MIDI Sequencing

A screen shot of paparazzi midi sequence opened in Anvil midi studio.

Progress report.

I think my head will explode if I have to listen to another Lady GaGa song on loop all day again! Working on getting Paparazzi into a MIDI sequence, has a slightly more complicated melody then the songs completed so far but it is coming along. I am also having a go at putting some mini games together for the arcade in the mall.

On a roll..

We now have several minigames under way, with the playable section of the game starting to take shape. I have been developing an 'operation' boardgame style minigame set in the campus library, where the player has to click and drag a trolley along narrow isles trying to collect books. touching the edges of the shelves will lose them points, while picking up books will increase their score. It is reminiscent of the wire-buzzer games where a steady hand and patience are vital, while remaining quick and fun. Moving doors and rotating barriers make the action more challenging and special hidden hittest bars prohibit cheating.
Me and John have been working on two games set in and around the city, focusing on the career aspect of the content.
Firstly, set in the marina just off shore, the player is practicing for their speed boat licence. Here they move a boat around the screen collecting life rings and avoiding drift wood. Advanced math driven coding allows for a beautiful physics led movement which works really well on the water. As with classic 90s games, the player can leave the screen and will reappear from the opposite edge, as the format is fun, varied and works well with the open looping background of the lapping waves.
The final project is very extensive, being a top-down driving game set on the city streets, where you are training to become a chauffeur. The user drives to collect celebrities and drop them off at a film premiere, having to avoid traffic, watch for red lights and keep an eye on their fuel. Using a range of variables and hittests, the player can carry a realistic limit of three passengers, collect $100 for each celebrity successfully delivered and refuel at a petrol station. Fines will be charged for dangerous driving while intricate collision detection will keep you on the road.
Each of the games have a countdown timer to give structure and the player is moved to a final screen showing their score when their time is up. Pressing to return to the main navigation screens could upload their scores to their tracking statistics if we can get a database working, although it may be as extensive as we had hoped in the time we have left.
Calum will be developing a pool minigame for the Mall arcade area, which will have insanely extensive code to cope with the geometry and physics. games like this will reflect the casual minigame hub which the project encompasses, with an easy drop-in drop-out structure.

PROGRESS!!

A month into the project and I think were making great progress.
Me and John worked 3 days straight last week to get the entire infrastructure to the game in place. The user can now navigate through the campus, career and compete screens to get to a minigame noticeboard and with the first minigame from Matt, they will be able to play an actual game. The mall now has a visual and several shop fronts where the player will be able to purchase the 40-50 items so far created. The pad has a very crude and early visual which will develop further.
The content is actually online; structured like a website for quick loading and with preloaders to make the experience more professional.
Calum has created a second midi track for pokerface which is HILARIOUS and will add a great casual atmosphere to each game.
We managed to grab web tutor kev for a few minutes last Friday and have arranged server space and an hour-long tutorial with him to set up databases, hopefully to make the game genuine and functional.

All we need now is to sort the tutorial screens and spam minigames!

Minigame the First

Today we completed work on the first mini-game.

It's a shooting game in which the player uses a hose pipe to shoot the paparazzi as they flee the grounds of the academy, destroying their cameras and the pictures they took in the process.

The game records not only a high score but also the number of paparazzi that escaped.

It also scales to become harder as time passes so that the closing stages of the game are pretty chaotic.