Synapse: Big Game Project Post #5

So, the project was pretty much deemed a train wreck. We finally got a chance to show off our game and get people to properly play test it, but the players were unimpressed, not only because we were so far behind on implementing our features, but also because the core mechanic of the game just failed to entertain. We had a chat within the group about trying to start over with a new game, but the idea was ultimately rejected […]

The Runes of Kalevala Developer’s Blog IV – The Quadrille of Antropomorphic Amphibians

FROGS
This track is a quadrille about frogs. Frogs of great power and poor manners.
It’s just a short outtake but it’s showing the direction I’m heading with it. I’ll be adding some slower parts and switch up the instrumentation some for the later bits. Again it’s all just performed by the power of MIDI and this project just loves to point out the flaws of that approach.
Basically everything we’re trying to accomplish with this game hinges on a level of authenticity […]

The Runes of Kalevala Developer’s Blog III – Wolves of Unusual Size

On the fourth week of development we came to the conclusion that we needed a battle theme for the wolves of unusual size running around the forest of our vertical slice.
I composed this rather breezy piece of 60s spy movie scented folk rumble of which I’m rather pleased. We still can’t afford the licenses to use actual Kanteles on the lead melodies so I’m using a harp which doesn’t sound even remotely like a kantele. But the one available instrument […]

Vecka 5

Av Emma Mörk.
25/4-2016
22:05
Sigrid Svederoth

Jag började den här dagen med att ha ett kort möte med alla medlemmar där jag frågade vad vi ville prioritera nu fram till alphan som är i slutet av veckan. Vi delade upp arbetsuppgifter och diskutera lite av de sakerna vi hade fått under speltestningen i fredags. Flera personer kom med väldigt bra feedback och idéer så vi började diskutera de lite.

Har mest hållit på med programmering idag, som finjustering och […]

Playfest

Tomorrow is a day of playtest and also a day where I will do a minimum amount of work just to be able to take in the feedback of the current version from today. During this week I’ve been adding larger events due to the lack of said events at the alpha presentation.
Since I haven’t figured out a good way to do the events, they’re hard coded and I’m ashamed. Hopefully the playtest will provide good feedback.

Show who’s the alpha!

During this week we have been working on providing content for the alpha and bug-checking. However, when the time came for alpha I noticed many things that needed fixing that I was blind to when I worked on the code. Characters appeared where they weren’t supposed to, music just kept playing when it was supposed to stop, not enough larger events, etc.
From then on all focus was on bug fixing the things we had and to provide content to show […]

MVVM- XAML – WPF – What?

It’s been a busy time for me. Mostly because I’m trying to learn new stuff, but also because I want to learn the new stuff in a right manner. In my previous post I started using WPF – Windows Presentation Foundation on a new interface. I used the designer and just created the GUI, and did not write a single line of code. I created the GUI based upon how I would do it in a Windows forms application.
Later on I […]

BGP Week 2 – Venus Slimetrap

During the second week, I started on the game’s main challenges, the special platforms that the player has to work with or around to move ahead in the game. The first one I ended up finishing up was the Venus Slimetrap, a platform inspired by the infamous Venus flytrap plant.
The Venus shroom is a simple construction, working by detecting if the player collides with it, and if so triggering a bool that starts a count taking in deltaTime. Once it reaches […]

Mushy textures! And more!

The third week was spent texturing more things, such as these mushrooms. Again I worked in Zbrush. Diffuse maps were done by: Lisa WS
Click to view slideshow.
I created some more models for the game. Some tree mushrooms that both characters can climb, that will also serve as decoration in some cases. Then there are the leaves that are platforms for the light character, Lumi.

Relatively longer this time.

So a few days ago i set out to implement controls on Terra that allows it to walk upp vertical walls by pressing upp on the joystick and respectably down by pressing downwards on the joystick. And This ledd to some reworks in the controls of Terra and how it logically works.
Most of the work is in Figuring out logically how it will work together with the other code parts. This will Take some time but hopefully it will be […]

Alpha build

Last week was Alpha presentation, where we showed Symbiosis to a jury of testers for more in-depth feedback, and another playtest session is scheduled for this friday before the beta presentation next week. We have, to put it short, our hands full. I will thus not go into very much detail on my recent work, and instead give you a short update on the project.
 

Screenshot of Symbiosis in it’s current state
 
 
The greatest gameplay change since the pre-alpha has been the […]

BGP Week 5

Week five has passed and a lot has been done. These are some of the things I have done:

Update Iron and Stone models
Made the thing that holds the elevator on the island
New ground grass texture
Made two landmarks for the jungle
Set up 3 light presets for our day and night cycle
Plus some smaller stuff

Here are some pictures