Prologue, Pt. 6

rollin kunz to Thomas - 3:59 pm (26 minutes ago)

Here are some sketches. Maybe I am making this a bit too complex? What do you think?

Prologue, Pt. 5

Rollin Kunz

Today at 12:48pm

XBox porting = awesome!

I'll have to find someone that'll let me use theirs though. Heh

I'm going to make sketches today!

Tom Christensen

Today at 2:58pm

Sounds good. I'm going to try and make a nice background sometime. Right now the window is set to 1024 by 768, so I just used a windows background of those dimensions for scenory. If you feel like making a background make it whatever size and we can just change the window dimensions. I might also work on some simple objects for stacking. Also, something circular would be fun. Give the player a ball to bounce and roll down a hills!

After I get a mock up level with objects done, I'll start making some components to puzzels. probably start with a scale that reaches a certian weight triggers an event.

Keep me posted on the ideas and sketchs.

Rollin Kunz

Today at 3:36pm

I'm going to scan and send you my ideas for the gameplay, what a level looks like (vaguely), and what the robot looks like.

rollin kunz to Thomas

3:59 pm (26 minutes ago)

Here are some sketches. Maybe I am making this a bit too complex? What do you think?

Rollin
- Hide quoted text -


On 4/17/07, rollin kunz <> wrote:

Holy shit. Sweet! I'm staying home today. I will put some pen-time in.

Prologue, Pt. 4

"Christensen, Thomas Conrad" to rakunz

8:03 am (8 hours ago)

Screen4.jpg
96K View Download

"Christensen, Thomas Conrad" to rakunz

7:14 am (9 hours ago)

Prologue, Pt. 3

Rollin Kunz

3:01pm April 15th

Well, I think we need to solidify the basic game mechanics first. Hang on, I have to piss.

Thanks for waiting. Okay, so do you think we should make a platformer-style game, where the objective would be to make it to the end of an environment/level? (This would be difficult to program and make graphics for- we'd need a level editor as well as graphics for each level.) I'm leaning more towards a "Tetris" kind of puzzle game, where you have basically one screen that you play on (but different levels can be different screens, and we can advance any story we choose to add through cutscenes of different types).

Rollin Kunz

3:08pm April 15th

I like the idea of robot + dead bodies. I think the premise of the game could be something like this:

You (the player) are entrusted with the organization and removal of waste for the grand metropolis of ___. This city's sanitation department uses giant custom-engineered robots for trash disposal. As (different types of ) trash falls down from the top of the screen, you have to use the different tools built into your robot to organize and eliminate it. I'm thinking different types of trash have different properties- some might explode after a while, some might be used to power your vehicle, the dead bodies might animate as zombies after a certain amount of neglect (which you would then have to fend off).
Different tools on the robot might be a plow, which you could change the orientation of, some kind of cannon for fending off zombies, and the engine itself (which might need to be powered by dragging a fuel source onto it, when you want your machine to move).

Rollin Kunz

3:13pm April 15th

So then around the screen would be different contraptions that you could push the garbage into, perhaps- like filters that sorted the trash into different piles, etc. You would be pushing around different piles of stuff while maintaining your vehicle and fending off zombies, bandits, and hyenas. You could upgrade your robot with different turrets (or different crew members to man them- an easy way to change a part of the robot without changing the graphic) between missions.

Rollin Kunz

3:16pm April 15th

So maybe to start with, you could make a simple mock-up of the level itself... WITH A PHYSICS MODEL THAT ALLOWS FOR STACKABLE OBJECTS woooooo

haha. Or however you think would work best.

Rollin Kunz

3:22pm April 15th

WE could start out with something simpler. How about a hop n bop game, 2d, that takes place on top of the boss of the level? Let's say the boss is a giant brain. The character would be running around the surface of the brain (it would be a big circle; the level would be cyclical) and killing different enemies that pop up. After a number of adversaries are eliminated, the player gets to move down to the next level of the brain (the top layer is destroyed and removed like a layer of onion) that contains more enemies! We could make it so that the amount of corpses on the current brain-level eventually makes it implode. Once you hit the "core," you fight the boss.

It would basically be like a 2-d version of Shadow of the Colossus, maybe kinda. Almost.

Tom Christensen

6:39pm April 15th

Do a real simple sketch of a level you are thinking of.

Tom Christensen

7:00pm April 15th

The incinerator for garbage could just be a fire that needs oxygen, so you have to fan it...unless you can figure out a way to build a fan! ...of dead bodies. Damn this game is sweet, just because of the theme. Maybe it could be post apocalyptic, mmm cliche, but that would explain the need for clean up.

Rollin Kunz

12:14am April 16th

I think maybe "para-apocalyptic" would be more appropriate. THE APOCALYPSE IS UPON US! parapocalyptic?

I will sketch.

!! There's a sweet-ass new feature in illustrator CS2 that converts raster files (i.e. my sketches) into vector paths (i.e. flash graphics). I'm planning on utilizing it extensively.

I don't suppose you know any Flash? Maybe I should take a class.

Tom Christensen

6:35am April 16th

I can take a flash class also, but that would mean it's a while before development. Another good choice for fast development would be XNA using C# and DirectX which I have no code for, but XNA is a complete 2D game engine. Another great language, especially for mock up until we learn flash, would be Python which has its own API for game development called PyGame. Just throwing it out there in case you haven't heard of those.

Tom Christensen

12:05pm April 16th

I think I'm going to use XNA for the game. It's for fast development and scene as how I have no attention span that should help. It's also free and legal to download visual studio express and develop in c#, so multiple benefits to that, like you easily set it up and poke around at the code if you wanted. C# can be scripted so no recompiling to run new game code. And the best part in my opinion, it can be easily ported to the xbox 360, which my roomate has and is encouraging me to make a game for it. There is a concert outside and the guitar is got my attention, so I'm going to go check that out. Later.

Prologue, Pt. 2

Tom Christensen

1:02am April 15th

It should involve robots!...and fruit. Shit, I got nothin.

Rollin Kunz

12:09pm April 15th

No totally onto something there.

I think what we need to make is a puzzle style game where you control a steampunk-style robot- but you control its different parts in different ways (like you might have to turn a crank to reposition your cannon by "hand" with your mouse).

There should be a gameplay mechanic where little dudes rush at you and you have to kill a certain number of them so that their bodies pile up and you can cross a river (for example).

Tom Christensen

12:19pm April 15th

I think there should be a water slide, because robots always get left out, but not in my game!

Tom Christensen

12:19pm April 15th

And of course there is a puzzle where you push dead bodies down the slide...because the robot feels left out he pushes dead bodies down the slides.

Tom Christensen

12:20pm April 15th

RE: maybe there is no puzzle, you just push bodies down slides because you can.

Tom Christensen

12:21pm April 15th

RE: there could be a puzzle i guess.

Tom Christensen

12:21pm April 15th

I'm going to go make another pot of coffee.

Rollin Kunz

1:17pm April 15th

I think there should be a puzzle. People like puzzles!

I was thinking there should environmental puzzles- physical puzzles. Involving dead bodies.

Rollin Kunz

1:18pm April 15th

Have a big Metal-Slug style robot maybe, and a bunch of levers and things, and the dead bodies could be like the tetris blocks, in a way.

Rollin Kunz

1:24pm April 15th

We can work the coffee in, too. Perhaps the robot could have upgradeable parts, and there could be a coffee cannon?

Rollin Kunz

1:25pm April 15th

I'm down with making robot parts graphics this summer. I'm also signed up for a comics course (woot).

Tom Christensen

2:52pm April 15th

Dude, you will be awesome at making comics. You need to let me take a sneak peak when you get some of it done.
About the game, I have alot of code laying around. Is there anything particular I should implement that you can think of. I guess it's probably better to stick with 2D. Do you want the robot to have rotating joings or is everything just animated by images? I am better at loading sprite sheets so everything can be on one image. I could really start a lot of game coding, but maybe I can work out a simple script to make puzzles, so you can tinker around with some game flow on your own. There is alot to program, do you have any idea where to start?

Prologue, Pt. 1

HEY

Between Tom Christensen and You

Rollin Kunz

11:41pm April 9th

oops- forgot to keep the conversation going. I'M FUCKING BUSY god damn. lots of work to do! want to go to a soup party this weekend?

Tom Christensen

7:33am April 10th

soup party? what kind of soup?

Rollin Kunz

11:17am April 10th

ALL KINDS, dude. All kinds.

A couple of old friends of my parents (along with a bunch of other people, I guess) are making a bunch of delicious soups. For ten bucks (which goes to some sort of charity- soup charity?) you get to sample said soups. Splendiferous!

P.S. "Splendiferous" is NOT in the facebook's dictionary. Neither is "facebook's," apparently.

Tom Christensen

11:34am April 10th

Where is this soup party going to be held?

Rollin Kunz

6:21pm April 10th

At the Art-Bar in Milwaukee.
I donno, though- I emailed the dude that invited me a couple of times, and haven't heard back yet. It'll be a public party, of course, but y'know.

Tom Christensen

7:44pm April 10th

I'm trying to talk my roommates into going. No such luck yet. I told Scotty about the soup party while we were in Statistics and he laughed at me. Later, we went home and ate some beef and vegetable.

I just went into Macy's looking for a new cologne and it turns out you don't even have to spend money. The lady behind the counter gave me a bag full of samples for "Polo: Double Black" which was my favorite. It was like being at the doctor when they give you a shit ton of medicine samples. Now if only pimps had the same policy, my life would be complete.

Well, this Bush Light isn't going to drink it's self, so I better get crackin. Keep me updated on the soup situation.

Rollin Kunz

3:09am April 11th

What do the doctors give you bags of free samples of? THAT is the important question, methinks. Or not so much.

Anyway, I don't think the Soup Party is really going to be a huge deal or anything, so meh. Be happy to have you down whenever your whimsy carries you here, though (excepting finals, probably).

How goes it over in your neck of the great Wisconsin wastes?

Tom Christensen

11:53am April 11th

Beer for breakfast and now I'm off to the library to research more American Indian politics to enrich my soul. that, and I want an A in the class. Anything new with you? Want to start making a game we'll never finish?

Rollin Kunz

2:10am April 13th

Hell yes, I do. Anytime.