Asset List:

3D

Player ship (finished everything?)– Sam

The player ship is inspired by the pelican from Halo and the X-wing from star wars. The ship is orange and white with a grey hull. The ship has four wings and four engines on the side and two on the back. The ship has the cockpit in the front but not on the back. Will probably need to update the ship and add another cockpit on the back.

Enemy ship (finished the model, not the textures)- Sam

The enemy ship is a lot larger than the player ship. This ship is i

nspired by historical pirate ships which I changed to a futuristic and sci-fi form. The texture for the ship will be mainly contrasting colours light blue and orange, with a grey hull. The front might need to be updated as it could use some work.

Enemy drones (need to finish model and texture) Sam

The enemy drone was inspired by the tie fighter from star wars. The asset is modelled so that it can transform into a cube. The texture for the drone will most likely be the same or similar to the enemy ships textures, blue and orange however the final decision has not been made yet. It still needs a little more modelling.

Canons/guns (need to texture and model) Cameron

The player ships guns needs concept art and reference images, it needs to be modelled and textured. The gun will be attached to the front of the player ship.

Planets (needs to create) Cameron

Will have a 2D texture on the sky box or a 3D object depending on performance and how easy either of these are to do. The planet will be destroyed and lifeless. The planet will not be a perfect sphere but a shell of a sphere which has corroded away over time and throughout the galactic war. The textures and colours will be dull and dark and lifeless. We want the player to fell as if they are in no-mans land.

Menu (built from concepts) – Sam/Cameron

The menu is going to be built in the weeks to come. Harry is working on concepts and we shall agree closer to the date as a team. Cameron and Sam will be working on the 3D models for the menu and buttons once the correct menu concept has been chosen.

Spotting List

Coding

Done so far:

Camera / turret movement

The analog sticks on the PS4 controller are used to control both the camera and turrets

2 turrets

There are 2 turrets in the game that you can change between, but currently there is an issue regarding controlling them independently.

Menu basics

A basic menu has been implemented to act as a template/ skeleton for the final menu. This is to test functionality of the game

Shooting – projectiles

Projectiles are currently shot from the camera, killing any enemies. We will be tweaking this in the next few weeks.

Enemies

Enemies are in place to move towards the player ship until they are shot.

Enemy spawning

Enemies randomly spawn at intervals for the player to destroy

Enemy spawn area

An area has been created for the enemies to randomly spawn in

Points/score

A points overlay has been added and displays the players points. This also needs tweaking.

Need to do:

Refine points/score

Refining the points to make sure there are no problems and so that it works in order for leaderboards to correctly count your score, also so that is possibility for adding multipliers.

Leaderboards

Adding leaderboards to the game so that other players can see who is number 1 and

compete for the number 1 spot adding competition to the game.

Death screen

Adding a death screen so that once our player dies he can see that he has died and is

transitioned into the death screen. In the death screen he will be able to either restart or go to the main menu.

Make sure 2 turrets are working / aligned properly

Making sure both turrets work the correct way and don’t override each other and make sure the turret angle and position are correct to ensure that the projectiles work correctly.

Look at projectiles being shot from the turrets/guns and not the camera

Making sure that the projectiles that are shot from the turrets no longer shoot from the camera and are alined properly.

Camera switch animation? Static? Fade?

Have a short animation play when the player switches between the camera something to indicate that you have switched.

Explosions

Link the explosion animations to the enemy destruction so once an enemy is killed and explosion animation will be played to let you know you have destroyed it.

Enemy counter

Having an enemy counter to show how many enemies are left and how many you have killed once you have died.

Radar

Having a radar to allow the player to see where the enemies are coming from and an

indicator to show us that the enemies are coming from the other turrets angle.

More advanced AI (higher range of movement)

Having some more Ai will bring more challenge and excitement to the game, having multiple AI will introduce a variety in the gameplay and will entertain the player more.

Adapting spawning system (pooling?)

The spawn system at the moment is a basic spawning system that can cause a bit of

performance issues, we will introduce the pooling system to help optimise the gameplay and make sure the game runs well.

Pixelating music as damage increase

We want to make it so that we have a radio in the ship and the music playing at the start will be clear and the more you get damaged the more the music become

muffled and unclear.

Ship damage

Allowing the ship to take damage will result in the game actually working correctly so that the player cannot live forever, this will add a sense of survival and challenge to the game.

Camera shake

We want to add a camera shake so that when the player takes damage it is physically visible and it not just a red bar that goes down in length you will see the whole ship move as if to show that you have been hit hard.

Production Schedule:

Original Production Schedule:

New Production Schedule:

Weeks 13-14
Camera shake
Camera switch animation? Static? Fade?
Explosions
Pixelating music as damage increase

Gantt Chart:

To view the Gantt Chart in more detail, click the link to get a pdf preview (higher quality).

Personal Production Schedule:

Personal Plan:

My Personal Plan is to work with Tom to build the game using the assets and sound created by the rest of the team. This will consist of building a basic working game and coding the game itself.

To do this we will be using the Unity Engine, as it’s live rendering capabilities will prove useful when tweaking and running the game in real-time. I have looked into the live rendering and any research on this can be found here. This also works very well with the Sony Dev Kit, which means that it will be very useful when looking for any issues. To make sure we are both on track, we will be sticking to a production schedule as close as we possibly can as shown above. I have also created an individual production schedule to talk about what I am doing in more detail and make it a bit clearer. These also take into consideration any issues that could appear while developing the game, allowing for some breathing room where possible.

During Week 1 I will be finishing off any outstanding work and helping Sam and Cameron out with anything they need. This is essentially a break to prepare for the following weeks. Week 2 Is when the whole team begin to start working. Tom and I will be making sure the turrets align properly in game. This is so we can see how things will look like from the camera angle when the assets are imported into the game. Of course this is currently a rough look at how things will be put together, but having the alignment sorted early on will greatly help us in the future. We will also be making sure that the 2 turrets on the game will work independently.

Week 3 sees us begin to delve further into the game code. Tom and I will be generating projectiles differently to current. Currently the projectiles are being spawned from the camera, but they need to come directly from the turrets. We have set a week aside for this as we need to make sure that there are no issues with this change, as it could make future tasks more difficult when we get round to doing them.

Week 4 is set aside to adapt the spawning in the game, using methods such as pooling, to optimise the game. We will also be looking into the spawn area to make sure that is working.

Week 5 will be used for the ship damage, as currently there is no way for the player to die. This will lead onto the death screen in Week 8. Weeks 6-7 will be used to look into more advanced AI. This has been a planned feature from the start, so we feel setting 2 weeks aside to get this right is the good decision to make.

Following the death screen in week 8, week 9 will be used to work on a radar, which will show enemies coming from either side of the screen, as well as which turret they are heading to.

Week 10 will be used to refine the points system. This was already an implemented feature but it is not working as intended. This should be a quick fix which will give us an opportunity to jump ahead of schedule for weeks 11 and 12, which are for an enemy counter and a leaderboard screen. The enemy counter will essentially be to tell the player how many enemies are in the play area, in the form of a HUD. In regards to the leaderboard, this will be put onto a different scene, just like a death screen. Hopefully it will only take a week to put together, but by week 12 Tom and I should be ahead of schedule, and will already have started on the leaderboard.

Weeks 13-14 are being put aside to add the little changes. These include adding a camera shake, explosions and other visual effects. This time also allows for us to add some sort of camera switch animation, as well as making it so the more damaged the ship gets, the more pixelated all of the music becomes.

By now, the game should becoming together, with all little additions being implemented. Week 15 is put aside to make the menu info such as the credits, and catch up on any work that we may be falling behind on. This of course will conclude the production schedule for both Tom and Myself.

As shown above, the rest of the team will have already finished their production schedules, the remaining weeks being accompanied by a “-“. This means that they are free to help everyone with anything, be it an issue with their aspect of the game, or to pick up the slack for the team to make sure they are on schedule. I feel any issues I have can be addressed quickly and that the production scheule will allow for me to get the work done both to the highest standard and on time.

Stage Two: Plan