Mageball Blog Entry 14

So the presentation of the game was a success at the Senior Show as was my demo reel. I managed to get the attention of some of the representatives from the companies. Now the next part of the team is to get a kick starter going so we can get some news out of the game itself. If I had to rate the overall outcome of Mageball and my personal experience, I would say it was one of the most successful games I ever had the pleasure of making and this team was one of the best teams I ever worked with.

Senior show live stream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-game-studio-at-champlain-college

Mageball Post 13

So with the final build made and the demo reel ready, there's not much to say other then this has been quite a year. I got to work with a bunch of other talented individuals who I am proud to know and got to befriend over the past few months on creating a really popular game that I think will go places when it's posted online.

I managed to create a well thought out narrative that has received high praise and managed to show it through more then just large amounts of text. This game is one of the best games I've had the pleasure of creating and I really hope the representatives from the various companies coming to see it will enjoy it as well.

I also hope that after the school year we'll be able to work more on it as I believe there is much to be explore about in Mageball

Website: http://mageballgame.com/

Mageball Post 12

So the game is almost completed. Hard to believe it's been close to four months already. I've had a great time working on this as the Narrative Designer and working with the team had good times as well. I still wish we had a chance to put in voice acting, if only to enhance the experience, but a decision is a decision. Right now, I need to focus on showing my part in this game in my demo reel. It's gonna be hard selling myself as a Narrative Designer since we're not usually the first people scouted.

Hopefully, the representatives who come to the Senior Show will be impressed on how I was able to create the entire lore of Myran and influence the direction of the two tribes and their nations.

Mageball Post 11

So the parchment background for the lore pages has been made and just two nights ago I managed to put the lore pages on the their own separate parchment. Thankfully, there weren't any issues in terms of size and shape with either the font or the parchment and the Planeswalker font only made it look more cool. The goal of the lore pages is to provide those who are interested more information about the world of Myran.

Each lore tells about the two tribes, history, and locations in their respective lands. One of the things I did was made it so that, if we continue to work on the game past graduation, is made it so that more stadiums can be made in various locations. I even have a plot ready should we wish to expand the number of tribes from two to three or even four.

During my demo reel, I will be explaining how I got the idea to use the art and level design to tell the story while also giving examples on both levels such as the White Deer statues and the iron equipment found in the mines.

Mageball Post 10

So with the narrative all done, I've been tasked to do secondary jobs such as gaining audio for the levels and GUI. I don't mind the job, and I do find myself with some more extra time on my shoulders, but still enough time to help the team out. The game is becoming more and more like something you would see on X-Box Live and I can't wait to show it to people when the senior show comes around.

I'm also going to ask Alex and the others tomorrow what other jobs he'll need me to do. I already spent two hours working on making the X-Box Controller Scheme, so I'm edger to do more things like maybe help at QA.

Mageball Post 9

Well, this week is it. I finally managed to finish the last of the lore pages for Mageball. It was very exciting to create a world from scratch and develop two amazing tribes who couldn't be more different from one another. All that's left is some editing and the pages will be ready to be implemented in the game. I also believe that the art work, which helps reflect the narrative of the world, will interest the players enough to want to know both tribes. They'll ask questions such as: why does the Ice Tribe has giant ice stag statues on their level? What is their significance? What are the "Drago Mines"? What's its history? These questions will propel them to move towards the lore page and find the answers they seek while learning more about the world of Myran.

The levels and art work have been well developed by the artists and level designers. Both levels reflect both tribes society, culture, and mindset as a whole, mostly thanks to basing both tribes on the likenesses of elves and dwarven from other fantasy games. The Ice Tribe are a lot like the elves, in which they worship nature while seeking wisdom and beauty in life, rather then conflict and destruction. The Fire Tribe, meanwhile, is more like the dwarfs in which they mostly live underground, mining and fighting of dangerous beasts for their lords. They have a tragic past, but have survived with teamwork and dedication.

I want to start showing off the pages I've managed to do in the blog, but I'll need to ask Alex for permission first before doing such a thing. With nearly all the narrative work down, I now must assist the audio team with their tasks by finding sounds we can use for the GUI.

Mageball Post 8

Well it's spring break now and I've been mostly relaxed while working on the remaining lore pages during the night. I managed to get the voice acting work into the repository, but there hasn't been that much feedback from anybody about them. The only one who has said anything is Alex and he's doubting the need to have the announcing now. I personally feel that we need to have the announcer inside the game because, if anything, it helps expand the experience of the gameplay by making it feel like a real sports game.It also is very helpful in helping get across certain narrative elements in the game across to the players.

Other then this, the development of the lore pages has been doing well. Unlike the history pages, these won't require a full page of development unless necessary. What I also have done is made nearly each non-playing area a possible place to be used as a stadium in the future should we wish to expand to other areas in the game. Not all places like the Shadow Plains and Avalon Valley can be used, but a good number of them can be.

Mageball Post 7

So today I did recording with Bryan and Andrew. It was really fun and we managed to get through the entire process without any problems. Bryan was a big help and Andrew was talented as always. The next stage is for the team to hear this while the game is playing and see if there are any changes we want to make to them before putting it in testing. The lines we recorded were only a small number of the ones I made, once the tester give positive feedback will put in more.

Other then that, the lore pages are my next big task. Already I've created the history ones, now I need to work on the places.

Mageball Post 6

Well, we're halfway through the semester more or less and already there have been some major changes. It's been decided that we're dropping the third level out of neccesity. Mostly due to time and the fear that we won't get a chance to get all the art done for that level in time, so it's just focusing on Fire and Ice Level. This means that I'll have to put my narrative designs for the forest level on hold (in case we ever revive it) for now.

I managed to get to the wrting center on Friday and with the editors help I managed to correct some mistakes I made. They were really impressed by the lore of the game and looked ready to go out and try it out. They even said the annoucer lines sounded like real line an annoucer would say.

With that done, the main plot and tribes have been put into the wiki. Next up is the locations, which I'm going to be working on later tonight by making a map and sending data over to Sam and the others.

Finally, we have our annoucer: Andrew Ascone, our audio guy. We have to start recording lines as soon as possible, so I'm waiting for him to reply to me his best times are. I'm edgar to get announcing into the game and seeing how the testers react to having that added feature.

So far the game is looking good and geting a lot of good feedback . Hope it continues.

Mageball post 5

So now that we've been green lighted, most of the team is now working around the clock to get the game ready in the following months. While I don't have the major work load my fellow teammates have, I am nonetheless busy. Right now I must continue to work on lore pages while talking with the artists to make sure our narrative and art are reflecting each other.

This week, we're starting to look for a voice actor for our announcer. We've sent invites to four people already and so far two have responded positively for tomorrow. The script itself as well as the announcer's personality have changed a bit. We're using less puns and more narrative focused quotes to help bring in the story of the world more.

Hopefully we'll have an announcer by Sunday and we can start recording some lines and put them in testing.

Mageball Post 4

Things have been a big calmer lately. For the last week I worked on the announcer script and my teammates seem to enjoy it very much. I also managed to finish the new storyline changes and the tribe societies, giving them each a unique difference. Now they're no longer similar to the Avatar likenesses that we had problems with before. Instead, we went with a sort of Elves and Dwarfs kind of likeness, except they're all human.

Other then that, my slides were made for our greenlight project and I hope that we'll be able to get pass the next stage in production to other games such as Quiblyball.

Mageball Post 3

Earlier this week I started working on Lore Pages. The idea was that a section of the game would have lore access so that those who want to learn more about the Mageball world can do so. It would feature the history of the two tribes and their culture, info on the stage areas, spells, and more. That's on hold for the moment so I can work with the Art team on art assets and creation of the Announcer Script. In the game, the Announcer will be the one to not only give play by play action, but also give small snippets of information about both teams and the world they live in.

Mageball Post 2

Date: Friday 18

So the main story has been fleshed out and approved by my teammates. The two teams and now tribes who were once ready to go to war with each other due to an incident, but a wise mage named Thaddus managed to convince the two to realize their error and showed them how similar they were using Mageball as the tool to do so. The game takes place after that day, ten years, and now it's a world wide sport that's loved by all. The next part of the narrative is to continuing to flesh out tribes while working with the art team to plan out the art assets that we can use to help tell the story.

Mageball Post 1

Date: January 11, 2013

So I've met my new teammates for Senior Game Mageball. On this team I am the narrative designer and I've been given free reign on this project mostly. The team doesn't have a lot for me to continue by since their game barley had a narrative when it started and now it's up to me to work with them in creating one. I'm already in the process of creating the world and the culture of the two teams. More to be developed in the future