DarkWynter Game Design Blog

New website

2007-07-02T21:59:00.001-07:00

I know we haven't updated this blog in months, but our main website can be found here:
http://www.darkwynter.com

We have now submitted the game to the competition.. of course there were last minute bugs, but thats the case with any project.

Be sure to check out the website and leave us feedback!
-Priyesh

Prototype done (Update1)

2007-01-30T12:23:00.000-08:00

We presented our prototype demo in class today and it went pretty well. We had two prototypes: a card game and a technical demo.

Someone else can explain our card game (*cough*hunter*cough*). But our technical demo was mostly for terrain modification and throwing boulders. We also had split-screen working for it. Our main problem in the demo was a memory leak which we still haven't figured out.

Download links:

You also need to download this:
XNA Framework 1.0
The XNA framework lets you play games made in XNA so you don't have to actually install the XNA Game Studio software itself.
To use the Xbox360 one you obviously need an Xbox360 but you also need to have a membership to the Creator's club ($99/yr).

Enjoy!
-Priyesh

Update: I have added a README file to the zips that describes the controls. Read them! some of them are hard to figure out (its a prototype after all)

Terrain updates

2007-01-25T17:29:00.000-08:00

There were some things we had overlooked with the Terrain rendering, which have all been taken care of now. So as you can see things are looking a lot better. The texture was rendered based on the height. We also added on-the-fly terrain modification (at a hard coded point), now the only thing left is to get the terrain modification to work at any user selected point on the map. But this is still progress!

Early terrain engine

2007-01-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

We have been working hard on getting a basic terrain engine working in XNA. We found most of the code we needed in the Reimers tutorial and the QuadTree component found here. Thanks to these resources we have been able to successfully render terrain loaded from a file.

Heres proof!

Nice huh? This is a huge step in the right direction! Now we just need to be able to modify the terrain at any point we want. This shouldn't be too hard.

-Priyesh

Elemental Game Engine

2007-01-20T12:26:00.000-08:00

We've been working non-stop on the Oversoul concept for a couple weeks now and, though it's a great concept, we're stuck with the reality that we only have two months to develope it.

Alas, we have decided to regroup and focus on the base elements (pun intended) of our design. This frees us from the rigourous artwork, modelling, cutscenes, and plot development aspects of the game, and gives us time to work on what is already a daunting list of challenges.

Enough with the prolog, here's the idea.

Make the world you're own.

Elemental gives you the ability to modify terrains, travel underground, create and reroute rivers, melt snow and create ice. Use the wind to fly or to blow your opponents away, or satisfy the pyromaniac deep inside and burn anything on the board. Become any of the the four elements and harness their abilities to outplay your opponents and be the last man standing.

Basically we are creating a real world editor and putting the world at the user's fingertips. We're looking to avoid smoke and mirrors as much as possible and set the user up to discover emergent behaviors as they combine or sequence different abilities.

Our goal is to create a 2-4 person version of this world along with several training levels to help get the user started. Upon completiong of the course we intend to enter the XNA Game competition and will likely reintroduce the Oversoul story/philosophy back into a single player version of the game for completness....

Go Team!

2007-01-18T14:46:00.000-08:00

I decided to turn this into a team blog instead of an individual one. So this is where all the team members of Dark Wynter will post about their progress and what they have done so far (or not done). Let me introduce our team:

Amanda (wulfkub): Producer
Priyesh (madgamer): Lead Developer (thats me!)
Subhir (subhir): Lead QA
Jason (jason.s.hardman): Creative Lead
Hunter Hale (hunterhale2001): Content Lead

Of course, most people have multiple roles that they fill. Also it would be nice if they would post and tell a bit more about themselves and what they are good at. Since I started this blog I will start first:

My name is Priyesh Dixit. I'm a Masters student at UNCC and I hope to graduate this December with an M.S. in Computer Science and a GameDev certificate (if I survive!). My main strength is mostly with coding and implementation. I can draw but its not very pretty and I mostly draw while looking at a picture, so I'm no artist. I do have minimal experience with 3D modeling but its VERY minimal and mostly with AC3D and Milkshape. What I hope to contribute to our game is by making the implementation phase as smooth as possible and planning ahead for what needs to be coded and how. Of course, life (and a certain professor) loves to throw curveballs at us so we can't solve every problem ahead of time. But at least we can try to be prepared for most of them.

While I'm at it I will give an update to what I've been doing. I started working on the UML diagram of what our class structure might look like. Its not finished yet but I wanted to show the general layout I have so far:

Neat huh? I used a program called OmniGraffle for the Mac (which was actually preloaded on my Powerbook!). Theres lots of unfinished pieces and I still haven't added some things like Physics but it gives a rough estimate.

We are going to redo our game pitch on Tuesday since we didn't convey our idea quite right today. But I think its clear to me now how it would be implemented and I know we can do it!

-Priyesh

Team meeting #1

2007-01-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

So we already had our first meeting for the class! I will post all the notes I took during the meeting here. We have another meeting at 1pm tomorrow dealing mostly with the programming of 3D in XNA Game Studio.

=================================================
Game meeting 1/9/07, 1pm

Amanda
Hunter
Priyesh
Jason
Subhir

Presented three game concepts, rough outlines.
1. Amanda's: No-win situation, "Kobayashi Maru".
Assasin ordered by king to kill some guy. You can:
--follow orders
--rebel against king
--change the rules
An action-RPG like Neverwinter
(-) Size and scope

2. Jason's: Oversouls take over human hosts. Can go out of body to explore the world.
Four elemental orbs, can be used to solve puzzles or attack
ie. Earth can be used to form a bridge
(-) Jason may not be in the group
(-) A little ambitious
(+) Excellent chance for SHADERS

3. Hunter's: Squad based tactical turn based (XComm)
(+) Strategy based, its not real-time. Less animation
(-) Limited appeal

Roles?
Creative Designer
Programming designer lead (Priyesh)
Content engineer (Hunter)
Sound engineer (Jason)
Level designer (Amanda)
Effects artist (Hunter)
Basic physics lead (Jason)
Terrain engine (Jason, Priyesh)
Documentation lead (Amanda)
AI Designer (Subhir)
Interface designer (Priyesh)

What can be reused?
- A*?

Plot ideas - Jason's Game
Elemental orbs are scattered throughout the world and across time.
Near future blasted and scorched uncc, high tech lab - fire
Atlantis, above water - water (steal water orb and sink it)
Stone henge, past (no tourists) - earth
Himalayas temple on a mountain - air
Get back to the temple with the stargate to the end of the universe

the orbs have an anti-teleport shield

Main character:
Two different clans of beings
Motivation: to go back home to the center of the universe

The clan finds the orb of time and sends the hero to find the rest

Got to the planet for exploration, looking for the earth orb
Theres fighting between clans

Game name: Oversoul
Team name: ????????

Meeting tomorrow 1pm, explore 3D in XNA
=================================================

Blog blog = new Blog();

2007-01-09T04:58:00.000-08:00

This blog is where I will post about progress with the Game Studio team project and what I have been working on. I figured I would keep it separate from my regular blog. So if you are interested in reading about game development and the joys and woes associated with it, then feel free to add this blog to your favorite RSS reader (mine is netvibes.com).

So long for now!
-Priyesh