Final notification of our game idea

With no suitable 3D game engine for WII mode, we decide to competely devote ourselves to Facebook with Flash platform assisted with papervision3D. New idea is described as following:

Remaining to base on anti-virus / bacteria protection inside human body scene, we would like to trigger a human baby feeding event starting from its fertilization to parturition. With the assumption that it is possible for huamn baby cultivation, our users can build their own baby up beginning with cells, tissue to the transformation of a whole structured organ. We provide players with basic cells like white blood cell, red blood cell, nerve cell, muscle cell. They are encouraged to make use of nutrients for cultivation such as Water, Proteins, Lipids, Carbohydrates, Minerals and Vitamins. Similar to many game foundation that rewards players with experience points, items and in-game money, these concepts are all replaced by Growing level, Nutrients, Cell respectively. Players have to consume number of nutrients and cells for making up tissues and organs to the whole body. Things will not come easy. During the production process, players have to defend the cells from being attacked by bacteria. Once enough number of cells are gathered to form an antire organ, say heart, this heart will start functioning and further develop into a circulatory system. Simultaneously, this heart organ maintains certain abilities such as defending body by pumping blood to the other parts of body which contributes to metabolism.

Upon reaching each level, we encourage players to record their pace of feeding by publishing to other friends. To achieve this, we toggle screen shot of the development process like taking an ultrasonic scan in real life.

The game also allows transaction of nutrients and organs among players. For instance, if you cultivate more than one lung or bladder, you may think of selling to others for earning nutrients or exchange them with other organs from the rest players.

Once the baby is well-developed, our system will evaluate its function according to different aspects like intelligence, defending ability,etc. This will report to the message board of the player.

A new look at the game play

Today I have done a lot of research on facebook game type to strengthen my game flow. I conclude that facebook's game can be either a game requires continuous attention or instant trial with a highest record being remarked. Taking the HAPPY FARM as an example, it should be the former category since the game concerns requires users to pay attention on their plants after seeding. It does not have an end result concept inside. What it cares most is the farm's growing value that triggers users to always log in for just having a look to check whether there is any harvast or for safeguard reason. The other type will be a mini-game like DUCK SHOOTER, which encourage social interaction with Facebook friends through offline battle and publishs that user's score on the message board afterwards.

The above studies add to a growing evidence that a decision on the end-game concept is of much vital. In a short -to-medium term, though mini-game like our original idea - to make a 3d one-person adventure inside human body sounds pretty new to freshmen, once they finish all the adventures they''ll for sure get bored and simply give up. So, considering deeply, I question myself should we do something that can have sustainability and last longer, say even after our graduation? In a long run, I hope to achieve something similar as Warcraft that can lengthen its existing lifespan in the game market industry.

This leads us to brainstorm a better idea about the game play, all of which are still based on the human body and precaution measures to virus. We want to swap an instant response game mode to a strategy game mode.For details, we are still under processing.

facebook rather OGRE game engine

Time is definitely scare. But still, we are working hard for the Facebook technology exploration. During the process of exploration, we conclude that Facebook does not provide any local host but rather you should prepare your own server for hosting your application. With this hosting location, you can direct the link to Facebook as a recognition link, which is known as canvas URL. We have registered one on the no-ip.com for temporary hosting. Besides that, we've also retrived social data such as personal icon, personal name, id from facebook using facebook api client library, all of which are done by FLASH AS4. My another teamate, Merlin, has a better knowledge about PHP since facebook technology to a large extent requires advanced understanding in PHP and he also prefers facebook to OGRE 3d game engine. So, this will be our final consensus - to make full use of facebook social element.

Project Deliverables

The following is the production specification:

• A list of the sound effects and music tracks required in the game.
• A list of the animations, 3D models, textures and other graphics which need to be produced, in as much detail as possible. If you can list the exact "idle animations" which will be attached to your main character at various points in the game, do it. If not, at least decide how many there will be. The lead artist should estimate the amount of effort required for each element of content.
• A list of the algorithms which must be developed to implement/upgrade the game engine and in-house tools. The lead programmer should estimate the effort required for each major feature.
• A list of all other materials which must be produced by the team: press materials, demos, screen shots, box art, manual, etc.
• A detailed project plan and schedule, including a preliminary assignment list for each member of the production team, a list of dependencies (i.e., a Pert chart), reasonable milestones, and contingency plans.
• A detailed production budget. Knowing who will work on the project for how long and what expenses must be made to equip the team, the producer is now in a position to pinpoint the expected cost of the product, and to re-arrange priorities accordingly. Very expensive subsidiary features can be assigned lower priority, so that they can be dropped (before being spent upon) in case of an emergency.

Facebook is now the top way to share resources and outpaces email and all other share methods combined. During the process of case study, we are quite in awe of its viral potential and the ability to rebuild our game based on a canvas page. We could also suit our users’ need by striving social data directly from Facebook annual report of human-flow. It allows us to create social games - games that are even more fun when you play them with your real-life friends. The quality of Facebook's social graph enables our users to compete, collaborate and engage with their friends.

Besides, we have to concern about the users experience when developing our final year project.

we cannot find WII torque full version online

We have chosen WII torque to be the main developing platform but until now we cannot search any full version for testing. As time goes by, we are becoming rushed and anxious too. We really do not hope to use PaperVision3d since collision detection is rather difficult to achieve and it is slow to load 3D object.

Nowadays, there are many popular inner-space animation available on Youtube. However, this kind of games are seldom on the market since most of the game focuses on outer-space rather. We can adopt the idea of the online 3d video for guidance of the game level desgin part. For example, this youtube visually displays what happens inside the circulatory system and by imagination there seems to be several gates used for holding the oxygen particles so that they can be brought to other parts of the body. We can also achieve something similar. Maybe eventually our game project will end up like many sub tasks combining together to be a root. We are still researching to get the idea concrete.

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Free+iPhone+Games/feature.asp?c=14990&srch=dr+nano

Dr Nano Lite
By Mission Critical Studios
What is it? It's Innerspace on your iPhone
Type Demo

Remember the film Innerspace? That film where somebody was shrunk down to microscopic size to embark on an adventure inside some bloke? Well, Dr Nano's a bit like that. You have to fly down veins collecting red blood cells while blasting any build-ups of congesting gunk.

The Lite version gives you the first five levels in the Dr Nano saga, which is none too shabby considering that in pure numerical terms it's almost a quarter of the game, currently selling for £1.79. Although it's essentially a tunnel blaster, having control over your speed takes Dr Nano up to the next level. Plus, an inner space game is refreshing now that we're so very used to outer space adventures.

星期二檔案 2008-07-01 - 生活細菌王

http://mytv.tvb.com/news/tuesdayreport/6577/948#page-1

這是一篇講及日常生活會遇到細菌的專題, 當中離不開家居生活及工作環境間, 從而令我覺得我們的遊戲方向可以走以人類內的細菌為對抗目標的路線, 因為很多疾病都與細菌繁殖多寡有密切關係, 我們可以假設將細菌分為好與壞, 而玩家可能以類似玩三國爭霸的形式看整件事, 人體內為主戰場, 好的細菌為隊友, 壞的細菌為敵人, 任務是要搗毀搞破壞的因子。就如我之前所發表的三篇entry都是講及細菌突變, 我認為發展人體細菌的探究會比較專精, 並可顯示中心思想。

星期二檔案 2006-08-15 - 美麗有禍

http://mytv.tvb.com/news/tuesdayreport/4960/698#page-1


這個"美麗有禍"的專題主要講及都市人為了美麗而對身體不停加工, 專題主要從四個大方向, 穿戴隱形眼鏡, 染頭髮, 穿耳, 穿高跟鞋作探討。拍攝手法用了3d model引起觀眾的感趣, 說明這些加工是身體不適的引敏源。

星期二檔案

由於使用中文方便知識的傳遞, 所以我決定用中文寫這個blog. 今日在家一邊進行freelance, 一邊看新聞的節目, 發現二零零九年八月十日那集"新聞透視"幾有趣, 講及香港大學電子機學系的學生以半年的時間編寫了一個對抗人類豬流感的遊戲, 雖然對方寫的遊戲在設計上比較差劣, 但是理念卻吸引傳媒報導, 如果是以專業人仕來分析, 其實這類遊戲不難編寫, 但由於選材上很切合時下需要, 就自然而然有它的賣點。