Bottled Up – Scrum Update

Currently my team is progressing amazingly. We are gradually working our way through all of the tasks we have set ourselves in order to accomplish our end goal of an outstanding game, that we can all be proud to showcase.

Currently Luke is programming the combat system for the game (which includes; generic attack, stun attack, poison attack, teleport and more). Nathan is currently creating all of the required particle affects to match the combat system that Luke is creating. This will allow for the combat system to be completed quickly and effectively, as the animations have already been created and implemented into the game. As for myself, I am currently creating the town in Unity out of the modular models I created in Maya and textured in Substance Painter. Once the town is complete I will be sure to include an in depth post on it. Once I have created the town, I will then create a package which can be imported into the game.

Our next steps our to continue implementing quests to bring the game to life. The aim is to make the very first 10 mins of the game as interesting and punchy as possible to really entice the player into playing more. This will be the best way we feel that we can show off our game when we submit it for a YGDBAFTA (Young Game Designer’s BAFTA).

Bottled Up Project

Introduction

Bottled Up has made a lot of progress as of recent: Luke has implemented the quest system, along with beginning to adapt the inventory system (preparing the game to be expanded), Nathan has created the ‘Olde Orchid Cottage’ and has begun creating ‘Dead Man’s Outpost’, As for myself I have begun creating ‘Castle Town’ (the main city in the game). I Have made all of the buildings completely modular for ease of building large cities. I have almost everything hard modeled and still need to UV unwrap and texture my assets, but it is quickly coming together.

Progress

Personally, I feel that we are making great progress. To us we have a great idea which we are all equally driven to achieve. Our goal is to ultimately be nominated for a YGDBAFTA (Young Game Designer’s BAFTA), and we are going to work as hard as possible to achieve that.

In my opinion we are all working very efficiently to put in place the foundations of Bottled Up, so that we can develop it as far as our imagination/time shall let us. I am very happy with the team I am working with as they both share the same passion and dedication for game making as myself. I can’t wait to see where we can take this game in the coming months.

Latest Video

Extra Details

Next Gen Skills Academy have been more than supportive throughout our process of creating Bottled Up so far, and we are more than grateful. Check out their Facebook page below, where they post all about the latest and best work being produced by the course.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/NextGenSkillsAcademy/posts/

We have created an official twitter for Bottled Up where we will post behind the scenes posts all about Bottled Up and our journey to create it. Checkout our twitter below.

Twitter: @BottledUpGame

Synoptic Project Pitch

game-pitch

For the synoptic project we were tasked with creating a game pitch, which other people will vote for (if they want to work on it). The game pitches with the most votes are then chosen to be created for the final project of the year. If your game pitch is chosen then you will also be responsible for leading your team throughout the project. In this post I have included my game pitch for ‘Bottled Up’

Synoptic Project Pitch Progress

Currently I am working on finalizing my synoptic project pitch. I have summarized my game idea below.

“For teens/young adults who love adventure/quest games, Bottled Up is a stylized, adventure game that allows the user to complete quests in a mysterious world. Unlike other adventure games, our product has a very unique style to stand out from the rest.”
Bailey Brian

For this project I will require, one programmer, and one 3D modeller, as I will also be 3D modelling and taking care of UI art. This is the role I carried out in my last project which achieved great praise. I know that I can carry out this role to the same standard second time around.

I hope that this project gets chosen and myself, Nathan Richardson and Luke Mcfarlane, are able to work on this project as it is the same project we intend on submitting for a young game designer BAFTA, in early 2019.

Imagine World – UI Concepting

For the imagine world project I have been dedicated the UI artist role, creating all the UI assets for the game, such as; main menu, pause menu, settings menu, etc. This has been a long on going task, however, I have greatly enjoyed using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create all the individual UI assets. I have created UI assets before for other games, but I have never created UI assets for such a complex game, there was a lot for me to think about when drawing / creating the UI and I really enjoyed the challenge. Below I have included a bunch of example UI sheets I have created for the UI programmer (Matty) to use when implementing the UI to the game.

Update on my current situation

Due to current weather situations I have been unable to blog as I have been stranded at my girlfriends house. However, now that the weather is clearing a bit I am now able to continue my work which I have been anxious to be getting on with. My apologises for no blog posts recently. Expect another, work related, blog post either today or tomorrow.

The work I am currently working on includes; my stylised weapons (3D modelling and texturing, exam prep (programming/game design), and the finishing touches of my Triple S project (final renders and such).

Future projects going into 2018

As Christmas draws closer I am spending a lot of my time making memories with my family, friends and my girlfriend. Therefore, work is currently on the back burners just for this Christmas break to give me some time to relax after an amazing start to the course. I have been absolutely loving Next Gen so far, and as time goes on I am slowly beginning to find the subjects which appeal more to me more. But to be honest, I think that the subjects that I enjoy practicing more is shown clean on my blog and in my portfolio.

Going into 2018 there is a lot I want to do. Through out the rest of my first year I really want to get stuck into as much as possible and to improve my skills across all aspects of the Next Gen course, so that moving into year 2, I have skills from all part of Next Gen (game design, 3D modelling, art, animation, and VFX).

As well as this I also have a few project ideas that I have brewing and I am eager to get working on in the next year. Along with continuing with Acclimatize, obviously, as I am really looking forward to seeing how far I can take this game and I am hoping that I can release a game demo within 2018 so that people can play the game and get a proper feel for what the final game will look like and be like to play.

As I am a very family orientated person and Christmas is by far my favourite time of year, I don’t think that I will blogging much over this two week Christmas break, but blog posts can be expect to return to their normal routine once college starts again. I honestly just want to have a nice relax break and enjoy making memories with those closest to me.

Portfolio Feedback (DISTINCTION!)

I am so happy with how my portfolio viewing went. In my opinion, Ant and Gary both gave me really good feedback on it. I understand that I am technically not at a distinction but if I am to keep working the way I am I will achieve a distinction, and I am more than happy with that. Personally, I am dedicated to doing the best I can do in the course and achieving a distinction as I am passionate about this industry and it is my dream to work in it one day.

You can check out my portfolio below (for anyone who is interested).

Portfolio

Acclimatize Update – Coin Collect

Coin Collect As apart of my game (Acclimatize) I have added in a score system, in which the player collects coins to increase their score. I have set it up fairly basically; player runs over coin, coin is destroyed (“Collected”), score display in the UI increases. Currently this score system doesn’t really serve any purpose other than giving the player a secondary objective when playing the game. However, incrementing this feature allows for different possibilities in the future when the full game is made. For example; leader boards, in game store to buy items (character and boosts) and more.

Once again I am very happy with the progress I am making with this game, I really feel like it is coming together. however, there is still a lot of work to be done, but I feel like we are working through the tasks at hand very quickly. I am looking very forward to getting this game to a stage where people can trial it out and we can get feedback as I am really happy with how it is looking, and I’m confident that the demo will look even better.

3 Most Memorable Sound Effects In Game History (Personal Opinion)

In my opinion the most memorable sound effects from gaming history are seen in Mario, Pac man and Zelda. Personally, I think that these are games that most people have played or at least heard of. Not many people, especially gamers, don’t know what these games are. Personally, I feel like the classical Pac-Man sound effects, including when he eats, moves and dies, are well known by the entire gaming community and more. As well as the unforgettable high pitch noises as Mario collects his coins and grows by collecting mushrooms, and the slightly less well-known, (but still well known no the less), death noise found in Zelda which is iconic to the franchise.

I have listed my most memorable sound effects below, check them out:

Mario

Pac Man

Zelda