Friday, September 15, 2006

 

Proceeding along...

Well. We're making headway. Some problems in compatibility between Maya 8 and Unity. Fixed now thanks to the fine folks at OTEE.

Here's our current 'contract':

The Project:

An interactive globalization simulator: designed and built to present to the user the eventual negative social and environmental impacts of the rapid economic integration occurring in the world today. Touted by the global elite as an all around ‘good thing’, it nevertheless is impossible to argue that globalization has no negative effect on people and places, despite the total absence of such information being presented in the commercial mass media of the West.
The project is to be presented as an informal, enjoyable interactive situation much akin to the board games familiar to most in the West from their youth – games such as Monopoly and Life, both of which emphasized a very money-driven and focused approach to life, implying, in essence, that money is happiness for all. However, the simulation will progress to a rapidly decaying situation as what was initially a happy romp through a digital play land transforms into an out of control industrial and social nightmare of ownership of ideas and thought, and destruction of natural and social resources through overuse and intentional ignorance.
One of the core points of the simulation is that the user will be presented with the illusion of the possibility of ‘winning’ the game. However, any number of uses will inevitably, one way or another, result in the ultimate failure and collapse of the simulation into total loss, restarting the simulation. This illusion is vital, as it is the predominant force driving public acceptance of mass-globalization as a purely positive force in their lives – the illusion that everyone is ‘winning’ is what has destroyed many lives already.

The Delivery:

The project will be entirely constructed in the Macintosh-based game development environment known as Unity. This software is owned as an independent license by one of the project members. The environment allows for 3d and 2d assets (models, textures) to be imported from a variety of popular software packages for such things, and allows complex scripting in a variety of programming languages (C, C++, Java, Javascript) for use to build the control mechanisms and any AI or other software necessary to control the usability and end delivery of the project.
The final presentation of the project will require an Apple Macintosh computer of some reasonably recent vintage (Intel or PowerPC) and just a mouse (no keyboard) – preferably a trackball style mouse to simplify the usability. The project will be made to be relatively easy to control by this simple mechanism, and will not require complex input from the user to navigate.

The Calendar:

Week 2: Final sketches of all art elements completed by end of weekend, start models. Division of Labor: Adam – Sketches of various gameboard tiles. Pratap – Sketches of various game ‘characters’.
Week 3: Continue work on 3d Models. Division of Labor: Adam – models of game tiles. Pratap – models of game characters, rigging of game characters, tests of walking animation for game characters.
Week 4: Continue work on 3d Models – complete main game character model and rig, walk animation. Proceed on secondary ‘enemy’ character models – reuse rig and animation from main character. Begin work on textures. Division of Labor: As necessary.
Wekk 5: Complete all 3d models. Tiles, game characters, and rigs and animations should be complete. Textures should be proceeding. Division of Labor: Adam – Tile models, textures. Game character textures. Pratap – Game character models/rigs/animations.
Week 6: Begin audio and scripting. Division of Labor: Adam – begin working on background sounds and environmental sound effects. Pratap – begin and move forward on control scripts for user interaction.
Week 7: Continue audio and scripting, cleanup models and textures if necessary. Division of Labor: Adam – audio continued; model and texture cleanup. Pratap – control scripts continue.
Week 8: Continue audio and scripting, cleanup models and textures if necessary. Division of Labor: Adam – audio continued; model and texture cleanup. Pratap – control scripts continue.

Midterm – Present alpha build of simulation. All models and textures should be done by this stage and in finished states. Sound and scripting should be presentable, but not final, control scripts should be done, simulation should be usable.

Week 9: Continue audio and scripting. Develop event-driven enemy response scripts. Division of Labor: Adam – work an audio as necessary, assist with scripts. Pratap – commence AI script development.
Week 10: Continue audio and scripting. Develop event-driven enemy response scripts. Division of Labor: Adam – work an audio as necessary, assist with scripts. Pratap – continue AI script development, test basic AI scripts to achieve a functional ‘beta’ state for simulation.
Week 11: Complete Beta stage. Division of Labor: Adam – work an audio as necessary, assist with scripts. Pratap –focus on finishing a workable event-driven enemy response script(s). Debug.
Week 12: Prepare final release candidate. Division of Labor: Adam – work an audio as necessary, assist with scripts. Pratap – focus on finishing a workable event-driven enemy response script(s). Debug.
Week 13: Prepare final release candidate. Division of Labor: Adam – work an audio as necessary, assist with scripts, last minute tweaks of models and textures if necessary/wanted. Pratap – final scripting should begin. Cease development of extraneous ideas, focus on finishing a workable event-driven enemy response script(s).
Week 14: DEBUG WEEK. Possible work on more complex presentation booth/details as time permits.
Week 15: OVERFLOW WEEK. Any remaining loose ends, issues, and problems should be resolved now. Wrap up the project and prepare to present. Possible work on more complex presentation booth/details as time permits.


Final: Present FINAL release. All scripts, models, textures, sounds should be finished, simulation should be fully functional.

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