Releasing my first game M.V.G. today :)

I've been doing a lot of play-testing with people at the office and friends. Found a lot of interesting stuff. 

This is the last week of major development on this project.

As this is my first game project I was really just looking to release something playable and don't want the project to drag on. I'll be moving on to a couple other projects I'm excited about, but will make any fixes or additions people would like to see I can add on an adhoc basis :)

One thing I might do with this project is work on performance, as it's pretty heavy with all the post-process FX, particles, GI lighting, etc...

This is the last week! I'm punching the publish button on Sunday.

Doing a lot of play-testing with people at the office. Found a lot of interesting stuff. 

I've only been able to see 3 people actually play MVG, and the feedback brought up a lot of stuff I wouldn't have thought about...

Either way - I'm not putting much effort into this project anymore (as it's my first game project), but will make any fixes or additions people would like to see :)

Last week I discovered the Chromium team have totally disabled plug-ins apart from Flash Player. This is kind of annoying as MVG doesn't perform fast enough in the WebGL player for some reason. So baring setting flags in Chrome to support plug-ins, MVG can now be run in FireFox or IE only. 

From this week on, I'm starting a new project - so updates on MVG will be slower. This was my first game & wasn't supposed to be a long project - so I don't see additional implementations as a priority at this point. Also I want to start a multi-player project I've been excited about for a while now.

A lot's happened with this project. This week I plan on implementing the following:

[x] Set level fall distances to reduce the time it takes to fall to your death.
[x] Add nicer font for gui-text. 
[x] Make collectables global through all levels. 
[ ] Add particle FX to make thiings more interesting. 
[x] Model enemy models.
[x] Add enemy models.
[ ] Improve Start Game screen. 
[ ] Improve End Game screen.
[ ] Level 5.

Progress so far:

[x] Have a basic start screen.
[x] Have start-screen UI for starting the game and closing the application.
[x] Have a single playable level allowing the player to hop between platforms in 3D space towards a goal.
[x] Have a goal that ends the level.
[x] Have a death mechanic that resets the level. 
[x] Have UI that explains to the player that they've actually died when they die.
[x] Have an end-level screen that tells the player they've completed the level.
[x] Have an end-game screen that tells the player they've completed the GAME.

[x] Add pause-menu launched when player looses focus.
[x] Add behavior to lock-cursor on pause-menu resume.
[x] Pause/slow game-time while pause-menu's displayed.
[x] Flip gravity mechanic.
[x] Level 2
[x] Start Screen Instruction.
[x] Patrolling enemies.
[x] Collide with enemies death-mechanic.
[x] Ability to shoot projectiles.
[x] Projectiles kill enemies.
[x] Add collectibles mechanic.
[x] Level 3

Last week's goals were:

[x] Audio
[x] Heads Up Display showing collectables.
[x] Level 1 upgrade level-design. 
[x] Level 2 upgrade level-design.
[x] Level 4
[ ] Unlockables.

A lot of refactoring in this one to make things more maintainable. Also took a lot of time to work out issues with the new GUI system in order to build a reusable HUD. The unlockables fell off schedule as it requires more game-design and also requireds a lot to implement once I decide what it's behavior should actually be. 

This week's implementation goals are:

[x] Add lives mechanic.
[x] Add lives counter. 
[x] Figure out what to do with tokens collected.
[x] Add time-limit to inverted gravity.
[x] Add inverted-gravity time-limit display.
[x] Levels should now have limited sections where it's necessary to invert gravity. 
[x] Level 1: Further level design. 
[x] Level 2: Further level design. 
[x] Level 3: Further level design. 
[x] Level 4: Further level design. 

# WEEK 5: PLAY-TESTING #

Things to do based on play-testing feedback:
[x] Add life for every N tokens collected.
[x] Add checkpoints.
[x] Fix corner that's annoying.
[x] Add new music from Mike.
[x] Update title-screen with credits.
[ ] Add moving platforms.
[x] Add pause key. 

Progress so far:

[x] Have a basic start screen.
[x] Have start-screen UI for starting the game and closing the application.
[x] Have a single playable level allowing the player to hop between platforms in 3D space towards a goal.
[x] Have a goal that ends the level.
[x] Have a death mechanic that resets the level. 
[x] Have UI that explains to the player that they've actually died when they die.
[x] Have an end-level screen that tells the player they've completed the level.
[x] Have an end-game screen that tells the player they've completed the GAME.

[x] Add pause-menu launched when player looses focus.
[x] Add behavior to lock-cursor on pause-menu resume.
[x] Pause/slow game-time while pause-menu's displayed.
[x] Flip gravity mechanic.
[x] Level 2
[x] Start Screen Instruction.
[x] Patrolling enemies.
[x] Collide with enemies death-mechanic.
[x] Ability to shoot projectiles.
[x] Projectiles kill enemies.
[x] Add collectibles mechanic.
[x] Level 3

This week's implementation goals are:

[x] Audio
[x] Heads Up Display showing collectables.
[x] Level 1 upgrade level-design. 
[x] Level 2 upgrade level-design.
[x] Level 4
[ ] Unlockables.

This is week two of this project. Last week the following tasks were completed: 
[x] Have a basic start screen.
[x] Have start-screen UI for starting the game and closing the application.
[x] Have a single playable level allowing the player to hop between platforms in 3D space towards a goal.
[x] Have a goal that ends the level.
[x] Have a death mechanic that resets the level. 
[x] Have UI that explains to the player that they've actually died when they die.
[x] Have an end-level screen that tells the player they've completed the level.
[x] Have an end-game screen that tells the player they've completed the GAME.

The following are the planned tasks/features to be completed this week:
[x] Add pause-menu launched when player looses focus.
[x] Add behavior to lock-cursor on pause-menu resume.
[x] Pause/slow game-time while pause-menu's displayed.
[x] Flip gravity mechanic.
[x] Level 2
[x] Start Screen Instruction.
[x] Patrolling enemies.
[x] Collide with enemies death-mechanic.
[x] Ability to shoot projectiles.
[x] Projectiles kill enemies.
[x] Add collectibles mechanic.
[x] Level 3

I just started a Kongregate account, hosting my stuff on another indie-game portal. 

http://www.kongregate.com/games/mrpurple80/minimal-viable-game_preview

This is the first week starting on our first basic-game idea. 
This game is a 3D platformer with minimal graphics.
No progress has been made so-far, as this is the first week of development. 

By next week the milestones are to:
[ ] Have a basic start screen.
[ ] Have start-screen UI for starting the game and closing the application.
[ ] Have a single playable level allowing the player to hop between platforms in 3D space towards a goal.
[ ] Have a goal that ends the level.
[ ] Have a death mechanic that resets the level. 
[ ] Have UI that explains to the player that they've actually died when they die.
[ ] Have an end-level screen that tells the player they've completed the game.
This is all.
Ignore me !!!