Minutes 14-2-12

Attendance

All members were present.

Business from last meeting

• level was presented to tutors for feedback
• round 2 assets built, only a couple of plants outstanding

Agenda

Dropbox Saving
Members were reminded not to overwrite other teammembers' saves, but that dropbox modifications can be reverted to old versions.

Discuss feedback given after presentation
Tutors made suggestions to add more dynamic lighting and vary the wall textures more. In addition, presentations from other groups reminded us to focus more on making interesting use of space and shadows.

Round 3 assets

Three members have split into a "lab team" to spend this round populating the lab rooms. The remainder of the group will continue with their existing plant obligations (plantbligations) and other miscellaneous props.

"Level Jam"

Inspired by Bethesda's "Game Jam" (developers were given a week to do whatever they wanted to Skyrim), teammembers will spend one day doing whatever (risk-free) changes to the level that they want. This may be populating it with assets, adjusting lighting or making minor room modifications. Only one stipulation is being given: changes should not make MORE work for us.

Level Jam schedule below. Named person must hand over to the next person first thing next-day.

• Wednesday -  Ant
• Thursday - Adam
• Friday-Sunday - Mike
• Monday - Rich
• Tuesday - Ben
• Wednesday - Tristan

Objectives

Objectives for the next meeting

• Lab Team will produce lab stuff. 
• Remainder of team will continue with their existing plants and do a variety of miscellaneous props to furnish the level.

Minutes for 03-02-2012

Attendance

All members were present.

Business from last meeting

• round 1 assets completed by all members
• level assembled

Agenda

Review Assets
The group looked at each other's round 1 assets and identified some areas for improvement.

Review Level
The group examined the level in its assembled state. We will all take it away and experiment with the level to try and find ways to iteratively improve it.

Any other business

Talk about the radiator less.

Objectives

Group Objectives for the next meeting
Experiment with the tileset, placeholders and lights and do paintovers of the level. The goal here is to visualise the props and plants in the level and to iteratively improve upon the level.

Individual Objectives

No individual objectives - all memebrs to assist with the group objective.

Minutes for 31-1-12

Attendance

All members were present.

Business from last meeting

• tileset pieces now complete
• props now begun
• level still in assembly

Agenda

Backups

The group agreed to have a backup rota:

• Tuesday- Adam
• Wednesday -Ant
• Thursday - Ben
• Friday- Mike, and upload to dropbox

Asset List
Mike will maintain the asset list, and inform members of changes. They are to report updates to him at the start of each meeting.

Triangle and Texture Targets
The group agreed to use "reasonable judgement" when building assets, rather than specifying targets for each asset. Textures will generally be made at a large resolution, and scaled down if necessary.

Reviewing Assets
The group will post all completed props to the blog for critique.


Review Level Progress

The group examined the progress of the level and were happy with the scale of rooms and their layout.

Any other business

Members reported hunger. Food was implemented as a solution for this issue.

Objectives

Group Objectives for the next meeting
Round 1 assets to be fully completed by Friday 3rd

Individual Objectives

All members to check the asset list for their individual assignments.

In addition to assets listed,

• Tristan to assemble the level using the tileset.
• Ben to make a splitting piece for the bridge tileset.

moodboards for ideas

laboratory equipment

plant growing incubator stuff

overgrown building

Cool plants bro

Moodboard for some more plant designs.

Portal 2 Moodboard

Just had to do it after I saw Tris' CCTV camera. Using it for colours too.

32 colour swatch generated if you want to use it.

Minutes for 17-1-12

Attendance

All members were present.

Business from last meeting

• Storyline from screenshots (all) - done
• Plant, spore, root designs (Rich, Ant, Ben) - done
• Start design document (Adam) - done
• Construct placeholder tileset (Mike) - done

No outstanding work from last meeting.

Agenda

Art Director

• Rich will art direct the project
• Ben will take responsibility for the lighting aesthetic
• All members will assist Ben and Rich in concepting, designing and making visual decisions

UDK Learning Outcomes

• All members would like to develop UDK skills. Mike will endeavor to present opportunities to teammembers to foster a range of basic skills.
• Tristan and Ant have also expressed particular interest in Kismet and Matinee.
• Mike and Ant have also expressed particular interest in learning advanced materials including Postprocessing.

Review Whitebox and Discuss Tileset


All members are happy with the rooms and layout of the level built with the placeholder tileset. It has been agreed that building the level from a more fully developed tileset and affording more time for construction will enhance the quality. The existing level will be used as a reference. Work on the whitebox will be paused while the tileset is further developed.

Any other business

Tristan suggested a team social. We'll have a think about what we want to do.

Objectives

Group Objectives for the next meeting

• Visit the Queen's building together and take photos and discuss assets
• Compile a preliminary asset list
• Assign and begin work on the more developed tileset. The target date for tileset functionality is Tuesday 24. Meshes, collision and unwraps will be essential for this date. Texturing preferred.

Individual Objectives

Further tileset work will be assigned before the next meeting for completion by Tuesday 24. In addition to that work, Google the following for feasibility (experiment and test, no need to "finish") by Friday 20 :

• Rich - Collect sounds. Consider beginning an audio list, but seek input from other teammembers if needed.
• Adam - tracking eyeball. Need to persistently have the object's rotation move to point at the player (camera).
• Ben - Ground mist. Investigate fog volume, fog plane and world offset. Suggest trying in an example map to see how it looks with stuff inside of it.
• Mike - Night goggle postprocessing and design document.
• Tristan - Bursting pod spore thing. investigate triggering a dynamic mesh's animation, firing a particle emitter, and particle effects using "splat".
• Ant - investigate puffs of gas, drips and falling dust using particle effects.  If you think we need any animated textures then look into authoring flipbook textures.

Minutes for 13-1-12

Attendance
All members were present. Adam was late. Naughty Adam.

Business from last meeting
Conclude upon a concept - done.
Further objectives to be set with the assistance of Mike Powell - done
All members will continue to develop concepts. - done

Agenda

Discuss concepts, moodboard, paintovers, lighting
Concepts thus far reviewed. A chosen style is coming together.

Review BSP
The general BSP layout is agreed. We have decided to make use of a tileset approach and will need to remake the whitebox using placeholder tiles. Mike will establish the required tiles.

Discuss file/folder structure and naming conventions
These have been put on hold until after third-year students Bart and Kristian have delivered a UDK tutorial.

Consider dynamic elements and interactivity
Group brainstorming yielded the following dynamic/interactive elements:

• persistent - "god rays" of light
• interactive - audio for locked doors the player cannot open
• persistent - rolling mist on the floor
• persistent - dripping plants, falling dust, sparks
• persistent - flickering lights
• trigger - falling light in atrium
• interactive - turning on generator lights up level on trigger
• script - code for generator required?
• trigger (proximity) - exploding plants
• trigger (proximity) - plants which strike out at the player
• persistent - pulsating plant glow
• persistent - spore pods swell and retract

Use Dropbox as a backup for work
It was agreed that once work started in ernest, work would be saved to dropbox. concept work has been seen as less critical and is "backed up" on the blog anyway.

Design Document
Adam will make a start on the design document ready for Tuesday

Any other business
No other business was raised.


Objectives

Group Objectives for the next meeting

• Develop a storyboard from screenshots. Each member will complete two paintovers.

Individual Objectives

• Rich - in addition to storyboard shots, develop designs for additional plants.
• Adam - in addition to storyboard shots, begin the design document using pictures from the blog.
• Ben - in addition to storyboard shots, develop the design for the pillar/plant.
• Mike - in addition to storyboard shots, create placeholder tileset.
• Tristan - in addition to storyboard shots, begin using placeholder tileset to create first draft of final level.
• Ant - in addition to storyboard shots,develop designs for the spore pods.

screenshot paintovers

screenshots are in dropbox in Photos » Concepts » screensforpaintover

the main purpose of these images is to understand how to "fill" the rooms. Focus on assets and content rather than quality.

01 - the player exits the elevator into the curved corridor. Indications of plant testing.

02 - the players path is obstructed by large roots and foliage. they must climb the stairs to progress

03 -  at the top of the stairs, the player can barely see out of the large windows through the grime. it is nighttime.

04 - the player enters the main atrium hallway. an enormous plant climbs up a large pillar. roots extend from it, hanging across the room and crushing bridges.

05 - the player walks down the collapsed bridge to the floor. beside the player climbs the pillar and large plant.

06 - the player must walk through the atrium to the far stairs. roots extend across the floor and force their way up through tiles.

07 - the player reaches the far stairway and ascends.

08 - the first floor walkway leads to an optional extra room which we probably won't have time to make.

09 - on the second floor, the player enters the generator room and flicks the switch.

10 - as the player reaches the second floor walkway, the lights begin to turn on. their path is blocked.

11 - the player must detour through the lecture theatre to continue.

12 - the player reaches the ventilation room to insert the airbourne weedkiller. cake is provided.

Swatches and Mood Board

Here are a load of Images from Resident Evil, Poisen Ivy Batman section, and some roots plants etc.

You can Download the swatches from Dropbox under photos

Map layout jpg

Oil Pumping Station Destroyed by Plant

The Year is 2032. Natural resources are running dry. The few remaining deposits spark tension between the haves and the have-nots. Ten years ago the UK discovered a massive underground oil lake and constructed a facility to extract the oil in secret. Three years ago, communication with the facility was disrupted, but due to the secretive nature of the facility, investigation has not been possible until now.

The player enters the facility via the elevator and discovers an enormous plant has taken hold of the facility, crushing it with enormous roots. The player must restore power to the facility and find the chief engineer's office to find out what happened.

Key features:

• Very tall main room provides impressive vista
• Massive roots break through walls, twist and break bridges, block paths and maybe form new paths
• Bioluminescent roots glow in the dark, guide player through level
• Oil pumping and processing facilites replace Queen's building features, for example the lecture theatre is replaced by a distillation room with oil baths.

layout

mood board

 



lecture theater is now oil distillation baths

Brain Storm

Few ideas based on today's meeting.

Minutes for 11-01-12

Attendance
All members were present.

Business from last meeting
N/A


Agenda

Team name
Agreed upon Team TAMBRA.

Dropbox
All members have confirmed successful use of Dropbox.

Blogspot
Now set up... evidently. Ant Skilton is responsible for ensuring for maintaining the blog and encouraging its use.

Concepting
Ideas to be individually developed for a day, before meeting to discuss. From there the most promising ideas will be developed further until one idea prevails.

Draft Schedule
A draft schedule has been proposed. All members agree upon its importance and we will seek the advice of our "Manager", Mike Powell to ensure its practicality.

Minuted Meetings
Meetings will be held at 10am on Thursday, immediately before our discussions with Mike Powell. Meetings will be minuted and minutes will be shared on the blog.

Roles within the group
Technical Art Leads - Ben Keeling and Tristan Silva will take responsibility for maintaining the master UDK files.
Producer - Mike Pickton will take responsibility for scheduling and workload distribution.
Art Lead - The necessity for art lead has been identified, however this position will be filled based on the outcome of concept discussion, so as to ensure the concept vision of one person is kept consistent.
Artist - All teammembers will be expected to be artists within the team.

Any other business
No other business was raised.


Objectives

Group Objectives for the next meeting

• Conclude upon a concept
• Further objectives to be set with the assistance of Mike Powell

Individual Objectives
All members will continue to develop concepts.

Brainstorming My Ideas

These are my ideas that for the project, including various aspects of how it will be played.

Tristan - First Ideas

Hey guys, just posting my ideas. The concept of the ladder to exit the level through the lecure theatre and a previous concept of the queens building from a few months ago, but shh still counts.