Well we have come to our first major change in You Die First. After hearing the advice and suggestions of our Executive Producer, Carlos, and Art Director, Derek, Moscow Lightning sat down and discussed the partner system in our game. After some deliberation, we've decided to cut the partner system in You Die First in an effort to appeal to the "Lone Badass Gunfighter" concept. We feel that this will result in a better story and game play overall. No longer will the player be held back, so to speak, by his partner sidekick, but rather will take his vengeance on The Chavez Outlaws all by himself. This will give the player a greater sense of power and responsibility and also play to the classic Western theme in an exciting way.
I'm really excited about where the game is heading and I can confidently say that it is going to rock!
Sean Hamstra
Project Lead
Moscow Lightning
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
I never want to live in Hollywood....
You know whats hard? Writing a screenplay, I do not envy the people who do it for a living. It almost makes me think about forgiving the people who wrote Matrix 2 and 3... nah...
We should be having some concept art and level layout up on the blog soon. Depending on when we get the concept art and when I feel like updating :)
-Anthony Lundquist
We should be having some concept art and level layout up on the blog soon. Depending on when we get the concept art and when I feel like updating :)
-Anthony Lundquist
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
'Till Death do us Part
Not much has happened this weekend pertaining to our game, but we did (mostly) hammer out what happens when you or your partner dies. We had a long discussion on whether we should have a revive system where if one of the two characters die, the other can revive them some how or if we should have the player go back to a checkpoint if one of his two characters died. In the end we decided to go with the "If you die, you are dead" approach, but to balance it we are going to reduce damage dealt to the character you aren't currently controlling.
In addition we are reevaluating if we should have rag-doll deaths for our game. Our Executive Producer (EP) says that they would take too much work, therefore we are going to look heavily into the PhysX API and seeing if it is reasonable to implement it within 3 months.
In addition we are reevaluating if we should have rag-doll deaths for our game. Our Executive Producer (EP) says that they would take too much work, therefore we are going to look heavily into the PhysX API and seeing if it is reasonable to implement it within 3 months.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The Polls Are In!
Well, I'm pleased to announce that Moscow Lightning will be creating "You Die First"! (still a working title) The producers decided this would be a better choice as there is simply a lot more we can do with it. I really think it is a great overall idea and we are all very excited to dive in! We've begun working on our alpha publishing document with things like the Dust Jacket, Level Description, Art Style and other various topics. It's time to hit the ground running, yippee ki yay!
-Sean H.
-Sean H.
Pitches
Well we have our pitches in about an hour, wish us luck! Heres hoping we don't get Barbies awesome adventure.
-Anthony Lundquist
-Anthony Lundquist
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Pitches Continued
Hey guys, Sean Hamstra here.
Our second game idea is a 3rd Person Western Shooter. I'm a huge fan of Westerns and our team has come up with some great elements to the game that we're all pretty excited about. So here's the rundown...
"You Die First" (working title)
Story:
The main character is a sheriff in a classic Western town. His best friend was killed and wife was kidnapped by a large group of bandits that raided his town. The sheriff and his trusted deputy find out that the gang is held up in a nearby town. They have overtaken the entire town and destroyed any sort of law and order. The sheriff and deputy decide to take the town by storm in an effort to free the hostages and find the sheriff's wife.
Duel Mode:
The Duel Mode in this game is one of the key features that will help you along the way in defeating numerous enemies. We have a Duel indicator bar that slowly charges up over time and is boosted through killing enemies. Once the duel meter is full, it can be activated to enter the Duel Mode. While in this mode, everything in the world freezes and the camera zooms in a bit on the player producing a cinematic-type view. The player then has a few seconds to quickly click and target up to 6 locations on the screen. As soon as the time runs out, the game unfreezes and the character does a quick draw and almost instantaneously shoots each of the marked locations providing a truly awesome Western scene.
Enemies:
The enemies in the game will all essentially share the same AI system. This AI system will utilize "duck and cover" self preserving logic. We plan on having many objects that can be used for cover that both the player and the enemies can duck behind and pop up and shoot from.
Partner System:
We also plan to implement a partnering system in the game. Since the story is based on the Sheriff and his Deputy, it would be sweet to control both, right? Well we thought the same thing! We also wanted to give each character a unique weapon. So both the Sheriff and Deputy have their own six shooters, but also the Sheriff wields a rifle and the Deputy carries a shotgun. The rifle would be great for ranged and precise shooting while the shotgun will really pack a punch for close range combat. At any given time the player can control either character by simply toggling between them. When one character is active, the other will follow a similar AI to the enemies except he will keep in close proximity to the active player in an effort to help him out.
Health System:
Our health system is similar to a potion system as the player can hold a certain amount of health containers and use them at any time to restore some health. These "health containers" are actually, what else but whiskey bottles! I mean it is a Western, right?! To add a little extra to this system, if the player decides to use a few too many bottles of whiskey, a drunken state will occur which will result in some funny controls and/or camera.
That's a pretty good taste of what we have going for "You Die First." Be sure to check back soon as we'll be pitching both games tomorrow morning and will know by the end of the day which game our Producers wish to support.
-Sean Hamstra
Our second game idea is a 3rd Person Western Shooter. I'm a huge fan of Westerns and our team has come up with some great elements to the game that we're all pretty excited about. So here's the rundown...
"You Die First" (working title)
Story:
The main character is a sheriff in a classic Western town. His best friend was killed and wife was kidnapped by a large group of bandits that raided his town. The sheriff and his trusted deputy find out that the gang is held up in a nearby town. They have overtaken the entire town and destroyed any sort of law and order. The sheriff and deputy decide to take the town by storm in an effort to free the hostages and find the sheriff's wife.
Duel Mode:
The Duel Mode in this game is one of the key features that will help you along the way in defeating numerous enemies. We have a Duel indicator bar that slowly charges up over time and is boosted through killing enemies. Once the duel meter is full, it can be activated to enter the Duel Mode. While in this mode, everything in the world freezes and the camera zooms in a bit on the player producing a cinematic-type view. The player then has a few seconds to quickly click and target up to 6 locations on the screen. As soon as the time runs out, the game unfreezes and the character does a quick draw and almost instantaneously shoots each of the marked locations providing a truly awesome Western scene.
Enemies:
The enemies in the game will all essentially share the same AI system. This AI system will utilize "duck and cover" self preserving logic. We plan on having many objects that can be used for cover that both the player and the enemies can duck behind and pop up and shoot from.
Partner System:
We also plan to implement a partnering system in the game. Since the story is based on the Sheriff and his Deputy, it would be sweet to control both, right? Well we thought the same thing! We also wanted to give each character a unique weapon. So both the Sheriff and Deputy have their own six shooters, but also the Sheriff wields a rifle and the Deputy carries a shotgun. The rifle would be great for ranged and precise shooting while the shotgun will really pack a punch for close range combat. At any given time the player can control either character by simply toggling between them. When one character is active, the other will follow a similar AI to the enemies except he will keep in close proximity to the active player in an effort to help him out.
Health System:
Our health system is similar to a potion system as the player can hold a certain amount of health containers and use them at any time to restore some health. These "health containers" are actually, what else but whiskey bottles! I mean it is a Western, right?! To add a little extra to this system, if the player decides to use a few too many bottles of whiskey, a drunken state will occur which will result in some funny controls and/or camera.
That's a pretty good taste of what we have going for "You Die First." Be sure to check back soon as we'll be pitching both games tomorrow morning and will know by the end of the day which game our Producers wish to support.
-Sean Hamstra
Monday, February 9, 2009
Feb 8th and 9th
The team worked on finishing up our slides for the Dress Rehearsal on Tuesday and our Pitches on Wednesday.
We also hammered out a few features for both games:
Khepri's Tomb (FPS)
Fatigue system: instead of bullets we will be using a fatigue system for our ammo. As your character fires it's weapon, the fatigue bar will fill. Once the bar is full you can still shoot your gun, but it will drain your health.
Enemy Types:
We will have four different "basic" enemies. First is a little bug like enemy that will come from spawn generators throughout the level. the little buggers will keep coming from the generators in a attempt to attack you with their claws. Also when these guys die they will explode. Second we have the basic "pistol" enemy that will shoot at you from a medium distance. This enemy will also attempt to hide and run when it's health gets low. Next we have our shotgun enemy that will attempt to get close to you to deal max damage. If this guy is too far away from you he will attempt to charge you to get a close shot. Last we have our assault rifle enemy that has a long range weapon so he can stay farther back while shooting at you. Also if you attempt to get close to this enemy he will run away so that he can get some distance between you two.
Boss:
Lastly we have the big boss of the level. Our boss is Khepri, the Scarab god of the sun in the form of a... well, a giant scarab. This boss will be able to walk on the walls and the ceilings in addition to the ground. While on the ground the bug will attempt to charge you. If it hits it will deal massive damage, but if you manage to dodge it the bug will open its wings revealing it's fleshy innards allowing you to deal extra damage. While on the ceiling the bug god will release a bunch of the mini alien guys that will attempt to attack you, diverting your attention from the giant scarab.
Sean H. will be telling you about the western later
-Anthony Lundquist
We also hammered out a few features for both games:
Fatigue system: instead of bullets we will be using a fatigue system for our ammo. As your character fires it's weapon, the fatigue bar will fill. Once the bar is full you can still shoot your gun, but it will drain your health.
Enemy Types:
We will have four different "basic" enemies. First is a little bug like enemy that will come from spawn generators throughout the level. the little buggers will keep coming from the generators in a attempt to attack you with their claws. Also when these guys die they will explode. Second we have the basic "pistol" enemy that will shoot at you from a medium distance. This enemy will also attempt to hide and run when it's health gets low. Next we have our shotgun enemy that will attempt to get close to you to deal max damage. If this guy is too far away from you he will attempt to charge you to get a close shot. Last we have our assault rifle enemy that has a long range weapon so he can stay farther back while shooting at you. Also if you attempt to get close to this enemy he will run away so that he can get some distance between you two.
Boss:
Lastly we have the big boss of the level. Our boss is Khepri, the Scarab god of the sun in the form of a... well, a giant scarab. This boss will be able to walk on the walls and the ceilings in addition to the ground. While on the ground the bug will attempt to charge you. If it hits it will deal massive damage, but if you manage to dodge it the bug will open its wings revealing it's fleshy innards allowing you to deal extra damage. While on the ceiling the bug god will release a bunch of the mini alien guys that will attempt to attack you, diverting your attention from the giant scarab.
Sean H. will be telling you about the western later
-Anthony Lundquist
Saturday, February 7, 2009
First Week
To get everyone up to date on what we have done so far, here is what we have done so far this week:
First we had our groups chosen for us based upon the type of game we wanted to make. I got put in a team of six with a bunch of people I knew I could get along with.
Once all the groups were situated we all started to brainstorm two games that we would pitch the next week to our "studio bosses". They will then choose which of those two games we make.
The first of two games (so far) is a first person shooter set in Egypt. You are a tomb raider that gets trapped in a pyramid and knocked out by a mysterious figure. You wake up later on in a chamber with a weird biological weapon that uses your strength as its power source. This weapon feeds off of you and the enemies it kills to change and evolve. You must use this weapon to escape the pyramid while fighting off the mysterious creatures that put this thing on you in the first place.
The other of the two games (so far) is a third person shooter set in the wild west. You play as two gunmen that must rescue a town from a bunch of rowdy bandits. You can switch between the two gunmen which each have their strengths and weaknesses. A major feature of the game will be a "Quick Draw Mode" where once activated the game temporarily freezes and you are allowed to place targets on up to six different targets, once time is up your gunman will shoot wherever you targeted.
That is the basis of our two games currently, more will be posted about them as we hammer out the details
-Anthony Lundquist
First we had our groups chosen for us based upon the type of game we wanted to make. I got put in a team of six with a bunch of people I knew I could get along with.
Once all the groups were situated we all started to brainstorm two games that we would pitch the next week to our "studio bosses". They will then choose which of those two games we make.
The first of two games (so far) is a first person shooter set in Egypt. You are a tomb raider that gets trapped in a pyramid and knocked out by a mysterious figure. You wake up later on in a chamber with a weird biological weapon that uses your strength as its power source. This weapon feeds off of you and the enemies it kills to change and evolve. You must use this weapon to escape the pyramid while fighting off the mysterious creatures that put this thing on you in the first place.
The other of the two games (so far) is a third person shooter set in the wild west. You play as two gunmen that must rescue a town from a bunch of rowdy bandits. You can switch between the two gunmen which each have their strengths and weaknesses. A major feature of the game will be a "Quick Draw Mode" where once activated the game temporarily freezes and you are allowed to place targets on up to six different targets, once time is up your gunman will shoot wherever you targeted.
That is the basis of our two games currently, more will be posted about them as we hammer out the details
-Anthony Lundquist
This is a Blog
I plan to use this blog to keep everyone (who wants to know) up to date with how the game development is going for my final project. I plan to update at least once a week, hopefully more often than that.
-Anthony Lundquist
-Anthony Lundquist
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