Week 4 progress

Wow.... only about a week left!

There was a group meeting with the executives yesterday, where everyone got a chance to let off a bit of steam. We firmly established the fact that this project has been a big battle with technology. Our main problem has been, and continues to be, tackling the engine. Issues include:

• Being the first year to use the Torque game engine
• Large amount of coding and modifying the engine
• The lack of technically skilled people in the group
• The lack of resources and support material available for Torque
• The instability of the engine - tendencies to crash, poor error handling
• The lack of computers in the studio
• The integration between other programs (Maya, Constructor) and the engine

We have been working consistently at solving the problems as they occur, but because of the limiting resources a lot of bottlenecking occur at the engine stage, which then passes back up the production line and halts the whole project.

That being said, we are making progress. At this stage our results are:

• All the levels have been set up and we have been able to run around in certain parts of the space. However, there are problems with loading them all in the engine and unexpected blockages to pathways
  
• The concept team moved on to help with the production team over a week ago, and now the production team is moving on to help the engine team. Everyone is working closely and cooperatively with each other
• Adjustments to textures are being made
• Lighting have been put in but need to be adjusted. There are problems with lighting the Maya objects
  
• Objects that are problematic have either been removed or prioritised to be fixed according to the amount of work involved and their importance to the game
• We are still implementing and fixing the puzzles - working out the mechanics, adjusting textures, putting them into the game
• Need to install the teleports, puzzles and NPCs
• We have problems with creating the character and the NPCs, as it involves a lot of coding
• The terrain and the sky textures need to be modified
  
• Most of the game sounds have been made and are in the process of being put into the engine by the sound team - the sound guys have been making some great sound effects and coming into the studio to work with us. They have been working closely with Chris and Ziig, and have been taught how to implement audio into the engine
  
• The opening cinematic is finished, and the end cinematic and death sequence are in production

At the moment our number one priority is to load all the levels into the game, put in the puzzles, the teleports and the NPCs.

Also, we have been planning the launch night. We have created an identity for the game, designed the invitation for the launch and a web page for the game. There is a trailer for the game being produced at the moment.

This project has been a continuous problem solving exercise. There are still quite a bit to be done over the next week, but we'll get there!