pwnt

Wow - ok so no real blog since mondays showing. Despite the uber stress it was a really good event and got loads of really good feedback which we've been mulling over for the last couple of days (hence the lack of bloggage). As we enter the final two weeks tensions have been high and tempers flared but we've emerged out the other side and discussed all the changes well need to make to ensure our game is as awesome as it can be. So gone is the walking and the mission structure has been streamlined back to 2. Weve also simplified the hud and message system for the user, and added a sort of unlockable structure to encourage (read con) the user into completing the tutorial.

Wednesday was particularly though, although we had a visit from a couple of guys from the burnout team who had some really good advice that came at just the right time. It was really reassuring to see guys who live and breath games discussing some of the things we've come to our own cnclusions about over the last few weeks so we must be on the right track :)

Today work pressed ahead on what we need to do. Ive gone nearly blind from looking at stats and had an awesome talk with Adrian about possible ideas / tactics for protoplay. My attempt to get Dave to dress up as a cherub complete with man nappy and wings continues. The great flying / walking / shooting debacle has also been solved and replaced with an all new dispute which started off as comment over lunch before swelling into an all out verbal war. Is Metroid Prime and FPS ... yes yes it is. You play it in first person and the primary mechanic is shooting. This was a really important debate for the following reasons:

1) It proved the internet lies and is rubbish and cannot be trusted for any real evidence - apparently Wolfenstein, Doom et al are in fact Action / Adventure games and not FPS's :S as is Goldeneye and pretty much any other title you can name.

2)Metroid prime is an FPS

3) Tribes is awesome

4) Ross’s opinion is derived straight from Nintendo press junkets, Reggie Fils Amie and forums, displaying the eloquence and debating skill of thier target audience (Ooooh Zing!)

He is currently sobbing and crying into his Miyamoto Douvet cover

Oh yeah i remember how we got onto this. It was talk of MGS4 and how amazingly epic it looks - and MGS Online !

Link

Go Snake Go!

So yeah - things are back on track - Rowen and Ross have been slaving away fixing the gaps in code and island. And Rich and Dave are working well implementing the 2d assets into the game with swish transitions. We've set ourselves an internal deadline of the 3rd to get it all in and fixed so yeah - guts 'n' might!


Living the Dream
The Lucid Dream Team

awesome

yesterday in pictures:

9am

11am

2pm:

4pm:

5pm:

6pm

8pm

The Race to Monday

As the image clearly shows, we are in a race to reach monday's internal showing at EA Games. The last couple of days have been quite hectic and very intense. We have been trying our very best to put all of our assets together to achieve a presentable build by 17:00 on Monday the 23rd of July and so far we have done well, but will we have what we are hoping for?

There is no question that Lucid Dreams can develop and deliver great quality. We posses all the ambition, motivation and courage needed to achieve this. We have outstanding talent on our team and we have a very strong faith in our project. Desire FX might not look the way we want the game to look at this stage, but we know this... When the day comes to deliver the final result, we will deliver our finest and best piece of work. Lucid Dreams is not a team that will just stand still and give up or get scared away by its competition. Lucid Dreams is a team that embraces the competition and uses it to fuel its own progress and improvements.

Whatever Monday's outcome may be, it will be what we have managed to deliver and show by then. Whether that is a graphical beauty or a very basic representation of our actual game, that is not what matters. I believe that we as a team are capable of impressing a crowd with our passionate love for making games and more importantly, for this project. Monday will be an interesting day and I look forward to seeing what we as a team will be able to show the people of EA Games and our fellow teams. I do not believe that we will fail in our attempt to impress or fail in our attempt to provide our viewers with the core beauty of this grand project named Desire FX.

Lucid Dreams will continue dreaming as we are aware of what we dream and are convinced of our strenght. With that said, Monday will be a good day to look forward to...

teh teh teh

Now, E.A has put out some shit, don’t get me wrong. Catwoman was so bad it actually gave some people herpes, and The Simpsons Skateboarding caused Hiroshi Yamauchi to cry for the first time in 300 years. However, they have also put out some good things, and more importantly, they have come on board with dare. As we near our climax, huffing and puffing like Mario at the Olympics, it is time to talk about the good things rather than the bad things.

All those external speakers, the introversion guy (and gal) who showed us that good game design can still exist, even when money is scarce, Ste Curran’s absurdly awesome presentation about his mum (and his rather silly views about Halo's Library level) Mark Stacey’s ability to find cat gifs of truly epic proportions were all stand out highlights... These people and many others all gave up their time to come down and help us. In the short time that Dare has been a part of our lives, I’ve met some pretty incredible people, and not mindless, no-faced drones, covered in ‘property of E.A’ stickers like I expected.

It’s made me love the industry even more. The very fact that E.A has got on board with dare is a finger up to the typical internet forum fanboy who moans on about Fifa Street and the black death of franchise rape. They have actually opened their doors, let us in (at considerable risk) and spent many, many man hours setting things up. Dyack can moan on all he likes about bringing in creativity to the industry, but its things like Dare which really offer a glimpse at what fresh blood can produce. It’s maybe why I get so frustrated sometimes when I look at what other teams are producing. The chance to break away from the typical conventions of gameplay is never going to be greater than now. Why have a bathtub as your environment and fail to utilize it? Why can’t I hit the tap with a shot from my cannon, spinning it and turning it on, changing the game in an instant as the water’s surface goes from calm to violent, throwing the boats around, up to the sides of the bath? Why can’t I slide up the sides of the bath like a half pipe, teetering on the edge of falling out, but being able to get respite from enemy fire? Why can’t I shoot out the plug and cause the game to go into frantic meltdown as everyone scrambles from the resulting whirlpool? Why can’t I use that environment, instead of it being yet another, non-interactive stack of polygons?

But I digress

I
<3
E.A (and Dare)


p.s Alex Ward is coming down on Monday, and I’m scared of what I may say if he comments on his like of Crackdown… I’m sorry in advance if I make him cry.

anyway

Rainnnnnnnnnnnnn

Pretty shattered today, what was supposed to be an hour round trip to sort out budget issues at Farnham turned into a rain soaked odyssey owing to crazy amounts of traffic. Seriously though I cant remember a summer as wet as this. Still at least were not venturing outside much ^_^

So today I set to work making textures, got a few knocked up ready for Monday and made a couple of awesome signs for locations around our world - bright colours and really obvious signs are the order of the day:


Today is gonna be a bit light on the ground blog wise - I think Dave and Ross have blogged, but work continues. Got a few more building textures out the way, started animating character and getting him into the composition. Rich also fixed an issue with the player characters movement which involved lots of maths so now he turns at a constant rate regardless of distance from the target and got arrow trails / lights in which are looking really cool. Dave also mocked up our HUD for Monday.

Gunna be coming in over the weekend now EA have extended the times were allowed in. Had a chat with Mark and Adrian today who tried to address any fears we may have about Monday. I don't think its fear of EA staff more a case that we want to make sure we represent ourselves and our game well. I have no doubt it will all come together ready for the showing, just ... need .. to keep ... making ... textures ^_^

Dare is something we have been thinking a lot about and talking over as a group the last couple of weeks. While it hasn't been particularly smooth at points and we've had various troubles along the way were all loving Dare. In particular its been an amazing learning experience, especially being surrounded by and mentored by people who have been in the industry such a long time and worked on titles that we have played growing up - Alex from NC Soft took one look at our game and said "I bet you guys like Bullfrog games" which is pretty much all we talk about since meeting the guys here ^_^. Sometimes when i'm getting a cup of tea or working away I remember that im at EA games working on our own title and just think "Wow"

I know i've definitely learnt more in 8 or so weeks of Dare than a year and a half of combined academia and work relating to games. Even just being in a group of 20 or so like minded people has made the time we've spent at Dare really memorable

GTG!

Lucid Dream Team