The past three months have been quite the whirlwind experience, and though we’re quite obviously not completely finished with the game, it’s gratifying to see the progress that we’ve made in such a relatively short amount of time, not to mention the improvements that were made just in the past two weeks as we made our way to the “Final Alpha Presentation” deadline.

Every member of the team put in an extraordinary amount of work, sacrificing time and talent in the pursuit of our goal, and as we presented our game today before the executive producers as well as the teams from “Cohort 1″ who have already been through this process, that hard work and dedication showed immensely. Through a clean and concise presentation, the team was able to share with our fellow students the great amount of progress that we’ve made, as well as garner some excellent suggestions from the previous Cohort that may help us to improve the game as we enter into the Beta phase.

The response was overwhelmingly positive, which was quite helpful. We hope to continue this momentum forward as we continue into beta, both improving our skillsets over the summer, as well as keeping in mind the final deadline later this fall.

Ka-Poof Poof Forever!

[Personal Note - I am extremely proud of this team. Through difficulty with code, to learning new techniques, each and every member of "The Origamers" has truly put their sweat and tears into this project. From the willingness to pick up slack in any way, shape, or form, to the implementation of talents and skills (and time!) that were necessary to get this game to Alpha, I'm very impressed with the dedication that was shown over the course of this semester.

I'm very excited to be a part of this project, and am grateful for the opportunity to work with each and every one of you. You guys rock, and you know that. (If you don't, then you better, because this team is easily one of the very best that I've ever had the privilege to work with.)

Thank you so much for all of your hard work, and I hope that you have an amazing summer. I look forward to getting right back into the groove of production come August! - Karratti]

We’ve been working hard to continue our forward motion as we’ve began the implementation of the art assets into the game. Misha and Ashley have been hard at work as they implement models and textures into the game, with Jorge putting his efforts into combing through the tutorial level before Ashley adds her textures. Pace, Kevin and Anurag have been combining the code as we rush towards Wednesday’s presentation. It’s been a rather busy number of days.

After finally deciding to scrap the turns entirely, process has become much smoother, allowing us to focus more on making sure that the code is working properly and that the game is actually fun. After the “update” presentation last week, we’re putting all efforts into making sure that our talent and work shine through as we quickly approach our alpha deadline.

Anurag’s menu has been cleaned up and textured by Ashley, and has now been fully implemented into the alpha build with clean new buttons. One of the more interesting parts of that process has been the refusal to allow the cursor to leave the screen as the player moves it about. (Thus resolving a problem that we’ve noticed in a number of Kinect titles.) Excellent work.

Josh and Brandon began to do some impromptu research today, wanting to see if there is consistency of thought as it comes to the “posing” of the three different animals (cat, rat, ox). Brandon’s theory was that, if asked, most people would have a rather consistent “pose” when asked to represent each animal. Though there were a few outliers, (as well as a couple people who were just kind of rude about being asked while walking on a university campus), the overwhelming response was that most people had the same “pose” in mind when tasked with acting as a certain animal.

This information will be utilized in Wednesday’s presentation, to explain the universal nature of “posing” as an animal, which should be a useful resource.

Though there is still a good amount of work to be done, we’re overall very pleased with the direction that we’re heading.

Ka-Poof Poof!

After deliberating between Josh, Ashley, and Brandon, (and with input throughout the process from the rest of the team), we’ve now cobbled together the final “visual goal” for the game. With a target “papercraft landscape” borrowed from the papercraft-inspired work of Jeremy Kool, we extrapolated different elements of the HUD to help focus the player’s attention on the most important aspects to him/her.

At the top left, we’ve got the player’s current time which, along with the count of collectibles (top right), will be put through an algorithm to determine the player’s score for the current level. On the right side, we’re including a “map indicator” which will show the player how far along the track his current position is, as well as what character he is currently playing as.

In a stroke of genius, Josh suggested that the tutorial messaging system should be relayed via the use of “fortune cookie fortunes,” which should provide a distinct feel and keep the player invested in the narrative at hand. We’re currently looking into how to best use Unity to animate that to the best effect.

Finally, the “card shuffle” at the top of the screen will show the player what his current ideal pose should be, as well as what sections are coming up next, so he can plan accordingly. While this will certainly take a little balancing and testing, we’re hoping this HUD will quickly give the player all information that he’ll need at any point during the level.

Plus, the whole thing looks pretty damn cool.

As other updates, we’re having some difficulties with “turns” in Unity, as there’s no real spline system in place for the game. This problem, which some of us encountered during prototypes last semester, has proven to be a rather painful thorn in our side. In order to keep from running up against a wall and not meeting our Alpha deadline, we’ve decided to implement a straight track only, which should alleviate the current situation. While Pace, Kevin and Jorge will continue to examine the viability of adding curves into the game at a later date, we’re shifting this into the backburner in order to meet our current goals.

On a lighter note, however, Anurag’s opening menu and pose system is being implemented smoothly, which is excellent. Currently, he and Josh are working to implement the three poses, as well as balancing them properly and narrowing down the specific “pose window” that the player will need to hit in order to change. (As it stands, the player can change his pose instantly on the fly, which is a little concerning for us because if the changes are too easy, they lose much of their purpose and impact. There was also a minor concern that if the movement is instant, then a “jump” motion may in fact result in a transformation simply as a part of the body motion, so that examination is currently in progress.)

Overall, good spirits and good motion. We’re looking on-track to meet Alpha next week.

Ka-Poof Poof!