Planning: Navigation around room

Since I had already created the panoramic view of the room for the cutscene, I believe it would be a great idea if I was to use this as a way for the user to navigate around the room.

My idea is that if a user was to move their mouse to the left, they would view what is on their left.
Similarly if a user was to move their mouse right, they would view what was on their right.

In order to accomplish this, I would need to create a script that would either move the stage left or move an entire movieclip right - thus revealing what's on the left of the movieclip.

I will speak to Daniel, my supervisor, about this and see what he thinks the best way to go about this would be.

Supervisor Tutorial 6: Inventory Scripting / Timers /Ethics Update.

I showed Daniel the scripts I made on how I would get the inventory to work.

I said to Daniel that the only problem this scripting would be that if the inventory was full, and an item was removed (to be used), there would be a gap in the inventory with items either side. Although this would not be game breaking, it would be more preferable if the items on the right shifted one to the left to fill the gap.

This would be possible, but it would involve a lot of extra scripting such checking whether the inventory space is full, checking what item is in that inventory space and making the inventory space after shift over to the left.

Daniel stated that he was please with what I had done so far and the problem wasn't a very big one. He also suggest that I could possible have it so that the inventory only appears once an item has been picked up and otherwise it is to be hidden.

This would be a very good idea, as it would otherwise get in the way whilst the user is playing the game.

I also mentioned an idea I had, in having a timer which would run at the top of the game to state how long it has taken to complete the game. Users would then be able to submit their time on a leaderboard. Daniel stated that this, although could work, would give the game an entirely different experience and make them feel pressured to do it faster. As this is the case, I will most likely not be adding a timer into my game.

In regards to the ethics clearance for user testing , both supervisor and lecturer has heard nothing back. If it turns out that we do not hear anything regarding being able to user test my game during the working processes, I will not be able to proceed. As Ian stated, this is something that isn't under my control and it is not my fault.

Daniel and I have also decided that due to this it would be best to steer clear of a voice actor and that I will be doing the voice acting myself.

Planning: Game Advertisements and leaderboards

As originally planned, I was going to be going through the processes Flash game developers would go through. Monetising their work with adverts so that they would make money off of  their work when uploaded onto gaming websites. This would have been done through a website I've used a lot before Mochimedia. I have used this service for adding leaderboards to my Flash games in the past.

Today I received an email from Mochimedia stating that they will be closing down on the 31st of March so this means I will not be able to use their service for my game.

Instead, I will be using Newgrounds in order to do this. I also plan on having a leaderboard in my game. The leaderboard will revolve around a timer and users will be able to submit their score on how fast they have completed my game. I will let my supervisor Daniel know about this and see what his feedback will be.

Working Process: Creating the Prototype - Scripting Inventory

Before I create any of the art work for the game, it's important to get the prototype done first involving the main scripting.

The main scripting would involve the inventory as it is one of the most important parts of an Room Escape game.

Currently, I have 10 inventory slots. Each inventory slot is set to a boolean of false. When an item is clicked on, an if statement would be applied.

Here is the if statement I made:

function ifFullPassSquare():void {
    if(!inv1Full){
        inv1.gotoAndStop(2);
        inv1Full = true;
    } else if (inv1Full){
        inv2.gotoAndStop(2);
        inv2Full = true;
    }
}

This states that if the first inventory slot is not full, fill it. If it is full, try the next slot.

With this code this means that the items can be picked up in any order and would also appear in the inventory in the order you pick it up in.

 Here's a link to the prototype

Supervisor Tutorial 5: Deciding Animation of Cutscene and Ethics Approval.

In the tutorial I had with my supervisor today, I showed him the post I made from the 17th. This post was regarding how I would go about making the animation of the cutscene.

It was to decide whether it would be done through

Several pictures stitched together and then traced around a single frame with a V-cam used to move around the vector image.

OR

Trimming down the video, importing it to Adobe Flash and then tracing around each image per frame.

Whilst the later would look better since the 3D would be more accurate, this is something which would be very time consuming when more work could be spent on the coding.

In conclusion we decided it would be best to use stitch the images together and trace around a single frame in Adobe Flash. However, instead of using a V-cam to maneuver around the vector image, a simple tweet would be used instead.

We also had a discussion on ethics approval. I let Daniel know that I hadn't heard anything back on whether I was allowed to do user testing for my game. The other one was me informing Daniel that I would probably need ethics approval for a voice actor too.  Daniel stated that he would check on both of these for me.

Working Process / Planning: Creating the cutscene [video] - Deciding method

In order to create the cutscene, I have first animated the waiting room I created in Google Sketchup. Here is the video of the cutscene as it stands right now.

This video may not be used in order to create the cutscene. I will do either one of these two:

1. Take screenshots of the camera at different points in the Google Sketchup and stitch them together in order to create a panoramic view which can be easily moved backwards and forth for the animation. This movement between each camera point can be animated using a downloaded v-cam (as3 virtual camera).
2. Since the Google Sketchup animation ability is limited, I will need to edit the video file in Sony Vegas to trim it down accordingly. I would then import it into Adobe Flash and trace around it frame by frame.

Supervisor Tutorial 4: Panoramic

Today I had a tutorial with my Supervisor, Daniel.

I informed him that I wanted to create a cutscene which would play just before the game starts.

I also gave described to him how it would look and what the cutscenes main purpose was.

We came to the conclusion that by having a rotated panoramic view of the room, this would help to easily animate looking around the room.

Daniel suggested to take a look at Quicktime VR, which a very similar tool that helps to create panoramic views of pictures. Since the tool is old and has not been updated we decided that even though this tool is similar it would be best to steer clear from it.

I also informed Daniel of an add on for Google Sketchup called Vray which helps the rending of 3D objects look much more professional and realistic. Whilst I do not yet have a need for this, nor do I think I will, it's useful to have an open mind on the possibilities a tool like this could bring to this artefact or a project in the future.

Planning: Cutscene

I'm planning to create a cutscene which will be displayed at the beginning of the game before the user can start playing.

The cutscene would involve the protagonist, looking around the room he's in from 1st person view. He would then close his eyes and open them again - almost a blink. Several minutes would have gone by and it would now be night time instead of day.

In order to create this cutscene, I would first use the model I created in Google Sketchup and rotate around the room using the eyesight tool.

There is also an animation feature in Google Sketchup, so I am able to add frames from different look positions which would then be smoothly animated together in Google Sketchup once rendered as a video.

I plan to then import the video into Flash and trace around it. This would create a keep the cartoon look and still keep its 3D appearance.

Supervisor Tutorial 3: Adjusting the Location and Working Title

I showed Daniel the updated Google Sketchup's I created of the room. He stated that these looked great and was definitely progress.

I really wanted there to be a vending machine involved in the Room Escape game and we decided collectively that having the vending machine in an office would not be very likely. So a new, but similar location needed to be thought of.

We decided that the location would work best as a waiting room instead, this way the items currently in the room could stay and it would roughly work the same way.

Due to the layout of my current Google Sketchup project, turning it into a waiting room instead of an office would not be a problem as it would only involve adding new items to the artefact.

Daniel stated that the title "How I Escaped" would work better if it was named after the location it was set and in turn should be called "The Waiting Room". I thought this was a good idea but also remembered that lecturers from the previous module thought "How I Escaped" was a good title as it went well with the narration concept.

In the end, we decided it would work best as "How I Escaped: The Waiting Room" which would work particularly well as part of a series.

To my knowledge some gaming websites only allow a certain amount of characters to be used when writing a title for your game. As this is the case, the alternate short version of  the title would be "HIE: The Waiting Room". But of course, displayed in the games SWF it would still be "How I Escaped: The Waiting Room".

Working Processes: Creating the Room [Sketchup] - Bedroom to Office

I went back to my draft room and took out all the items, this way it would no longer be a bedroom but just a room.

In order to turn it into an office, I needed the components which would do so.

Using the Components windows with user-made products I was able to find all of the items  I wanted to use and was able to place them in the room accordingly.

Right now, the room still looks quite empty, but as I have more ideas on the process of how to escape - I'd then be able to add more items accordingly.

These are the main camera angles that will be used in my game. Including a close up of the lock on the vending machine which can be taken off with a key and also a zoom up of the drawers opening on the desk.

As Google sketchup doesn't have the ability to be imported into Adobe Flash and due to the format of which I would like to use for my game. I have decided to instead, import these pictures and others into Adobe Flash and then in turn trace around them which will keep it as a cartoon. This means that the style of graphics and colours will look different but the perspectives, objects and sizes will be kept the same.