Progress Report

Since the final project is rolling around on my plate, why not make a post about it?

This time around I will be making a power core type thing. It will be contained in an industrial / techy factory. I hope to have a big 'ol button in the beginning that you will be able topush to control the "power" in the facility. This will turn on the power core and all the lights in the once dark area. I intend to have the lower areas go prety far down with some fog that rises from below all eerie and stuff. The core will glow all pulsy and such so that it stands out a bit.

Here are some sketches of the scene:

The Following are a few references pictures that I have snagged.

Progress Report

The minigame project went along somewhat well. I have made a dolphin and a fish, and currently you can interact with them. As it stands the game ends when you run out of time. You score points by throwing fish at the dolphin or petting it. I have run into some collision issues with the fish. If I use a certain type of object for the fish it does not collide with the dolphin. The issue is that the type that does not collide handles physics a little better, and is preferred over the other method which is less accurate. I hope to have solved this issue by thusday, but if not I will just stick to what works. My main focus will just be polishing up the game a tiny bit to make it more interesting.

Update

The project ended up having some rough spots that rendered me unable to complete it to my vision. It wasn't all bad though since it was definately a learning experience. I finished a post mortem today which covered the things that went well and the things that didn't in more detail. One of my main issues was time. I need to make sure to give myself more time when working with something I am unfamiliar with. We are currently working on a minigame which will be due this tuesday. For this project I am going to have the objective be to throw fish at a dolphin. If the player hits the dolphin they will score points. If I can figure out how, I'll make the dolphin move back and forth. There will be another big project coming up soon. This time around I will know a bit of what to expect and hopefully there will be a better outcome.

update

So the project is due on May 8th and I figured I would post a little update. I have most of everything unwrapped and textured except for one model which I am currently working on. Once I get the textures finalized I will be able to start dropping everything in torque and working on the lighting. I am hoping the lighting goes smoothly, but I am sure it won't be too bad. When I complete the project I will post some pictures of the end result.

Some progress shots

Ive got one building exported into torque without any issues. The rest of my work is a matter of finishing up a bit of 3d work, texturing, and then bringing everything into the engine and lighting it.

Another Quick Sketch

Heres a little something for this gear type thing ill be making.

A few sketches

Here are a few sketches that I drew up for my project. The one at the bottom is junk, but its good to show what didn't work i suppose. There is more junk work lying around somewhere but I am somewhat certain I am not going to be able to find it.

Reference pictures

Here are a few pictures out of a bunch that I have collected from random places. I feel these particular pictures inspired most of my ideas. I will upload the sketches fairly soon.

This picture below is pretty neat. I got plenty of ideas off of just this one.This picture below is a decent example of what my textures might look like.
Unfortunately, since I was kind of just throwing anything that caught my eye into a folder, I didn't catch any links or author names. If i figure out where I got these pictures I will add the details in.

Switch up

I have changed my track to art production instead. I feel that this will benefit me more as far as learning and just plain getting work done. I will make a few more posts with some reference material and sketches. I intend to keep things somewhat organized.... maybe.

Concept for level design

I have chosen to focus on level design for this project. The following is a summary of some general things I would like to include in my project.

I enjoy puzzles quite a bit, so I hope to include quite a bit of problem solving. I intend to have the level itself be an obsticle to the players goal, which is to get to the end. Maybe you win a delicious cake, who knows. Some puzzles ideas to start: trigger puzzles (simple or complex), gravity puzzles, key fetching, moving boxes appropriately, jumping, and finally some mixtures of the previous. To go into more detail the player could activate triggers that control different gravity zones. In order to advance the correct triggers need to be activated. A series of puzzles can be done to reach a key that opens the next area or an alternate area. The alternate area may be shorter, or it might just offer a different type of challenge. Overall I would just like a few interesting and fun challenges for the player to complete.