Characters, Environments, and more (continued) May 14, 2006
Posted by xdavex in Dave Ferello, The All-Stars, Uncategorized.add a comment
Today i've cleaned up a lot of the characters dialogue (now affected by insane camera effect as well). The guard is now blocking the locker room door featuring some fancy animation by chris.
The whole environment is laid out right now as much as i can. Russ is currently working on the last room (4th floor torture) and i need to clear up how the user accesses the Gondola scene. otherwise, the elevators are now working up and down the whole building. Find out what floor you are on by looking above the elevator doors. Also, the camera now registers itself according to what room the user was last in.
Finally, some eye candy and some function. Instead of the temporary insane/sane toggle button i've now implemented a pill counter. the uppers make you insane and the downers return you to normal. they are currently just set at 5 each for testing, but the game will give you pills along the way.
Now that the environment is cohesive, I can start fleshing them out with characters and items.
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~dpf24/senior_project/swf/5-14-06/mainGame_noIntro.html
I am also aware of the following bugs, let me know if you find others:
- The loader may not be working with certain scenes; this hasnt exactly been confirmed
- During dialogue, character stays frozen but user can still move around environment
- Entering/exiting rooms while insane is broken
- Insane while zoomed in (ex: on 1st floor blue pipe) is broken
- Steam leaves artifacts
- load time seem to be a problem on slow connections
-dave
Characters, Environments, and more May 13, 2006
Posted by xdavex in Dave Ferello, The All-Stars, Uncategorized.add a comment
First, i completely rehauled the character system. Previously I was running them through a dynamic loader and then using the tween class to create a pace function. However, after many weeks of being unable to fix the moonwalk bug I decided while dancing like MJ is undeniably fun, it's not so desirable for robots and inmates. Now characters are being hardcoded into the environments, which while tedious has its benefits. Now I can install dynamic text a little easier. Text should be working on every character in the game right now (1st floor). Test it out and let me know.
Also, I've worked out a system that holds values for the previousScene and currentScene. This way I can place the camera in the correct position when the user goes in and out of various rooms. (currently just for the 1st floor)
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~dpf24/senior_project/swf/5-13-06/mainGame_noIntro.html
-dave
Conversation demo May 8, 2006
Posted by xdavex in Dave Ferello, The All-Stars, Uncategorized.add a comment
got the barebones dialog working, using Russell's text box graphic and Lang's script.
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~dpf24/senior_project/swf/5-07-06/mainGame_oldmantest.html
loads from this:
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~dpf24/senior_project/swf/5-07-06/oldMan.txt
-dave
Godspeed! You Black Intro May 1, 2006
Posted by xdavex in Dave Ferello, The All-Stars, Uncategorized.add a comment
So in an attempt to get this more and more cohesive, ive created an intro animation and started the game in the users empty cell. leave comments/suggestions.
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~dpf24/senior_project/swf/5-01-06/mainGame.html
-dave
Call for .fla’s and my status April 30, 2006
Posted by xdavex in Core Game, Dave Ferello, The All-Stars, Uncategorized.1 comment so far
okay so ive got a working zoom function, though it still has a bug (when insane) which can be fixed. it can be seen on the latest first floor's blue bursting pipe.
secondly ive been trying to get the environments to stay as is when going back and forth. ex: if the pipe is burst, user leaves hallway then returns, pipe should remain burst (until the start of a new day). this is currently working for the 1st floor hallway. the next step would be to make the camera start in the proper location, but i think this will be tied to the character movement script.
finally, im working on making this world connected via the elevators. my plan is to make a script that loads the elevator swf, then from there the user selects up or down. the correct level would be loaded at that point (right now as a test, the 1st floor elevator simply goes straight to the 3rd). however, we need everyones .fla files. if you could, up them to "Y:\_CaSh MoNeY (no h4×0rz plz k thx)\environment files". i need your various environments (each floor, elevator, boiler room, gondola, etc) along with all finished, shaded characters.
update: the 1st, 3rd, and 5th floors are now connected through a rudimentary elevator system.
-dave
1st floor population on the rise…. but with complications. April 17, 2006
Posted by xdavex in Dave Ferello, Uncategorized.2 comments
so in my attempt to make the 1st floor "complete" as it will be in the game, i have populated the floor with the necessary characters (orderlies, generic inmates, a janitor, and the old man inside of the 3rd cell) via externally loaded swfs. i even made it so that once the user blows the pressure gauge on the large blue pipe, the pacing orderly robot leaves his gaurd to investigate (thereby allowing access to the locker door, where a placeholder[but functional] razor/shavingcream are).
however, my inability to program is really being exposed here. 1st, there is an issue which i can't pinpoint but seems to have to do with registration points of the loaded swf files. when the character paces back and forth, he flips but not in place. clearly their centers are not where they should be so this a problem which can be fixed, i just have no current solution.
secondly, upon loading them on the web, ive now noticed going back and forth between rooms totally obliterates the script controlling the characters movements, and everything goes wrong. i have no idea what is causing this. my only hunch is _global variables conflicting.
on a non-programming note, despite my previous environment optimizations, adding characters and tweens has again bogged down the scene. this will have to be addressed as well.
i apologize for the terrible state of affairs our citizens are in, ive been totally frustrated by it this weekend. i hope through talking to Russ and possibly meeting with Jervis we can get things rectified.
see how it looks:
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~dpf24/senior_project/swf/4-17-06/mainGame.html
-dave
Movie Clip loading and more dynamic camera April 10, 2006
Posted by xdavex in Dave Ferello, Uncategorized.add a comment
okay so i just posted a giant message and it never went through. boy i love wordpress. let me try to remember everything, there are sure to be things forgotten now.
so in my process of finishing the first floor and adding a cell block, i was partially forced to make this more extensible and more like our final presentation. Previously i had faked transitions (either through going to a new HTML or moving in the timeline). so what i've done is create a mainGame.swf which is simply a blank movie clip, a vignette, and a mask. eventually it will also house all our game code and global variables (update: i've since added all the variables and some functions [ie the insane camera] to this mainGame). the blank movie clip is then loaded with an external swf (the hallway) and from there, each room transition swaps with a new external swf. next i hope to continue this nesting further. (ie load russels elevator swf inside my hallway swf). in the polishing stages, a pre-loader will be added.
also in this process, i decided to make a more extensible camera control. instead of hardcoded pixel locations and numerous buttons, i have created a single controller clip with 2 buttons that move the camera +/- 820 pixels. eventually this event/script execution will be driven by character movement.
hopefully this camera movement is also moving smoother for everyone. i attempted to optimize our environments by flattening all unnecessary masks/vectors/layers and convert them to a background plate png. its been sped up quite a deal since the last version (seen in our dog & pony presentation) but could use a little more. let me know how it looks. the cell block will be finished tonight as projected.
link: mainGame
ps. – this will be updating as time progresses. particularly with loaders and the cell environment. so if something looks weird/doesnt work, im probably currently working on it/uploading. wait a few minutes and try again.
pps. – i've also added a preliminary "insane" condition. click the temporary button in the left corner to manipulate whether you are sane or insane (attaches a movie clip to the mainGame and gives a yoyo tween to the camera)… ive realized in a flash player, the swf runs smooth as butter, but in a browser it slows to a snails crawl. so if you could post what your performance is i'd like to know. [update: i've since implemented a system which downgrades the quality of the movie during the "insane" or high animation periods.]
and a final note: this was published in flash 8, so if you try to view it in an antique flash player, there will be problems. this is important because for reasons beyond my comprehension, the DIGM labs cannot have flash 8 installed on them. our final will be published in flash 7 to accomodate such technologically challenged.
-dave
first floor interactivity March 12, 2006
Posted by xdavex in Dave Ferello, Pre-Production, Uncategorized.3 comments
putting together all the basic interactivity necessary for the first floor before the presentation. currently you can: burst the blue pipe (to later distract a guard), then enter the locker room, or open the lift and enter russ’ elevator.
-dave
1st floor hallway March 5, 2006
Posted by xdavex in Dave Ferello, Pre-Production.2 comments
youre probably as sick of seeing it as i am, but its finally finished.
update: lockers in progress
the lockerroom/lavatory has been sketched and divided into two rooms connected by an open archway. production has started as on saturay night.
by tuesday: the lockerroom and cell block will be done, thereby finishing the first floor for the most part (small cell rooms and minor details to be added later)
-dave
Environment Concepts – week 7 February 27, 2006
Posted by xdavex in Concept Art, Dave Ferello, Pre-Production.add a comment
finalized style. now victorian influenced architecture and more steril environment. 1st floor hallways is near complete.
also created a list of generic items to be used throughout the building, such as pipes tapestries wall clocks and chandeliers.
