Possible things to look at for the game...

heya.... got some stuff we could put in (if not into the game at least into the presentation) which hopefully would help the mechanics and appeal. But before you start reading, don't freak out. This stuff DOESN'T have to go in.

1. Goal: After talking to Donny on the bus, the idea bouncing around is that a player will end a level when fulfilling one or more of the following conditions:

• Run out of film
• Run out of time (we've got an intended 2-minute time limit i think)
• Run out of events (i.e. all activated)
• Fill up points quota (target points total for the level e.g. 500 points from photos for level 1)

The basic idea was to give a sense of urgency and challenge i guess.

2. "Shop": Based on the idea that players can go to the "shop" after levels to upgrade camera equipment (to presumably get better quality photos etc), my suggestion is that in addition to camera upgrades, we sell them film (but that means they still have a max capacity of 24) to top up from whatever they have left from the last level. [note: apparently this is a lot like fatal frame, but the idea was to give them a choice of resource management - better camera for better pics vs more film for higher chances]. This DEFINITELY does not need to be implemented. If you guys think its fine i can go ahead with a mock-up to use in the video

3. Indications that a player has taken a good shot: At the moment the idea was to put in sound
or some other visual cues so as to give the players a clear indication that they had taken a good shot. here's a few ideas i thought of:

• overlaying a viewfinder ring and cross-hairs over the FPS: When the player gets a score for a photo within a certain range, the overlay will turn green for good, yellow for decent, and red for bad [note: this does not have to be implemented in-game. it can be shown in the video]
• Using a points "meter" of sorts: since players need to hit a minimum points quota for the level, i figured that its possible to create a sort of meter resembling a roll of film, so that players will be able to judge just how much more points they have to earn. [note: this doesn't have to be implemented in-game either. its possible to illustrate in the video (i'm pretty sure of it)]
• Sound effects such as "Good Shot!": Audio cues to reinforce player behaviour would be good for sure cos it adds to the atmosphere, but might be a bit hard to put in (especially with our time constraints)... soooo.... into the video it goes (there's capability for narration after all)

That's about it i think. Most of this stuff actually can be simulated in the video *grin* so means less stuff to worry about in-game. Do give feedback ok?

Story Builder Interface

Hey guys... been working on the interface for the storybuilder. not too sure if it's ok (or doable). Tried to make it as simple as possible while trying to give the player a feel of it (and not make him feel like he's navigating through the whole thing instead of playing.

Donny suggested putting the gallery for photos at the end, so i've tried to do something along those lines. Basically at the end of a level, the player will be brought to the screen with the gallery of all his photos, where he can pick a maximum of say, 4 possible photos. Once they've been picked the player will move to the "Article" screen, where the bulk of it is supposed to look like a newspaper (a fully laid-out front page) where the photo and sentence selection will create the main front page article. the rest of the text is blurred out cos they're not important).

anyway, here's a pic:

The one at the top is the photo gallery and the one at the bottom is the article thing. hope it makes sense. Incidentally if you're wondering why there's a whole range of blanks in the middle, its because i just wanted to illustrate the that the screen could fit 4 rows of 6 pictures each.

Interface issues

Hey guys!

Have been trying out the prototype Donny uploaded (using my Xbox 360 controller), and i've realised that there's some issues.

1. I don't know if its just me... but using both analog sticks to walk (forward / backward, turning) was rather awkward for me. But maybe its cos i don't play that many console games requiring this kind of mechanic (however can we assume that our target audience is familiar with this control scheme? hmm)

2. I realised that i could capture both the plane-crashing-into-building AND man-jumping-off-church in the same picture if i took it from the front. So that might be an issue in terms of layout (which i know isn't finalised yet).

3. For some strange reason i ended up pressing the LB when wanting to go into the gallery (and it meant i deleted everything in there by accident). Still not sure why that happened though.

4. Its damn tiring to hold down the camera view all the time (but that's the intention isn't it, so that can't hold it down forever)

5. That centering of the camera really needs to be done if its possible. I realise that after moving (and using right analog to set direction) it affects position in camera view (which would probably explain why i ended up looking at the sky so much). It really made my life difficult.

6. I'm wondering if there's a possibility of using left analog to do all walking-related actions outside camera mode... i.e. instead of using right analog to set direction, use left to move in the direction on the pad. but like i said earlier, maybe its cos i'm not used to the controls.

6a. IF the left analog dealt with all movement related stuff in non-camera mode, then could it be such that the right analog button will be like the equivalent of mouselook while left analog when pushed forwards and backwards would move the player in the respective directions? in this case there would be no left-right movement in camera mode (since that's handled by the right analog).

Don't know if any of the stuff i said makes sense. But i know for sure that in my first few tests of the game, i felt that it was more a case of navigating the interface than playing the game.

these are the sentence connectors

1. Just as the(previous event), (sentence)

2. After the (previous event), (sentence)

3. Nearby the incident, (sentence)

4. Amidst the confusion caused by the (previous event), (sentence)

5. Soon after the (previous event), (sentence)

6. A (previous event) before (sentence). What an uneventful day!

7. When everyone's attention was still at the (previous event), suddenly, (sentence)

8. Another incident happened just after the (previous event). (Sentence)

9. After witnessing the (previous event), I saw (sentence)

10. One incident happened one after another. After the (previous event), (sentence)

11. It was not long after the(previous event) took place. (sentence)

12. It was not long after the incident happened. (sentence)

13. As I was walking away from the (previous event), I witnessed (sentence)

14. I was at the scene of the (previous event) when (sentence)

15. Fortunately, no one was injured when the (previous event).

16. Not long after the (previous event), we all thought that everything was under control when (sentence)

17. All of a sudden, (sentence)

18. While my attention was still on the (previous event), (sentence)

19. While everyone's attention was still on the (previous event), (sentence)

20. Everyone was startled when (sentence). The incident caught all of them unexpected.

21. I realised that after the (previous event), (sentence)

22. Before everyone made clear of what actually happened, (sentence)

23. As soon as the (previous event), another incident took place. (sentence)

Maybe we can randomise so the connectors appeared differently and not always the fixed sentences.

the sentences and events

Index	Description	Short description	Sentences	O:S	Connectors
A	plane crashes onto building,	plane crashes	1. A plane collided into a tall building at Summer Valley. According to		plane crashed
	tilts and smashes onto the ground		investigations, it was believed to be caused by an explosion at its tail.
			2. A plane lost control and collided into a building at Summer Valley.
			3. A plane collided into a building and smashed onto the ground with a
			loud crash. Everyone was alarmed.
			4. A very loud explosion was heard. I turned around and saw a plane	30:70
			crashing into a building.
B	man jumps down from building	man jumps	1. A man jumped down from a building in a desperate attempt to		man jumped off
			save his life.
			2. A man jumped from a tall building. What a waste of life!
			3. A man fell from a tall building. I believed it was an accident as I
			saw him missed his footing.
			4. A man jumped from a tall building. It was believed to be a suicide.
			5. A man was reported to have jumped down from a building.
			Investigations were still being conducted.
C	Car knocks onto car	car2car crash	1. A car accident took place at Summer Valley Road. One of the cars		car crashed
			was flipped over when it was hit.
			2. Two cars collided into each other at a traffic light junction near
			Summer Valley Road. It was the worse car accident that I have ever
			seen.
			3. A car tried to brake in vain and collided into an oncoming car. It was
			flipped over when hit.
			4. A car accident happened at a road junction. One car was flipped
			over when it collided.
D	Car swerves and knocks into man,	car crash into shop	1. A car smashed into a shophouse when it tried to swerve to avoid
	then crashes into the shophouse		hitting a man. Investigations were being conducted.
			2. A car smashed into a shophouse. It was reported that it was trying
			to avoid hitting a man.
			3. A brake screeching sound was heard. I turned towards the sound
			and happened to see a car smashed into a shop.
			4. A car tried to avoid hitting a man and smashed into the shop. It was
			damaged and investigations were still being conducted.
E	man & woman quarrel, then man	robbery	1. A couple was in a heated argument when suddenly, the		robbery
	robs woman, & runs away		man snatched her bag and ran off with it!
			2. A robbery occurred near Summer Valley Street. It was witnessed
			that a man snatched a lady's bag.
			3. A robbery took place near Summer Valley Street. I saw a couple in
			a heated dispute when the man took off with her bag!
			4. A lady's bag got snatched away by a man during their heated
			argument. It was not known what the dispute was about.
F	Skateboarding, fell and got injured	skateboard accident	1. A boy fractured his leg when he fell while skating at the Highfly		skate accident/
			Park.		mishap
			2. A boy was practicing his skate stunts when he fell and injure himself.
			It was reported that he broke his arm.
			3. A boy was skating at Highfly Park. I saw him practicing his stunts
			when he flew out of balance and fell down as he landed.
			4. A boy was happily skating and exhibiting his skills when he missed
			his footing and landed with a thud! He was unhurt.
G	police chases robber	chase robber	1. A policeman saw the robbery and quickly gave chase. It was said		police action
			that the man escaped.
			2. A policeman immediately ran after the man. Luckily, he managed to
			retrieve the bag and return it to the owner.
			3. A policeman immediately ran after the man. It was reported that the
			robber was caught. What a relief!
			4. A police man saw the incident and immediately chased after the
			man. I saw him nab the robber and return the bag to the owner.
H	police helps injured	police helps in injured	1. A policeman immediately ran over and tend to his wound. Soon after,		kind act
			the man was sent to the hospital.
			2. A policeman ran over to check on his wound. It was reported that he
			did not sustain any serious injury.
			3. A police sprung into action and ran over to help the injured. I feel that
			he had fast reaction. Everyone should learn from him.
			4. A policeman went over to help the injured. He tended to his wounds
			until more help arrived. It was a commendable act!
Paired	A - E	plane crash - robbery
events	B - F	man jump off - skate injury
	C - G	car2car knocks - police chases robber
	D - H	car smash into shophouse - police helps injured

placements of events

Hey guys, these are some of the variations in which the events can be placed. Which one would you prefer?

Bone animation Sample Tutorial

1. Load the Bone setup. It has four IK Handlers: Left/Right Legs and Left/Right Hands.

2. Load your skin, and position them correctly. If skin pose is not positioned according to the bones, resize/ scale the skin and/or move the IK handlers correctly before binding. After that, select "Back_root" and the Body and do "Skin->Bind skin->Smooth Bind"
3. Lets try to do a simple walk cycle.

Before you do anything, please make sure:
A. You put the model EXACTLY where you want it to be. This is important to establish the origin bone pose to do further animation. How do you position the model+bone? you need to select :
- All the Four IK Handlers

- The "Back_root" joint
and use the Move tool to move the whole thing to your desired location.

B. After you move the IKHandlers+back_root, make sure you are at frame 1 and press "S" to set the key frame.

Now, slide the slider to frame 5. lets move the legs, the arms, like this position:


Then you select all IK Handlers + Back_root, move the model forward a bit, and set the key. If you play the animation, you will see how he will start moving forward.

4. Again, move the slider to frame 10. Use the ik handlers to adjust the legs + arms, and Select the IK handlers+Back_root, move forward a bit, and press S again to set key.
5. again....frame 15
6. again....frame 20

7. again....frame 25

8. Finally....frame 30.
9. This is cool stuff: Try to copy the keyframes so far (Shift mouse select drag and copy), and choose : Paste Connect.
Now the animations from 1-30 will be copied and put relative to the final frame! so now the walk cycle plays twice.


10. now lets export this to fbx. Again, highlight all the iK handlers+ back_root and also the Model (body).
Please remember to slide the timer back to frame 1 !!!

11. choose : File->Export Selection and choose a filename.
It will launch the fbx exporter dialog.

12. Take note of the essential options


13. Now it should be exported correctly to fbx! How to test? Well unfortunately there's no easy way, so i need to import it into xna first and test it before we jump into joy :P

In summary, this is whats important when animating:

Rule no 1: Always highlight the IKHandlers and Back_root (the root node in the skeleton) and set key frame at frame 1 before any animation.

Rule no 2: Always highlight the IKHandlers and Back_root (the root node in the skeleton) and set key frame for each modified ik handlers/ rotation.

Rule no 3: if you need to rotate the model, try rotating the back_root first. then you move the ik handlers accordingly.

I hope this guide helps everyone when animating!