Sunday, December 29, 2013

FAF II and a lack of the VLOG....

Sorry to disappoint our followers about the pathetic lack of VLOG updating on the Fantasy Amnesia Fortnight II.  We are now almost 5 weeks into the event with 3 weeks remaining and you might assume that the event was a flop.  That couldn't be farther from the truth!  In reality, I made the mistake of submitting 9 project pitches, 4 of which got CHOSEN.  In fact, ballZ got top choice!  The last 5 weeks I have been consumed with getting (and keeping) these projects on track, staffed, and heading to early completion.

  • ballZ prototype is DONE! 3 weeks ahead of schedule!  Thanks to a successful collaboration with the original 2112 Flash artist Tyler that inspired the project.  Still lots of minor bugs, but sufficient as a prototype to garner the attention of any interested studio in the indie market.  The 3 character toggle system is an homage to Lost Vikings and works fairly well as both the PC executable and the Flash web format.
  • LCHS RPG VX template is ahead of schedule thanks to Kyle Montoya stepping up to the plate after my first volunteer panicked and bailed.  My next semester game design students will be happy to create an LCHS themed RPG without having to re-create the whole school map from scratch.
  • Hypersquare was originally proposed by Michael Richards, a fan of the Hypercube movies. Progress is a tad behind for my liking but Mike (the Mechanic) is know for pulling out last minute miracles.  He also assisted me on completing and testing y=mx+BATTLESHIP, and even though it never got chosen it was a raving success for the math department.  We are now planning on creating a suite of math game apps as a result.
  • Periodic Monsters Card Game is also a tad behind schedule, but now that I've completed ballZ, I will devote the next 3 weeks to crushing this through the gauntlet.  Again, Mike, Mike , Mike has been my right hand man in assisting with this exciting Chemistry card game.  We brought Omar on board and thought he might want a piece of the action but another class project was more suited to his interests.  Current we have 2 concept artists (Jacob Duncan & Jasmine Thomson) designing original monsters for the 26 needed and are at a point where Mike can now devote all of his time to completing Hypersquare.  Both art styles are unique and I will probably have to go with the first to complete the set before the deadline.  I would love to test and balance the deck, upload them to thegamecrafters.com website and have a printed copy in hand at our FINAL LAN on the 21st of January 2014.
To conclude the FAF II event and club season, I am organizing a junket for sometime in February or March and take the most promising and productive 8 members to Spokane for

  • Seven2 game design studio tour
  • Cyan game design studio tour
  • FiveGuys Burgers
I'm assuming paying for gas (2 cars), meals for 10 (2 drivers).  If more want to go then they will have to do arrange for their own transport and meals.