This week was a bit hectic, especially with classes from Monday to Wednesday. It was a bit rough trying to balance my schedule and manage my time. I'm not too sure that I'll get the best grade that I could've gotten in my final exam. Although I felt strong about the material and studied well into the late hours, I was not able to finish my exam. It probably didn't help that I stayed up the night before playing Red Alert 3 online. I guess a sacrifice was made.

From Thursday to Friday I spent my time at Helios laying out user guides and compiling information from different sources. We have data spread out over various repositories and collecting the information I needed proved to be a project in itself. After scouring a local computer and our in-house media server, I had most of what I needed. It was my task to design and layout information, mostly technical, in an easy to read manner. These guides will eventually help users to create their own games. This task has taught me how scripts are implemented in GameCore, as well as how assets are organized in projects and templates.

I also had my first experience as a fireman at Helios. We received a midweek request to assemble and email a concept art package. We needed to scan a number of sketches and art works, and organize them in a presentable manner. Although we have a shared scanner at the office, it was not one I was familiar with. Since I had volunteered to help with the scanning, I rushed home and brought in my own scanner. It really helped having a scanner on my desk as it sped up our workflow and allowed us to deliver a rush job in time.

As far as our current game development goes, we have had a shift in priorities. This is a good thing, since it will allow us to work on a new proof of concept job and knock out some backlog tasks. Speaking of a backlog, it seems that we have quite a list. Time to get organized.

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Labels: Helios Interactive

Enhancing the Game:
This game is essentially Boom Blox, but it appears that you are throwing/flicking birds to destroy structures. This could also be a turn-based 2 player game. May require the development of a structure editor if we want to customize the structures. Actually, I think there may be a game that does this... I'll have to look around, I think I recall a trebuchet...
This game-play relies on physics and would require some nimble scripting. It would be worth recreating with different assets, possibly make it more dark or brand it with store bought items.

Game Description:
The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake. Dish out revenge on the green pigs who stole the Birds’ eggs. Use the unique destructive powers of the Angry Birds to lay waste to the pigs’ fortified castles. Angry Birds features challenging physics-based castle demolition, and lots of replay value. Each of the 6 levels requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enemy.
Reference Link
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Labels: game design

I understand that the speed of time can be relative, at least when it comes to how much effort you are spending on a given activity. This week really does seem to have gone by in a blur; especially with my QA lectures, time in the usability lab, time spent working, playing Red Alert 3, and a less than ideal amount of sleep. There were some long nights and the quizzes from class kept my mind thinking about statistical power and confidence intervals. This week also marks the fourth week of my internship at Helios Interactive. So far I’m still trying to get my footing as far as my duties go, but I do feel like I’ve started to integrate into the team.

As for my office life, I continue to start my days by checking in with the big boss and meeting with Ross to discuss the happenings and get caught up. Even though I’m supposed to balance classes, homework, and study time; I still feel like I’d rather spend the whole week working at Helios. There is so much work to be done, as I’m finding out, and I simply don’t have enough time in the office to do it. Two days are just not enough. However, with that in mind I’ve spent my time planning and developing extremely efficient and adaptable templates in both MS Word and Adobe InDesign. It is true what you hear about working in a small game development studio, you will have to wear many hats.

Drawing on my professional experience and Visual Communication degree, I’ve been able to research best practice methods in what is essentially desktop publishing. I have not had to do work like this in quite a long time, but with a day’s worth of research and testing I was able to get up to speed and create professional documentation templates. The hope is that these templates will allow us to flow our current documentation, format it, and export it in digestible guides so that new users will be able to create their own games with our game engine. There will be three styles of documentation materials, but more on that later. Next week I should be able to start pumping out both print ready docs and PDFs for online access. I also need to do more research into online productivity tools.

Wrapping up the week… I was running on four hours of sleep and a tall dark roast coffee today. However, I felt surprisingly focused and more engaged during my morning lectures. After a massive calorie intake at lunch, I rushed to the Full Sail University Game Dev offices to hear two of my peers present on their internship experiences. They are halfway through their internships and will have to present again in two more months. I will be doing these presentations myself, but at the moment all I can think about is getting back into the office.

Week of 07/19/10 - 07/23/10

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Labels: Helios Interactive

Enhancing the Game:
Fast paced side-scroller which employs a variety of weapons to eliminate baddies. I like the simplicity and ease of use, jump and fire. I would love to use this game-play mechanic with user interchangeable characters and possibly create a 4 player version like Castle Crashers. It would also be interesting to change the shooting mechanic to a run/fly collect coins game. It does not have to be violent, but some sort of a Sonic-type game might be fun!

Game Description:
Monster Dash is an action game starring the hero Barry Steakfries as he runs and shoots monsters with nothing to lose! Travel through portals to visit exotic world locations, battling demons, mummies, vampires and more! No monster is safe when Steakfries is on the case!
Just two buttons controls the action – jump and shoot. The action speeds up and changes gears with every new world, but thankfully there are weapon and health pickups to get Steakfries into serious action mode. Blast your enemies with the one shot Pacifier, electro-charge your way to victory with Mr. Zappy, and look out for the ultimate in raining destruction – the Machine Gun Jetpack!
Get as far as possible and shoot monsters along to way to amass high scores and collect awards. Upload your best runs to the Openfeint leaderboards, and enjoy every ounce of personality Barry Steakfries brings to your iPhone.
You’ll do the dash. You’ll do the Monster Dash.
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Labels: game design

This week turned into a real balancing act for me. It was my first week back in a classroom after the summer break. My new professor seems like a really knowledgeable guy and is surprisingly funny. I'm sure it'll be a scientifically comic time. With my QA class this month I fear that I won’t be as productive at my internship. I still need to work on my thesis and balancing these three major duties will be a task unto itself. I’m considering using a Gantt chart just to track my workload…

With three days of classes and only two days of work at Helios Interactive I knew I had to be as productive as possible. I started off my days with what is starting to become a routine, meeting with Ross the multitalented Art Director and catching up on our status with the 3d game production. Afterwards I met with my boss and gave him updates on my progress. During this time I found out that we had a project brewing, in which I will be spending more of my time on.

After updating my production documentation and cleaning some 3d models, I started on what would be my new project. This would involve reviewing current Gamecore 3D documentation and researching an efficient workflow for compiling and reformatting our existing documentation. The big push here was to incorporate newer documentation and create user friendly guides. I’ll have my hands full with this project for at least a week as I get my head around the requirements. Aside from developing a template in MS Word, I also tested and planned a workflow for one phase of the re-branding of some of our documentation.

On the networking side of game development there was a fun local opportunity, the monthly IGDA Orlando chapter meeting at Tatame. At this meeting, Dustin Clingman from ZeeGee Games, presented on his motivating topic of creative responsibility. It was a very thought provoking concept and it led to some interesting questions from the audience. Asking a question myself almost got me elected to volunteer to run a seminar on creativity. The most fun part of this evening for me, was being able to drag my boss out to an IGDA meeting. We had some good times chatting with some of my classmates on topics ranging from QA to bigger beer bottles.

Finally, I had to make some time for gaming. I was able to play and finish Batman Arkham Asylum over a period of three days; what a fun game! I also played around with Gamecore 3D and tried to import my own 3d assets, I need more practice…

Week of 07/12/10 - 07/16/10

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Labels: Helios Interactive

Enhancing the Game:
This game is so simple that I can see why you would get addicted. Essentially you have falling fruit and you swipe at it to slash it. This works great on a touch-screen and seems extremely intuitive. On the PC unfortunately we would have to use the mouse. We could use the mouse to achieve a similar effect. For example; you could click+hold the left mouse button and move the mouse in a direction to slash/swipe at a falling object. Not all ninjas have master sword skills and not all cats have claws; so we could use retro game characters, some could use their special powers, weapons, or simply punch the objects. Creating games with this simple game mechanic would be a breeze and potentially hilarious!

Game Description:
Swipe your finger across the screen to deliciously slash and splatter fruit like a true ninja warrior. Be careful of bombs - they are explosive to touch and will put a swift end to your juicy adventure!
Fruit Ninja also uses OpenFeint, so players can unlock achievements and shoot for the top of the global leaderboards while racking up OpenFeint points.
Your success will also please the wise ninja Sensei, who will accompany your journey with wise words and fun fruit facts. Fruit Ninja is the messiest and most satisfying fruit game ever!
Reference Link
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Labels: game design

Enhancing the Game:
This game looks like it would be quite a bit of fun. Essentially you are a god to a bunch of creatures. You control their environment and provide terror by unleashing monsters and enemies on the locals. The environments may vary and can be skinned to support holidays or special events. The game-play also allows for being a nice god; you can provide the characters with helpful items. My take could have characters of the same class mingling in an environment, meanwhile opponents attack them. This of course means developing multi-player support. Two players would inhabit one island and vie for the attention of the islanders.

Game Description:
Pocket God is a god game in which the player takes the role of an omnipotent being who rules over an island and controls everything. The primitive islanders, known as Pygmies, are subject to the player's god powers. These range from benevolent powers, such as giving the islanders a fishing rod, to destructive, like summoning a hurricane, or simply entertaining, such as levitating the Pygmies. Built-in features of theiPod touch and iPhone OS are used, such as the accelerometer to simulate gravity and earthquakes. Most of these features can be toggled on the game's menu bar. The "March of the Fire Ants" update also added a new feature known as OpenFeint, where players can access chat rooms, leaderboards, achievements, and announcements during gameplay. Pocket God was ranked number one on iTunes for at least six months.

One of Pocket God's most notable features is the regular release of updates that introduce additional content. The episodes "A New Home", "Dead Pygmy Walking", and "The Pyg Chill" added additional islands to the game, which can be toggled from the menu bar. The Fun n' Games until A Pygmy Gets Hurt update added mini-games for consecutive coconut bounces, consecutive shark snaps, underwater skewer, pygmy bowling, and hurricane zaps. The Ooga Jump update added the first crossover minigame, Ooga Jump, which was followed by a Harbor Master crossover. In the Idle Hands 2: Caught With Your Pants Down update more idle features were added to the Pygmies when they are not in use. Also, Buddy Challenges were implemented with OpenFeint. In the Good Will Haunting update, a DLC store was added with changeable skins for the T-Rex. Other packs, such as the Halloween, Holiday and alien themes, have since been added.
Reference Link
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Labels: game design

For most of my classmates at Full Sail University, this was a week of vacationing. I guess you could call it our summer break. I, on the other hand, spent the Fourth of July weekend hanging with some good friends and playing video games. It was quite an interesting gaming weekend. I went from playing old and retro games at an arcade, yes they still have those, to playing PS3 games on a massive projector; thanks Dirk! After spending most of Monday relaxing with Red Dead Redemption and hacking Blogger, I was ready to get back to getting my hands dirty with game production.

This week I had a running start. Without Monday, I had to squeeze more productivity into four days. It actually worked out quite well. I performed some routine tasks, and even got my first cup of coffee request! That was a milestone.

I also made a production related contribution that has been very positive. After going over some of our current design docs and chatting with the Art Director, I drafted a master task list to help us organize our art assets work-load. With it, we were able to identify some production areas in which we could save time. The task list is on google docs and shared with the team, so even our Canadian amigos can make live changes. The documentation for this is constantly evolving; so far I’ve reworked parts of it three times. This of course, is what I had hoped for. Everyone looked at it and provided input; leading to all the rapid changes that happened to the doc within three days. Right away I learned to balance wishful production goals, with gotta get it done “in time and under budget” production. We ended up trimming asset requirements and production time. This was mostly due to scripting implementations which we aim to help us handle dynamic asset assembly; Thanks Mike!

On the other end of production, but not far from glorious... was my effort as office cleaning lady. I made it my challenge to eliminate dust and sparkle up the place for the parade of dignitaries we had this week. The day before the meetings, I was in the office waiting to go to dinner. I had time to kill, roughly 30 minutes. So I got a bottle of cleaning spray and went to town. I started with my area and moved on to other areas of the office. I think my boss thought I was weird. Yes I used the word “sparkle” in a sentence. That’s for all you unicorns out there...

Aside from drafting, formatting, and editing production documents I also had a chance to get my hands on 3ds max and get back into a 3d modeling groove. This was was mostly a small remodeling and cleaning task of older geometry; nevertheless, it was fun. I also had an opportunity to have lunch with a colleague from IMI Labs.

Overall I feel like I was more productive than last week. It could also be that I’m slowly getting integrated into the work-flow of the office. I’m sure that with a couple more weeks, my workload will increase; I can already see it happening over the horizon. The real challenge will take place next week when I have to attend Adams’ class at Full Sail University. That should be interesting! I will have less time to come into Helios Interactive and I’ll have twice the work to do at school. This semester our professor took an extra week off for his vacation, which I’m sure means we’ll have our hands full right away. Over-time management powers activate!

Week of 07/06/10 - 07/09/10

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Labels: Helios Interactive

Enhancing the Game:
Using the iPhones accelerometer, you can wave your device left and right to control the doodleJumper. Not too much going on here except that you control a character as it jumps ever upwards. With each platform landing the character jumps up. Making it 3d; Use platforms in a horizontal layout and perhaps use an overhead view. The challenge would be in picking the right platform to jump to, as some would be farther from each other than others. The game concept is easy to understand, yet with changing perspectives and 3d assets, it would create a new experience. Reboot the concept with 3d graphics and an high over the shoulder camera view.

Game Description:
In Doodle Jump, the aim is to guide a four-legged creature called "Doodle the Doodler" up an unending series of platforms without falling. Players tilt the device from side to side to move the Doodler in the desired direction. Players can get a short boost from various objects, such as propeller hats, jetpacks, rockets, springs or trampolines. There are also monsters that the Doodler has to shoot or jump on to eliminate. You can aim your shot by tapping on different parts of the screen, sending a projectile based on the theme in the direction of your finger. There is no definitive end to the game, but the end for each gameplay happens when you fall (by reaching the bottom of the screen), jump into a monster, get sucked into a black hole, or abducted by a UFO.
Reference Link.
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Labels: game design

The first week on the job is always one full of excitement, hope, and even a twinge of anxiety. My first week as an intern at Helios Interactive was exactly as I had anticipated. I started my Monday by coming in to work early, always a must for making a good impression. I also showered and even considered using deodorant, I flipped a coin and the deodorant was on. Seriously though, my first week was typical of starting a new job in any tech sector of the computer world. I met the team, most of whom I had worked with during the Healthy Game Jam Challenge and I was set-up in a workspace with my own desk and workstation. The anxiety I had come to expect melted away on the first day. Interaction with my boss and the team is really easy and open; everyone has been extremely welcoming.

We sit in an open area environment which enhances communication and facilitates a continuous exchange of ideas. I'm sure this office layout is going to be very conducive for production. Close by is the Art Director and next to me in another office is my boss. It has only been a week, so as may imagine I'm still feeling my way around the processes and workload. I'm interning as a Production Assistant and although I don't have too much to do right now in that regard, I know things will only get more hectic for me soon enough. So what do you do when you start a new job? Or in my case an internship at a game company who happens to develop an extraordinary game engine?
Well, let me explain...

I started on a Monday and within 20 minutes I was off and running. I began the day with a small meeting with my boss, we discussed my objectives for the week and a process for communicating my progress. It was also explained that Helios Interactive is in the middle of a transition and I could expect to be very busy within a couple of weeks. This is more or less what I had expected. I knew that the GameCore3d game engine was a big part of Helios Interactive's success, and with that in mind I had already started doing research into it. My boss explained that he wanted me to go through the entire process of downloading the trial version from the company's web site and installing it myself. Afterwards I was expected to go through the GameCore's Editor tutorials and documentation. As part of this process I was expected to perform a QA role and document errors, bugs, and discrepancies in any of the documentation or performance of the game engine editor.

My first couple of days were filled with learning, It was almost like being at Full Sail University; except that I had my own desk, with a window and easy access to a white-board! After going through all the tutorials I had a couple of pages worth of notes. I transcribed these to Google Docs and shared them with my boss. I was amazed to see how much the GameCore engine can benefit game developers, artists, and game designers. It is truly a tool worth considering if you are planning to produce a full 3d game, especially if you want to use it on mobile devices. I can't speak too much on specifics of the game engine's capacity, well at least not yet. It will suffice for me to say, that it is now my favorite game engine and I can't wait to prototype my own game ideas with it.

I rounded off the week by getting accustomed to everyone's work habits and routines. I also devoured the video tutorials that are on the GameCore3d youtube channel and started experimenting with assets in the editor. The objective this week has been for me to learn the GameCore3d game engine and editor in order that I may be knowledgeable in its capabilities. It may be the case that I could end up talking to possible clients and third party affiliates, under these conditions I better know what GameCore is and can do. This being a game company meant of course a different office culture than what I was used to at my last job working for a private research corporation. With that in mind, my hours are still managed on a Google Doc and I am expected to maintain an hours log of my tasks. Of course this wouldn't be a game company if we didn't actually play games. We are producing a game which is currently scheduled to coincide with the launch of a new show on the Cartoon Network. I have been playing this game quite a bit and aside from being fun, is quite novel due to its planned deployment specifications. More on that later. Finally, press releases/stories are being published this week regarding the history and development of Helios Interactive. Check out the story on Venture/Games Beat here.

Although it has only been a week, I can honestly say that I feel comfortable working at Helios Interactive and am fully enjoying my experience so far. I am extremely excited for the projects that have been disclosed to me as I expect to play quite a productive role in them. Again, more information later, but in the meantime feel free to find out more about Helios Interactive.

Week of 06/28/10 - 07/02/10

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Labels: Helios Interactive