Import of Capstone Development Posts
- Dec 3, 2017
- 12 min read
Greetings all!
So I am in the process of converting my online portfolio from Wordpress to Wix. And as such, I am bringing over some old blog posts from my Wordpress days I don't quite want to get rid of yet. In all honesty they all pertain to my current project: GravityWorks. So, if you're all caught up stay tuned for posts regarding it's development - if not; feel free to catch up with this post!
Capstone Development Post 11
Posted by J. Schramm on November 27, 2017 | EDIT
Developer’s Log: Entry 11 Full Sail GDNB Capstone: Team Balerion – Game: GravityWorks Team: Joseph Aranda, Kayci Lyons, Joshua Schramm, Michael Smith, & Darby Wall.
Team Accomplishments: In addition to fine tuning our existing systems (which will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future) and squashing bugs found during play testing. Additionally, we spent more time discussing & refining level design as a team, and I believe the levels have seen much improvement thanks to this. We also had a wake up call and cut many of the features that we haven’t been able to even start yet (including a couple levels) since our launch date for our game is late January / early February 2018.
Individual Contributions: During the last two builds (0.2.4 & 0.2.5) I specifically worked on a wide array of items including: designing, implementing, and then iterating several different setups and combining them bringing our ‘levels’ closer to their ‘final’ status (the Tutorial Level, JA_0629, JS_1021, & Final); play-testing early release builds, reporting & documenting bugs, and aiding in fixing them and / or proposing solutions to fix them; implementing environmental gravity transition rooms (in between segments); and, actively seeking play-testers to give feedback on their experience playing GravityWorks, then working on deciphering their feedback, and finally attempting to fix the core issue they encountered during their play test.
Concerns: The only concerns I have at this point is not getting enough feedback from play testers to make the game the best it could be and not having enough time (time to implement solutions to that feedback play testers give and all those nice things that really draw new players to the game like art and sound).
Files Mentioned in this Post
[Team] – GravityWorks-v0.2.4
[Team] – GravityWorks-v0.2.5
Interested in play-testing and providing feedback for GravityWorks?
Simply play the latest build in the ‘Files Mentioned in this Post’ and fill out this form: Play Tester Form
**The builds above will only work on Windows computers; sorry Mac users. =( ***If there are any Mac users interested in playing send me an email at: JaSchramm@student.fullsail.edu
Capstone Development Post 10
Posted by J. Schramm on November 13, 2017 | EDIT
Developer’s Log: Entry 10 Full Sail GDNB Capstone: Team Balerion – Game: GravityWorks Team: Joseph Aranda, Kayci Lyons, Joshua Schramm, Michael Smith, & Darby Wall.
Team Accomplishments: So, for the past two weeks the team focused on fine-tuning existing assets and putting a few levels together to see how all these systems and assets can be combined!
Individual Contributions: During the last two builds (0.2.2 & 0.2.3) I specifically worked on a wide array of items including: designing, implementing, and then iterating several different setups and combining them to make temporary ‘levels’ in Unity (the Tutorial Level, JA_0629, JS_1021, & MS_0211); play-testing early release builds, reporting & documenting bugs, and aiding in fixing them and / or proposing solutions to fix them; implementing an old-school RPG rolling text dialogue box for tutorial / hub messages; and, actively seeking play-testers to give feedback on their experience playing GravityWorks, then working on deciphering their feedback, and finally attempting to fix the core issue they encountered during their play test.
Concerns: No huge concerns at this point come to mind – I know there’s lots of room for improvement and several bugs that we did not have time to address as of yet; but rest assured that Team Balerion is busy at work trying to make GravityWorks the best it can be! This week we’re going to be looking at all the setups we have (both implemented in-game & those that are just on paper) discussing what the intended purposes are and making sure they meet up to those expectations, discuss some level design standards, working on making sure both of those previous statements are represented in game, AND, of course, squashing more bugs!
Files Mentioned in this Post
[Team] – GravityWorks-v0.2.2
[Team] – GravityWorks-v0.2.3
Interested in play-testing and providing feedback for GravityWorks?
Simply play the latest build in the ‘Files Mentioned in this Post’ and fill out this form: Play Tester Form
**The builds above will only work on Windows computers; sorry Mac users. =( ***If there are any Mac users interested in playing send me an email at: JaSchramm@student.fullsail.edu
Capstone Development Post 09
Posted by J. Schramm on November 2, 2017 | EDIT
Developer’s Log: Entry 09 Full Sail GDNB Capstone: Team Balerion – Game: GravityWorks Team: Joseph Aranda, Kayci Lyons, Michael Smith, & Darby Wall.
Team Accomplishments: Preparing this build we looked into getting an actual level setup trying to find some ‘fun.’ We also started design on other levels to implement in the next build, switched our messages system to static messages, added some player feedback to some of the collectibles, and fixed more bugs.
Individual Contributions: For this build I focused mainly on designing and implementing the level, JS_1021. I drafted the initial idea in Google Drawings to get group feedback before actually building the level in Unity. Then, when building in Unity, I created the back-end & temporary models for the breakable platforms and pressure plates & doors. I also setup the previously created dynamic spawning system for the level and re-vamped the tutorial level with to teach the player about the new setups created.
Concerns: Now that we have started designing levels, the only concern I have for development is creating unique & fun setups for those levels. I know this will be a trial and error, with multiple iterations kind of thing, but nevertheless it’s still a concern. We were hoping to have six core levels in addition to our tutorial and final levels, but realistically looking at our time line we may have to take the best setups from those six core levels and ‘Frankenstein’ them together in three – four core levels. The only other concerns I have are personal – like, Super Mario Odyssey calling my name!
Files Mentioned in this Post
[Team] – GravityWorks-v0.2.1
Capstone Development Post 08
Posted by J. Schramm on October 27, 2017 | EDIT
Developer’s Log: Entry 08 Full Sail GDNB Capstone: Team Balerion – Game: GravityWorks Team: Joseph Aranda, Kayci Lyons, Michael Smith, & Darby Wall.
Team Accomplishments: For this build we started looking at the tutorial area for the game and how to introduce the player to the concepts and mechanics it employs. We tried out a different message system, put together the first generation collectibles, added push & pull functionality to the gravity gun’s shots, and fine-tuned existing systems.
Individual Contributions: I was mainly focusing on the tutorial level and showcase level for this build, implementing the new message system, and correcting some pause menu issues. Beyond that, I helped the team with several other patches and bug fixes.
Concerns: Level design is my main concern. We’ve been in dev mode for so long, that we have forgotten to about how these pieces should be coming together in fun setups for the player. Building the functionality was awesome, I really enjoyed laying the bricks for the system one at a time – but now, I think we have to split the team up between devs and designers. We are still ambitious with our sights on the originally planned six non-linear core levels and a final level in addition to our tutorial, so we have to act smart. Now, with the majority of the back end built, is the time to do that I believe.
Files Mentioned in this Post
[Team] – GravityWorks-v0.1.4
Capstone Development Post 07
Posted by J. Schramm on October 19, 2017 | EDIT
Developer’s Log: Entry 07 Full Sail GDNB Capstone: Team Balerion – Game: GravityWorks Team: Joseph Aranda, Kayci Lyons, Michael Smith, & Darby Wall.
Preface: Wow, it’s been too long. I’ve gotten busy with a few other things, but the development of Gravityworks pushes ever forward! Since I’ve missed the last two and a half weeks, I’ll make sure to include the second and third iteration of our project – then, early next week, I’ll make sure to post again with our fourth iteration!
Team Accomplishments: These past two weeks we’ve continued to improve upon our core functionality. We took a step back from our project a few times to view it objectively and figure out what needed fine-tuning, and trying to think about how the player would feel as they utilized different control schemes.
Individual Contributions: These past weeks I assisted with several bugs (finding and fixing). I also researched, and implemented, the following, back-end & front-end: death systems, the gravity gun cool down system & UI, sliding doors to separate the different doors (back-end & front-end), final level puzzle pieces (modeling, back-end, & front-end), top times / scores overlay for all level’s & their segments (back-end & front-end), and several different mock levels & setups to showcase the entire team’s work.
Concerns: Right now the team, and I, are attempting to take that step back to see the project objectively. We’re always listening to feedback from where ever we can find it, analyzing it to find the root concern, and attempting several fixes. We’re concerned that the dash functionality may need to change, or be removed; thinking about the gravity system as a whole, and examining the various settings – wondering if they’re different enough to warrant having them all, or if we need to separate them more; we’re always looking for more intuitive ways to showcase UI elements, player feedback, and just the basic control-scheme in general. These aren’t, ‘game-breaking,’ concerns, but they are items that Team Balerion is currently considering what direction we want to go with.
Files Mentioned in this Post
[Team] – GravityWorks-v0.1.2
[Team] – GravityWorks-v0.1.3
Capstone Development Post 06
Posted by J. Schramm on October 2, 2017 | EDIT
Developer’s Log: Entry 06 Full Sail GDNB Capstone: Team Balerion – Game: GravityWorks Team: Joseph Aranda, Kayci Lyons, Michael Smith, & Darby Wall.
Team Accomplishments: This week Team Balerion put together an initial build, of a portion, of GravityWorks‘ core functionality with Unity.
Individual Contributions: This week I specifically worked on researching, and implementing, the basic player movement, how the camera follows the player, and how a system that will asynchronously load the next specified level while displaying a loading / progress bar. Beyond these core tasks, our team has built upon a strong foundation of free-flowing communication and aided each other from implementation to integration.
Concerns: This early in development there are not too many concerns (beyond scope). However, a personal concern that has arisen is my starting a new job this week. I’ve informed my team of this news already, and since the majority of them (if not all), have jobs already they did not seem to be too concerned. I’ll continue to update them as specifics of my job unfold, just as they inform me the team of their daily schedules.
Files Mentioned in this Post
[Team] – GravityWorks-v1.0
Capstone Development Post 05
Posted by J. Schramm on September 24, 2017 | EDIT
Developer’s Log: Entry 05 Full Sail GDNB Capstone: Team Balerion – Game: GravityWorks Team: Joseph Aranda, Kayci Lyons, Michael Smith, & Darby Wall.
Team Accomplishments: This week Team Balerion put together:
a revision of our initial Game Design Document.
a master feature list – with first week task’s assigned.
and, a compilation document that combined all of the team’s assignments this month.
Individual Contributions: This week I collaborated on the team’s accomplishments by continuing to lead the meetings where we accomplished our work. Additionally, I set up the format, and references, for our master feature list.
Concerns: Feature creep is still at large. There’s not a meeting that goes by where the team and I don’t have ideas that would be fun / interesting to implement. We document these fully knowing, and appreciating, that we will most definitely be cutting features towards the end of development.
Files Mentioned in this Post
[Team] – 09/21/17 GDD revision
[Team] – Feature List
[Team] – Compilation Doc (all current docs relating to GravityWorks)
Capstone Development Post 04
Posted by J. Schramm on September 17, 2017 | EDIT
Developer’s Log: Entry 04 Full Sail GDNB Capstone: Team Balerion – Game: GravityWorks Team: Joseph Aranda, Kayci Lyons, Michael Smith, & Darby Wall.
Team Accomplishments: This week Team Balerion put together:
A spreadsheet Component Matrix of all the collisions, and their reactions to all other collisions, our game will have.
and, A flowchart document showcasing the non-linear level progression GravityWorks will feature along with each level’s interactions and mechanics IPM (Introduce, Practice, Master).
Individual Contributions: This week I collaborated on the team’s accomplishments by continuing to lead the meetings where we accomplished our work.
Concerns: Scope remains the main concern; however, after completing both the Component Matrix and Level Progression flowchart this week I slowly tricking myself into believing that we may just be within scope.
Files Mentioned in this Post
[Team] – Component Matrix (for In-Game Collisions)
[Team] – Level Progression Flowchart
Capstone Development Post 03
Posted by J. Schramm on September 11, 2017 | EDIT
Developer’s Log: Entry 03 Full Sail GDNB Capstone: Team Balerion – Game: GravityWorks Team: Joseph Aranda, Kayci Lyons, Michael Smith, & Darby Wall.
Team Accomplishments This week Team Balerion put together a 40+ page design document for GravityWorks. The goal of this document was to present the game in a way that, should it be handed off to another development team, anyone would be able to make it.
Individual Contributions This week I edited the format of the design documentation to meet our instructor’s expectations (as outlined in the assignment’s instructions); I authored several sections of the design document, reviewed and edited other sections of the document, created flowcharts, and created mock-up images & storyboards.
Concerns At this point the primary concern is scope; however, this was partially done on purpose. The logic behind this decision is to build ourselves a, ‘safety net,’ of features to fallback on should any of our other features turn out to not be quite as, ‘fun,’ as we originally hoped. This will allow us to simply cut those un-fun features without having to stop development to brainstorm new ones.
Files Mentioned in this Post
[Team] – Design Document
Capstone Development Post 02
Posted by J. Schramm on September 2, 2017 | EDIT
Developer’s Log: Entry 02 Full Sail GDNB Capstone: Team Balerion – Game: GravityWorks (Pitch Video)
So, as some of you may know, this week’s first challenge was awaiting the instructor’s decree of who would be assigned to what teams. Activities were locked, so there wasn’t much to do during this waiting period. Once, all the requests for who wanted to work with who were processed, the instructor, Brain Dammen, sent teams emails detailing the students they would be working with throughout capstone. I was lucky enough to be in a team with: Joseph Aranda, Kayci Lyons, Michael Smith, & Darby Wall.
Team Accomplishments At this point our team, eventually deciding to be called, ‘Team Balerion,’ reached out to each other promptly, set up a Google Hangouts chat, Google Drive folder (with folder hierarchy), decided what game to make (GravityWorks), voted myself, Joshua Schramm, to be team lead, and then decided to reconvene in 24 hours (giving individuals enough time to complete their first assignment) to discuss the Executive Summary assignment. Upon meeting again, our entire team met, via Google Hangout’s voice chat, to not only discuss the Executive Summary assignment, but complete it on a Google Doc (so that we would all be able to collaborate simultaneously), export it as a Word Document, submit a change list to the appropriate Perforce folder containing the exported Word Document, create a text document detailing its file path, and submitted the aforementioned text document to FSO. After this was completed, our team awaits our next activity, the Design Document, on standby.
Individual Contributions My contributions to the team this week included: creating a shared Google Drive folder, and that Google Drive’s file hierarchy; completing my individual Competitive Analysis assignment and posting it within the Google Drive for others to view as a template (if desired); creating a template for the Executive Summary assignment; aiding in the completion of the Executive Summary assignment by discussing and fleshing out sections within the Google doc associated with the Executive Summary; exporting the completed Executive Summary into a Word Document, reviewing and correcting formatting issues that occurred during export, and creating a change list with the Executive Summary on Perforce to submit; and finally, creating a Design Document template, copying over relative information from the Executive Summary to the Design Document, in an effort to help the team prepare for the upcoming week.
Concerns At this point, I do not have any concerns with my work or the team’s progress. However, in previous groups at Full Sail I have encountered issues with other team members not pulling their weight. That being said, so far this group has been amazing to work with so far. They are all eager to contribute, no one has an ego or gets defensive when talking about ideas, or how those ideas might work, need to be tweaked to fit in with the rest of the design vision, or even discussing which ideas to not include. I hope that this culture continues throughout development.
Files Mentioned in this Post
[Solo] – Competitive Analysis
[Team] – Executive Summary
Capstone Development Post 01
Posted by J. Schramm on August 29, 2017 | EDIT
Today is the first day of my final stretch at Full Sail University. It begins with a class titled, ‘Project & Portfolio 6.’ After reviewing the course’s syllabus, and from observations during my tenure at Full Sail, this class will see that students are assigned to groups of 4 – 6 people to begin developing their team charter and game design documentations. I am writing this entry in an attempt to document the design process that will span from this point, up to the final due date of this capstone project in late January of 2018 (just shy of 5 months). These posts will be honest – successes, along with the challenges faced, will be detailed. I’m still developing the formula for the regularity of these posts, but as an initial guesstimate I will post once a week; with additional posts describing any major milestones that we, myself and my team, overcome.
Right now, it’s just a waiting game. The team has not yet been declared, neither has any planning taken place. Stick around to see how this unfolds.
~Josh
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