For the past week, I have finished the Adobe Air tests that we will need to package the game. This included putting a papervision 3D cube into flash, then exporting it as an Air Application to be downloaded and installed. I also created custom window options in Air that allows the user to minimize, maximize, restore, and close the game. The maximizing is essential so the game can go full screen. Another important factor is the scalable graphics. Just as a test example, I made a gradient that scales when the screen maximizes, which works just fine.

Level design is also nearing completion. I made 2 final sequences and then had the group decide which one they liked. Both had their strong and weak points. In the end, we decided to re-think the final sequence which I will be working on for next week.

Here is a link to my individual post

Hours worked: 9

This week, I worked on many different areas of the project. I spent the most time creating concepts/designs, and doing research. I developed a concrete identity for the project with a logo that the team really likes. Now that the color scheme, logo, and overall feeling of Fourmation is nailed down, it will help the entire team develop assets.

Another major thing I finished this week is a preloader concept for the application. The process helped me further my understanding of Papervision and how to control it with a tweening engine. The engine I decided to use is TweenMax. I have used the engine in previous projects. By comparison to other tweening engines, TweenMax is the fastest and the easiest to use.

And finally, I made a in-depth tutorial for making your own infrared LED head-tracking glasses.

Now that most of our initial conceptual and testing stages are nearing completion, the major production is about to begin. I plan to spend this next week creating menu designs and starting some heavy Actionscripting. Our concepts for every aspect of Fourmation are really original and exciting and I can’t wait to build them all.

The main thing I did this week was write up a sick nasty tutorial about how to connect your WiiMote to your PC using WiiFlash. Within an hour of doing so, my tutorial was featured on the front page of WiiFlash’s official website, along with put in their tutorial section. We’re already getting comments from people all over the web about the tutorial, project, and WiiFlash in general. So this is great, and it’s getting the Fourmation name out there.

During our meeting we came up with a few tweaks to Deimler’s 3rd game sequence, and overall it was pretty productive. I’ve also been messing around with getting Collada models to work in WiiFlash with headtracking, and thanks to the people over at Mad Vertices for posting up all their source code I’ve kinda figured it out.

Since none of the stuff works on the web, the sources are posted below. I also have the stuff I posed up before if you want to try it out. This is just one big zip file with all the classes you need all set up.

Basic Papervision cube with WiiMote D-Pad/IR Support: [cube_finished.swf/fla]
Test Collada headtracking: [Wii.swf/fla]

[DOWNLOAD]

This week was hectic for me in terms of everything. I didn’t get to spend as much time on this project and it became kind of a down week but i promise I’ll bounce back.

The first thing we did this week was i met up with Jared and Kyle on Monday to toil around with the Head tracking and Wiimoting that Kyle figured out. Unfortunately, Macs are a whole new ball game and we only were able to pinpoint that Macs are horrible machines. (Eventually Jared got it fixed but we’re not sure how. That’s part of my task next week)

Unfortunately, due to transportation problems (my car died and i was left stranded in Manayunk) i could not attend the thursday meeting. I sent the team what i was working on for that day in an email.

As for what i did get done this week. I got a skeletal layout of what the entire menu system will need in the game. For all the splash screens in my menu map.
You can check out a sample here. As i mentioned in the post this might be the last week where i’m heavy wall of concept and i will begin to dabble in coding in preparation for the game time.

Enjoy.

This week I put a lot of time into evolving the opening visuals / interface for the game. Our overall themes have been reworked a few times over the past couple weeks so I focused on encompassing every ones input and design concepts into one cohesive package.

I created a rough concept of the opening animation. It uses the new logo and is in space. Because our came cube will appear as its own planet in space, that background was chosen for consistency. The final menu that floats their will be programmed using the Papervision technology so the user will get a similar experience they would have in the game play as well in the main menu area.

After our next meeting I will be able to gather all input and begin programming the HUD.