mans goes walk step step step

Board game FINAL UPDATE

I have pretty much finished the board game at this point. I of course have lots to say about it but will save that for the write up.

I created all the cards I needed and edited all the chips that make up the game board, so like a deck of cards, they all stay having a single value, its just the placement of each chip that is subject to change.
This should make the game a lot less confusing to play and therefore more fun. Each card excluding the trap cards are unique. There is 11 of each type of card, 5 of each in tier 1, 4 of each in tier 2 and 2 of each in tier 1. This should balance out the gameplay enough to fulfil the random chance and suspense that the game needs.

bottles glasses and cables // Board game update

today was insightful in learning how to create different cups/ bottles/ glasses. I also learned how to model things like cables and snail shells quickly and effectively

I can see these techniques coming in useful for future projects.


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Board game:

I have been working on some new cards for my game, creating simple placeholder icons for each card type. There are 3 types of cards: monsters cards, weapon cards, and trap cards. A card is picked when you land on a chip of that corresponding type. All the cards revolve around a tier system, tier 1 to 3. The higher the tier, the more extreme it will be. A low tier monster will be easy to defeat whereas a high tier monster will be much more difficult. Same goes for weaponry, a low tier weapon will provide a little help while a high tier weapon will provide the most help.


These cards will of course be place holders for future images that I hope to make unique to each other. Each monster will be unique, even if some function identically, each weapon will too be unique to each other. This should allow the time playing the game to grow stale much less slower. Meaning it shall be fun, for longer.

I will work more on the game board itself making it less confusing, giving each chip its own designated entrances, exits, and other values. This should allow the players to strategise a bit more as to where they go, leaving less down to just chance.

wow more photoshop concept art

practicing new techniques on photoshop with new brushes and new shapes in the shape tool :D

Animated character bouncy balls // Board game update

boing boing boing boing boing boign

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Board game:

I have written a temporary set of rules involving rolling instead of picking cards as a placeholder for the first play test.

I decided on a more dungeon crawler fantasy theme, where you have to make your way from one end of a hexagonal grid to the other. The players get to build the game board themselves out of individual hexagonal pieces. I implemented some exits onto each piece, so they they all have an entrance that is oriented to the direction the player enters from, but they can't exit from any direction.

There are 6 room types: empty room, monster room, trap room, item room, portal room and switch room.
you are just as likely to find any one of them.

I ended up losing because I'm bad at games, but I noticed pretty quickly that even with the element of random chance, it was still easy for the players to get stuck and unable to proceed, so I think I will edit the rules a bit to not only allow movement through multiple rooms per turn, but maybe edit each hexagonal chip a bit more to allow these variables like what type of chip they are to be a bit more set in stone.

I shall also include more empty rooms than any other type to allow the flow of the game to continue at a quick pace.

animated lego car

Probably the most complicated Maya tutorial I have had so far.

I previously learned how to make and replicate a Lego brick before constructing a whole car out of these bricks I modeled. Today I learned how to animate the car as it comes screeching to a halt from a drive. It was rather confusing how it all works but I know once I have these skills cracked for sure, they will be of great use down the line o.o

bouncing balls

Working on perfecting bouncy balls helped a lot with adding weight and squash and stretch and such

Pendulum practice // Board game update

Creating pendulums is something I was nervous about, due to them having surprisingly complex movements for an animation loop of 2 seconds. However after today I am much more confident in this area after trying it out.

Its all about the spacing of the frames, towards the middle of the swing each frame needs to be far apart from each other, allowing the effect of faster movement. To each side of the swing, the frames must be bunched together tightly allowing the effect of SLOWER movement.

The reason this is important is it adds the illusion of acceleration and deceleration to the object, rather than just swinging back and forth at a constant and thus unrealistic pace.

The time it takes for each swing to conclude is the same for both swinging types, but one feels much more refined and natural than the other

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Board game:

I have decided to either create my board game themed on a dungeon crawler idea, or perhaps on some kind of spaceship?

Either one will do, but what I DO know is all those hexagonal wooden cutouts in the room will come in handy with creating a game board, if there needs to even BE a game board at all.

I'm still thinking up different ideas on what to create, I am however entertaining the idea of adding another layer of freedom for the players when they come to actually trying the game out.

Drawing some of my first Thumbnails // Board game update

I was given a description of a city suspended in the air by some spider-web and had to illustrate some thumbnails to visualize the idea.

I didn't manage to fill the page, but I AM happy with the images I did manage to complete. Even though they are quick and messy, they still work for the purpose i need them for.

very quick illustrations that I can understand easily.

I definitely need to make more for future projects with my ideas in mind


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Board game:

We played a few different very simple games like SNAP or just rolling dice to see who gets the highest scores.

I feel this was beneficial to the development of our upcoming projects as it really broke down the different parts to a game, letting us look at each aspect like luck, skill and tension. Luck is always important in a game to allow none of the players to know what is going to happen. If everything in a game is pre-decided, it will get boring very fast. Skill is important in a game as it allows the players to feel themselves growing as they play, as they improve. This one isn't as important in a board game so much as luck is, but it should still be possible for players to strategise their next move rather than leaving it up to chance. Finally, tension. The longer a game goes on for the more tension is built. In SNAP for example, the longer the game continues without any pairs being made, the more tension is created making every player overflow with adrenaline as nobody truly knows when the next pair will come, due to the luck aspect.

It will be important to take these aspects into account when deciding what to do for the board game later on.

Learning Maya [part 1]

I'm not too sure what I am doing quite yet, but progress like this is still progress!
Hopefully I'll be able to create more complex models given time

I'm still pleased with how these turned out in the end

Introduction to me and my goals

My name is George Andrews, I'm from Old Wives Lees on the outskirts of Canterbury. I have been drawing weird funky cartoony illustrations for most of my life. I have been interested in creating videogames for a long time, but was never sure where to start. I've created game sprites in the past and even animated many of them to feel more alive, but I have never once created a full fledged game.

I want this to change however, creating a game is something that has always wanted to try. Crafting an experience to be exactly how I'd like it, and perhaps even publish it once completed for others to enjoy too.

I don't want people to just SEE my work, I want people to WATCH it, and even EXPERIENCE it.

I'm not even sure what kind of game I want to create yet, but it will be fun finding out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯