So we have a lot of things going on right now…I (Jared) have been coding up a storm this past week wrestling with Papervision, I’ll eventually win, but it’s a good fight.  Chau has figured out most of the server functionality and hopefully we will have our dedicated server up and running within the next couple weeks.  Deimler has been busy writing up a game overview and thinking of innovative gameplay ideas.  Todd and Tom are working together on the website, Todd designing and Tom coding, we should have some examples up soon.  Lastly, Kyle has been strugging with the WiiFlash API, hopefully we’ll have something figured out very soon to get the WiiMote samples up.

Week 12 Hours

This is a design I did previous to our meeting yesterday. Since our game has changed it will no longer work as our design.

Click the picture to see the new demo.  Press spacebar to spin the cube and use the arrow keys to move the dudes.  If you have WiiFlash, open the application and then run the demo, you’ll see the WiiFlash icon activate.

This is currently where I stand, implementing the new Fourmation ideas.  Right now, these are just the starting planes, I have it set up on a grid system where a single variable can be changed to fill in any number of blocks on each side.  The planes that are hovering over the block will be the only areas your character can walk on.  The object of the game will be to collect planes and create a walkway for your character to the opposite corner of your cube side.  In certain predetermined (and eventually randomly produced) areas, you will need a specific colored plane to be able to fill a space.  Right now, the boundaries aren’t set up, but over the next week I will be creating a class that makes the plane grid system and the boundaries dynamic for each player.

I’m going to be doing a lot of designing and coding over the next couple of weeks.  We have a very minimalistic design, so the only objects on screen will be your characters, the main cube, and the colored walking planes (some will be orbiting around the cube for you to catch with your wiimote and place on your walkway).

Though we are making some major changes to our game, we are still using the same structure that has already been built.  We are just moving in a different direction, rather than backtracking and moving on from there.  We are all extremely excited about our new game idea and very confident that we will be able to deliver a solid end product.  Along with the changes to our game, a change has come to our team.  Tom Bergamini has been added to the roster and is currently becoming familiar with our project.  We’re all more than happy to have him and know that he will contribute greatly to Fourmation.

For the next week, we will be building all of our new ideas, and continuing to build all other elements.  Chau is working on more multiplayer functionality, Kyle is cleaning up the WiiMote and head tracking code, Tom and Todd are working on the launch website, Nick is fleshing out more game ideas, and Jared is coding everything together.

Week 11 Hours

Our group met with Paul on Friday to discuss the gameplay for our project. We first broke down our intentions with the use of headtracking, explaining that we wanted to have the gameplay revolve around the importance of the headtracking otherwise its just a novelty that really is not needed. Paul made a good point that with the way the headtracking was going to be used for the first gameplay, a player could essentially lean to one side then not move for the rest of the game. He made the suggestion that the game be fast paced so a player would have to constantly move back and forth to see what the adjacent players are doing. The group agreed on the idea so once we were done meeting with Paul, we sat for the next 2.5 hours and discussed a way that the gameplay could do this resulting in our new (and much improved) game concept.

[Read more →]

This week I tried to get up to speed with the team and what was exactly going on.  I looked over the most recent code and familiarized myself with it.  I was able to get the game running and understood where all the appropriate files were located.    To become more familiar with papervision I found and completed a tutorial and tried to make a basic interactive papervision file.

http://www.thomasbergamini.com/fourmation/test1/example.html

http://www.thomasbergamini.com/fourmation/test2/example.html

My main goal for this week was to go over some ideas for the website, I researched other flash/papervision sites and came up with some sketches. [Read more →]

The Digital Media faculty was nice enough to order our group 4 wireless sensor bars.  We just got them, and they work…we no longer need Wiis.

Cube Walkers in 6D! from Chau Nguyen on Vimeo.

Sorry i couldn’t move more then one at once. We’ll film that one later.