Final Pre-Capstone N420 Blog

This will be my final entry before Winter Break and when I actually start my Capstone semester.  (With my car dying, this may be up in the air... but anyhoo ...  I wanted to address a few things that have happened in the recent weeks and the things i have learned in Beth's class.


First I'd wanted to say how pleased my 30 sec pitch turned out.  (For those unaware of what this is: http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/05/mastering-business-elevator-pitch.html).  I am also proud to say that i was on of the illustrious few who had enough time and foresight to create a business card as I had to take the bus to class that day because my car is dead.  (I'm currently looking to buy)  I planned my pitch perfectly and rehearsed the time frame.  About 23-27 secs because once you get into the room, time becomes incredibly short.  I looked up a few things on presentation and body language online. I also realized that I talk fast in that situation, but I had my game in mind, my target audience, a way to distribute my game and it would be cheap to produce because my idea is digital.  I was afraid that my pitch would come off too 'business-y', but that was sure fire way to go. Also, after the fact I was lucky enough to have to leave with my babydoll so that we could catch the bus together.  That was when beth asked everyone who had brought something to leave, to stay behind.  We had chance to have a person to person chat about our reviews, what we did right and wrong.  I even love how Beth let two people who had wrote a business card in there.  She scolded them a bit, but also kind of rewarded them for having that foresight.  And I feel for one guy who hand wrote his because he was in my boat dual wielding jobs (for you non-LARPers/gamers that means working two jobs :p)

I would love to hear from people who do this first hand, for me this was rather difficult for me.

Second
Fall capstones:

I was amazed how long that I stayed there.  Again,we had to take the damn bus, but we got there pretty early (me and my babydoll) And we asked a series of questions to a few students;

Nate Moody Christina Chapman Salvador Santiago

1) Why did you choose this for your capstone?
Further develop skills in storytelling 

I've been doing stories forever since I was little.  She was finally able to exspress her vision in illustrated and literal form.

He wanted to use his capstone for his ultimate goal of traveling and making it in L.A.

2)  What are some of the changes that you made between the original idea and what you are presenting today?
tried new things, def accomplished that

I wnated to have a tent, but she had to changer her room several times.  She only received plans for her room a week ago, so she recently had to change it again.

He scrapped the documentary he wnated to do because it was too large to do in a semester, it was also too expensive.

3)  What is your opinion of the timeline, and did it help?
 It was more guidelines that stirct.  It helped but he had to make many changes in the end.

Plan extra time !!

 It didn't work for him at all.  (He did completely scrap his documentary and redo his idea,)  He said his dates were too rigid.

4)  If you could change anything about your capstone what would it be?
 I wnated more physical materials, but it was 30$ for some of the art work alone.  (He had a number of computers set-up to show off his digital storytelling.  He also reserved his room early, he had the sign in front of the lobby.)

She had spent alot of money gathering the props for her capstone.  She had boxes and vials and a handmade map, and an expensive set of steam punk watches and keys. (Def for me part of planning is budget!)

He would have gotten more help from faculty and students

5)  What advice would you give to those planning their capstone?
He reserved his room almost on day one.  Don't overstretch, pick something your good with.  His friends did the 3-d work (which was a 3-d concept sketch of his characters in his comics.) 

She wnated more finished art work, more posters  (She spent at least 40$ on one).  be adaptable, don't expect anyone to help! Even for reserving a room from profs.!

He said to think more about the final project than the process.  (I took that to mean to not stress about all the small details.)

re AFTER CAPSTONE

I felt that going to capstone for the final was an awesome final project!  It was enlightening to see and talk with the other students, and to see what they have accomplished.  And because of Beth I noticed only FOUR of the capstones students out of many I talked too (I got a ton of extra credit (<<< also a good idea)) had bus. cards or anything else to take away form their exhibit!  

i definitely noticed a few things that I want to do for my particular presentation.  I want to create displayable art and bus cards (that I can get for cheap... I should make a blog about networking).  It was very inspirational and I think I took a lot more with me than just a business card.

I also really enjoyed Christiana's presentation.  It gave me a few ideas that I would like to see in Jes's presentation.  I hope we could afford to put it together, but I have plans, and we could beg borrow and steal stuff for it :)

W INTER BREAK and HAPPY HOLIDAYS~~!!

Yet one more update for the .xna framework

11-7-12

Today, Rob Miles (whose book I am studying Learn Programming Now .xna 4.0 Directed me here through twitter:

http://monogame.codeplex.com/

An open source group dedicated to taking .xna as it currently stands and attempting to implement it to well... this:

" What is MonoGame?
MonoGame is an Open Source implementation of the Microsoft XNA 4 Framework. Our goal is to allow XNA developers on Xbox 360, Windows & Windows Phone to port their games to the iOS, Android, Mac OS X, Linux and Windows 8 Metro.  PlayStation Mobile development is currently in progress. "

Hoozah!!  :D :D

xna on WIndows 8 continued 10-18-12

Links to more articles re the future of .xna on Windows 8

basically games will work, but won't be availave in the 'metro'

The Metro is basically a button and is one of the new center pecies that allows users to go directly to the xbox live games page.  Indie xna games made with .xna in windows 7 won't be offered

http://www.giantbomb.com/news/the-future-of-xna-game-studio-and-windows-8/3667/

A blog from a guy who has looked into some of this.  I still feel that money is an issue, and that in the future Microsoft will enable it for .xna
http://www.gamedev.net/topic/611534-xna-and-windows-8/

Another article confirming the articles above
http://thriftynerd.com/2011/09/no-xna-in-windows-8/


More to come....

Search for /xna and Unity

My Unfinished blog dedicated to researching software around my capstone and the future of .xna

Unity's Homepage
http://unity3d.com/union/

games created with Unity:
 http://unity3d.com/union/showcase



Argument against .xna:
http://forums.wpcentral.com/developers/180590.htm
Arguments for .xna:

UPDATE 10-15-12
As far as I have found out Windows 8 will continue to sell and link to Xbox live games.  Similar to i pads and the ability to use and purchase apps directly.  To the best of my knowledge, I think that Microsoft will continue to have Xbox live.  But they want to sue DirectX11, so they will have to tweak the C#/xna pipeline, or move on to something else.  C++ .... I feel that if they continue in either of those veins, It will not be a problem.  I understand the Math and general algorithm I need for my projects, and this is something that would happen to me eventually after I graduate.  Whether because of a new software, or a new console, I'll have to be flexible.  This is just a taste, but I am ready for it. 
But I am still searching for conformation. 

I'm looking for a page that basically says that Windows 8 does not support .xna ... yet  :)  IF anyone has any information, or an article, please send it to me.  I'd greatly appreciate it.  I'll update this as soon as I find out more.

Capstone Timeline

I really had a hard time coming up with a way to visualize my timeline.  I think it’s been one of the more challenging aspects of putting the capstone proposal together.  I doubt that I was the only one, but dual wielding jobs and going to school full time, I barely know what’s happening at the end of the week much less an entire year from then.  I had a good talk with Travis Faas and a few others and they helped me work out a my schedule.

  I can’t stress enough to talk to people who have seen and been through this process before.  They can help you put together a good timeline because they know what’s in store for you!

For my particular project, I wanted to create a game with .xna.  So Travis broke it down for me.  Right now, I have ‘til Dec to actually start my capstone, so for these coming months I needed to prepare.  I needed to gather art and supplies to create my characters and background to use for my game.  I also needed to learn .xna (and C#)  SO my goals became two fold.  1) Finish up all the concept art and flesh our and animate a character, one thug and a background.  2) All the while I will be working on a moonshooter for .xna.  I plan to complete all of this by Dec.  If I can figure that out, I have the basics to build upon to start creating the program for my fighting game.  Also, with my art done by Dec, I have a starting place, with one fully fleshed out and animated character, one thug, some background that right there is the basics for a game.  So come January, I’m will already be in a great spot to begin putting it all together before April 27^th. 

But before I’m done with that, I have a few other bench marks to hit during my capstone semester.  The main ones are getting the initial one player game, and the hit boxes running smoothly.  The next will be things like getting a person to help me with Music and SFX that have been considered.  I already have so much to do I’ll need the extra hands.  And If I can’t get help, I have some buffer time, and I can just skip some of the bells and whistle that I really wanted, but aren’t necessary for my game.  Like a minigame for example.

 I also have to consider marketing and budget. Like how can I go about creating things like business cards and swag to quite frankly, bribe people to come by and check out my game on my next to nil budget.  I do have a few ideas on to go about doing that … but I actually carved out some time specifically for researching some of these ideas, and time it would take to implement then.  For example, my old high school has a vocational print shop more than capable to print out some business cards, but it will take them quite a few weeks to complete.  But they work cheap and effectively.  I need time to investigate factors like these before I can make a decision.  And although it’s not required for a capstone, being prepared and ordering these in Febuaray as opposed to April 26^th sounds like a smarter way to go.  (And why I made it a bench mark during my capstone semester.)

The idea of a Buffer zone is an important and overlooked aspect.  For me personally, I carved out two weeks because I know what a shitstorm my life can be at times, and I doubt that everything will go as smoothly as I have carved out in the time line.  So these buffer weeks won’t be for vacation, there designed to make up lost ground.  Whether it’s in other classes, or if I end up having to move in the middle of this semester, (That’s another blog, but it almost happened) A week or two scattered throughout the capstone semester can only help me.  Any more than that will be detrimental, because I can’t have two weeks without working on this in some way, and any less won’t give me breathing room if something apocalyptic happens.

10-9-12 UPDATE:

Speaking of life happening, I just heard that .xna may not be supported for Windows 8.  There will be an xbox live, but the .xna pipeline may be cut short.  From what I can tell, I see that Microsoft is adopting C++ because of DirectX11.  This may change in the future, but there will be no Windows phone support.  I’m still looking into this.  If anyone has any info, please comment or share. 

Thank You,

 Billy

Link to Article:
http://forums.wpcentral.com/developers/180590.htm

UPDATE
I am currently looking into solutions re .xna Windows 8.  It still looks that x-box live and games created with windows 7 will work.  But I suddenly feel as if it's a dinosaur.  I am currently looking into Unity and the ....eep... price tag.  Also re-editing my budget and talking with my mentor and others to see if Unity is a plausible fit. 

Peer Capstone Support Group

1)  I feel my capstone would fit into a Web Game Development Capstone.  Games can fit into any kind of Animation, Interactive media and fits pretty well into any New media discipline.  I feel that anyone who is working with Flash or Animation would be a nice fit for me, because I can help them as much as they could help me.  A sound person I also want to make my capstone multiplayer and be able to be ran from a server so anyone can jump into a game with each other and anyone with a solid Computer Science background in web server programming would be assist me.

2) I plan to use Flash and Maya (I had few elements which I feel would be interesting in 3-d, in a 2-d game) such as characters and weapons.  I also wanted a 'bonus' feature where players could look at weapons and items and characters in 3-d still after completing parts of my game.  I'm still not sure what I wnat to use to create the audio.  I feel that this area is my biggest weakness due to lack of experience.  but I know Jessica Faux could def help me ;)
I would also display my game on a webpage (which as of now seems to be the best vehicle to deliver my project.  I am pretty proficient with the language, and I could connect my game to a web server and add additional features with php/mySQL such as a high score board and real saving.

3) I thought that these students may be fun and useful to group with;  Meredith Cudle, Rebekah Crowmer, Stephanie Hii, Prentiss Bryant.  But I don't really know who they are :)  Thier blogs were interesting to me.

Rules and Ideas for Super Hero Fighting Game (Idea #2)

9-2-12
(In prog)
Writing these out, I have already noticed a pattern and theme in my games that i want to keep going with, setting Indy, characters (my top secret ones, are recurring in all of my games and comics) and ... (insert more)... I would love to keep the theme going.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I have been thinking about this idea for a long time.  I even drew some prototypes for a few of my characters.  At this point 2 are top secret, and i will only release them when the I finish the game.

I have already created a 2-d fighitng game engine that i would love to utilize for this.  I haven't expanded it to a 2-d brawler (Like Double dragon or Final Fight)  where your super powered protagonist goes through the streets of Indianapolis beating down evil doers and stopping the chaos that was unleashed on indianapolis.

General Game Mechanics:

each character will have a unique move set, but a few can share these type of gauges that dictate how they use their special.

movement:
walk, dash jump, punch, kick, counter/block, special(fireballs, weapons, ...anything else)  Special attack

Stamina Meters:
The classic bar that measures how much abuse your character can take before they are K'O'ed  Different PC(Player characters) characters have different amounts of health.
Other characters have smaller meters, that you have to reduce to zero before they are K.O.'ed.  Bosses may have different color bars that reflect how much health.  For example, a boss may have a green meter instead of yellow.  That basically means they have twice as much health as a normal enemy, and after the green is depleted, then the yellow bar will appear.  The green could be considered a shield or armor someone is equipped with.

Immediately beneath your characters yellow bar is their special meter.  these come in a few flavors:
Rage Meter:
When it is full charged, your character will glow red and take and receive 10% more damage.  And when you unleash their special move/power it will deal 20% more damage.  It also charges faster than the infinite special meter.
Infinite Special Meter:
Charges slower, and when it it is maxed, allows a player to use their special.  with no Apparent change.  The key difference is when the player takes damage, the meter recharges faster and faster Allowing more and more use of their special.  And when the player's health is in the red (really low), that's when this really shines!  It allows infinite use of their super meter when tehy are in desperation mode, and then you are capable of chaining and comboing your specials together!  You could create a character who uses has a machine gun hadoken or a infinite laser beam that demolishes opponents and sets up some nice combos!

Rules and Ideas for Battle Clue (Idea #3)

(In progress)

      I wanted to write out my thoughts about one of my ideas out of my 3 for my capstone.  (500 words was definitely not enough)

     This will be a Adobe flash game, and I want to make it use a fighting game engine that i have created.  I want to create the art and characters and the board with flash.  Maybe even add a bit of Art with maya to create '3-d' in a 2d space.  But the main aspects of the game would be the player(s) [I'd love to figure out how to make it multi-player and run off of a server]  killer, and the other characters.  Like NPC's in other games.  I want it to begin with all of the players human and cpu and the killer in the Mansion or a locked room.  Similar to clue.  Also like Clue, I see this as a tile based board game, with a top down perspective.  When the player can see the halls ways and room and others characters except when they go into a room.


///////////////////////////////////////////////////// BATTLE CLUE (working title)  /////////////////////////////////////////////
Game Mechanics:
*The Game board  (a.k.a. The Mysterious Mansion)

The main idea is that the player moves around the board (dice or free move*), room to room. I also want to include some hidden passages and places to hide too, and the ability to interrogate/fight suspects and search suspects and rooms to gather clues. And maybe accidentally encounter the killer.  basically you cna talk to suspects and see if they'll jsut talk or maybe won't copoerate because there scared.  Or maybe force os the only alternative.... ** see Fight Mechanic

//  *  ////////////// I was having a debate here ////////////////////////////////////////
Dice or FreeMove?
I was debating on having a dice mechanic to move around the board.  I feel it may slow the pace of the game, but maybe if it comes down to you chasing down the killer from attacking another character, or hiding for safety.  Then the dice could be suddenly much more dramatic.  I still haven't figured out the best way for this to work.


The Player(s)
The human player(s) can choose from the familiar roster (Something i will probably change in the future i.e. Capt. Condiment, instead of Col. Mustard) of suspects to play as.  Once the game beings they start in the main foyer with the other characters as they all seperate to find the killer in their own way.  As the game beigns, it is possible to talk to other players and interrogate (mabye even fight)  but when you are in a room with more than one character, it is possible for others to join the fray.  especially if you decdie to attack one perosn, then the other 8 jump in to defend them.  You also begin with one (random) peice of evidence that points to the killer.  I haven't quite thought out the clues yet. 
Also the killer,(Or as the killer, you begin with one randomly assigned weapon, which will be determined as teh murder weapon and can lead to your imprisonment.  But you also have it starting out in a fight so you have an edge.)

*I'm also trying to figure out that after plying through the game once, if we could unlock 'the killer mode)  Where you have to go and kill the other players and escape without getting caught arrested or busted.

The killer:  Has a weapon starting out.  Can have others (including NPC's) attack him if they catch him attempting to murder another character.  Also the killer,(Or as the killer, you begin with one randomly assigned weapon, which will be determined as the murder weapon (Possibly the gun, though that sounds broke in this game because I picture you being able to fire it down hallways) and can lead to your imprisonment.  But you also have it starting out in a fight so you have an edge.))

** Fight Mechanic (a.k.a. the Battle part of Battle Clue!)
baiscally, if an interrogation fails, or if oyur attacked or you attack the killer, the result instead of beign settled w traditional dice could be settled with good old fashioned fisticuffs!

Looking at the Big Picture Outside Myself

9-9-12

DONE!  Only took 4 hours with everyone's capchas... but it was interesting to see how many people that are still struggling for ideas, or a focus idea..  (It's okay I understand that pain, it took me forever to figure  out what I wanted.)  I think I got everyone, but if I missed you, Billy Johnson  Let me know!

I thought the group discussion was interesting, unfortunately I go their late.  But I was still able to see what was going on and I got the gist of seeing students pitching their ideas to each other.  Alot of students had the tools and knew what they wnated to use (I bet that's changed since last week) but didn't really have an idea.  i.e.  I want to make a 2-d game with Flash ....  i want to make a level in UDK or Maya ....  and (this might sound bad) but it was kind of comforting to see so many people struggling for a project that defined them.  A lot of people have a tool like Flash or maya  that they are comfortable with and they obviously wnated to stick with that, but they still didn't have a core idea.  Other students had long elaborate pitches... not exactly a clear idea.  More like a vague idea (Kind of like me at first) and there's no way to pitch that to someone in a few minutes.  (And that's probably still too long) The 'elevator pitch' I felt was a cruel, but effective way to see if we really had a focused idea or were still graping for straws.  I think it caught us all off gaurd, but it was a nice slap in the face for us.  It got us thinking, at least me.  I honestly doubt I could have given a focused idea to someone about my project before that class.

Capstone Ideas

8-28-12

     It has been my dream to break into the gaming industry with my art!  But as my Herron career came to a close, I was learning just well I am at some of this programming stuff!  Since those baby steps into new Media I have had a burning desire.  I’ve always wanted to make a game that I had fun playing.  And back in the day, I remember passing the stick around the room as we watched each other getting are faces hadoken’d (And YES I’m using it as a VERB!) in. 

One of my favorite genres was the fighting genre (aka the button masher) Street Fighter, tekken, Final Fight (Side scrolling counts for me) Scott Pilgrim, Shenmue, Tales of Destiny or whatever they are calling themselves now, etc … But I always felt the games as a whole have done nothing unique or inspirational.  My fiancé hates them and says that they are boring.  On the outside looking in yes, all you see is one guy mashing wildly as King(from tekken) continually throws him to death.  Or you watch helplessly as your juggled to death. 

On the inside of the player,  it’s exciting battle as the throwee frantically searches for the right button press to counter and break out of King’s holds.  To a Tekken master, all it requires is a two button press at the right time instantly free themselves.  This counter system is something that is lacking to create a ‘true’ fighting game.  Tekken attempted it, where whoever landed a hit first could capture their helpless play in an in-escapable combo. Other games have tried, but I felt that it was too complex or not complex enough.

 One of my goals for my capstone game is to create a nice balance of reversals, counters, which anyone can do.  And I want to attempt to make those reversible as well… closer to a true kung fu or karate sport. 

I know what I want to use and how to create it.  But I have been struggling with a story for this.  I have characters that are fleshed out, and a villain, but I don’t have the story fleshed out yet.  I was hoping for a bit of advice and help on where I can go with this.  I was wondering if I could do a pole and see what you guys think:

1# I did want to do an old school one vs. one, but as my fiancé pointed out (who hates fighting games… boring, dumb plots.  But that is what I want to change) I want to do it, but again I feel it dry for a capstone.  I’m mainly lacking a good story for this one.

2# A side scrolling beat’em up w Super heroes.  (I still like this idea, but it goes against my philosophy of a simple, traditional fighting game.)   But this offers tons of opportunity for unique mini games and flash animation and I have been leaning towards this way.  I already have a cast w 6 playable and some background and story taking place in Indianapolis.  (I can explain this further in another blog cause this will be more than 500+ words)
http://awesomekyzoku.blogspot.com/2012/09/rules-and-ideas-for-super-hero-fighting.html

3# I also had an Idea of using the fight ‘engine’ for another game I invented when I was 12 called Battle Clue.  Basically, it’s the classic kid’s board game favorite clue, but when you look for clues you have to fight the others and eventually fight and subdue the killer.  But it would be a board game, and the fight engine would be called during investigation and arrest.  I need to see if you guys think this would be a capstone worthy idea.
Blog link:
http://awesomekyzoku.blogspot.com/2012/09/rules-and-ideas-for-battle-clue-idea-3.html

Bill's Capstone Log

8-21-12

What is a Capstone?

Over the years I have heard a few things about what a capstone should be.  Our final project, or portfolio piece that encompass our best skills utilized to create the piece that defines our work.  An animation or a game or a comic or a whatever.  Shows off our skills that make us marketable.  But I remember spending a lot of time figuring out what it is that I want to do, and if it will make me money or lead me to what will make me happy and successful.

I have always had a vision that I have had trouble expressing.  Even with my art and programming skills, I always found myself hitting the wall.  Coming up with a story.  It was nice to see that I was in a room full of people that had that problem too.   It took me a bit of time to see what I wanted to do. Even back as a Heron undergrad struggling with being able to use our artistic voice and coming up with something that was marketable.  I think I've always wayed that in some equation in my work.

For me personally, I think I have always had this problem.  When I was little, I had a pencil and a transformers coloring book or a game controller and an issue if Nintendo Power in my hand.  My passions were games (electronic) and art.  It took me a lot of time drawing, programming, drawing and playing games and reading fantasy adventure stories, and playing old school DOS muds (before every home and school had computers) and searching myself and finding what I wnated to eventually do with these skills and hobbies.  I studied art by itself.  I also studied programming, and both disciplines would always come back to haunt me or combine themselves to create something amazing.  And interactive art piece... a game always seemed to be the solution.  It only took me 20 years to figure out what I wanted to do. I want my capstone to be the epitome of that.

Today, I enjoyed hearing what Beth and the others had to say, about our voice and how our Capstone could be the final chance to do the project that we wanted to do.It reminded me of my own struggles figuring out what i wanted to do.  It got my gears grinding ...

This weekend I began going through some of my old sketchbooks (Not so much for this class, but mostly because i needed to clean the hell out of my apartment and unused art space)  I realized that I actually have been so busy with work and programming that I have nearly forgotten about much of my art and ideas that I had sketched out many semester ago.  ... I was inspired me to start working on some of the characters that I started waaaay back in Mat's comic class and before. But now I am trying to create a capstone that reflects my search for my art/and voice in programming ... No; interactive storyteller identity! And once again, a video game seems to be the best platform for me to do that and showcase my talents.

I think that they're a number of things that will keep me interested in working on this capstone for the next two semesters.  Simply, fighting gmaes have been one of my favorite genres, but on the outside looking in they are shallow (story line) and broing button mashers (my fiance's opinion)

My goals are to change that by attempting to add new techniques to the core game play, (ways to break out of infinite long combos, and a simplified counter system so that any one can jump in and suddenly join a kung fu battle of reversals and counters and the final strike!  And I want to give my characters a decent story.  I now what I want, but I have been having trouble fleshing out the core concept.  I have characters, but I have been struggling to make them into a cohesive story.  i do want legitimate fighters, not just you killed my father, prepare to die!  I want 'pure' fighters, but at the same time, they need a story that makes them ... not boring :)  I have a few more things to add but am already past my word limit.  More on this my next blog,
See ya next time