high-rise-studios-blog

[high-rise-studios-blog]

Post-mortem

What worked

The use of Trello helped us to keep track of what work we needed to do, and what had been done in order to see the game to completion. Using this Agile methodology of project management allowed us to assign ourselves the work that we wanted to do, and prioritise it accordingly.

Having worked with a prompt sound student from the university helped us to pick sounds in advance, and making plenty of sounds to choose from, reassured us that we did not have to worry about that component of the game. The student also replied to our messages quickly, which was a great help to us in terms of communication.

The use of Discord for communication when we had no contact time, i.e. out of class, enabled us to keep in contact and keep track of what we have done, and answer any concerns we may have with the project, without having to wait for the next week of contact time. We were also able to report when we completed certain assets of the project were completed.

Being able to use GIT to commit and push completed assets helped tremendously to see real-time progress from the team from a remote location.

Having weekly group meetings/scrums helped us to report what had been done, and by having the face-to-face communication was extremely helpful as we can physically see assets and the game.

Texturing the models was relatively pain-free, as they were all completed relatively quickly (in a period of approximately 2-3 weeks), and they all showed as desired in-game.

The team worked hard to complete the game, although it might have not been as polished as we would have liked, we all put a tremendous amount of effort into the production of the game.

The assigning of leads to each team member worked well, as we all gave feedback on each others' work, and worked well in our leadership positions.

What Didn't Work

There were periods of time when communication was lacking on Discord, as when certain team members were reached out to, even with being mentioned with the '@', they did not reply for extended periods of time, for instance, there were times where replies were not sent for days, and sometimes not at all. This proved particularly frustrating and stressful when deadlines were tight. This was also evident in GIT at times, when team members forgot to push their assets, or forgot to put it up altogether. Having to chase up team members regarding this caused unnecessary stress.

Using Project Red Mine for bug testing was basically non-existent, as the test lead never knew what needed to be tested as there were no reported bugs, as the game wasn't in a state to report bugs.

The naming of files on GIT was inconsistent, making it difficult for the coder to identify what models should be imported, and what animations were where in the file hierarchy. This also lead to confusion for some of the other team members, as it proved difficult to find certain assets.

There were a few problems with GIT, as there were times when it didn't connect or sync properly, even though files were pushed. There was one particular problem where GIT reported certain file changes, but those files were not touched at all, resulting in not being able to push completed assets, unless on campus.

There were also problems with modelling in Maya, as the models were scaled differently depending on who modelled what, making importing these assets into Unity more time-consuming. There were also problems with rigging, as when the models were weighted, the weighting tool was not responding as intended, which delayed deadlines even more.

Not all team members attended out of class meetings.

The communication between art and programming, meaning the models were not scaled properly, and the textures could not be seen in-game also.

There was a large amount of scope creep closer to the end of the project, as some assets had issues, delaying the start times of other assets.

There was a disproportion of workload, as some team members only worked on one asset for the entirety of the project, whereas some team members completed several assets, along with having leadership roles.

What Can Be Changed for the Future

More communication between team members, ensuring all team members see and reply to messages on Discord, as communication is paramount to completing this huge project.

Having more consistency in file naming on GIT. A possible solution to this would be to write a document with guidelines that is highlighted in the initial folder on GIT on how all files should be named.

Meet more frequently throughout the semester in order to complete the game quicker, giving more time for bug testing, and polishing.

Try to manage scope creep in a more effective manner, as it proved that just by using Trello was not sufficient. A potential solution to this is increased communication, and a better understanding of the project as a whole.

A better distribution of the workload would be desirable for the future, so some levels of stress are alleviated for some team members.

[high-rise-studios-blog]

Hello! Apologies for the lack of blog posts lately, but for this update I have the completed unwraps of all the models completed. It took me longer than it should have and so for the remainder of the time left for this game I’ve got to finish strong. Currently, I’m working towards rigging these enemies so that we can create the animations to be put into the game. As it stands, the only enemy that has been rigged and animated is the pigeon which has been done by another member of the group. Once we have all the main work done and ready for a new testing phase, I will be able to gather clips of our game to start compiling for our trailer. For the trailer, I have only got a rough draft of a storyboard ready and so I have a rough idea of what I would like it to look like by researching other indie game trailers. That’s all from me!

- David

[high-rise-studios-blog]

This week I have had problems with GIT, as it is not working as it should, which means I am relying purely on the uni computers. Even with these problems, I have been able to texture the Shiba enemy, and I made a start on the SWAT character. I also did some tests in Unity of how the textures for the bomber pigeon and shiba, and they thankfully turned out really well!

This week I aim finish the SWAT character, what has now been made available of the main character, and the window washer textures.

- Tash

[high-rise-studios-blog]

Over the past week more enemies have been unwrapped, meaning I was able to continue with texturing! 

I have completed the texture for the Bomber Pigeon, unfortunately I have no screenshots of it, but it is done! I used Mudbox to texture it, as using Photoshop would have been difficult, due to the fact I can’t open the model on my computer due to it being Apple, and Maya not liking the change in OS.

In the coming week I will be texturing the dog enemy as it has been unwrapped, and will be starting on the “SWAT guy” once the unwrap of that is complete.

- Tash

[high-rise-studios-blog]

Over the past week I textured the clothing of the main character, as they are the only UVs currently available to me. I decided to do mainly flat colour for the main character (with the exception of the neckpiece of the scarf in image 2). The flat colour choice is because we are going for a more cartoon-style, and with the model being very small, excessive shading would make the character look too busy and difficult to make out against the background. 

David and I also brainstormed on possible trailer ideas, coming up with a rough idea of the storyboard.

Preparation for today’s play test proved difficult, as we encountered a few problems, of which all were fixable.

In the coming weeks, I will be adding textures to the new models as they are unwrapped, and any other work required to help the team progress further.

- Tash

[high-rise-studios-blog]

For this week, I worked on unwraps and the additional pigeon model needed for the enemies. I struggle hard with UV unwrapping and spending the week to learn to do it properly has taken me some time. I believe I’m now at a point where I can get them done to the point where you can actually tell that there is going to be a texture on that object. Some spots are still iffy to me and my inner OCD of having the checker pattern perfectly match the rest of the unwrap is messing with me, but for now, they are viewable. I’ll finish unwrapping the next models before the weekend as they will wanted before the play test, so that is my test until next week.

- David

[high-rise-studios-blog]

Recent work has been that of unwrapping and texturing level assests. The main model to texture is the Skyscraper itself, designed as seperate segments that we can spawn at random in order to add variation the appearance of the Skyscraper as the player falls. To stick to the game's design philosophy of gameplay being the utmost important, visuals are kept clean and simplified, keeping the screen clutter free and readable. Also it's impressive to see our game's asset folder start filling out!  

- Codie

[high-rise-studios-blog]

Over the past week I have completed the parts of the design document, started texturing the main character, and finished the survey questions. Hopefully I will have visuals soon.

Over the coming week I will continue to texture models as they are unwrapped.

- Tash

[high-rise-studios-blog]

This past week I have unwrapped the completed parts of the main character. I have separated the parts of the model that will have physics to have their own map.

- Brock

[high-rise-studios-blog]

A picture Bijan took of Codie and David working hard!

[high-rise-studios-blog]

Over the past week I have slightly shifted my focus on the written side of the preparation for the play test. I have started to plan survey questions for the play testers, and am writing my nominated parts of the design document.

During the coming week, I will work on textures as the models are unwrapped, and continue with the written components.

- Tash

[high-rise-studios-blog]

As UV unwrapping has been completed, I have been creating textures as required over the past week. The bottom two are colour variants for the flags, and the other two are background buildings, one being an opacity layer for the windows, and the other being the diffuse.

- Tash

[high-rise-studios-blog]

For this week’s work, I didn’t get as much done as I would like to have. I managed to fix up the modelling for the Shiba and so that is ready to be unwrapped. Moving on from the enemies, I created the base models for the weapons and I believe that they are coming along nicely. Being as they are not highly visible, the weapons will be of a low poly count.

In the upcoming week, I will hope to have the enemies unwrapped and the models for the guns to be nearing their final look or to be completed even. I’m still a little weak at my unwrapping skills so learning how on my own models should help me in the long run.

- David

[high-rise-studios-blog]

Worked on a couple UI icons today. Made weapon icons, health, ammo and some crosshairs. Evidently I got the wrong idea for “credits” listed among the UI on our Trello board as part of a currency mechanic in the game, when it actually referred to the closing credits. Silly me, I made money icons for nothing.

-Bijan

[high-rise-studios-blog]

Over the past week (week 6), I became very sick and wasn’t able to work on much, but I was able to work a little on the logo (not shown above). I have started to work on texturing, as the models are being unwrapped. Above is a variant for a flag texture, which will be on the side of the skyscraper, acting as an obstacle. 

- Tash

[high-rise-studios-blog]

Hey guys.

Working on a couple of the enemies for last week, I’ve created base models for the Shiba, Sniper and Apache. Working through these, I encountered difficulties with the overall polys for these characters as smoothing them caused them to go over the poly count we were thinking of (20,000+ big). So to fix this, I will be going back and editing the models more and seeing if I can get a better shape without the need for smoothing. Afterwards, I will move on to unwrapping these models and send them off to one of my team-members to texture. What comes after finishing the models for these characters will be the models for the guns that our protagonist will be using. Same method again by blocking them out and then adding the necessary detail required. Since these won’t be extremely visible, I am able to work with a lower poly count for these weapons.

That’s the update for the week from me!

-David

[high-rise-studios-blog]

As Design Lead on Skyscraper, it is an odd feeling to see a few ideas I randomly brainstormed within an hour flesh out, taking shape and becoming something that actually resembles a functioning game.

The first rough ideas that would eventually become Skyscraper (second image above).

Hastily drawn stick figures scribbled down to try and make sense of my own thoughts now take actual shape, mechanics and elements of gameplay begin to move about on screen and it’s uncanny feeling. - Codie