How Do Artists Do It?

I must say, making Pretend pretty is quite a chore.  Because I'm a programmer, all of the animations are going to be two or three key frames for now.  I'll find someone to inbetween them or actually redo them entirely (because you know my digital art skill sets aren't quite there yet).

Err... that's a Nerf gun.

This is my sorry piece of work for the first idle frame for the boy.  Even though I've got a wacom tablet, I still suck at this sort of thing.  They're just too small to make brush strokes pretty!

The Alpha test that is currently posted will be the last Alpha test.  The next version to be released will be the first of the Beta tests.

Testing in Mobile

So we're almost ready to actually making it look pretty!  I've got the PC controls and mobile controls working, a lot of bugs pertaining to winning the game still remain, but the mechanics have been hashed through and are decent enough to enjoy the game.

 

A screen shot of the Pretend being tested in Device Central.

The mobile controls obviously won't be available for testing here, only the PC controls will be published.  But as you can see in the image above, there are two "input zones" as I've been calling them.  The zone on the left is always jump (except it goes inactive when you become the bird) while the right adapts to be the special move (also becomes inactive when you become the bird).  To move forward and backward, you tilt the phone in that direction.

For what it's worth, I was super proud in getting the accelerometer working properly!

It's a Mobile Game?

Why yes, yes it is!  Pretend will become a mobile game for the iOS in about two weeks when I finish up the new controls, but I'll be having this game available to be played on my personal iPhone at the Portfolio Review on September 13th, 2012.

After the new controls are made available (there will still be the testing versions for the PC here), I'll be fixing the collision issues.  I've known what they were for a while, I just need to find the time to getting them.  Lots of projects!  Also, the issue with the back buttons were solved.

Apparently the movie clips on the main timeline didn't like having simple buttons in them.  All is well though, I solved the issue by turning the simple buttons into movie clips and then just programmed the hover states myself.

Unfortunately, I don't have anything pretty to show just yet.  Come back in a week or two, I may have something updated then!

[Resolved] Hosting Issues.

While relaxing on vacation, I made the astonishing discovery that my computer has nothing fun to do on it.  It has all of the necessary programs to do my work, but nothing fun to play.  Not a single game.  So I played around on designing some graphically pleasing images for the main menu (if the main character is a six year old kid, I'm sure I can draw like one).

So my point is that I've got alpha version 1.7 available, but my website host is having issues and I cannot upload any new files.  So you and I will just have to wait to play the new version.  Sorry everyone!  Here's an enticing picture, instead!

I enjoy the font very much.

Update

I talked with a customer service representative today regarding my hosting issue.  The issue is actually unrelated to the hosting service.  Something must have bugged when my desktop updated to the most recent version of Java.  My laptop, a school computer, and the representative all had no trouble accessing the account.

To solve the problem, I downloaded an FTP program to avoid working with Java applications and successfully uploaded alpha version 1.7 to my server.  There's new bugs in my menus now, but ... LOOK AT THE PRETTY BIRDY!

NaGaDeMo 2012 Result... AND BEYOND!

Participating in this event made for a good start on a potential portfolio piece for the team members.  Now that we're no longer constrained to this crunching deadline of the National Game Development Month, we can pursue other goals we had set for this project.

Unfortunately, this game won't be considered a "winner" in the event because we never got to the Beta tests since the artists didn't make their deadlines, and I still had tweaks needing to be tweaked and there was a large hole where the testers ought to be (we could definitely use more feedback on the game).

However, next week is the first week of July, so everyone can take a more official vacation without having to worry about the game.  I'd like to resume the production of Pretend on July 9th; we'll all be back in school for the summer session and it'll be a lot easier to get together for the meetings.  The fact that all of our meetings were online and half of the team on summer vacation definitely made things a bit more difficult.

Thank you, everyone for your hard work.  I'll see you in a week!

This Is a level concept (A Really LATE One)

Well this is probably late but here's what I had so I had something to show. I don't know where the others are but here's a level outline. Its a panorama of the entire level without the platforms and stuff. The blocks that Tessa made will be the platforms and stuff, instead of just sitting there in left side of the level.

Of course you will be going from the left part to the right. The left hill representing your bedroom and the right hill representing your kitchen in the real world of the game.

This is late but at least I had something before it was  too late and also i got backed up with a lot of work this week and last week so, sorry.

Beta Delayed, but...

The Beta Tests will be delayed until further noticed due to the art and audio assets not being finished. The scope may have to be cut again if these deadlines are missed by a long shot.




In which case, I'll still be running Alpha tests anyway since you can see that not all of the programming is finished either. We're on the last week of the National Game Development Month, so the members of the team who are still with us are nailing down their assignments.




It also just happens to be Summer break from our school, so that sort of killed the motivation from some of the team members.




However, we're lucky to still have a 2D artist, Dylan, who has come up with these sprites as character concepts based on our earlier discussions.

         

You also may have noticed some changes in the level, such as the addition to blocks. There are four kinds of blocks you'll see in the game, and only these three have been implemented so far:

         

The red block is a special block that can only be destroyed by ramming it with the bear's special move, fire fists.




The green block is a special block that can only be destroyed by the boy's special move, shooting it with a Nerf dart.




The black block is a special block that can be destroyed by any special move.




The blue block is a special block that can only be affected (not actually destroyed) by the dog's special move. I've been thinking of changing the dog's ability to be able to walk through things (phasing), like Kitten from X-Men or D.L. Hawkins from Heroes.




Also, I believe those horizontal platforms are working much better now! Here comes the wind-down!