Hey, we're still at it, here's what is new with our game design project (feedback please): There has been a lot happening in the last 8 weeks, more so in this later half of the term. Our devoted team, of now 36 members, has produced tons of excellent content. With this however have come consequences, but good ones. PROJECT UPDATES (Re-organized!!!) Our group has been restructured to accommodate for the huge management necessary for the team and to help improve workflow for the project X². This had caused a delay in our production for about 2 weeks, but now we are back on track and things are already beginning to run smoother! The most significant changes to take note of are the team leads. We have now established a workflow system whereby specific individuals will manage entire areas of the project such as Art, Design, Programming, etc. This structure has several benefits, firstly, it allows the entire project to be able to be viewed and managed by these central persons dedicated to and responsible for each division. Until recently we lacked the manpower to implement this. This makes it easier for the leads to hand out tasks and also keeps everyone informed on very specific topics as appose to any and everything dealing with the project, which is sometimes not desired. This structure will operate and be kept under control through a new production database site (X2 Production Site), which is up now, but the information is just being uploaded, it should be in good condition within a week. This production site will, in contrast to the design site, have entire website on a specific topic for the team. For Instance, Sprites and Tiles, Animations, Character Designs etc, will be their own sites. These mini-sites will hold each and every little detail specific to a topic in one area, preventing team members from getting lost and drowning in the entire design document. What will also be new about these sites is that they will have the schedules, tasks, and milestones for each and every member in an easy to reach and accessible web page. Furthermore, this database will have all the necessary tools and information that individual team members may need such as level editors or character sprites. I’d like to formally introduce the leads of each division, as everyone will be communicating with theme frequently more and more as we prepare to push this project out of the door. Technical Director- Gadi Pollack gadi@pixelfunction.com Art Director- Darcy Patko shank@pixelfunction.com Assistant Art Director- “Z” artctic@pixelfunction.com Creative Director/Producer- Sage sage13@pixelfunction.com ART With the recent influx of talent onto the project, the art group has grown significantly, filling all of the holes from the past and leaving us with a solid foot on the ground for asset production. Welcome our new team members in the art group: Bryce Diamond- Backgrounds, Photoshop/CG Artist/Concept Artist Peter Cartwright- Tile/Spite Artist James- CG Artist Matthew Baldwin- SFX Animator, Background Artist Francois Van Eeden –Classical Animator This past term has produced some outstanding art pieces including the Finalized character design for Math. Here’s some of the great work produced lately: Math Final CD Cathedral: Before the Battle Neo Cipher Born Messiah Raire National Flag Other art issues this past term were mainly dealing with animation, Tile, and Pixel art. There are several examples of works in progress for our sprite animations. You can find a few below: Base Running Animation Flip Evade Animation Breathing Animation This next term all of our art focus will be going towards the actual building of the first stage of the game, Raire City. We now have the resources to push forwards and complete the prototype for X² so we will be in the trenches for a while pushing pixels around until the level is to a presentable state. In addition to creating Raire City digitally in the form of a prototype level, it is also our goal to complete many of the main character’s sprite animations by Jan 27th, the 4th Milestone. You may be seeing the good stuff pretty soon from the look of our current situation, but more on that below (see Programming). DESIGN Unfortunately due to the large amount of time it took to restructure our team, in addition to unexpected design work, we have not been able to complete a few of our tasks on the design side. It was our goal to completely finish the design for Raire City down to the unimportant details; we are currently missing a few items for this. However, these will be priority #1 with the start of the new term. Here are the design updates from this term: Raire City Culture Clouds Escape (end scene) Players Move List With the Addition of two new junior designers, Jeff Mundee and Raul Cruz, you will definitely see the design division strengthen in the amount of content produced. Our objectives for this next milestone are to design the level of Raire City and to breakdown and arrange the gameplay elements and how they will be presented in the prototype. PROGRAMMING This has been the division with the largest increase in the recent term; we now have a thorough team of 4 programmers and a tech lead plucking away at the GBA hardware on a regular basis. They have even managed to get a preliminary prototype up and running with a test sprite character running back and fourth, jumping, double jumping, crouching, and attacking. While they are still in the experimental analysis phase of their development, it is a huge jump from where we were just a short while ago. Kudos to the tech team! Welcome to the new tech members as well: Chris Savoie Jeff Spiko Doug And Gadi Pollack Expect to see and hear more about future plans on the technical side. It is important that we first draw up the design specs for the engine we plan to create; from there the real fun will begin. WRITING Due to unexpected situations out of our control, we are currently behind on the script for X², but there has still been a fair amount of content produced past the Mid-Term that you can check out below: Narrow’s Profile Oya’s Profile Ring’s Profile Alkalines’s Profile We will seek to catch up and complete all of our writing tasks for this next term so that we stay on schedule. Also, with the completion of the character profiles, our focus this term will turn to the Dialogue that takes place throughout the game. We will also begin to step forwards on more world writing and define Seda clearly so that anyone can visualize how this unique world works. MUSIC Ouch! Wayne and Simon are at it again! Absolutely captivating music created by them this term. Some of their music really inspires a lot of new ideas! Listen to some of the great tracks yourself, and feel the drama! Cathedral Battle Bryce’s Theme Math’s Theme Seda’s Wish Afayii: No Town District Execrable Jungle Kazone’s Summon SOUND New to our group, also related to music, we now have a dedicated sound designer cooking up a few sound effects for our demo now. Jerad C. Has done sound work for games in the past. Expect to hear some of his work soon. WEB Perhaps one of the largest events to take place in this last term has been the simultaneous launch of both our Official X² Website and Our Team Liquid Moon Site ver.2 . We will be continuing to build content on both of these pages over time. Also, the Liquid Moon Site will be hosting special tutorials soon dealing with everything from Sprite work to Animation and Game Design. In the end, it’s our way of giving back to our supporters. Well, that’s all for now. You can see there is a lot going on and much more that is being held back. Our next Milestone is set for January 27th . We hope to have our prototype working and hopefully playable to some degree by then. We’re half way in and things are just getting better. Hold tight for more revelations during the MID-TERM review Dec. 30th . Thanx -Sage13 Liquid Moon Team X2: Official Site [edited by - Sage13 on November 17, 2002 9:46:57 AM]