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ENTRIES:
[2008/08/28 5:34 pm]
Very little in the way of hands-on development this week. I'm packing up ready to go to Italy for four days, so development proper will resume after I get back to Cambridge on Tuesday.
I've been thinking a lot about audio over the last couple of days. I've managed to find a good source for license-free sound effects called freesound, which has helped me find most of the sound effects I'll need for this project. (If anyone knows of any other good sources I would appreciate the info!) I have some ideas of what I would like to do in terms of music. I'd prefer to get some sort of jingle or crescendo for starting the level, and another celebratory one for beating the level. However, I may resort to just having a basic melody played during the whole game.
Speaking of which, I'm in the process of writing a list of priorities for the development of this game. I have to submit a playable beta on 15th September, so it's important that I focus on gameplay and getting it working right now. I'm writing a list of 'rules' for gameplay, and looking into cleaning up the code to allow for multiple levels, and also have a level select screen. I'm only going to have a few levels in the beta version, but I need to make provisions for having 30-50 levels in the proper game.
For now, I'm off to pack! No access to computers for a long weekend! Shocking! XD
[2008/08/26 12:18 am]
Spent some time today implementing some clouds and other graphics. I also managed to code in some very basic gameplay, so that you can click on shapes to delete them and let the objects tumble down. I also messed with the physics a little bit in order to be more forgiving. I need to focus on the gameplay right now, and get it working properly as well as having a level-section screen. I need to submit a working 'beta' of the game within the next few weeks, so gameplay is the most important thing until then.
Most importantly, however, is that I 'tidy up' the data files at this point. I think I need to create a fresh new project file in Unity and rebuild what I have so far so that it's fully documented with good import methods and naming conventions.
[2008/08/25 12:03 am]
I've been working on a few graphical bits for Tumbledrop today. I've built a few different sized 'islands' for the shapes to fall on to, and I've also some work on background graphics. The thing I'm most happy with, however, is that I was able to make some animated water in the game:
(Please ignore the colours for now, they're too bright!)
I was glad that my idea for stylised water turned out okay, and I really think the constantly moving water helps it feel much more like a 'game'.
[2008/08/22 1:13 pm]
So, I've decided to make a game and enter the Unity Awards 2008.
As far as contests go, it's a bit of a long shot. There are people who have been working on their game for 12+ months, and some teams of people entering too, but that's okay. Hopefully it will be enough to push me to complete a project. I've decided to keep a development diary over the next six weeks to help keep me going, whether or not I succeed in completing the game.
This contest isn't really about winning. For me I will 'win' if I'm able to complete my game and enter the contest. That's my goal.
Here's my game design idea. This is my 'mock-up' of how I want the final game to look. The game is called 'Tumble Drop', and it basically works by having a pre-built tower of shapes, and you have to remove a specified number of shapes without the tower falling into the sea. Some of the shapes won't be removable. I have a long way to go before it'll look like this, and more importantly there's a lot of gameplay to code. I'm very new to Unity, and pretty rubbish with coding, so it'll be an uphill struggle.
...and this is how the game looks right now. It's completely non-interactive, you can't click on anything. You can just watch the physics drop the shapes into position. The part that does work, however, is that I've figured out how to get the shapes to change their facial expressions. Right now all the stars 'blink' a n_n face in unison, which is all animated in 3DSMAX. I also put some work in to make sure that convex physics objects work correctly, which caused some troubles at first. Finally, the visual appearance with the outer white stroke was something I was keen to get working, and it looks exactly as I planned it.
I've just sent off my 'entry form'. Sink or swim, time to give this a shot.Current Mood:  determined
[2008/07/17 6:58 pm]
Thanks to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dache, we have this sign at my workplace. :)Current Mood:  amused
[2008/07/11 10:39 pm]
Happy times with arcade sticks!
( moar pictures! )
And what have I been playing most of all recently? Sky Kid! ^o^
I'm excited about the fact that I have a completely free weekend!! I'm starting to feel comfortable in the new place. I'm going to work on some project stuff.Current Mood:  relaxed
[2008/06/27 12:24 pm]
Some blue korean drink shaped like a panda... not very good, but the bottle shape makes up for it.
I just picked up the keys for the new house, so now I just need to work on the rest packing, ready for moving over the weekend! Yosh! Of course, my laptop will be the very last thing to be packed.
[2008/06/22 8:13 am]
The office where I work is located in Cambridge Science Park, which is presently occupied by lots of baby bunnies. We see the bunnies every day as we walk to the office and back, and on Friday soundslikebuuu and I decided to take photos of them. (my photos didn't come out well, so this is one of hers. Check out more bunnies at her flickr!). It's a nice area to work.
So, speaking of the Science Park, I'm moving house next weekend so that I live much closer to work, which will save me something like seven hours per week in commuting alone. House moving is always a bit of a pain, to say the least. I'm looking forward to settling in at the new place though, and I think it will be much better. Many thanks to pinkapplejam for her bringing of boxes yesterday.
I'm doing lots of packing at the moment, and trying desperately to sell / throw-out / donate-to-charity as much stuff as possible. The house move is a fantastic opportunity for me to re-evaluate my belongings, and generally minimise the amount of clutter that I own. For example; I'm getting rid of all my PC stuff so that I'm mac only now, except for my laptop. I'm also going to massively cut down my wardrobe.
Right, time to get packing... o_oCurrent Mood:  sleepy
[2008/06/16 7:59 pm]
Rising Stars of Manga UK & Ireland #3 arrived in the mail today, with my comic 'Two for Joy'!
It was pretty cool to read the judges comments for my piece, as well as their comments for all the other comics (though, I would have been grateful for some more criticism than I actually got ^^; ). In fact, I was surprised by some of the criticism for the comics in general. Nevertheless, the cover (and back cover) look great with everyone's matching artwork, especially the main artwork from fuuringo. The comics look clean and crisp in print without any traces of moiré. It's an awesome looking book, and I'm proud to be a part of it.Current Mood: thankful
Current Music: Sexy Plexi (Jack Johnson)
[2008/06/13 12:22 pm]
I'm learning some new tools and techniques at work, and in doing so I made this. o_oCurrent Mood: amused
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