63rd Gallon Mike Dapiran, Brian May, Richard Pospesel, Bert

Tribernetica
63rd Gallon
Mike Dapiran, Brian May,
Richard Pospesel, Bert
Wierenga
Tribernetica
• 2.5D Action Platformer
• Blend of combat and
platforming
• Three elemental power
states that combine
platforming and
combat
Motivation
• Classic Platformer
• Modern graphic
style
• Scope
Design
• Three element system
• Combat
▫ Typed enemies
• Platforming
▫ Level design
Heat
• Medium
• Good platforming
and melee combat
• 360 degree dash
on switch – gives
the player some
ranged capacity
Cold
• Light
• Ranged basic combat
• Jump height
proportional to
ground speed
• Sonic-inspired
running
Iron
• Heavy
• Melee basic combat
• Lightning cloud
spawns at cursor on
switch
▫ Works as damage
cloud and platform
Enemies
• Melee
▫ Attacks with a pickaxe
• Ranged
▫ Shoots bullets at the
player
• Collector
▫ Collects power-ups
• All enemies have an
elemental type
Bosses
• Cave boss
▫ Cold drill and laser
▫ Platforms
▫ Heart
• Wasteland boss
▫ Giant mechanical
moose with crab legs
▫ Lightning shoots from
his eyes
▫ Fists covered in ice
Environment Design
• Cave and Wasteland fit
in with the narrative
• Help to build the sense
of a coherent world
• Disparate visual styles
keeps the experience
engaging between levels
Demo
Individual contributions
• Brian
▫ Art
▫ Level Design
▫ Game Design
▫ Research
 Tutorial series on effective
game art creation
Individual contributions
• Mike
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Particle Systems
Combat
Animation System
Research:
 Tessellation Effects
Individual contributions
• Richard
▫ Engine Design /
Library Integration
▫ Avatar Controller
▫ Boss Battle Design
and implementation
▫ Research:
 Task Based
Multithreading in
the Hogshead Game
Engine
Individual contributions
• Bert
▫ Lighting/Shadow
programming
▫ AI programming /
design
▫ UI / Camera
programming
▫ General programming
support
▫ Research:
 Pathfinding In a 2.5D
Platformer for AI
Navigation
Development Process
• Project management
• Winter schedule
▫ Open-ended, broad goals on
a long time-line
▫ Big tools
▫ Design
▫ Art pre-production
• Spring schedule
▫ First 5 weeks more general
▫ After 5 weeks, Monday /
Thursday check-ins
▫ Last 2 weeks crunch
Postmortem
• What went right?
• Design
▫ Found the fun
▫ Deliberate design
▫ Most polish and
balance any of us have
achieved
▫ Most gameplay
content any of us have
made
Postmortem
• What went right?
• Project management
▫ Carefully planned timelines
▫ Work 7 days a week
▫ At least 8 hours a day
▫ Very well defined roles on
team
▫ Clearly defined goals and
objectives
Postmortem
• What went right?
• Technical
▫ Heavy tools done in preproduction (winter quarter)
 Renderer, animation and
content importing, physics,
collision, and Maya as level
editor
▫ Able to adapt what we
needed from what we had at
the end of winter
▫ Ease of use of the engine
 Modular
Postmortem
• What went right?
• Art
▫ High volume
▫ Coherent style
▫ Most art for a game
that we have ever
made
▫ Learned a lot about
art direction
Postmortem
• What went wrong?
• Art
▫ Not enough time per asset
▫ Learned a lot about art
direction
• Scope creep
▫ We planned for too much
▫ Did not realize how long things
would take
▫ Available resources didn’t line
up with our expectations
• Too much to do / Too many
hats
▫ None of us could focus on any
one thing
Future work
• List of bugs / issues
• More
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Content
Enemies
Levels
Environments
Everything
• Refinement
▫ Combat
▫ Difficulty curve
▫ Tutorial
• Optimizations
Thank you!
Professor David Schwartz, Andy
Phelps, Chris Egert, Elouise
Oyzon, Al Biles, and Joe Pietruch
Special thanks to
Steve Oyarijivbie, Ben
Dapkiewicz, Al Allport, and
Cameron McKenzie
Questions