Visual StoryBoard!

This week my teammate and I went to the gaming lab to try and create a visual storyboard. After spending couple hours in trying to figure out how to hook up all the equipment we began our process in creating the storyboard.

The game we decided to describe was God of War 3 for PS3. We played about an hour of gameplay before stopping the recording device. It captured all the things we went through during our gameplay... even our loses. The game was extremely slow and hard to play because the devices hooked up to our laptop, because the game was so slow to pick up our controls it was hard to play the game, but we got through it! After playing the game we had realized that God of War had a lot of aspects we did not look at before. This assignment let us look at the actual mechanics of the game and what they used in order for it to be smooth. The orbs obtained (red, green and blue) and the save point was a good example of particles and the close ups on Kratos showed good examples of light effects.

God of War 3 for PS3

The storyboard we create will describe all movements and main scenes in the game-play we went through. We will try to be as descriptive as possible as each part of the board will have a different aspect of the game.

Game-play of Kratos about to go into a save point

Another interesting part we looked at was the menu systems in the game. Simply but very descriptive and easy to use. The menu system also had scrolling system which took the player into different menus, some that upgraded the weapons and some with status updates. All menus were interesting and crucial to the game's mechanics and dynamics.

Menu before starting the game

Homeworking!!

For one of the assignments we need to complete, we need to play and analyze an art game. The art game is used to to create beautiful images and to make the player have a mesmerizing experience. It is not very strong in the story aspect.

The game I decided to critique was FlOw for the Playstation 3. It is an art game that can be purchased on the Playstation Network.

FlOw for PS3

The game starts off with mellow music and a simple set of instructions on how to play the game. after realizing that there are only two different types of movement the player can do he or she can move onto the next screen. The game title appears and the player immediately starts the game swimming around as a single cell organism trying to eat other things in order to grow larger and into more beautiful looking species. After eating certain objects the once single cell organism will have grown into a large organism and then the game will move deeper into the world starting off as a new single cell creature and growing into a different type of artistic being by devouring things around it. This process of eating and evolving continues for six levels. (meaning there are six main single organisms that transform into amazing creatures.) The game is very interesting but I find that art games are not for me. I need a story and other key parts that are in regular games. Even though I do admire the art and graphics in a game I cannot get into a game with just art and amazing music. Overall it was an interesting play and I would recommend it to people that love to draw and have a lot of appreciation towards art and how a game can make use of all its elements.

Game-play for FlOw 

The Gaming Continues!!

Today is our milestone for our game that we are working on. Today our prototyping code should be done and our finished art. We have our preliminary code and basic menus completed. The art is completed and it is in our design documentation. The game is being completed slowly and we believe we can accomplish it within the time.

The coding aspect of our game is being dealt with by other people within our group so most of the milestone that is due is being dealt with by my teammates. In our game we will be using four main levels, this will have four main texture maps. One is for Egypt, Antarctica, New York City and one is used for the Grand Canyon, this will allow players to feel that he or she is actually in the driver seat in the location where the character is at the time.

The game will also include roadblocks and other obstacles that will restrict the player from driving through the level with ease. The roadblocks will push the the vehicle back slowing it down. The obstacles in the game will create a challenge making the user keeping wanting to play until he or she completes the level.

The trailer for our game is below, we believe that if we show the game-play and a cinematic we can drag the attention of gamers to come and try our intense racing action game.