster strikes, it cuts off Tech Trees at a random point in the city's investment - wiping out not only say, road infrastructure that makes sense, but... also potentially the civilisation's knowledge of making musical instruments.

Similarly the code is starting to get bloated with poor planning and one-off variables and functions that don't do much. It's getting hard to expand upon.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that my current project is stupid because I rushed in, just trying to get the programming done - rather than properly designing the system and the data/choice interactions... which frankly, if you're coding AI - seems really obvious. My bad.

So, I'm going to be redesigning my AI system from the group up - paying particular attention to all the relationships and the effects of choices like I should have been. Similarly, I will design my rulesets now as well, ensuring that every variable in each AI entity has a significant purpose. If I want to code in intricacies, I can do that when I'm done.

Similarly I'm thinking of coding a program to create Behavioural Trees. For example, a simple drag and drop interface and such. While this might be a risky detour, it could potentially benefit me a lot in the long run.

So, see how that goes!

Clo Prototype is finished!

Hey guys, remember that not-very-fun Clo prototype?

Well, we spiced it up a bit!

Play it here:

There are 3 resolutions to choose from, you'll need the Unity player.

http://edibleweapon.wordpress.com/protoypes/

I am the Lead Designer from this project - most notably, I designed a couple of the levels and mechanics, as well as making design decisions (or at least bringing them to the attention of the group. I like to make sure everyone has their input.)

As we develop the game (now that we're done prototyping), I will be designing far more levels, and hopefully bringing some more mechanics to the table - to ensure that the gameplay experience is exciting, and frankly amazing.

Have fun! I hope you like it!

Update on... me!

What's up guys?!

I just want to update you on what's happening with me and my video game designing and such and such.

Currently I am in a bit of a high work period.

I have the programming task which has been in my recent updates, which I'm still behind on. I'm going to try to dedicate 2 days a week to it until it's due. That should catch me up.

Clo

I am mainly focusing on a group project for college - where the project is to make a complete game. My group's game is called "Clo". It's a puzzle platforming game based on the idea of changing the seasons around you to manipulate puzzles within a level.

We ended up with this as our final prototype that we submitted to the industry:

http://www.mediafire.com/?7odlo2ka4ew59al (Also included is our pitch presentation)

Copyright blah blah.

We went in with high hopes as the teachers and students seemed to like it, but, it didn't actually perform so well. The judges did not think that the prototype was fun - but, those are the breaks!

Their main suggestion for improving it was "Add more mechanics" - which we were planning to do anyway, so it wasn't so bad!

Either way, we're still struggling through the prototype. During the holidays, the group programmers did a substantial amount of work, now it's just down to finishing it up, and resubmitting the prototype this week.

Hopefully it does well this time!

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Captain Catnip and Challenges

I have found I am starting to enjoy prototyping and implementation more than typing up long hypotheticals on game design.

It is much more effective to code up a mechanic, and test it - rather than typing up how you hope it will work, and then finding it doesn't.

Plus, it's something you can really show people, and it makes me feel happy because I am programming. I enjoy both programming AND design - I don't like to focus on just one.

Anyway, each week I try to set myself a design and/or programming challenge - a few weeks ago I made the game "Captain Catnip" - it was a 7 hour, 40 minute prototype made by just me - and it was mainly made to see how fast I could code a game in Unity, rather than as a big design show-off.

That said, it does give some insights into design - such as, why boids need a lot of work to be a fun game mechanic - and not just something pretty to watch.

Here's Captain Catnip. Copyright blah blah.

http://www.mediafire.com/?w4v80757boi4h77

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Digital Alchemy

My project for this last week of the holidays (as said, I spent the first week focusing on our prototype), has been to make a Forum Adventure game. I am making it with a friend from my high school, another aspiring game designer.

Forum Adventures require no programming, and are mainly a design exercise. Also heavy on writing.

In fact, the first games I ever made were forum adventures, so this is a nice "back to my roots" exercise.

Forum Adventures are a fun genre as they are limitless - you give players the situation, and players say what they want the characters to do. Players generate their own content, and running these is an amazing way to study players and how they wish to interact with the environments presented to them.

Click here to check our Forum Adventure named "Digital Alchemy".

http://pokemon-universe.com/index.php/topic,3311.0.html

My forum name is Level5Pidgey, and my friend (Shadowfred) helps out mainly with pictures and behind the scenes as we decide the plot and what happens to the player.

It starts slow, but, the most recent part of the story details the main backstory to the game, and one of the main mechanics which is crafting. Upcoming are stats, and battles.

So far the whole experience has been great - as said, studying players!

The biggest thing I've noticed are that, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

I used to operate under the idea that, if you subtly hint to a player what they should do - they will probably get the idea and take your bait, while not feeling forced into it - but, as I have found, sometimes they just want to pick up heart rate monitors and smack guards around with them.

As said, I'm learning a lot about players - and something I really want to try to work out, is a solid method for both offering players as much control over the game as possible - while still telling a linear story that you set out.

Will be interesting.

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Pokemon Universe Balance

Pokemon Universe is going great on the balance side. We have set up a testing server for members to test on, and they seem to be having fun with the balanced Pokemon metagame.

We seem to be 40% of the way through, so, cool!

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Game Design Pitch - A History of Asskicking

I held another AIE Game Design Comp - and I submitted this game idea.

I hope you like it.

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Challenges

Anyway, so, I will leave you with a list of challenges I wish to carry out in the future:

- Make an RTS in one day.

- Make an Escape-The-Room game in one day.

- Make a Single-Button game in one day. (Bring it on, Tiny Wings)

- Try to make a fighting game in one day.

These challenges are meant to challenge me design-wise, and programming-wise. So, I'm sure I will fail a couple of these, and many challenges I set for myself in the future. But that's okay, because I'll be learning from my mistakes and successes all the way.

If you have any suggestions for challenges, send a message or leave a comment.

Still behind on my research task.

Okay, it's been another month, and I'm still implementing the core framework for my research task.

I can't say I'm proud of that.

That said, I'm really starting to make progress - I've started working (as in, occupation) less, so I have more days free to program, and my progress is much faster than what it was a month ago when I was working 3 days a week, at AIE another 3, and I just wanted to have fun on the last day.

The progress I'm making on the task is also becoming more and more fun, so, I'm enjoying the programming more than when I was just starting out.

So, hopefully it's full steam ahead from here.

Update on Programming Research Task

I haven't started implementing much of the framework for my research task, which is a problem since I did plan to have it done for the 25th (4 days).

So, I'm a little behind.

What I have done however, is implemented A* - which will be useful for Tree navigation, and I've started researching heuristics for specifically trying to take into account how likely it is for a research to lead to other research paths down the track.

So, if a political goal was researching C, and further down the line they wanted to also research D - they might take research A, which leads to both - rather than B which reaches C quicker, but now not lead to D.

I am programming this task in C# - because it is extremely quick to get off the ground. I already have a simple GUI going, with inputs.

The only issue is that it is slower than C++ - so, my efficiency calculations will have to consider this. It is possible that as C# and C++ are pretty similar, I could try to quickly port the code over, and test it on C++ as well.

I am using XML for the research trees - and loading in of other data items, for example, "Area" templates which define temperature ranges, local materials and such which define the initial products that a civilisation can create (such as rice, fruits, and metals).

While, again, XML is slow, it only really needs to be loaded in at the start of the application for skill trees, and, depending on whether I allow the saving and loading of past simulations, they can be accessed on the menu screen when selected.

On the plus side, XML is very quick and comprehensive to edit.

To make up for the time I've lost, I'm going to implement a very basic skill tree, and expand it as I go.