Week 03 progress (Matt):
I finally met with my team and got a little caught up to speed. Zack was going over the designs ideas with me. I was way off. I'd been thinking this is closer to our original research, The Crimson Room, but it's closer to Saw. I was slightly upset I'd spent a lot of time into our pitch ppt, only to find out that the ccpt was already pitched last week.

I got my sounds collected for Milestone 02. There were a pretty good number. I couldn't drop in in the class forum or Dropbox b/c the *.zips were way too huge. I found some really good BGMs, too-- at least I thought. The game is more horror styled than detective styled, so the selections seem too cartoony. Scott looked up some much better selections on SoundClick.com.

Apparently, I was supposed to design some puzzles, too. I did have some ideas kicking around, but they would have not been the right type of puzzles, anyway. I ended up working with Zack and Scott to refine the ideas they'd already came up with.

Now that the designs are mostly taken care of, we can finally start on the development. Zack already blocked out the level, which I used in our sales pitch. We can pick through the sounds and BGMs, if there is time. I think I finally solved the problems I was having with the UI editor. I was trying to use a Material instead of a Texture on the photos. Plus, I didn't hookup the extra modules for UI start and UI end. The UI is critical to our inventory ("alchemy") mechanic .

Progress Report

I have finished the Asset list and we are figuring out where all the items will be able to be found in the level of our game. We have a lot of assets to work with and they are all very unique. Tomorrow in class we can actually start moving forward. I will be starting assets tomorrow and Matt is already focused on the mechanics, while Zack has his hands full with the level texture & lighting.

Now that we have an idea of where everything is going, we can start putting placeholders around the level so we can visually get the idea of how everything will fit together.

Zack's Progress Report

We have a solid layout and block in prepared to be filled. I was able to quickly get a working ladder in the back as well. As for the level itself, we opened up the ceiling with a half cylinder to give it more life and open area.

The way to escape the cell has been established. We are having the player construct a screwdriver with a sharpened carriage return, pieces of masking tape, and toilet paper. Using this the player with remove the lid from the drain and get the first key item for the main puzzle. A combination for the cell will be hidden on the cell walls with the final digit on the inside of the drain lid.

We will have a second key item in a cell that has a broken door that can't be bypassed. The player will gain access by removing a poster from an adjacent cell to reveal a hole to the next cell. Inside will be the second key item. The third key item will be in a cell that's locked through a broken circuit. The special wire can be found in a hollowed out book somewhere in a cell.

We still need one more unique way to find the fourth key item.

Matt's Progress Report-week2

It's good to know that everything got sorted out on the job titles.
I didn't start on the presentation, yet, b/c I needed more info, but I may have enough, now, and will work on it. I'll also get those valid sound effects in. I don't know about music, though. I would need an editor to create that, probably.

Did you like the Russian prison story idea? I thought bringing some definition into the story would help bring it depth, compared to the generic, "Hi, I'm in a prison." I wasn't sure if you would like it, but I figured throwing something out there wouldn't hurt.

I need to know the details of what you need me to do, and maybe show me a few things, as well. I think I might need Doc B's help with the UI editor, since I couldn't get it to work, earlier. This will probably be crucial to our inventory manipulation mechanic.

Scott's Progress Report

Well, another week down and 8 to go. I have come up with a pretty creative asset list for the game and I know there are a few things that can be added to it to make the game more fluent and believable. I want the player to feel like they have woken up in a prison and to actually know from the surroundings and environment exactly where they are. My art skills are not something I boast about because it is one of my weakest skills, but I am confident that my models will show that it is not a weak skill after all. With Zack helping on the textures, I know the assets in the game will make the player feel like they really are in a twisted prison.

Looking forward to next week when Matt gets back and we can show him all the fun stuff that he's been missing! I know he will do fine with the mechanics because he loves to program, but if he needs any help on the programming, I'm willing to help him out 110%.

Prisoner Inventions

http://weburbanist.com/2009/09/10/insane-prisoner-inventions-24-diy-prison-tools-weapons/

Update

I am going to take the title of level designer on this one. Scotty is going to take the art design because he can model and texture. You can take the mechanics job because its your strong point and we want to do the best we can on this. We would all like to add this one to the portfolio.

As of right now the complete layout is not yet set but we do have a start. The first cell block has a basic layout. Four cells one side and four cells on the other. There is a ladder in the back corner of the block that leads to a second floor of cells. There is a catwalk connecting each side of the second floor. The first obstacle will be escaping from your own cell. The next will be the cell block itself.

The way we escape is by removing a few of the cell bars that either loose or corroded to the point that the bars are brittle. We can use UDK's destructable objects feature. What is used to break the bars is not yet set but maybe there could be a loose pipe in the cell or something like that.