ACHIEVEMENT LOG
16th May - 21st May 2022
WEEK 12
WHAT DID I DO THIS WEEK?
Final Asset Creation - Recreate ski-lift animation
Further development - Game V8/9
Setup Testing - two VIVITEK projectors
Creation of Game Trailer
Creation of Gameplay Demo Video
Complete BitShort.Studio site!
ANIMATION
Due to problems with the ski-lift animation and to ensure we had this done in time, I took it upon myself to recreate the animation. Although this is something I am not used to, I used Photoshop to create a video animation, and moved the ski-lifts frame by frame. I successfully converted this into a GIF and have forwarded it to Kiera, who worked on importing these final assets into the scene this week, alongside the new loading screen, and making final changes to the detection.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
Kiera has been working with James to get our final animations and loading screen into the scene as expected, as well as making other changes. They added a border around the edges of the screen, so the bird fades out when players change between screens - this avoids it looking a bit harsh and sudden. As well as this, we now have a working cloud loop and ski lift animation in the scene. The final scene has been brought to life! Kiera and I also worked together to ensure the two servers worked seamlessly, and made anything changes to the two servers that were necessary. For now, we will be focusing on just the detection, but everything else is complete.
SETUP TESTING
This week, we setup the space yet again! This time, using two VIVITEK projectors. As these projectors have the same specifications, we didn't think they'd cause us any problems, but of course they did! To overcome these problems, we messed around with the settings, colour settings, aspect ratio.... everything. We still couldn't get the two to match up, but not to worry, we have new projectors on the way! We will be borrowing them next week, and testing with them ASAP.
GAME TRAILER & GAMEPLAY DEMONSTRATION VIDEO
This week, I managed to film, edit and complete two new VIDEOS! I am so happy with my progress this week. I have completed both videos needed to market our game and both look great. We are really happy with the outcomes of these, which are now available to watch on our Youtube Channel! I should be posting the links to these videos on our social platforms by this weekend (tomorrow) so our audience can watch them too.
COMPLETE BITSHORT.STUDIO SITE
We have a complete site! This week, I also read through, refined and finalised our BitShort.Studio site. I edited our week-by-week blog, bullet pointing the tasks we fulfilled and adding in some new images. I also made sure to embed all videos and links to further personal documentation for the development process. All pages of the site are now complete, including a new 'The Future of Getaway' page, which consists of ideas of where to take the idea in the future. This highlights a little bit into accessibility and the future of the program. The only thing left to do, is get our browser version of the experience imported into the 'PLAY' page. We spoke with Chris O Connor this week to get our page setup, and have taken all the steps needed to do so.
WHAT DIDN'T GO WELL? / TEAM DECISIONS
The only problem we are currently facing is the inability to fly the bird smoothly. Detection works, however is still a little bit laggy and doesn't perform as well as we want it to. Other than this, everything is essentially in place and complete! Because of this, the final week will be spent making MAJOR refinements, and we plan to make further polishes even after hand-in to ensure the deliverable we showcase at our Arcade Events are as good as they can be.
NEXT STEPS FOR NEXT WEEK
Next week will be spent on final development, getting our browser game in our main web page and itch.io, as well as further marketing the events on Instagram and Twitter. We only have 4 days left in Week 13, including our hand-in day. It's almost over, and we are both feeling mixed emotions! Bring it on.
HOW DO I FEEL?
I feel excited but nervous! We are coming up to Week 13 which is essentially the last week of University... EVER. This is an unreal feeling and I can't believe I made it this far. I am so proud of our outcome, despite all the trials and tribulations, we did an amazing job. As well as focusing our time on finalising the experience next week, we will definitely make the most of our time here.
SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE!