Getting Started

Hello all and welcome to our blog. Here, we'll be making progress reports on how our game project is coming along. We've only just started, but we've already got plenty to share with you.

Administrative

Probably the least interesting portion to talk about, but without a doubt one of the most important. Roles have been assigned to everyone, a full task schedule has been made, we settled on the December release of Unreal Development Kit, and work has begun. Roles were chosen last semester, but now it has become official as everyone begins to work on their given area. A master task list and schedule has been made which everyone can edit to add tasks that they've forgotten or the update completed ones. Unlike the simple Milestone Calendar we has before, this one covers every task a person has. This allows us to keep a good eye on both our own jobs, but also on the jobs our work is dependant on. It also gives us a quick glance at the project as a whole. Finally, we also have an online file repository set up with sub version control. This will allow us all to work on the same files simultaneously, merge changes, and track editors.

Sound

Sound is difficult to show off by its nature. We can't really show you screenshots of what's been done in this area. However, good progress has been made. Sounds have been added in, faded in, faded out, and numerous other effects have been tested. Now that our sound designer is confident in use of UDK, he is beginning to select sound effects and music to use in the game. Hopefully, we will have sound clips to share with you soon!

AI and Gameplay Programming

Most of the work here has been preparation work. There has been a lot of research going on into the guts of UDK. Despite this, a nice pair of playable rooms has been created as the team tries to learn as much as they can. Let's take a look at them!

This was without any texture added. Then, we added some of the default textures that came within UDK.

Many of the techniques used here can be used to build the outside world later. Next, we will work on adding scripted events to the map to get good with Kismet. Light sources are another area to work on.

Level Design

This area has also made great progress in this short time. We already have our first piece of the actual levels from the game up and running! That's right, the first piece of the colony has been put together by our level designer already. It is only in its first prototype look, without final art, but it already looks great!

This is one of the three rooms currently running. Here are some other shots!

This is for the underground colony portion of the game. Obviously, the outside world would be much more open and have more plant life. But for now, we begin underground as all ants do. The player's starting position is in a dark passage off the side of one of the rooms.

The player will have to head toward the light to squeeze out of there. Finally, there is a small side room off the first room which the player can get to by breaking a weak spot in the wall.

The level created so far is the threshold for the game. Once they slide down, the player gets to know the look and feel of the world. Stones, leaves, roots, and pebbles are all around the place in addition to the usual muddy and murky ant colony. Initially the player will posses only a melee weapon with which they use to destroy the fractured mesh which is at his left. That room would be a weapons/food cache. The third room is where they place themselves before the Non Player Character for the first time. Within these three rooms, the player gets the weapons,food(if needed) and learns to fire with the available weapons. When the player is done with these three rooms, they enter the bigger world which is the main colony.  The texture file is created with clay mud in mind and some grass patches.

Things to work on:

1. Cubical rooms have to altered to get the feel of a colony. As brushes in UDK are all planar I have to use static meshes. Or try something clever enough with the brushes itself.
2. Fractured mesh needs to be altered, in such a way that it is destroyed in 2 or 3 hits.
3. Rooms has to be populated with more relevant elements.


Feedback about these rooms is sought from all team members.



So there you have it, our starting point. Looking forward to writing to you all later!