Play Wii

From 6^th – 9^th of November in Melbourne Central there were free Wii tryouts.

First perception: wow the console and controller is smaller than I imagined! The Wii controller is also extremely light. I used to compare it to a TV remote but it is much lighter, thinner and of course nicer looking. I was slightly disappointed at the weight, I was thinking if it was a little heavier it would feel better to use. I guess if you waved it about a lot you would want it to be light.

At the time I was there the games available were: ‘Wii Sports’, ‘Excite Truck’ and ‘The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess’. As I was in a rush I only lined up for one demo but I did watch people play all three games.

I had a go at ‘Excite Truck’. It’s a simple racing game with additions like rings to jump through. The motion control of the Wii was used to turn and adjust the vehicle (when landing a jump). It felt very natural, better than punching buttons or fighting with a keyboard. The only thing I found odd was how you recovered from a collision. When you hit a tree or another truck the game moved in slow motion and prompted you to repeatedly push ‘A’ to recover with better speed. I thought it felt odd and it broke up the faced passed atmosphere of the game. Overall it looks great. The Wii will definitely improve racing games.

‘The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess’ looked very polished and impressive. I cannot wait until it comes out. Nothing more to say but; this is a must buy.

The sensor for the Zelda booth was a little buggy which gave me a few bad vibes on the console. During E3 this year, I remember the comments about Nintendo Wii sensors not working properly under halogen lights. I would like to know if the Wii is guaranteed to work anywhere and if there are situations that can weaken the sensors. I’m a little worried about how long the sensors last. If the motion sensing was even a little thrown off, it could completely ruin the experience. I guess these are questions that will be answered after millions of Wiis are played in all situations across the globe.

Only three weeks until the Australian launch!

More Australian Play Wii dates can be found here.

4DCS – PDFs Available

If anyone is interested in looking at the three documented stages of my game dev group’s MOD – 4 Days of Community Service – the PDFs are available to download on my FileFront page. Find the download links here

Enjoy

Unreal 2004 MOD – 4 Days of Community Service

For semester 2’s major Games Studio project my group created a MOD called ‘4 Days of Community Service’. The specifications for the project were to create a working game using Unreal Tournament 2004’s Unreal Editor. My game development group consisted of four people; two Games Programming students, one Games Art student and myself studying Games Graphics Design. We had the semester to complete the fully working game, which was less than three months.

From previous experience of creating a MOD for Neverwinter Nights last semester, I suspected that UT would be more complex to understand and manipulate. I designed the gameplay and artwork/storyline so as if either one changed dramatically the other wouldn’t be as affected.

The core of the game is a space flight adventure in a comic and humorous setting. The storyline follows a deluded lounge-lizard called Edward who was sentenced to four days of community service. Each of the four levels is set in a theme: junk, sewer, nursery and the last is a ‘boss’. After each level Edward’s story is unfolded, by short AVI movies, as he finds out the plot behind why he was sentenced.

The game design changed a lot over the process. We tried to do what we could and the outcome is good considering the timeframe. In particular we had problems with implementing custom scripts. We spent most of our time figuring out how to restrict the player into the ship. The game just wouldn’t have worked if you could instantly jump out of a vehicle into the fake space.

Less time was then spent on other necessary game elements like enemies and collecting ‘power ups’ and weapons. Without them the MOD turned out to be a ridiculously linear: shoot all the enemies spawning from a point in the level to complete it. We ran out of time to figure out how to make the spawning enemies larger; so in the game you fly around a massive space level shooting ‘ants’. Although the actual gameplay was simplified it does work but it is the part of the MOD which needs improvement, if we returned to this project.

In terms of the story and art I believe we excelled. The cut-scenes pulled together the comic situations of the actual game. It is unfortunate that UT does not easily allow AVIs to be placed before and after an arena is played. To experience the game to the fullest it is essential to watch the cut-scenes and see Edward’s story unfold. The in-game levels come alive with the bright and nicely sickening textures. The effect of the tiled floor of dead mutant babies in level 2 is comic, even if the massive size of the levels made texturing a little ridiculous to the eye.

The MOD was all fun and a good experience in developing an initially wild concept over a short time frame of three months. It was a joy to work with each member of the group and we have all taken a lot out of the project. I do know one thing for certain; none of us will make another MOD with UT again but we will willingly MOD a different game in future.

Links: www.badgerplus4.tk, filefront – downloads, flickr, Unreal Ed Community.

I doubt I will upload the MOD to the internet; the file size is huge because of the textures. I may however upload the pdf’s of the development stages somewhere. For now, enjoy these screenshots and pieces of in-game artwork.