THOR launch coming soon!

Only two days left til the big day. For the last few days we have pretty much been trying to do continuous run throughs, fix things and tie up loose ends. Unfortunately, there are still problems, and they're mainly with the puzzles. We're having a lot of problems with the collision between the puzzle blocks, the calculation of the placement of the blocks, and the detection of the completion of the puzzle to trigger a teleport point. There have also been problems with installing the sound into the game and controlling the level and projection of the sound nodes. Compromises had to be made.

We've had outside game testers come in yesterday who performed extensive tests of the game and picked up quite a few bits and pieces requiring adjustments. Fortunately, most of those were small issues that can be easily fixed. There will be more user testing performed today.

The invitations for the launch have all been sent out. We have also been in touch with the RMIT publicity people, who have shown great interest in the project and have even requested a copy to use at the university's Open Day.

Nearly There

Starting to get to the pointy end!

On Thursday afternoon we had some non-AIM'ers come into the studio to do some user testing of the game. The results were generally positive. Everyone was able to play the game, thought it looked pretty good and found some of the challenges ''challenging''.  The testing also help us to find some problems such as:

• some of the terrain challenges were a big too ''challenging'' - the falling teeth came too suddenly for a first time player, the last climb up the mountain was almost impossible
  
• the start of the game was poorly designed - user started with a black screen because they were facing the wrong way by default
  
• the puzzle rooms were confusing, tho mainly because there are still no fully working puzzles
  

We also found a lot of technical problems with the game freezing and crashing. So far, one possible reason for these is that some of the models have very poor collision meshes that the engine cant handle. We will fix these meshes and hope thing will run more smoothly.

We will be running more tests in the next few days, and will be getting in more outside users on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

The sound guys have been in a couple of nights in the past week working in the studio, and they have started implementing audio into the game. So far level 2 has had sound put in.

The cinematic pieces are nearly finished. The trailer has been completed on our end, and is just waiting for some audio. This should be ready on Monday and will be available to view online.

The game launch is coming up on Thursday May 22. Invitations to the launch have started going out - via email and through Facebook. It will be held in the AIM studio, at 6:30pm.

Loosing our minds?

Every night a little graffiti fairy comes in and decorates our giant white board walls with some interesting artwork - usually reflecting the state we're in with this project (LOL?). Here are the latest

New images

Gallery updated

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!

The Nightmare of Chris!

Monday Morning

At last most of the Production Team's fantastic models have been installed into THOR. That means it's time for a runthrough.

At 9.30 we would like everyone to be in so we can install THOR on as many computers as possible. Then we can all run through the game and see how great the objects look in 3D. Some lucky people who were in late on Friday have already had a preview of levels 1 & 3.

The Sound Team were also in on Friday and played some very spooky sounds. By Tuesday the sound should be in THOR for us all to listen to.

Fixing the Models

We cannot stress enough about the importance of good file naming and file management. We've had dedicate a small team of people today to go through the Beta Testing folders and rename all the files to a uniform format because there were issues with the models and textures not linking up. Good news is that all the files have now been renamed and the links fixed. There are now people checking through the models to fix up any errors. We would have preferred to have avoided all these fiddly bits, but as they have happened all we can do is develop a system, make it a part of the process and keep on moving forward.

New images are available in the gallery of some of the models with textures.

Message from the Executive Producers

A NOTE FROM THE EXECS

A requirement for this project is for you to put in 110 hours each. Everyone better lift their game because your not even close.

You are not meant to get the game done as quickly as possible - you are meant to produce more and more stuff and use up EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU 110 HOURS.

As a guide, the concept team has been working for 2 1/2 weeks and should have done approx 85-90 hours by now (adjust numbers for each team).

ARE YOUR HOURS ANYTHING LIKE THAT? IF NOT, GET BACK TO WORK!

Eureka!

HORRAH! The lighting problem is solved! Thanks to the brilliant minds of the Engine team!

Waiting for the IT people to come around and install the Maya plugins, which they had assured us will be ''by the end of the day''. This will ease up our current blockage and speed thing along greatly.