Tuesday, March 26, 2013

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.


Tuesday, March 19, 2013

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.


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

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.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

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.

Monday, February 18, 2013

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.

Monday, February 11, 2013

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.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

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.