Sprint 11

Task List for the week of Oct. 14th - Oct18th
At the time of typing this, all tasks are to be done by me.

- Finalize story. This is going to be used for scenery and such.
- Come up with floor plans for various levels (Medium to Large in scale). Pick 1-2of said plans
- Start building those floor plans in maya.


Updated Milestone: Have a alpha version of the game completed by the 7th of November 

Lens Questions
Lens 31:
-What are the challenges in my game?

The challenges in my game are: Don't get seen by guards or camera and don't trip any alarms by walking thru lasers. Once you steal the loot and set off the alarms, you have to find your way out while the guards are actively looking for you whereas before they were not.

-Are they too easy, too hard or just right?

There is a difficulty curve to each level. At first, the guards are not looking for you and you have all the time in the world to make your choices and find your way, but once you set the alarms off by stealing the loot, you don't have that much time before the guards find you and kill you. The game goes from a slow, calm game to a frantic search for the exit before you die. Going from really easy to really hard creates a balance in difficulty.

-Can my challenges accommodate a wide variety of skill levels?

Yes. If the player feels that they are good at the game, they could purposefully trip alarms to increase difficulty, they could try to speed run each level also. If the player doesn't feel as confident, than they could play it at their own pace. There is no time limit so the player can take their time with the game.

-How does the level of challenge increase as the player succeeds?

Each level brings more guards, bigger areas, more cameras and less obvious alternate paths.

-Is there enough variety in the challenges?

although the challenges are not exactly good in the variety department, there is a lot that can be done with them to make sure the player doesn't get bored of them.

- What is the maximum level of challenge in my game?

The maximum level of challenge will be in the last level. As each level increases in difficulty, the last level is going to be the most difficult. How many levels i make will determine how near impossible the last level would be.

Lens 33:

-Do i have a triangularly now? If not, how can i get one?

Yes, the game has a system of triangularly. If the player chooses to make less risky actions than the player will have to plan out his or her path around the guards and cameras thus extending the total play time. If the player makes riskier actions like running into the guards and taking the shorter paths, than the player can ultimately decrease the amount of time spent on each level, but also increase the chance of failure.

- Is my attempt at triangularity balanced? That is, are the rewards commensurate with the risks?

Its balanced, but the rewards are small and not important. This has to be worked on later on in development. Maybe by adding a scoring system or extra objectives.


Lens 34:

- Are my players to be judged (skill) or to take risks (Chance)?

A bit of both. Players skill comes from there ability to micro manage their character and the player is to take risks like running across a hall way before being seen by guards.

- Is my game serious or casual?

The game is to be casual in the sense that anyone can beat it and have a good time with it, but its also going to attempt to create a seriousness about it.

-Are part of my game tedious? If so, will adding elements of chance enliven them?

No doubt parts of the game will be tedious, but adding elements of chance will not fix that problem, it would most likely only make it worse.

-Do part of my game feel too random?  If so, will replacing elements of chance with elements of skill or strategy make the players feel more in control?

No, my game is not random by any means. There is no random map generation, no random guard and camera location generation, all things will be static and constant. Maybe a few guards will be patrolling, but their paths are set and also constant. 

Sprint 10 Task List and Milestones

This task list is for both Sprint 10.
Each task on the list is to be done by me. It will be updated if teammates join.

Task List:
1. Come up with the base story for the game.
2. Find / create character models for the playable character and enemies.
3. Find / Create models for cameras and laser walls.
4. Begin making all characters in Unity.
5. Begin construction of the first level in Unity.
6. Find / Create textures for the walls, floors, and doors for the level.
7. Bring it all together in Unity.
8. Find / Create / Import Sounds for the game.

Although things on this task list are vague, it is all i can do at this point because the game was just conceptualized today. As time goes on, the task list will become more specific.


MileStones:

First off, i would really like to have the game in working alpha by the 22nd (12 days away as of the writing of this). If i could get that done i would be rather happy.
I would also like the game to have at least 3 levels to it. These three levels be completely different in size, difficulty and scenery.

Game Concept

The player plays as a theft that is trying to steal money and things from other thieves. Before every level, the player has the chance to look at a blueprint of the level to think about all the possible paths they could take to reach their goal. The player is to sneak past guards, camera’s and laser lights to get to the safe that is containing all the loot. After the safe is breached, the player has to get out (Returning to the start) while the guards are on high alert. The guards will shoot on sight, forcing the player to have to make quick decisions under pressure. This is to also changes the gameplay speed and flow.

There are no combat aspects to this game (except for the guards shooting at you). The game is to focus solely on making medium to large sized maps filled with guards that are strategically placed, and giving the player the tools to get passed them all and get their prize. Guards and camera will be obvious and their fields of view will also be obvious, But it is how the player is to get past them and interact with them that will not be obvious. Design wise, the ultimate goal is to make it open ended enough so that the player has multiple ways to accomplish the same thing.

This game is 3D, and it will be from a 3^rd person view. This will allow the player to see the surroundings and allow them to calculate their next move.

Things needed to make this work: A playable character, standard guards that have simple A.I., Cameras that will start an alter if the player gets into their line of sight, a safe that contains the loot, laser lights, a way to turn on or off the laser lights, the levels themselves, and visual assets for each of the above. 

Link to tutorial: http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/stealth

Sprint 9

In this sprint we were asked to look through the lenses of focus, lens #3: the lens of fun, and lens #15: the lens of the toy.

Lens #3: The Lens of Fun

What parts of my game are fun? Why?

The games primary focus is in combating large numbers of enemies, thus the fun is to be found in the combat. The combat is fun because the way that the game is set up its so that you are an old god that has extraordinary powers and you are put against humans that have no powers for the first few levels. It’s a case of just cutting them down to get to the next stage. The mass carnage, mixed with a challenging array of enemies, that would make the average person feel accomplished.

What parts need to be more fun?

The parts that could be more fun are the exploration, scenery, and story. These are more difficult to accomplish because we have a pre-established story that's not as flexible as the combat aspects of the game. Although the scope of world environment is not as widely changing as some games, the exploration of that setting is flexible. If done right, it can be a very enjoyable aspect of the game. 

Lens #15: The Lens of the Toy

If my Game had no goal, would it be fun at all? If not, how can I change that?

Yes, without a goal this game would be massively entertaining. Imagine a world environment where you could just go around smashing things. This interaction is a very common thing. If you've ever played through a Grand Theft Auto game, you can relate the ability to ignore missions and go on a killing rampage to our game if it had no goal. 

When people see my game, do they want to start interacting with it, even before they know what to do? If not, how can I change that?

We believe that if a random person were to walk past a computer terminal and see this game open would then be instantly compelled to play the game not even knowing what it was because the game is visually unique and appealing and the game also has a unique combat system that is very different than most other games. 

SPRINT 9 TASK CHART
     Task                                                  Status                                           Who

Coding	In the works	Rob
Collecting and implementing assets	In the works	Jason
Game Development	In the works	Rob / Jason / Jack
Story Development	In the works	Txema / Jack

Sprint 8

This portion of development is known as E-prototyping. Our team got together and collaborated about which game mechanic we felt required the majority of our focus and we chose the combat system, but more specifically the individual damage modifier system. We built our E-prototype in Flash for ease of use and it's inherent ability to use object data and dynamic text.

we broke down our task list into things we believed would be doable in such a short timeframe and came up with this breakdown.

We quickly set off to accomplish these tasks but found that we had bit off a little more than we could chew. After a weeks time and some careful consideration we came up with this task list

so we went about compiling elements and putting them together and this is what we came up with. our first screenshot shows the start screen with the start button on it's "up" state.

next we have a similar image of the button on it's "rollover/down" state

next we took a screenshot of the prototype in action, displaying the player's attack cycle, also showing the attack button on it's "rollover/down" state

next we showed a similar screen with the attack button in it's "up" state and the enemy going through it's attack cycle

finally we took a screenshot of the game completion screen.

Sprint 7

This game prototype was built with D&D mini's and poster board to show the fighting game dynamics. We chose to use die to initiate the number of enemies as well as to roll for combat damage. This control structure will allow our team to build a coherent combat system without the need to further scrutinize this process and carry it out into our E-prototype.

Sprint 6 Flow Charts