Counting down

After a few hours on Skype and raging whenever Maya or Unity decided to crash last night we feel ready for the game test later today. We've added music and a basic model for Polyboy to test out our first level, the tutorial stage. Despite the controls still being slightly difficult we hope to get some nice feedback as well as critique on what to improve.

We will post pictures, comments and results once we've summed it all up.

- Polyboy DevTeam

Preparations

Coming up at the end of this week there's a scheduled game test. Of course, we're all looking forward to let our other classmates give our game a try and hope to gather some valuable pointers in how to improve Polyboy. However this also means a lot of work from the team's side to get our first level, the tutorial stage ready for testing. Despite having quite a bit left to sort out before Friday, we're staying positive and think we'll be able to present a beta version of the first level with enemies, background, music and sound effects, you name it.
A scheduled game test doesn't only mean we'll have others try our game out, but we'll also be able to see what our classmates have done and play their games. An excellent opportunity to have some fun and relax, for a minute or two.

To tease your braincells, I've come halfway through with composing some music that will be placed somewhere secret in our game for you guys to find. However, I'll be nice and give you a taste just now.

Aggression

Keep an eye out for new posts as we'll be updating before the game test as well as after to let you, our beloved readers know what our beta-testers thought about the game so far.

- michaedee

I Know

We have yet another Vlog episode to share, it was supposed to be up last Friday but Michaedee wasn't around and no one else really has the brain cells to operate a camera (or to motivate the rest of us to stay on the subject). Then we just ended up procastinating and now we've decided that we'll make these videos whenever we feel like it because it's surprisingly time consuming. Especially the upload time, though I blame my internet connection for that one.

The quality however, is absolute crap. Sorry about that, the only equipment we have available is the stuff our school can provide us with.

Anyway, enjoy listening to me turning into, you know, Alexi Laiho in a, you know, interview. You know.

/Wasp

An introduction and a beginning

So, since we've worked hard for 2 days now we thought we'd give our followers a little treat. Introducing the man himself, Polyboy and his story:

"Polyboy, a legendary internet hero who throughout the years have fought dangerous computer viruses and bad memes to keep the internet safe from hackers. Despite his sacrifices and efforts, the internet is still not safe and now a new enemy is approaching.

One day Polyboy discovers a bunch of scandalous pictures and videos of himself out on the internet. However, it couldn't possibly be him, something is very wrong. It'll later show that it's someone else pretending to be Polyboy and is trying their very best to soil Polyboy's reputation. At the same time, old viruses seem to have been resurrected and improved and is now terrorising all the internet users.

The future is now, and this problem is spreading faster by the minute. It's you, Polyboy, who must save and protect the internet once and for all."

- michaedee

Joystick 4.0

- It's late and I'm tired but DAMN I had a great time tonight!

OneHand and michaedee were lucky to be able to attend Joystick 4.0 with a few others from Ljud & Bildskolan and listen to Malmö Symfoniorkester (Malmö's Symphony orchestra) preform music from games like Killzone 3, Final Fantasy IX, The Legend of Zelda and of course, the one we came for: Assassin's Creed Revelations. A truly amazing experience that we'll be sure to attend again next time.
 
Joystick 4.0 (Gamereactor)
Joystick 4.0 (Malmö Konserthus)

To me, this visit gave me plenty of ideas and inspiration for the music I want to add to our game and frankly, I can't wait to get started again on monday.

(And we're soooo sorry for not putting up a vlog episode this week but we'll compensate for that on monday as well!)

- michaedee

Slow week

On behalf of the dev team, I apologise for the lack of frequent updates this week. Progress has been painfully slow and we're already starting to hit bumps in the road (at least, I am). The promised wall of text about the level designs will be halted until further notice, possibly next Monday.

My brain is on a bit of a drought when it comes to creativity as I'm trying to bounce a million ideas and projects around at once, it's hard to stick to the schedule like this. The excessive difficulty I'm having with drawing Polyboy from different angles is not helping at all. I'd really need a muse or something because my grasp on human anatomy is still not as firm as it should be, but neither Carcity nor OneHand have the right body type and even if they did I doubt that they'd be willing to stand around in their underpants for an hour or two.

Thankfully I can still resort to carefully studying Marvel comic pages but the exaggerated physiques of most superheroes are both helping and hindering my progress. You see, it gives you a better idea of exactly WHICH muscle groups you have to work with, but it also makes it difficult to balance out the proportions of the character you intend to draw.

Remember my former dilemma with Polyboy's design a few posts ago? I intend to solve it by giving him a sleeker body type with less prominent muscles and instead make muscle patterns on his suit so he'll keep his youthful look but still looks strong. The new problem I'm facing now is that I'm not sure how much muscle mass I can add before it starts to look weird, and I have a real hard time to tone down the musculature. With all that said, let's take a look at what I have so far:

I decided to beef up the pectoral girth a bit, but the ribs might be too thick and I'll probably reduce them somewhat in the future to make him less top heavy. I removed the kneecaps from the front view as they were too high up. This will be fixed. I'm also considering removing the turtle neck, not sure if it's really necessary. The rocket launcher will be a separate model altogether and will be added later because I'd like to keep a symmetrical design on Polyboy as it's easier to model and texture.

As a last note, I'd also like to add that Michaedee has begun translating the design document and that it has much more content now as well.

This is Wasp signing off, have a nice weekend y'all!


*EDIT: Oh snap, I also wanted to share a very useful page that I frequently use when searching for references: http://marvel.wikia.com/Deadpool_(Wade_Wilson)/Gallery Trust me, nothing helps with anatomy issues as much as muscular Marvel superheroes in tight spandex. Especially Deadpool. Because Deadpool is awesome. Although I probably should have used Spider-Man as he has a much slimmer body. Oh well.

Weekly Update: Vlog Episode 1

WEEKLY UPDATE: VLOG EPISODE

 

 

These vlog episodes are meant to be out every friday but we were a bit tight on time last week so here it is now! This week the vlog episode features Carcity and Wasp with michaedee holding the camera. (NOT like a boss)

- Polyboy DevTeam

"it doesn't sound like much"

After a good few hours of raging at my dentist and MadTracker2, I decided to ditch it and find another software to use. I found the almighty: FL Studio.

So sitting there messing with the different instruments and sounds I started to put together a beat and added some strings for THE EPIC effect. Of course, the result is no where near THE EPIC effect, but one can I try, right? I named it Heat after my raging session and the fact that this song builds up for the rest of the story. The link below forwards you to my SoundCloud page where you can listen to it.

Enjoy the lameness!

Heat


- michaedee

Introducing the Power Rangers

So today has been a very productive day for everyone, you tend to get shit done when you have a three hour work session (you should all assume we were working all the time, 'cause we totally were). Anyway! Since I noticed that we haven't had a post talking about exactly what we'll be doing, I figured I could fill in some blanks.

First of all, there's me. I'm Albin, known on the international web as Carcity. I do programming, which, if you have no idea how developing things on the computer work, is writing codes. Basically, while Wasp and Michaedee get to do fun stuff like drawing stuff and making music, I write. I write complicated codes that do little to nothing, but are needed for everything to work.

The second person to join this project, before we became our official group, is Wasp, also known by humans as Regina. She is the artist of us. She gets to flood PhotoShop (or whatever program she's using) (it's Paint Tool SAI) with images and drawings of basically anything she likes, which is mostly abs, but anyway. She's also the one handling the 3D modeling, meaning she gets to draw in THREE DIMENSIONS! Also, she has to texturize all of her models, a work I'm glad not having to do.

Then we have our Sound Manager, Michaedee, also known as Angelika. She's in charge of creating all the sound and music in the game, which may not sound like much (har har, I see what you did there), but is actually harder than it seems. She's also unofficially become the organizer of the team, the one who more or less tells us what to do when we don't know ourselves.

Last, but not least is OneHand, or as we call him, Rasmus. He is, like me, doing the programming. He's mainly working on our enemies, and creating an AI for them more advanced than flying into random walls, which he's actually doing a pretty good job at. He's also doing the level designing with Wasp, which is the most important job there is, because without good level design, the game is just going to be a cluster of nonsense.

This is our small but strong development team, we don't have an official name yet, but me and Wasp have unofficially settled for "Angry Video Game Developers".

Also, Wasp loves drawing small boys, but don't tell her I said that. (I'm going to punch you for that one. Really hard. Right in the solar plexus. You just wait. Also, spellcheck your stuff. I've had to correct like 7 words or so by now.)

- Carcity

Some WIP concept art

I am finally getting somewhere with the designs of our main character. I've had my fair share of trouble, but here's some history on the progress:

This would be the very first sketch-ish thing we could come up with six hundred centuries ago before the project was officially started. At the time we didn't really have a solid image for what Polyboy looked like and we just went with a bad Megaman ripoff with a crappy turtleneck and snowboard goggles. I dunno, it was cold and I had just ordered my new cargos at Junkyard which is chock-full of snowboarding and skating equipment. Polyboy is also supposed to carry a huge shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, but I'll deal with that later.

Then we have the next piece, where I wanted to get a slightly better idea of exactly what body type/shape I should go with, but I ended up doodling muscles (ignore the right arm, the brachioradialis is supposed to go under the arm and wrap around the wrist, not connect to the hand) instead. Oops. But at least I had a somewhat solid (but incorrect) base to continue working on.

One tracing session later, we have a much more simplified (but still incorrect) frame. Believe it or not but this is the part that took me forever because I'm not that familiar with how leg muscles interact and wrap around each other, or how I should draw the knee between the quads and calves. Anatomy is tricky, guys. I'm still pretty happy with how the quads turned out, however. It's rare for me to make legs, especially thighs and knees look okay.

The legs are still way too short, but I've mirrored the picture for the sake of symmetry so I can get a better idea of how the body would look from the front. The hands are also somewhat dodgy looking but trust me I didn't draw them that way for the sake of aesthetics. It's a lot easier to model them if you can, you know, actually SEE the fingers in Maya. Though it really bothers me how the fingers stick out, it looks so flamboyant. All it needs now is a cloud of sparkles and the image is complete.

Aaaand, we have the almost finished base-sketch! The turtleneck returns while the hair and goggles are replaced by a helmet with a visor, as the hair was making the character trail into bishie-territory. A lot of crucial details still need to get in place, like the gloves and boots so the hands won't look so humongous in comparison. I don't know what happened to the pectorals though, they look a little... saggy. This must be remedied. Anyway, the legs are longer and Polyboy looks a little less like an ape and has gone from being a bad Megaman ripoff to a bad Captain Falcon/Robocop hybrid. Hooray!

The problem I'm facing now is that the visor and the muscles take away the boyish look that Polyboy had, and Polyman doesn't have the same ring to it. Either we'll change the name of the blog and everything related to the project (which is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN), or I'll have to somehow give Polyboy a more youthful appearance so he doesn't look like a fully grown man running around playing superhero in his pajamas or something. Because that would be pretty pathetic. I just don't want to end up creating something that looks like a rejected Final Fantasy character from space. Because that would be even worse.


Okay, that's enough from me for now. There's another upcoming wall of text for your viewing pleasure covering some of the level design plans and themes.

/Wasp




P.S. CARCITY SHUT THE HELL UP I DRAW WHATEVER I WANT!

The player can jump!

I have, after struggles, managed to create the basis of a jumping script that not only allows the player to take of from the ground, but can also be used to jump from walls! Our player is now halfway to becoming Spiderman!

- Carcity

Design document sneak-peek

The time has come for us to post a most magnificent piece of beta content: the unfinished design document! However, it's written in Swedish and that limits a great deal of our potential audiences, but if I get any requests I might take the time and translate the whole thing into English instead. Alright? Here goes:

Chronicles of Polyboy

Revenge of the Plot Device

Designdokument

av

Albin Hermansson

Rasmus Karicka

Regina Kovacs

Angelika Johansson

Innehållsförteckning

Introduktion och exempel
It’s basically really epic. Except when it’s not (which is most of the time).


Målet med spelet
Att ta sig från punkt A till punkt B helskinnad. Ibland får man slåss med bossar.


Spelmekanik, styrning och spelaren
Spelet är ett 2D-sidescroller shooter, där spelaren skjuter åt den sidan han är riktad mot. Man kan röra sig fram och tillbaka samt hoppa (hopphöjden är ca. spelarens höjd). Spelaren kommer ha tillgång till olika vapen som alla fyller olika funktioner och har speciella användningsområden.



Beskrivning av spelmiljön
The part of cyberspace where memes go to die.


Banorna
Banorna är utformade så att spelaren för det mesta rör sig från vänster till höger i stil med klassiska 2D-shooters och plattformers, men ibland kan man bli tvungen att ta alternativa vägar för att ha med vissa utforskningselement. Vissa banor har även dolda utgångar som leder till bonusbanor. Hittar man utgångarna till bonusbanorna teleporteras man och banan anses automatiskt vara avklarad. Checkpoints kommer även att finnas med så man inte behöver spela om hela banan ifall man dör. Får man slut på extraliv räknas det som en Game Over och DÅ får man spela om banan. Om man lämnar banan för att sedan gå tillbaka får man också börja om.


Bonusar/objekt
Health packs och ammunition är de mest grundläggande objekten som måste finnas med i spelet. Extraliv och mindre trinkets kan man också samla på för att öka sina chanser på att lyckas ta sig i mål. Samlar man ihop tillräckligt många trinkets får man ett extraliv. Trinkets finns utspridda på banorna men de flesta gömmer sig på bonusbanorna.


Dialoger/story
Polyboy är en legendarisk internethjälte som har genom åren slagits mot farliga virus och dåliga memes för att hålla internet säkert från hackers, politiker och idioter. Trots hans uppoffringar är internet fortfarande inte säkert och en ny antagonist har visat sig...

En dag upptäcker Polyboy ett gäng skandalösa bilder och videor på sig själv ute på internet, men det kan omöjligt vara Polyboy. Något är väldigt fel. Han ser annorlunda ut. Det visar sig att någon låtsas vara Polyboy och gör allt i sin makt för att förstöra hans rykte och trovärdighet på internet samtidigt som gamla virus börjar återuppstå och mutera för att terrorisera alla internetanvändare (it’s cyberspace, we don’t need no logic).


GUI
På skärmen kommer spelarens status att visas. Högst uppe till vänster finns spelets liv- och ammunitionmätare. På botten av skärmen kommer ens tillgängliga vapen att visas, det aktiva vapnet kommer att vara markerat.






Alright, that would be it. The text marked in red is wishlist content (stuff that might not make it into the game as it's not crucial for it to work). Again, this document needs some serious tweaking and fleshing out and maybe a translating session or two if anyone's interested.




This update was brought to you by Regina K, a.k.a. Wasp.

- We have a blog!

So yeah, we created a blog for documentation purposes of our new game project Polyboy. We're quite excited to get this show on the road and hope to achieve at least a playable game with an epic story behind it and a working concept.

Working on this project will be: Carcity, OneHand, Wasp & Michaedee


- Polyboy DevTeam