My Goals... are too long.

Goals for the semester:

Based on how well things went last semester... I'm tempted to say I'll have my section of the level blocked out and ready for concepting by May. But I guess I'll shoot a little higher than that... even if I miss in the end.

Nathan T. has expressed a desire to join forces on my section of the level so we can ensure it gets done to a presentable point. I think this is a good idea, and that once many of the assets are created for my section they will translate to his section as well.

So, what I've done is broken work into passes. I'll consider that last semester I was able to get done with the first pass on the geometry. This semester I'll be looking at these aspects of the level:

• Modeling
  • Geometry
  • Animations
• Textures
  • UV's
  • Painting
• Lighting
  • Rough-in
  • Final Pass
• Particle Effects
  • Particle system creation
  • Placement and tweaking
• Gameplay
  • Design
  • Scripting/Implementation

So, for each pass I'll be taking each one of these focuses into consideration.

The intent is to have each pass take one month, with the rest of January used a buffer time so that if any pass takes more than a month I'll still be able to get done by the end of April.

So here are the passes and milestone breakdown:

2^nd Pass: Done by end of February

Modeling:

• High and mid level geometry in game.

Textures:

• Practice the style and become comfortable with painting the textures.

• Determine the color scheme for each area.

Particles:

• Make a list of needed particle systems and sprites.

Gameplay:

• Design/Placement of events and triggers.

Lighting:

• Rough in... I mean super rough... mainly to correspond with the color scheme.

3^rd Pass: Done by end of March

Modeling:

• Detail props in game
• Some roughed in animations

Textures:

• All geometry UV mapping done
• Produce final textures

Particles:

• Create the most important particle systems and sprites (based on list from 2^nd pass)

Lighting:

• Rough in a bit more, especially where particle systems are concerned

Gameplay:

• Main gameplay triggers and events functional

4^th Pass: Done by end of April

Modeling:

• Clean up and add any detail needed

Textures:

• Redo any that aren't working well
• Replace any placeholder textures

Particles:

• Add in remaining particle systems, and tweak existing ones

Lighting:

• Final Pass and bake final lightmaps

Gameplay:

• Work on making the gameplay fun, and test level triggers and events

5^th Pass: If time allows

• Polish everything possible

All of the things listed above will be split between myself and Nate T., but I feel there is more than enough here for the two of us.

On top of this schedule I'll have some design work that still needs done, and some documentation stuff in order to prep the design doc for the programmers. From this point on all of my scripting will be focused on the level events, not gameplay mechanics.

As for this week work-wise I've gone through a few modeling mock-ups of the canyon section of the level, trying to find the right look for it. I think I've come up with something I can like, and will try to polish it a bit next week in order to have a style guide for that section of the level. I've also done some texture practice samples, which are getting me closer to being able to paint in a style that fits what we want... I hope. For level design I took an overhead look at the canyon and wrote down a list of trigger/events that will happen along that section. Since it is the tutorial portion of the level there will be a number of triggers and text/GUI queues to help the player.

Lastly I've fleshed out a bit of the mechanics regarding the character ai which directs the player as the fly. As well as deciding on some aspects about the main character... only because some of these things were important in regards to the level events in the canyon section.

Next week I'll write up a bit of story stuff so Nate S. can do some storyboard work.