What I've been working on.

So the last few days I've been working on making the player respawn.  I first have the player spawn in a certain place when the game starts.  This made it so it's easier to see where the player will start and it's easy to move that around.  Then I also made it so if the player hits a checkpoint that's where they will spawn if they die.  There are a few bugs I need to work out, but I need to talk about it with Rielly.  I have to ask him:

1) Should we have the health go down so fast?
2) What should I reset when the player dies?

I would include cool pictures, but there is nothing really interesting to show. Sad day :(

First Playable

First Playable

• working strongly towards visual target
• core functionality
• 1 environment
• u1 (front end and HUD is simple working form)
• Characters (placeholders)

What I've been working on.

This weekend I have mostly been working on getting the shadows working.  I now have the basic prefab done for a platform and shadow.  The shadow has a BoxCollider which acts as the trigger.  I had to make it so the trigger gets bigger and smaller if the platform is moving up and down (which was a little tricky).  I also have it ready so I can have the player get damage in the sun, but not under the platforms.  I have to see what Reilly did before a fully implement it (which I will see tomorrow).  I also have some questions for tomorrow that I want to write down before I forget.  These questions are mostly to see if we want to make the shadows more "dynamic":

1) Move shadow according to sun?
2) Does the solid shadow look ok?  I couldn't make a gradient one that looked good
3) Can we detect how far away from the ground the platform is?

Pictures!

Shadows!

Trigger changing!

Skin Cancer Research

Skin cancer facts-

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/skin_cancer/article_em.htm

Causes:

• Use of tanning booths
• Exposure to unusually high levels of x-rays
• contact with arsenic(miners, sheep shearers, and farmers), hydrocarbons in tar, oils, and soot (may cause squamous cell carcinoma)

The following people are at the greatest risk:

• People with fair skin, especially types that freckle, sunburn easily, or become painful in the sun
• People with light (blond or red) hair and blue or green eyes
• Those with certain genetic disorders that deplete skin pigment such as albinism, xeroderma pigmentosum
• People who have already been treated for skin cancer
• People with numberous moles, unusual moles, or large moles that were present at birth
• People with close family members who have developed skin cancer
• People who had at least one sever sunburn early in life

Prevention:

• Limit sun exposure. Attempt to avoid the sun's intense rays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
• Apply sunscreen frequently. Use a sunscreen with sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 15 both before and during sun exposure. Select products that block both UVA and UVB light. The label will tell you.
• If you are likely to sunburn, wear long sleeves and a wide-brimmed hat
• Avoid artificial tanning booths.
• Conduct periodic skin self-examinations. (Monthly self-examination improves your chances of finding a skin cancer early, when it has done a minimum of damage to your skin and can be treated easily. Regular self-exam helps you recognize any new or changing features. )
• Use sunscreen with sun protective factor (SPF) 15 or higher, and both UVA and UVBprotection.
  

• Wear clothing to protect exposed skin.
• Wear a hat with a wide brim to shade the face, head, ears, and neck.
• Wear sunglasses that wrap around and block as close to 100% of both UVA and UVB rays as possible.
• Seek shade, especially during midday hours.

A lot of the stuff I found about aloe vera or other things that can prevent skin cancer after being burned said that it helps but isn't 100% guaranteed. Therefore, I don't know if we want it in our game. I think the game should focus more on prevention of sunburn, because that seemed to be the dominate message.

This is an interesting website about aloe vera being a cure for cancer:

http://www.411healthstore.com/aloe-vera-articles/aloe-vera-cure-cancer.html

Things in class from February 15th

Puzzle aspects:
Items that you can use:

• blocks
• buildings
• trees 
• umbrellas
• glass 
• underground
• sunscreen
• glass boxes are focused underneath
• sun fixed in different directions each level
• Indiana Jones- spell out something
• clouds (white-> reduced, gray ->blocks)

Overall goal of game?

• Trying to get to the "Unemployment office"
• Trying to get to the store to get a Popsicle
• Everyday life that is crazy

Themes for levels

• Chase sequence - cloud covers up the sun
• resident
• university (school)
• industry
• downtown

Keep track of risk level with white -> red

Blob guy

• scrunch up with higher jump
• double jump

!!!!REMEMBER TO ZIP AND PUT YOUR STUFF INTO DROP BOX!!!!!!!!!!

Assignments for next Tuesday

Ryan- set up track system

Tom- more concept art of main character and blocks

Morgan- puzzles, research skin cancer (causes and cures)

Pace- physics

Sarah- work on built-in shadows (blocks), research skin cancer (causes and cures)

Spenser- more concept art of main character and blocks

Rielly- create base project, organize Dropbox stuff, lens flare

Art- Turbosquid

What I've been working on.

I've done a little bit of white-boxing.  I took the tutorial they had on line and played around with the camera angles.  I didn't settle on one type of camera angle because I wanted input from my group.  Also, I found out that Unity won't do real-time shadows unless you have Unity Pro.  That might be something we have to overcome.  Ryan has been working on camera perspectives as well.

More design stuff for Alby's game

Inspirational Graphics-

I'm not sure how the graphics of the game will be, but from the description this is what I imagined.

Obviously the first thing I thought of was a 2D side-scroller:

I also like these graphics because they are bold and a little more kidish (that is if we decide in the kid direction).  It would be cool if we could have that detailed of background.

The next thing I thought of is if the game is not 2D then it will be a sort of 3D side-scroller like this:

Ours will definitely not be as detailed, but have the effect that its 3D even though you are in a single left to right point of view.

Questions in general and about core mechanics:

1) Is it going to be 3D or 2.5D?

2) Are we going to have baked-in shadows or generated shadows?

3) Will the ray-casting or whatever its called work?

4) What is the age group?

Info. for Mountain Dew racing game

While I was researching code for the skin cancer game I found this script:
http://www.unifycommunity.com/wiki/index.php?title=SmoothFollowWithCameraBumper

I think this will be perfect for following the car.  I haven't tried it, but I will try soon or have Russell look at it.

I found some graphics from Mario Kart that I love.  The reason I am so interested in this game is because I imaged it somewhat like Mario Kart.  I love the 3D-like view with the camera behind.

Info. for Skin Cancer game

To get ready for Tuesday I wanted to come up with some ideas for the game as there wasn't much set in stone.  I tried to find simple things that people use to get their message across about skin cancer.  I found this web-site with informational little games on it.  Most of the games were just word games, but this game gave me an idea:
http://coolshade.tamu.edu/games2/toast.htm

In the game we could have different hats that people think will protect them against the sun.  They have to choose one and if they choose one that is not quite as good they are more likely to get skin cancer (but not as bad without a hat).

http://www.nursingcenter.com/library/JournalArticle.asp?Article_ID=1074082

This game I also thought was interesting.  This seems to have some research behind the game.  I'm not saying we should copy the game.  But in it there was some observations that after playing the game players picked on a More Info. button.

Here is a simple video I found about skin cancer whose idea we might want to incorporate:

Later I am going to look at the raycasting (I think that's what its called) that Russell talked about in class.

Notes for 2/3/11

Homework

1) Get a folder-full of inspirational graphic reference
2) Create a backlog of questions about the game
3) Think of what the core mechanics that will be needed in the game
4) Who is your target audience?

Games chosen:
1) Mountain Dew
2) Skin cancer
3) Object Oriented

Schedule:
2 weeks -> Design
2 weeks -> Pre-Production
9 weeks -> Production
   - 6 weeks-> Full Production
   - 3 weeks -> Tweaking