GDW Progress 4 (Sad Violin)

Oh yeah, gotta love the feeling of hopelessness. One week left until GDW is due, one more week until Design HW2. Apparently I hear we may get an extension for Design HW2, regardless I still don't know how I will pull through for the rest of the semester.

Let's start with Design Homework. I received my mark for HW1, and all I can say is that it is not pretty. 35% by my standards is not a good mark, at all. Guess what the average was, 32%! So you may say, "Congratulations Mario, you received 3% higher than the class average!" I would respond, "It would be foolish to base my success on everyone else's success. If everyone suddenly became stupid, should I gloat about my intelligence, when in contrast to the old average intelligence, I was not too far from the average?" Apparently we were to include research on our work, as stated in the syllabus. Only problem is that I almost never look at a class syllabus, as I assume that it contains the usual class schedule, how to behave in class, yada yada. I figured that anything that pertained to the homework, would be in the homework document. Oops, I guess not. Rather than blame the professor for my stupid ASSumption, I've decided to take this as a learning experience to ask more questions... even in despite that I already ask more questions than the average idiot. Regardless, it wasn't just the lack of stated research that lowered my mark. Apparently on part one, where I was to explain how to convert mature games like Batman Arkham Asylum, Rock Band, and Unreal Tournament into something kid friendly. For that I received 0/5 for research (obviously), but more interestingly, I received a 1/5 for communication, and a 1/5 for Design. Huh, interesting. Apparently the "first off, secondly, thirdly, lastly" structure is no good anymore. I recall in Technical Communications (an elective course I took in 1st year, 1st semester to improve my writing skills), making your document as concise and simple as possible is the best way. Fluffy and repeated sentences are the worst thing you can do to your reader. Now for design, I guess my ideas were no good. For example, in my explanation to turn Rock Band into a kid's game, I explained that the best thing to do is to tone down the dark aesthetics, and to play only kid-friendly music like Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber. There exists Lego Rock Band, which I think is the best way to rid the dark overtone, and introduce a style that kids can enjoy. What more can I say? Those two sentences alone should be enough to explain my position, no? I guess not.

Now the GDW. Everything that has to do with my game can be seen below.

Good God...

Doesn't that look fantastic?! A black screen! That's right, my group and I still don't have a functioning game. Throughout the semester, I've been programming an engine for the game to allow implementation of the assets (models, sounds, etc.) to be quick and painless. Only problem is that this venture has been taking me too long. So far I have created a mouse, keyboard, window, light, sound, 2Dtexture, camera, 3Dmodel, vector, and linear physics system. I was in the middle of creating a matrix class called rotation, only to realize that I will not finish the engine in time to make the game.

My beautiful incomplete engine class list.

In case you don't know, my group started the game a semester late, since we all broke off our old groups from last semester. Thus we had to create a new game from scratch. I volunteered to be the lead programmer, since I figured that I can utilize the skills I've gained from making the world's stupidest game, "Happy Culture Shootout". I spoke to my professor, Prof. Hogue, a few days ago, explaining my position with the GDW. He suggested  for me to stop building the engine, and to make the simplest, most bare-bone design for a racer; slot-car racing, similar to Rad Racer for the NES.

Difference between this game and our game, is that our game will hopefully be finished in one week. Hah...

I believe that completing such a dry, bare-bones game is realistic. However, I'm scared to see what kind of mark we will get in the design class, as little design can be implemented into the game, especially thanks to the remaining time we have. Apparently we are supposed to include all of last semester's requirements in the game, like the A* search algorithm, particle system,  matrices and quaternions, forward kinematics, morphing, behaviors, interpolation, etc. But given the time we have, it's very unlikely that we can do any of them; we may be able to do the particle system if we're lucky.

But what's more frightening for the GDW is all the design documents we need to supply. I am literally ready to cringe into a fetal position just upon the thought of the expectations.

1) Concept Design Document: Describes everything about the game. I have a feeling how long of a document we will generate for that (obvious sarcasm).
2) Technical Design Document: Since I'm the lead programmer, guess who knows all the game's algorithms best? Me! I'll have to go into detail on how every class and algorithm used in the game works. I'll also have to supply a UML diagram (which Visual Studio can generate automatically, so Visual Paradigm and its painfully tedious UML system can go to hell), but also I'll have to create a flow chart for each algorithm. I scared to even think of how to contruct my flow chart for my light manager class, as that alone spans around 2000 lines of code. I am not kidding. I'll also have to describe my menu system interface/GUI, something I currently don't even have. Heck, I don't even have a game yet, what am I talking about?!
3) Scope Document: Our game stands out for being the most hopeless in the class, especially thanks to the dumbass programmer who spent too much time making the game's engine, and moping on Facebook for personal melancholic reasons.
4) One Page Design Poster: I could have sworn that I did this in Business of Gaming class. My poster looked disgustingly rushed.
5) Justification and Research Report: Our design came ultimately from this philosophy, "How do we make a game as quick as possible, so that we can pass the course?". Usually games like this generate an abundance of fun (more sarcasm).
6) Q.A. Report: Hah, funny.
7) Balancing Report: Balance what?
8) Developer Profile: Everyone but the programmer is not a dumbass. Simple.

Apparently we were to have a started version of each document by the time of midterms... lol.

This face alone should convey a powerful enough message.

I know this blog update was longer than I expected to write, but that just goes to show that I have no idea where to start, and how to start; thus I resort to a simple yet pathetic rant on my blog. I feel like it's Grade 12 all over again; the coursework isn't as difficult as last term, yet I'm receiving much lower marks, and my sleep and social life are still lacking as usual. Oh, did I mention that on my Accounting midterm, I gained a 61%, and on my Sound and Audio midterm I received a 62%? Yeah, second semester of second year is biting me in the ass when it shouldn't be, especially since first semester of second year for me was the pinnacle of academic difficulty in my life.

Here's the thing, like all students around me, we love the summer. However for me, it's mostly for another reason; I can catch up on last year's material at my own pace. Last year I made the world's stupidest game, "Happy Culture Shootout" simply to prove to myself that I can program a game, especially after the failure of my last year's GDW game. I also made it as suggested by Prof. Hogue, instead of taking 2nd year courses to fast-track. This summer, I plan to create a game with a group of friends on the engine I originally wanted to first build for my GDW game. I love it when I can do my own project outside of school for two main reasons:

1) I move at my own pace, because as everyone knows, I'm not the quickest or brightest man.
2) My work roots from intrinsic motivations. I remember learning from my Leadership class last year, that intrinsic motivations are far grander than extrinsic motivations. Think who would be more successful, the one who works for money, or the one who works for his dreams? During summer I can do my own thing; during school, not so much.

I have to say though, since I started university, I've come a long way - especially with my programming skills. But now it's time to put that aside, as start honing my other skills like art/drawing, writing, business, and most importantly, design. In case you don't know, from the beginning I wanted to be a game designer, not a programmer. All of my professors/instructors would always say that in order to be a successful designer, you must be skilled in programming, art, animation, writing, etc. I think I'm pretty safe to say that I've got programming under control, however the other fields need a lot of work.

This is a recent picture of my current art skills. I drew this around an hour's time. As you can tell, I have a long way to go.

I'm sure by this point you expect me to wrap up my junior high-school level writing skills with some sort of conclusion, but as you can probably tell by my previous posts, I often find it difficult to get to the point. The only reason why I realize this, is because my Gr. 12 English teacher pointed this out two years ago. Sometimes I do get the feeling that I successfully wrapped up a document, video, or by some divine miracle, an argument; but often I don't get that feeling, just like right now. However I guess it could make sense that such a scenario had to occur now; I'm talking about something that hasn't been reached yet. Not just my GDW, Design HW2, and other homework, but my intrinsic goals and ambitions. This is where the history book runs into blank pages, they have yet to be written. I know this sounds extremely corny, but I guess when you've hit the bottom, you have no place to look but up. Not saying that I have hit the bottom (or that I'm anywhere near it, thank God), but I dunno; throughout writing this blog post from beginning to end, I've suddenly turned from scared, angry, and depressed, to strong, determined, and ambitious. Perhaps it's because I'm looking at the character in the picture above. How I feel like I'm in the dark, yet I still see the glimmer of light in the distance that I have spent my whole life to attain thus far. And guess what, I will attain it, some way or another...

The essence of corn encapsulates my last paragraph...

I've tortured you enough with my words of corn. Thank you for reading, and have a great day! =)