No, we didn’t just disappear off the face of the Earth. Actually, quite the opposite. We’ve been busy this semester, and as such, we’ve started up a project or two that has everyone throwing ideas back and forth throughout the meetings. I’ll give the basics of the game, but I can’t say too much since it’s so early on in the development, like, REALLY early. Anyways, it looks like your standard deathmatch FPS, but there’s a bit off a twist. Now, this twist is still being finalized, but it has to do with the environment directly, as in altering where you can go or what it does when you go to said point on the environment based upon certain factors. At first, we thought of using paint as the game mechanic to control this, but at the same time, we keep going to a TRON’ish-virtual-steampunk visual style, which, in my opinion, doesn’t fit very well with paint munitions. Regardless, when we finalize how the game will play out in it’s abstract sense, One of us, most likely me, will fill you guys in on it. Until then, you’ll just have to wait patiently.

In other news, although semi related to our project, Andy was showing off a, albeit horribly executed, way of using accelerometers (which are easy to find in most game controllers, we use a Wii-mote because of how cheap it is compared to alternatives at this point) to calculate rotation, position, pitch, yaw, etc. to act as a virtual reality head movement sensor. What he wants to do is somehow attach it to a helmet of some sort, and attach a stereoscopic set of monitors for goggles, so that the player can also view the game they’re playing in 3D. Although the prototype is crude and not easy to get working, it’s a proof of concept (aside from the monitors and the helmet) that should bring in virtual reality games closer than they have been before. Just think, you’re holding the line against enemy soldiers, pinned behind a barricade, when you peer over the debris just enough to get a peek at your adversaries’ locations before they start shooting back at you, forcing you to duck back down into cover. I’d be psyched to actually feel IN the game instead of just controlling what scenes play out on my interactive DVD. On a side note, Andy had another great idea for this setup: get another controller, and track it’s position and everything separately from the head, basically acting as the player’s weapon in game. You could then look one way and fire your weapon around the corner of a building without having to look. Total immersion would definitely ensue.

I don’t know what else to really say in this post, although we are almost halfway done with the semester, we’re not even CLOSE to being finished in any sense of the word. We will keep you guys posted on our progress, and once we have something to actually show, I’ll post some screenshots/gameplay videos.

Thanks for reading,
Dan

If you haven’t heard yet, Unity 3D is now available for free with the indie license!  Now you can easily create rich, 3D games with one easy to use program, and you don’t even have to spend any money.  unity is great for those of us who can’t or don’t want to custom code their own game engine, but want to make an exciting game.  Unity also has a web player, so even if it’s more of an interactive movie you’re after, Unity can place it in your webpage, and as long as the reader has the right plugin, anyone can view your content.  To learn more about Unity 3D and what it has to offer, click here.  In the mean time, here are some images from Unity 3D.

A screenshot of the editor:

An image from a work in progress titled, “The Late Call”:

In other news, Game Jam was too intense for one day, so we held it over until last week, which was successful.  Again, we haven’t finished our ambitious projects, so we are going to keep extending Game Jam until we are satisfied with our projects.  I know it’s not in the spirit of Game Jam, but we do have studies to worry about, I think we can let this one slide.  I will update you guys on our progress at our next Game Jam.  Until then, our projects will remain under wraps.

Can’t wait to see all of you at our next meeting.  Until then, get creating you guys, we want to see those soon to be blockbusters.

Dan

Last Thursday we actually got our multi-touch to work, albeit not perfectly.  Of course it’s new technology to us, so we’re still working out the kinks, but we were able to project it onto the acrylic sheet and read input.  We played a few physics games and shot fire from our fingertips.  It was a good day.

After we had our fill from the new gadget, we talked some more about prototyping, as well as trying to gather ideas from the group for games to create.  We came up with the idea of Game Jam, a two hour game creation competition between two teams at our next meeting.  We hope to be productive in a pressured atmosphere, because that’s always the best way to get anything done in the real world.

Not much else was done this past week, so I’ll keep you updated next week on the results of the Game Jam.

First of all, we are not located in the Art building anymore.  NIU has opened up an Digital Convergence Lab in the library, room 338, and has allowed us to use it as our headquarters.  We are also not confining ourselves to coding video games for just the XBOX 360.  Andy has shown us some really interesting and innovative uses for motion tracking, multi-touch screens for touch-and-play experiments, and many more.  Don’t feel that if you don’t want to code for XBOX, then you’re not welcome.  We welcome all talents.

Secondly, we no longer meet every other week.  We will be meeting every Thursday night at 7 p.m, unless schedules start to not work out, in which case we will work something out with the rest of the group.

Also, we encourage everyone to invite your friends, even english or music majors.  We could use their help, even if it’s storyline creation, character modelling, or even creating a musical number for an epic battle.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to send either Andy Saia, Michael Pagano, or I (Dan Parker) a message on facebook if you have one, or email us: saiacide@gmail.com, mikepagano@gmail.com, or joedanpar@gmail.com.

I hope to see you all at the meetings, and let’s try to have a productive year.

Sorry this update is a couple days late, I have been busy with the holidays this past weekend.  Anyhow, there was quite a meeting last Wednesday.  We had a small pow wow to talk about a project Andy Saia and Mike Warren are working on.  Mike Pagano, his friend Adam, and I are starting a project of our own as well.  Now without further delay, the meeting minutes and updates:

• update on assimilation game
  • The player is now a colored Xbox 360 controller instead of a jellyfish.
  • Mike re-sized the play area and allowed compatibility for HD TVs, as well as many other graphical enhancements.
  • The player now has a shield, so instead of instantly taking massive amounts of damage, there is a delay between hits.
  • The topic of power-ups and abilities came up, and we threw some ideas around.
• ultimate vending machine challenge
  • Adult Swim arcade game that is interesting in its own right.  I haven’t seen another game where the point is to knock the candy out of the machine by beating it, shaking it, and kicking it until it either breaks, or falls over onto the player.
• Wii Spray
  • Now here’s an interesting concept.  Think legal graffiti; ironic right?  well now think of a wall projector, a Wii remote, and a spray can attachment that goes over said Wii remote.  All the player has to do is use the “spray can” to interact with the menus and create their own graffiti.  I personally love this even though I don’t own a Wii, spray cans, nor am i good at drawing let alone graffiti art.
• The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai
  • Now I actually got a chance to download and play the demo of this on the Xbox Live Marketplace.  Great beat-em up game with a unique art style.  give it a try, you might end up liking it.
• Tag
  • Tag is a 3D platformer with a different style of gameplay.  The player uses a water-gun filled with red, green, or blue paint to spray the surfaces of objects around them.  Those colors then give the player abilities like jumping, running, or sticking onto the surface in which they are applied.  The combination of these colors have the player solving puzzles as well as normal platformer actions.  Tag can be found at www.thepowerofpaint.com.
• Feist
  • Feist is a platformer art game.  Everything in the game has physics affecting it, including tree branches, objects on the grounds, enemies, etc.  Nice visual style with a decent platformer gameplay.
• Zeit²
  • Now this is an interesting concept.  Think cooperative gameplay, with yourself.  Blew my mind too.  This game allows you to briefly go back in time, it will record your actions, then when you go back to normal play, your previous self will act out your recorded actions while you do whatever you want to do.  There are limitations and balances as expected, but still a nice concept.  You can also shoot your former self to create an explosion and deal massive amounts of damage to enemies around “you”.  Worth a look or two.
• Snapshot
  • This puzzle game once again has a twist to it.  The point is to obviously solve the puzzle at hand, but you can’t do it on your own.  The creatures, buildings, etc. are all in the wrong places.  You have to take a snapshot of the aforementioned, and place that photo somewhere else in the level.  When the photo is placed, the objects are transported to the new location.  This is how the player has to solve the puzzles.  Snapshot is unfinished, but can be found at www.snapshotgame.com.
• Everyday Shooter
  • this is your run of the mill shooter, except it’s not.  The sounds of guns and explosions are replaced with guitar riffs and soothing music.  An art experiment I’m sure.  If you’re interested, visit their homepage at www.everydayshooter.com

Well, That looks like that’s all I have to share at this point in time.  I’ll try to keep you guys posted with any updates on current projects, or new ones that pop up.  Until next time, keep on creating that game you can call your own.

Peace,

Dan Parker

This blog will be used to inform visitors of the Northern Illinois University’s Game Developer’s Association and their progress towards creating small marketable video games for the Xbox-360 video game console.  We use Microsoft’s XNA library to help code out games, as well as utilize their service to host and sell our games.

We have had several meetings last semester, and with the current semester halfway over, we have decided to keep the public informed of our progress.  Every other week we hold our meetings Wednesday evening.  To keep yourself updated, join our facebook group here.  This will enable you to receive messages from our president, Andy Saia.

At our last meeting, we had discussed quite a bit about indie games that are currently out there, both to inspire us and spark ideas for our current project.  Some of the things covered were as follows:

• Andy’s project called “Zombie Shooter” (not an official name), which is a basic rail-shooter, like the old arcade games such as “House of the Dead”, and “Area 51″
• “Circles”, which is a near finished experiment by Andy.  It uses either the webcam or a mouse for input, as the user tries to capture circles that fly by the figure in the center of the screen.  Once they are captured, they have to receive interaction either by waving the mouse or an object across it, depending on the input being used.  Ignore them too long and they escape.  There are other circles that fly through and can destroy captured circles, to give a little difficulty.  This project is still being improved.
• Polytron’s game Fez: Second Trailer.  This is an interesting game.  Simple yet intricate.  What starts off as a simple platformer quickly tests the player’s perception skills as it rotates the playing field, as well as some deceptive illusions.  Watch the video to see what I mean, you won’t be disappointed.
• Knytt Stories.  What can I say about this game that it’s utter simplicity makes it great.  From the easy to learn controls, to it’s laid-back style of exploration, to it’s avoidance of violence, the game is stunning.  Did I mention it’s free? because it is.  And it even comes with its own built in level editor for users to create their own adventures.  I’ve played this great game and I’m impressed.
• Unity 3D is a free game engine like XNA, except it is compatible for a different range of machines, such as the Nintendo Wii and the Apple iPhone.  Worth a look for budding young developers.
• Toblo is an interesting mix of Capture the Flag gameplay and real-life physics.  Destroy the world to reach the enemy’s “flag” and return it to your own base.  No real weapons can be found, just blocks and other physics-affected objects.

Next meeting should be in another week or so, but I’ll be posting older news for archival purposes in the next couple of days.  Stay tuned for projects other members have started as well.

Thanks for reading,

Dan Parker