week 2 semester 2

Updating all of the blog from the various notes made over the course of the project so far, making a effort to constantly update this blog for the remainder of the project.

The map is mostly stitched together now. Scripting the level is going to need to be planned quite meticulously, the experiment suceeds or fails based on how consistant we make the NPC.

I think the best way to do it at this stage will be to take the top down maps of the areas and create a path for the characters based on it.

week 8-10

Having terrible trouble getting the textures from Portal to work in the Episode 2 engine. I am sure there is a way to do it without using gcfscape to extract from the GCF files in the source directory, because the textures from portal are available from somewhere within the SDK folders. If the textures just simply aren't compatible with the Episode 2 engine for whatever reason, it wont be too difficult to create some suitable textures in Photoshop later.

Not a terrible problem at this stage though, still in the greyboxing stage. I've decided to rebuild the level in a modular way, by using interconnecting corridors between sections it will be possible to quickly extend the level section if need be later without it looking artificial.

Started researching the Legacy of Kain series for examples of character design done well.

Week 7

Changed the layout map of my section of the level, still trying to find a comfortable balance between the length of the section and amount of information being introduced to the player. too much is going to create more variables, too little and the section wont have any affect.

I am considering keep it short, but having a couple of important events. Considering we have to force an affect on the player in a short amount of time anyway, this seems the most appropriate option.

week 4 research

Examined the book Games Design Complete by Patrick O’Luanaigh. The book covers the importance of a character being believable aswell as making the important distinction between believable and realistic.

It also gave a useful case study of a few characters such as solid snake and sonic the hedgehog, providing extra context.

I think this will be a useful source later on, when considering whether or not our characters actions make sense.

Weeks 4-6

Created the documentation for the level. In order to make sure that we had consistency in the build, while we were in separate places over the summer, I made sure that the document had set sizes for rooms and doors. Plus a brief rundown of what sort of aesthetic was needed from each area.

Starting the build of my part of the level, the underground lab. I started by researching real world labs, as well as using Kyle’s research on the underground facility level from goldeneye.

Week 3 Thoughts

Started prototyping level design builds, slacked a bit on written work, but in general still on top of things. Other work is building up now, so I intend to at some point over the weekend get everything I want done, together in a couple of days, so I can focus on other things for a while.

Building the prototype was a good chance to get back into hammer, could of done without the 4-6 hours spent fixing program because it broke since I last used it, but whatever, better to have it working now, than broken when I really need it.

At some point i'd like to have a sit down and actualy talk about what our final question should be, we have enough potential tests that we could probably choose a final 3, the look at the variables for them. I dont think it's perticularly profesional to just say, this is the one we are doing, and sticking too it. Which is why I didnt agree with kyle when he said we had a finished question.

Also dont get why we are doing personaly reflective overviews of what we did during the week on the TEAM blog, that seems like something much better suited to our personal blogs. As in effect it is useless clutter, every week 5 posts saying "this week I did the stuff that we just spammed of the page telling you what we did"

Week 2 thoughts

Burning ahead at quite some speed as a group. I find that most of what i've done this week is jump about from one thing to another, prehaps its a side affect of it being such early days but i'm finding it difficult to focus on one thing, and when I do im never satisfied its actualy going to be beneficial to the project so I put it aside to "work on later".

Although there is so much done already I dont feel perticularly bad about this, i'd rather use an extra week and have something I know is going to be useful, rather than rush something out i'll just look back on with disdain later.

All in all, this being the start of week 3 im hoping we will start to have something solid coming together by the start of week four. For now my personal goals are...

1: Get everything started in this week posted/distributed.
2: Get a working tech prototype of at least 2 editors we could use for the project.
3: Check through ALL of valves developer commentary for usable qoutations, I know from previous projects that they are a goldmine for that sort of thing.

First

First week of the project, not much to do yet. Just setting up the framework for everything.