Jeffs Final Blog

Ok this is my last blog as I have gone home.

I tryed to get the girls ion the best position that i could before i left wellington. I was having trouble scripting the trasition between level 2-3 and 3-4. I followed the tutorial and used there code to get from level one to level 2. But i couldnt quite figure out the other trasistions.

So what i have done is set up all of the levels and the main menu. If all else fails an it all turns to shit. Tubs can just open the unity file and open each level. The different stages of the character are also in each of these levels. So you will be able to see the stages of the frog and his animations. (I Hope).

So I habe basically tryed to get the basic template and leave most of the mesh placement to the girls. I have tryed to get this far. I have faith in Tubs and what she can do! As she has been with me for the last week. We have been working pretty closely on it. I must say that it is much easyer and alot faster when there are two of you working on the game at the same time. For example i needed a new pipe so i just asked Tubs and she had one ready for me in under an hour. Fully textured and it looks great! So yeah.

I love the Game!!!

Jeff logging out . . .

Animations

Here are some short clips of the animations of Tuff.

Enjoy!

Stage 3 Walk Cycle:



Stage 4 Animations:












Jeff Logging out . . .

Thursday - Progress

We had a team meeting yesterday, to talk about the game and what i had to get done before leaving on saturday. Tubs and I as the remaining group members. Figured that i would like to have the games frame work set out and working. So then Tubs just has to place the meshes and make the level look pretty.

Whose wearing the pretty pants now Tubs? YOU!

Also all of the meshes and files that Kirsty has given me have not been able to be placed and used in unity. I have no idea what is happening and because she has done it all in maya i have NO idea!

Here is a list of what i am aiming on getting done by friday night:

• Character Animation Switch
  
• Camera Switch
• Level Switch
• Main Menu
• Game HUD
• Basic Fame Work of the Entire Game
  

Here is a list of what i would have liked to do:

• Enemies
• Cut Scenes
• Gradual Damage
• Death Fallout Areas

Here is a list of what i would of enjoyed doing if we had a complete group the whole time:

• Underwater Vision Scripting
  
• Moveable objects
• Collectible Items
• Maps
• Comprehensive Game Menus

Jeff logging out . . .

Wen - Progress

After yesterdays what ever about the lab and other stuff like that, I came back after 5 to do some work on my character:


Here are the other two stages of Tuff. With their final textures and stuff. They have also been rigged and animated. I only have the swim, walk and idle cycle for Tuff with legs. Then i can tak them into unity and get the transition between them to work.
I think that the four meshes are very similar and look like they are the evolution of Tuff. I like them.

Jeff Logging out . . .

Friday - Jeffs Progress

I have been working on the weight painting of the frog stage of the character and his animations:

Here is a sample of the walk cycle. (Its a bit hard to tell how far off the ground he is but with the shadow in unity it will be cool.)

Other animations i am working on:
Jump
Attack
Swim

Well on friday i did a test with some kids. Here is the Email i sent Jennifer Cochrane (Mum):

Dear Jennifer Cochrane,

Here is the link to the game. If it works just refresh the web page after each kid has had a go and the game will reset.

www.jeffreycochrane.com/tuffbetatest/Platformer_7_2_7.unityweb.html/

So just install the player and hopefully the game will work if not don't worry about it. I have attached a folder with some images i would like the kids to have a look at and could you tell me their reaction to them. I have included some simple renders of Tuff (The main character) in his final form and the spawn stage in the 1st level.

Order of testing:
Tell the kids the story and then ask them if they would like to play a game like this. Don't show them any images or anything. Then show them the images in the folder. Ask them what they think about them. Then let them play the game until they get to the bottom of the tree.(Through and past the mushrooms, and around the tree for abit). Then ask them the questions

The Story:
Humans are dumping waste into the water. All of the frogs are dieing. Your name is Tuff and you are the last of the frogs. You must stop the humans dumping waste into your water or you will die. You start as a frog spawn at the top of a mutant tree. Work your way to the bottom. As you go along you will evolve through the stages of a frog until you finally become a frog.

Would you like to play this game?

The questions:

• Is it easy to navigate around the game? Why?
• Do you like the colors and aesthetics? Why?
• Do you think that the controls are easy? Why?
• Is the game too easy or to hard? (Jumping between the mushrooms, moving around the tree without falling off.)
• What would you change? and Why?
• What do you like? Why?

The controls:
The mouse is used to look around
w = foward
a = left
d = right
s = back
space = jump

Intent:
I'm just testing the use of the camera and the basic controls of the game. Not the level design or the lack of meshes or things in the level. How the basic game play works. And if it needs tweaking. Can the kids navigate around the game easily without too much hassle.

Could you also put in your views on the game from a teachers perspective:

• Do you think the kids were navigating easily?
• What would you change?
• What do you like / Dislike? Why?
• Other
• Do you think that the game would be better if the kids had no control of the camera. It was just a fixed perspective 3rd person. With the kids able to move the character forwards, left, right and back. And a jump and what-not?
• Ideas.

If the game doesn't work just ask them the questions and show them the images. Some feed back is better than no feed back. If the game doesn't work txt me and when i get to school i can take and send more images of the level and stuff.

Cheers, Thanks a bunch!

Here are the results:

Evaluation of Game

Sam 5years old, Angel 7 years old, Elliot 10 years old

Sam and Angel both liked the sound of the game and would choose to play it.

Elliot: story sounds cool, but the idea of being a frog doesn’t appeal much

Images

Frog

Sam: like the frog with its tongue sticking out. The feet and body are like a ball. Its eyes are bulgy

Angel: Good graphics – don’t like the bit at the end of the tongue. I like the way it’s jumping and the way that the eyes have been created

Eliot: The frog made me laugh – it looks funny in mid air! I like the webbed feet

Egg

Sam: I like the egg, but the colours are a bit dark

Angel: the egg needs more colour, so the tadpoles stand out more. It’s a little dark

Elliot: I like the transparency. Colours are a bit dark

Other images

Children not sure what they are. Could locate water and ground. Dodn’t know what sunshine looking image was

After playing the game:

Sam: Moves to fast, I keep losing my place. Hard to use buttons

Suggestions: make the game slower.

Make the tree go to an island

I want to find a pond that hasn’t been polluted

Can I have a button where I can go back to the start when I am lost?

Angel: It’s easy to navigate (used buttons W, A – didn’t use jump). I just walked off the edges.

Colours – they show what you’re up to. The green is good.

Easy controls – easy to remember

I didn’t see any mushrooms. I walked off the edge of thetree to get to the bottom.

Suggestions: egg needs to evelove more as the journey progresses

Should put in flies to help you evelove. A tadpole also needs water to survive – you should have to go near water to keep going, and the egg should slow down if it has been out of the water for a long time. In this game, it keeps going at the same speed without food or water and they shouldn’t happen!

When you get to the water part, it should look polluted – that water looks okay to me!

Elliot: It’s hard to look around because the camera moves too quickly and is hard to control.

The ground is good – I like the texture. The red in the tree is weird.

Suggestions: Need activities to do to make it more interesting. Close to end of game, Tuff could find a female frog, because in order for the frogs to survive, need a female!

Teachers Perspective

Angel and Elliot navigated through game easily. Sam had a lot of difficulty coping with more than 2 buttons and speed of game.

What would you change?

Slow down speed – or allow controller to slow speed.

Have more landmark bits along the tree to help children navigate. Difficult to know where in the tree you were.

Like / Dislike

Like the idea of the game. Graphics were cool – especially underwater, hills etc.

Got dizzy and lost in the game. Need more educational features eg: Angels idea of catching flies a good one. Needs to evolve, but children need to do things to make it evolve – whether it be visiting water, answering questions, finding flies. Difficult for children to see things were polluted. What is Tuff doing to actually change the environment? Does he need to get to certain places to “win” something that stops humans destroying water? Have a game at school where they have to catch cockroaches, but have to answer a question after catching so many to evolve……

Kids love having control of the camera. Wouldn’t wan tto restrict them – but could control their use of it, by the game slowing down the more the are away from water / tree. Dying when there too long or more pollution being put into pond.

None of the children got the frog to evolve from the egg. Only Elliot found the mushrooms and we weren’t sure what we had to do. What was the tyre thing.

Kids all loved having a go and are very keen to re-visit your game!! Many thanks for giving us the opportunity at this stage!! We hope this evaluation helps!!

All the best!
Jennifer Cochrane

Jeff logging out . . .

Wed - Frog Development Images

Here are a few development images of the frog stage of Tuff:

(He is rigged but i am yet to weight paint him)

I also put a test texture on Tuff and did a few renders: The texture is not final but you get the idea.3 lights:

Jeff Logging out . . .

Wed - Jeff Work

Today i worked with the 1st level again. I tried a few different cameras. As the orbit camera is a bit spastic in enclosed spaces. I have also placed the dead spawn at the top of the level and textured them, I made a sign to point the way to the bottom of the tree and textured that. I had a little crack at the underwater vision. Placing the bouncing mushrooms. Alot of tweaking, tuning and testing.

I had a chat with mum about the testing and other things that i would like to do with the kids. I have a 1st level movement and basic camera movement test on Friday. With a selection of kids from mums school.

- I want to see if it is too hard or not hard enough
- Camera is Ok
- The style is appealing
- It is fun to play

I will be asking the kids to play the game and then with mums help answer a few questions that will help the further development of the game. This test will be key to the further development of the level and the rest of the game. And will be a good indicator if we are aiming at the right things or not.

Jeff logging out . . .

Jeffs Progress

Today and yesterday i was working on the level and the meshes in the level. So here are heaps of development images.

Here are the light bugs basic shape and layout. The grey ball at the end will be clear and contain a light inside. The eyes are spirally and weird looking. I think that the style of the light bug fits the style we are aiming at.


The basic layout of the light bugs over the level:
The light bugs:
In game Light bugs:

Tuff - Frog Character Development: The hardest thing in the model so far has been the feet:




What's next for Tuff:
Finish the model
Rig Tuff
Animate Tuff
- Walk
- Jump
- Tongue Attack
- Other
Texture Tuff

Also I would like to get the 1st level quite a way through so that i can get kids to test the playability and other aspects of the level.

Jeff logging out . . .

What i have did Yesterday

Sweet so yesterday i was working in unity to get as much put in and working as possible. I ended up getting the 1st level mesh and 1st stage of the character working. The texture of the tree is still under construction, (Beth has done a simple one but after all of the meshes have been placed and are working we will re look at the textures to make sure they al match up.)

Here are a few development images:

Overall Image - Basically the layout of the world. Loosely based at the moment.Tree - Level 1 OverviewTree CloserTuff in water, top of tree.Tuff at the end of the 1st level.

What i am working on now:

• Placing the different meshes from the girls
  
• Making and animation the other 2 characters
• HUD
• Life bar
• Health Pick-ups
• Death Zones
  

Jeff Logging out . . .

I Hate inveted Normals

Yesterday i was finishing off the tree level, by blending all of the different models together. This was fine until i took the model into unity as a test. Heaps of faces were missing and things like that, so i went back into blender a turned on the normals to see what way they were facing. Turnes out that getting 3 different people to model the same thing was a bad idea. Most of the normals were the wrong way. This is super!!!

So what i ended up doing was systematically working thought the model and making the normals face the right way. This took around 2 hours. But prob less. But now we have a normal looking tree with no faces missing. Yay.


I also had a meeting with Beth and Tania to flesh out what they are doing and how the lab is coming along. It is on track and going sweet.

Here are a few development images: This is the basic layout of the game. The cube on the left is a place holder for the tree - 1st Level, then the terrain (That is yet to be edited by kirsty) is the 2nd Level, and the cube on the right is a place holder for the labrotory.

Below are the issues i was having with the egg animation in unity. I was able to find a solution for this. The 1st image is what I wanted and a sample of the textures on and in the egg.

The animation wasn't doing what i wanted it was blockier and weird as the images below show:
Also an update of what i have done recently:

• Fixed the tree
• Got the 3rd person camera working (Still needs tweeking)
• Got 1 character into unity, with animation.
  
• Had a meeting with the girls to discuss what they are doing.
• Received some of the finished meshes from the girls
• Passed the tree level over to beth to texture.

What i would like to have done before Wednesday:

• 2nd Character
• Idle animation for the egg
• tree level in and test-able

Here are a few images of the tree that has been fixed: (Has no texture yet)

Corrected Normals YAY!!!

Jeff logging out . . .

What are the issues with the camera?

The issues are that when the user jumps from the left to right button, while not pushing forward or back the character jumps from side to side. Same with front and back. I think that this is part of the 3rd person camera script.

Also i need to make a standing still animation for the egg so that when you stop moving the character doesn't keep on rolling. This is simple to do but i must remember to do it.

Jeff Logging out . . .

Issues and Progress

I have been working on how the character interacts with the level and other things like that. I have also be trying to get the 3rd person camera to work and be nice. I have had issues with this. Here they are:

When i tried to get the spring follow camera script to work on my level with my camera it had a heart attack. I tried this a few times. Then i thought that i could use the lerps tutorial as a base and then build off it. So what i have been doing is using the tutorial and working through it with the first stage of the character. I hope to get my level design into the stage soon as it would be good so then we could get away from the lerps look.

Also i have modified the character so that the egg stage of the character has no tadpole. As unity was having a cry about it. So now it looks allot more simple. But i think that it looks good. What i would like to get done soon is the refinement of the 3rd person controller and the setup of our level with our meshes and things like that.

Jeff logging out . . .

My Plan for the day.

I have a plan for today:

I want to get two of my characters into unity and moving. I also want to get the first level done so that i can start playing with my character in the level and making sure that all of the gaps are big enough for him to get through and stuff like that.

I also wouldn't mind if i have the time. To make a health bar and get that working and other smaller things like that. I am hoping that some of my group will get here today so that I can get their stuff and start working with it.

Jeff logging out . . .

Issues so far

I have been having a few issues with getting the first level back together. I think it was a bad idea to get three people to work on the same mesh but in different parts. Some people have subdivided the tree and others have done some weird stuff that doesnt make sense to me. And it is my job to put the tree back together. I think next time. One person should model the tree with others input. I think that, that would make a much cleaner mesh and be easyer to texture.

I have also emailed the group to tell them that i will be at school tomorrow so if they have any problems or want to give me some stuff they can. I am also planning on having the 1sy level done by tomorrow with at least one of the four characters in the space.

Jeff logging out . . .

Things that i did today

Ok so what did i get done today? I had a really productive meeting with most of the group and how things were progressing. I got some things off people like the different parts of the first level (the tree). I also made a unity file that had the basics of what in the world and how they would be layed out.

I made a very very simple terrain that Kirsty is going to modify and made water and an under water views. I made simple objects in the world that can be used as references as to where things are located. Also i put in a skybox and a directional light. I have also been tampering with the setting of things like the light to make it more like a sun and smaller things like that.

I have also layed down a few rules that i would like people int the group to stick to. Rules like, no high poly meshs! I it can be done simply do it that way. For example beth asked me if i wanted meshes that could be used as static things. I said no just use textures and bump maps. This way the world wont be too mesh heavy and bog down the processers with things that the user may only glance at for 0.01 seconds.

If it looks just as good as a facade, use a facade rather than a mesh.

So what am i doing now. Animating the different stages of the character and texturing them. Also starting to put together the level. Like bringing the different parts of the tree together and texturing it.

Other Thaughts:
I dont want to do everything! I want to delegate as much work as possible to others so that they are also working on the project and i am just fixing things they are having trouble with and doing the things that they cant. I think that i didnt make myself clear in 285 last year. So i am trying to make things easyer for myself in the long run. I'm abit fed up with greg. Even an email would be nice. But thats not worth complaining about. Im just getting on with it!

Sweet as meat

Jeff logging out . . .

Development of Tuff

I have been working on the rigging of the egg and the textures of it. Im having some trouble with having an alpha channel in blender but im going to try and make it work in unity instead. I am making good progress with the ideas that i want to have in each of the three stages of my character.

Heres a few development images:

Here is the tadpole texture and basic shape. (This tadpole in inside the egg (I have just hidden the layers to see the textures and basic shapes) ).

This is the setup of the egg structure. The two spheres will be see-through. The outer egg will be a pale shade of blue and the inner egg is going to be an see-through black.

I quite like him and playing around with the rigging makes me giggle as he wriggles and moves its pretty cool: Heres a short movie of him wriggling:

So this is what i have been up too. I am planning on modeling up the tadpole stage of the frog tonight with a more complex rig so that it looks more fluid like while swimming.

Jeff logging out. . .

Project 3 Progress

Yesterday i sat down with the team members that were there and modeled up the main tree (The first level). Here is an image of the tree.


The colour is to indicate the part of the tree that each person will model the track to. I also tryed not to do all of the work so that when people come to designing their part of the tree they could do themselves.

The tree is to get people to model on the same object at the same time.

What else have i done:
I have also been working on the egg stage of the character. I have created 3 things that work together as one. The outer, inner and tadpole parts of the egg. I was having trouble with rigging the three parts of the character so that they work together. I have after yesterday and a meeting with group members i have made a must have and a could have list of the things i want the character to do.

So the egg must have:
a foward roll cycle.

Could have:
a left and right lean animation.
front, left, right, top and bottom impact animation.
a jump animation.
and when the egg gains speed the shape of the egg will change.

Finished

Here is a link to the online version of my level: (It takes a while to load)

http://jeffreycochrane.com/385/Project2.html

Enjoy

Almost Almost

I have done quite a bit of tinkering around with settings and things like that. I have also created the new tower. Issues im haveing is trying to create a death box. I got Tom to give me a hand and we grabbed the code from the tutorial but it wont work. I think that it is because the code is not complete. I need to go through the tutorial and finish off the code, then it will work. Here are some images of what i have been doing:


My character in unity was a good idea at the start but after having some issues with unity glitching out and fragging and running super slow i just went for the simple first person shooter. This way seems to run better and not use up as much processing stuff. But i can make a character work in unity. Like i helped Tania on her level and because her level is just one blender mesh it didn't glitch out at all compared to mine so hers worked.


Here is an image of what skybox i am using. Its the blue sky one. The reason i chose that one is because of the angle of my light and the look that i wanted to achieve. I had created my own skybox texture but it just looked cheep and nasty.


So the theory of my level is that from the front it look like a "normal" cartoon like world and when you get behind the trees or rocks it becomes a "model" like level. I wanted it o be like i was building a model of a castle. Then to accentuate the castle the "2d" trees and rocks would stand and make the terrain for where the castle sits. And this is a top down view of the level. I was just being cheeky and put a J island in. You cant really notice it but i like it. He he he.

Jeff Logging out . . .

The new castle is sweet

I have now redesigned the castle and the outer wall. They are 3d so they will stand out in the level. At the moment i have created a lift that goes up and down the castle but if a have time and can be bothered i will change the lift to a spiral staircase. Its pretty easy but i need to be at school to do it so that i get the staircase steps the right size, and the only way i can test it is in unity. Then back to blender and so on.

Jeff logging out . . .

Progress with new meshs

OK after some thought into the matter of my level i have decided that i need more meshes to populate the new level rather than the ones i have at the moment. Also my castle at the end was nothing to spectacular so i am completely re designing it. I have decided t make the castle 3d so its a center point of the level and the other meshes 2d like cardboard. This is so that when you get to the top of the hill it is more of an accomplishment and isn't just another cardboard cut out.

This will take time but i think that it will be worth it in the end. So here is a list of the new things that i want to create:

Castle
Small and large statues
Grass
Shrubs
Posts
Animals (Possibly sheep)

Why did i change? Well it was glitching up unity and getting the level to move with all of my custom meshes was a nightmare with the processing speeds, and the computer was having a heart attack.

Other things that are worth mentioning are the styles of things that i wanted to put in. For example i asked jess for some grass. The grass she gave me was 3d and just didn't go with the theme or style of the level. I am actually quite disappointed with not getting my original idea to work. As i think that, that level would have been awesome and super cool. Why don't i like it? because of the terrain and the style that it makes me take. Rather than my own vision of the land or terrain i have to make it to what unity wants me to make it like. I feel like i have just been stone walled at every turn. Oh well, what ever. Its not worth complaining about really. I just have to get ion with it!

Jeff Logging out . . .

Unity on my laptop BAD IDEA

Ok my sister is coming down today and is staying until Sunday and i haven't seen her in ages so i thought id install the trial version of unity on my computer so that i could at least place all of my meshes on the terrain and do some stuff while she is here. Bad idea. I have crashed my computer 3 times now. It starts to runs then just crashes. GUTTED FOR ME!!!

So i guess i will have to head into school. But thats ok i guess.

Jeff logging out . . .

The new Level

Here is the new level. Its now with terrain and im unsure about it now. Here are a few pictures:

Jeff logging out . . .