Week 3: In Which I Stop Humanizing Abstract Concepts and Assignments are Completed

Well I didn’t get a chance to play Shadow of the Colossus yet, nor did I attend the Great Canadian Appathon, I just had too much work I had to get done over the weekend (also it was my birthday, so I did do nothing for about a day). I first had to get done some business that took up about an entire day, but explaining that work would do nothing but bore you.

I got a start on some programming work this week, mostly in trying to set up scenes in Maya and getting them to work with physics in the game engine. I have yet to add in interactivity between a player and the game (making it basically a video) but it’s a good start. This way of importing objects, with physics attached, is much easier than what I was used to from last year, meaning we would likely be able to set up our entire game world quite easily.

Watch the ball hit the wall, see it fall. That is all.

In modelling news, since we got an extension I’ve managed to make it about two assignments ahead so I have a lot more time to work out some programming problems, and get those assignments done. I added in the head and hands and added a lot of geometry to the body, including making nice ear.  I also spent a lot of time cleaning up any polygons with too many sides and making sure no faces were intersecting each other.

I’ve also started working on a couple concepts for our in game menu system. I’m trying to decide between a traditional 2D style menu, where items are selected in a sequential list or a completely 3D menu, in the style of the main characters pocket watch, where items are selected from a radial menu.

To stay under our polygon limit I could only give him one ear.

This week I also worked on a new level design, with more easily implemented mechanics and staying within our new level size restrictions. I’m going to wait until I have a lot of level designs (and a scanner) until I post pictures of them, and make a blog dedicated to the levels. In addition to that I also tried to list out a good start for what we will need for our modelling assets; including various gear and pipe models as well as different designs for walkways and scaffolding. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep this list to a manageable size or I could have a lot of work in the future of our game’s development.