After Gate 1 Presentation

Yesterday we did our Gate 1 presentation. We got a lot of useful feedback. Yet Yang and me also worry about our game is too simple to do. If we take out the dog and survival feature, it seems there is nothing more for our game. I think, we do need more on our game.
How about the personalization of each dog? So that different dogs have different abilities. How about the Courage System we just talked before? How about the different forms for dog groups?
Worry about we can't make it? Well, I believe we can make it. Here are the reasons.
First, we have totally a year to make the game. Even if the true time is not an entire year, at least we have several month to make it.
Second, we have 4 engineers, I think it is enough to build our game code. We can handle crap even if Moai, so there should be no problem to use other better engine or library such as OGRE or CryEngine to build our game.
Third, I would like to take my experience as an example to compare to our project. 2 years ago I was in a 9-people team to build a 3D Angry Birds. We don't have artist and producer, all of us were programmer, so that some of us turn to artists and project manager. And the actual number of programmers for coding was 4. However we only had 1 month to build the game, and using OGRE, which was completely new to all of us. And yes, only 1 month, we made it, even if there were a lot of bugs in the game, but at least, the game could be played. And yes again, we built our birds and pigs model, built the configuration file system, built the GUI and control system, involved OGRE and Bullet Physics engine, all by ourselves. So you see, even a team of undergrads can built a fully-play game in only 1 month, with entry level engine architecture, why couldn't our GRADUATED students can make a larger scope game in a year?
So, I hope our naive game design can pass Gate 1. Then, I do like to increase the scope so make the game deeper, more interesting.
明主良相上将俱备，何惧安天下？

Code works first, Optimize it later

This week I implement some features on our prototype. Now in our prototype, the worker can move the Tech Parts back to the base but with low moving speed. And worker can collect oxygen pack as their HP refill (we also have 3D HP bar for workers!),  a minimap showing position information of units and base.
Unity is a powerful tool to make prototype work. I don't need to worry too much about run time error. In Unity, even my script have some stupid operation (use null pointer, etc.), the prototype game can still run, then Unity has its log to indicate where goes wrong.
Also, I haven't consider too much details when I coding. I think that should be how things start, even in software engineering. We can always go on detail design, build framework architecture, and code in deep until final product come out. But at first, is this product, idea, or concept worth to implement? Prototype is for answering this question. We don't need to think too much detail in prototype. All we need to worry is the core concept, core mechanic of the game.
As the title said, after rushing some garbage code, we should think about the real game. What game engine should we use? How the architecture should be? I will prefer to use OGRE as our basic engine. There are several reasons. First, it is completely open-source, so we don't need to worry about license like UDK. Second, OGRE also has its wiki, forum, so that we can always go to find someone for help, and the forum is kept updating. Third, OGRE is a C++ engine, and there are several concept similar to what we learn in Game Engineering II, so that it is a good practice for our engineers. OGRE can also be a good reference for our Game Engineering assignments.

OGRE official website: http://www.ogre3d.org/

Thanks for our producer Zeph, we have our own awesome website. Check it out!

Team dawgz: http://www.teamdawgz.com/

Rushing for prototype

This week we had change a game a lot. Instead of typical RTS combat, we made the game more about survival. In the game you can start with 5 penguin, and your mission is to collect enough technique parts to repair your spaceship so that you can go back to earth. For each penguin it has limited oxygen resources, and the oxygen is time-based consuming. There are multiple oxygen packs randomly spread out in the map. These oxygen packs can refill to the penguins a little bit. And when a penguin pick up a technique part to move it back to the base, the penguin would move slower because it is carrying something.

For the prototype, I am working on the collection and moving speed slow down. With Unity, we already found a raw project done by other from the Internet. To build a prototype, I still need more time to figure it out. So, I create a video to show the idea first just in case I can't make the Unity prototype.

For an RTS game, I think the basics features should be select and give command. I am still looking on it.