Final Week!

This is it.

The final week at Confetti and the end of Imaginauts' long journey. We've had our ups and downs and fought through the challenges but tomorrow when we submit our level will be our final victory!

There are however a few things that need to be done on the cusp of this final milestone. We need a collection of Will's songs all together in soundtrack form ready to submit with the Timmy.COM final package. We also need to replace the textures we got from UDK with our own made textures to fit the colourful theme. I don't feel the overly realistic textures that we've used for the platforms matches the cartoony and colourful theme of Timmy.COM so therefore we're going to create our own.

I've decided to go for standard block colours for our textures to match everything else that we have in the level (clouds, trees, flowers etc)

Finally we need to piece all of our written work together into one large production diary and Game Design Doc. With this complete we'll be well on our way to those Distinctions!

I'll be making the final post tomorrow when everything is about to be submitted...

2 weeks to go!

The Confetti Student Showcase was this week and we got a chance to show off our level and get some invaluable feedback from our testers.

Here's what we gleaned from their response:

-Controls needed to be simplified. They got confused with the the option to run forward and backwards.

- They loved the models of clouds, plants and creatures and felt it added more personality to the experience.

- They also really liked the story and felt it had lots of potential with funny characters.

- Most struggled on the platforming section where the players needed to hop across the mountain but nearly all insisted on keeping it that way as it added to the challenge and overall addictiveness to the gameplay.

So overall it's seems like we've made something that we should be really proud of and I for one am definitely proud. We've fixed the controls so it's now easier to play so that should no longer be an issue.

Opening Cinematic Script

Opening Scene – Introduction Cutscene

Opening shot of Earth in space, camera changes to a CCTV-esque view with data streaming down the side. A shadow creeps around the side of the planet foreshadowing the imminent attack.

A small signal appears from the planet, represented by a green beam of light. The tapping of keyboards can be heard and another three beams of light shoot out from the planet. The planet bursts in light with beams shooting out and criss-crossing all over the place. Voices can be heard while this happens.

Man

Tracking system in place. Any activity made by them and we will be alerted.

Seth

Timmy? Timmy, come on ICU as soon as you get this message dude! I’ve uhhh, procured a copy of that, uhh game you wanted. You know. The urm... animal one.

Timmy

I’m online! Send it.

Zoom into the planet, through the clouds and into the atmosphere. Past a plane. Slow-motion as the camera pans to the left to see through the window of the plane, zoom into the window as someone turns on a mobile phone. Zoom out to see the plane plummet to the sea. The camera resumes normal pace and carries on zooming through the sky (Birdseye).

A flock of birds are overhead as the camera zooms, the birds pass leaving one straggling behind as the camera gets closer. The camera slams into the bird with a squawk and knocks in down. The camera continues to zoom through streets.

A woman is seen with a mobile phone and the “message sending” screen on it. The camera shoots into the phone screen and into a cyber highway following a neon glowing envelope shooting along the tunnel. Past pictures in the background, beeping sounds can be heard and dialling tones. The letter plummets through the cyber highway, passing loop-the-loops and spirals with data constantly streaming everywhere. It separates from the rest of the data into a singular road and a massive white portal can be seen with a boys face peering into it. The camera shoots past the envelope and into the white portal, back into the real world where the boy sees he’s received a text. The camera flies out of the window and towards a telephone pole where it shoots along the phone cables where occasional sparks emit. We fly into yet another house where a fat ginger mulleted boy can be seen squashed into a black chair in a darkly lit room that looks like a bomb has hit it.

Seth’s Mum

SETH! Dinner’s ready! Tater tots!

SETH

Just a seco- WAIT. TATER TOTS?!

He flings himself out of the chair with a struggle and flies out of the room. The camera zooms into his computer monitor where “File Transfer 76%” can be seen. Back into the internet highway we see the file as a black cloud of swirling pixelated data with a Trojan horse in the centre. The horse smashes the highway completely and flies into oncoming data of pictures, videos etc and utterly destroys them as it passes.

It continues its rampage along the highway.

A shot of two fat pixel men in a pill shaped car sitting eating data, in an internet coffee shop. We see their eyes follow the rampaging Trojan as it careens past them. They spurt out their data and flick on the sirens joining in the chase in order to prevent the virus.

CYBER POLICE 1

This is squad 6 we have a rogue Trojan heading through the ICU mainframe. We need all available patrols here stat!

CYBER POLICE COMMAND

(Static) Roger that, we err got it on the monitor. Good gigabytes that is a doozy. Stop it at all costs!

The Cyber Police-car shoots lazers out of its front which just bounce off the Trojan and black cloud data. A high speed chase ensues throughout the highway until the Trojan stops and slowly turns to face the entire squadron of ensuing Cyber Police. It slowly opens its mouth.

Close up of a Cyber Police.

CYBER POLICE 2

Holy blue screen of death, we’re screwed.

A wave of black swirling data shoots out of the Trojan horse, destroying everything in its wake.

It turns around and shoots into a single road where a portal showing two tiny eyes surrounded by massive specs can be seen. The camera zooms out of the computer and rotates to see the silhouette of Timmy as the “File Transfer Complete” pings up on his monitor.

It’s a tense moment of silence with a slow drone of music. The phone suddenly rings and Timmy literally leaps into the air in shock. He scrambles out of his seat and runs out of the room. The camera slowly pans to the computer. The screen flickers slightly and distorts as the “File Transfer Complete” remains on screen with almost a black haze surrounding it. The cursor on this screen slowly moves. Then it moves again, this time more noticeable as the black smoke emits out of the message on the monitor slowly dragging it nearer. The cursor clicks the save file button and the virus appears as a folder on the desktop. A sweet lullaby is slowly played as the camera zooms out to reveal the whole room with Timmy standing at the door.

Timmy

Yes Mum I fed the dog. I’ve got a pizza in the oven, it’ll be done in about 40 minutes. I won’t leave it on OK?! …That was an accident. Yes I remember. Ok. Fine. No one was hurt though. I promise I won’t burn it this time. Fine. See you later. Have fun.

He sits back at the monitor. The camera zooms past him and onto the monitor again.

Timmy

You there Seth? It’s transferred, already saved onto my desktop somehow… hm.

Seth

(Munching crips) Opfen Itf!

The camera slowly does a rotational pan away from the screen and to Timmy’s face revealing him for the first time, his eyes scrunched in concentration.

Timmy

Here goes nothing.

The camera continues the rotational pan back onto the monitor where the player will control the cursor.

They will have to click the file and open it to start the game…

3..2..1

Here we are, three weeks till the end and TIMMY.COM is steamrolling to the end of the finish line.

We now have a completed trailer to show at the Confetti Showcase along with a level that with a bit of work should be completed or near completion to demonstrate.

Jordan has finished the storyboards for the opening cinematic and the voicework has been recorded for these. Some of the storyboards and recorded voicework have been included in the trrailer however they all need to be placed together in some form of pre-production animatic.

The GDD is well on it's way to being completed with Jordan adding more to his section now that he has took on new roles within the team what with two members leaving after Easter.

It's full steam ahead for the Imaginauts now not only to finish the level and soundtrack but also t resubmit a hell of a lot of assignments to get those all important grades!

The Final Countdown!

So we have 7 weeks left and with the aid of SCRUM management we're gonna get this bad boy finished for the 1st July.

A lot has happened since my last post. We've lost two members of the team, one of them being the programmer so Jordan and I have took on that role between us and working together to create our two minute demo in UDK.

Will has been working on the soundtrack over the whole process and will be showing us what he's done for us to give notes and to take back and work on.

The new game design doc is coming along nicely but we still need additions from Jordan and Will on their own areas of the game.

We are now having meetings every Friday to cover the following points:
What have you done since last week?
What are you planning on doing this week?
Any problemos?

We'll also be setting goals for the following week.

On wednesdays we'll also be meeting to make sure we are working towards the goals set and that everything is running smoothly.

Onwards and upwards Imaginauts.




That was ridiculously cheesy.

TIMMY.COM

Just a lil mess around I did for a promotional poster.

Once we have some completed art work by Jacob Joe and I can make some more shiz like these but with proper characters.

Story Concept - 1

TIMMY.COM – Story Concept 1

The Internet is a vast landscape of data constantly being trafficked from one place to another, a focal point of information that contains all of societies secrets. The Internet is being taken over and used as a weapon.
Timmy is a normal teenage boy. He loves videogames and comics, movies and seeing the few friends he has. He’s never quite fitted in at school and little does he now that he will become the saviour of humanity.
Aliens exist. They’re a lame breed of creatures that live as nomads in their flying saucers. Their technology is generally terrible and they have pretty much no weaponry. They live their lives hooked to daytime TV that they hack from Earth’s signals, and eat fast food all day long that they steal in vast quantities from the planet surface. They’re fat, ugly, pretty immobile and completely useless. Yet they want the planet earth for themselves. After watching so much TV and seeing how well armed and protected the human race is they decide the only way to rid the planet of humans would be to use the internet and all the info stored on there against them. They put in charge their best hacker; Boob in charge of the assault. There he hacks his way into the internet mainframe and unleash a pack of virus’ onto the net.
They are misdirected onto a fileshare site however and are suddenly downloaded onto an oblivious teenager’s computer. That teenager, is Timmy.
He notices his computer acting up with various virus warnings. He calls his out of luck friend Seth round to sort the problem before he can make it worse. Just as he puts the phone down he slams the monitor’s screen in frustration only for his hand to go through it like it was made of jelly. He is suddenly wrenched from his seat and pulled through the monitor just as his friend Seth walks into the room.
Seth screams with both excitement and horror and rushes to sit down in the small squeaky chair. He flicks on the webcam and sticks on a microphone then opens up a chatbox.
He directs Timmy through a vicious battle with a large wooden Trojan horse on the desktop of his computer.
Timmy uses the cursor as his main weapon, blasting the vehicle to pieces.
Suddenly a swarm of 7 pixel monsters scramble out and knocks Timmy unconscious. They then jump into the internet shortcut to infect the rest of the net.
Timmy is woken up soon after by Seth right clicking him and pressing “wake up”.
Seth explains that he thinks it’s an alien conspiracy trying to take over the world. Just as he explains his theory another chatbox opens on the desktop with a black shades and suit wearing man. He explains that he works for Area 51 (or something like that) and that aliens exist and have invaded the internet to use it for their own nefarious plans.
Seth has a bit of a geekasm at the sheer awesomeness that is happening. Timmy however is less pleased.
The secret agent only known as Agent Barbara (which is something Seth finds hilarious cause he’s a man.) tells Timmy it is up to him to save the planet from extinction. When Timmy asks why it’s his responsibility Agent Barbara or “Babs” as Seth calls him explains that because Timmy is the one who downloaded the virus’ onto his computer, only he has the power to delete them.
So Timmy starts on his quest to destroy the virus’ infection of the internet as they slowly multiply and spread.
The alien hacker Boob occasionally deters Timmy through chatboxes as he hacks into the sites to make things harder for him and Seth does the same to help Timmy.
The banter between Boob, Seth and Agent Barbara should on epic proportions as Seth rips Babs and Boob for their names and Agent Barbara takes everything seriously. Boob just blunders and geeks his way through it, getting occasionally very angry and frustrated.
With these three characters battling over the chatboxes Timmy is left to fight the war against the virus’ over the net.
All of this culminates in a final battle with a mega virus monster at the edge of global destruction on the nuclear weapons launch site…