Team: Leftfield              <http://www.cs.utah.edu/~rchriste/leftfield>

Members

 - Russ Christensen                   <rchriste@cs.utah.edu>

 - Usit Duongsaa                       <duongsaa@cs.utah.edu>

 - Todd Smith                           <tcsmith@cs.utah.edu>

CS4500: Modern Warfare: Schedule

 

*Note* This schedule is a very rough outline and is subject to drastic change without prior notice.

 

Jan 13 - Jan 19

- A very-rough playable prototype

- Simple 2D Graphics

- Interface with DirectInput

- Something very cool to show on Marketing Day

 

Jan 20 - Jan 26

Milestone 1

Prepare for Marketing Day

 

Jan 27 - Feb 2

- Monday 27th   Marketing Day

 

Feb 3 - Feb 9

Milestone 2

 

Feb 10 - Feb 16

Milestone 3

 

Feb 17 - Feb 23

Milestone 4

 

Feb 24 - Mar 2

Milestone 5

 

Mar 3 - Mar 9

- All essential and desired features should be in there.  Start on bells and whistles.

- Milestone 6

 

Mar 10 - Mar 16

- Prototype Demo

- Milestone 7

 

Mar 17 - Mar 23

Milestone 8

 

Mar 24 - Mar 30

Milestone 9

 

Mar 31 - Apr 6

- public beta testing

- fix any remaining bugs

- balance game play

 

Apr 7 - Apr 13

- final polishing

 

Apr 14 - Apr 20

- reserved week

 

Apr 21 - Apr 24

- Thursday 24th Final Demo

Milestone 1 –done

Gameplay (Russ)

  • Overhead view with simple probability based combat -done
  • Use 2D symbol sprites for everything -done
  • Support multiple units -done
  • Support 2 players.  One human and one AI -done
  • The AI will be dumb and will just sit there and wait to be killed -done
  • There will be no unit building.  You start out with units and use those until they die -done
  • When two opposing units come in contact with each other they immediately and automatically combat each other -done
  • There is only a single type of combat unit, (Light Tank) -done
  • All inputs are done with the mouse -done

Engine (Usit)

  • Speed control-done
  • DirectInput via keyboard & mouse-done
  • 2D graphics (sprites, line, points, rectangles, text) -done
  • rendering batching-done

Arts (Usit)

  • Trailer-done
  • Light Tank,  Rocket Launcher,  Jet-done
  • Heavy Tank (not textured) -done
  • Sky & ground textures-done

 

Milestone 2 -done

Gameplay - Combat System (Usit) -done

  • Starts 3D, no bump map, no dynamic lighting, very simple 3D -done
  • One unit type (Light Tank) -done
  • Multiple units -done
  • Possibility for Combat and Overhead to run in parallel -done
  • Shared data between Combat and Overhead system -done
  • All units involved in combat simply show up on screen and cannot take any action. -done
  • After 5 seconds, the combat is automatically resolved by a coin flip. -done

Gameplay - Overhead System (Russ & Todd) -done

  • (Russ) Add cities, which can be conquered and can build units.  All cities build units at a constant rate -done
  • (Russ) Move to a 3D system –done
  • (Russ) A combat mode will be entered when opposing units collide. -done
  • Keep support for just one unit type  -done
  • (Todd) General unit analysis, take list of units, determine there area of influence -done
  • (Todd) Draw threat map using 2D interface, map generated from unit analysis -done

Engine (Usit) -done

  • Basic 3D rendering -done
  • Camera Manipulation -done
  • Simple Profiling (update rate, frame rate, nap time) -done

Arts (Usit) -done

  • Create a city object for the overhead view –done
  • Basic Box Terrain -done

 

Milestone 3

Gameplay

  • (Russ) Add support for networking -done
  • (Todd) Simple AI (might lose all the time, but must try to put up a fight) for overhead map –done
  • (Todd) Make it so overhead maps our loaded from a file –done
  • (Usit) Battle mode lets the player move the units around and actually fight it out -done

Engine (Usit)

  • Complete profiling system -done
  • Colored Overhead Terrain –done (We implemented coloring and decided that it didn’t fit well with our game theme.  So coloring will not go into the final version)

Arts (Usit)

  • Tank Bullet -done

 

Milestone 4

Gameplay

  • (Usit) All 5 unit types in battle mode -done
  • (Todd) Economic System – cities produce money.  When you want a unit you buy it with money -done
  • (Todd) Smarten the AI – Chooses attack groups in proportion to the defenses of the target city –Postponed
  • (Russ) Networking: In the overhead mode two players on separate computers can play -done

Engine (Usit)

  • model lighting -done
  • battle terrain (with dot3 normal mapping and atmospheric effects) -done

Arts

  • (Russ and Usit) Research music -done
  • (Usit) Models & Textures for the remaining 4 units, and their bullets -done

Research (Everyone)

  • Research C&C Generals -done

 

Milestone 5

Gameplay

  • (Russ) All 5 units exist in Overhead mode and can be built -done
  • (Russ and/or Usit) Networking exists in Battle mode as well so the game is fully playable by multiple players over the network -done

Engine

  • (Usit) Basic Particle Rendering -done
  • (Todd) Basic Sound/Music Playing -done
  • (Todd) Convert engine from using hard-coded data to data loaded from files at game startup. -done

Arts

  • (Usit) Particle Textures -done

 

Milestone 6   (this will be shown on Prototype Day)

This week is reserved to fix things that we get feedback for and to catch up on things if needed.

Gameplay

  • (Russ) If a unit wants to stop and there is a collision with another stopped unit then the unit will keep going until it can stop without a collision. -done
  • (Russ) When a battle begins units in the surrounding area are taken into the Battle as well. -done
  • (Russ and Usit) Get a very simple opening menu to the game that allows one to setup and join a networked game  -done
  • (Usit) Unit selection box is improved to resize accordingly to fit the unit or city  -done
  • (Usit) Terrain in overhead mode should be updated to be generated with a procedural technique and to use shading -done

 

Milestone 7

Gameplay

  • (Russ) In game Chat System -done
  • (Todd & Usit) HUD-done (no minimap)
  • (Usit) Jets -done
  • (Usit & Russ) Color coding units -done
  • (Usit & Russ) Color coding cities -done
  • (Russ) Multiple Battles at once -done
  • (Russ) Select multiple units -done
  • (Russ) Load replay save games -done

Engine

Arts

 

Milestone 8

This week is reserved to fix things that we get feedback for and to catch up on things if needed.

Gameplay

  • (Todd or Russ) Jets in Overhead mode, circle cities when built, cannot be directly controlled -done
  • (Usit) Jets need to intercept each other -done
  • (Todd) Minimap in HUD -done
  • (Usit) Log files have unique names -done
  • (Usit) Battle mode: Tanks turret can rotate -done

Engine

  • (Usit) Camera Vibration -done

Arts

  • (Usit) Sound Effects -done
  • (Usit) Very, Very Cool Particle Special Effects (VVCPSE) -done

( explosions, engine trails, debris, firing, etc )

 

Milestone 9

This week is reserved to fix things that we get feedback for and to catch up on things if needed.

Gameplay

  • (Russ & Todd) Option to send money to each other -done
  • (Todd or Russ) Make the game only let you control units of one owner. -done
  • (Todd or Russ) Tutorial (replay last message, go to the next one) -done
  • (Usit) Allow any symbols to be typed in -done
  • (Russ) Setup a website for signing up for the public beta -done
  • (Russ or Todd) Before enter battle show outline of battle -done
  • (Russ) Cheat codes to make development easier and to save face in case we are losing against the beta testers -done
  • (Usit or Russ) Make Jets networked -done
  • (Todd) Switch between battle mode and overhead mode -done
  • (Todd) Keep units inside the bounds of the map -done
  • (Russ or Todd) Drag select in the overhead -done
  • (Usit) Can assign units with ctrl plus number keys in battle mode -done
  • (Todd & Usit) Sync up overhead mode Jets and Battle mode jets -done
  • (Russ or Usit) Tanks must turn and then drive forward -done
  • (Todd) Setup a Yahoo Group for our Project -done

Engine

Arts

  • (Todd) Voice Acting -done
  • (Usit) Make it more noticeable what color the Jets are -done

 

Milestone 10

Gameplay

  • (Everyone) Work on creating SSW
  • After the beta test tomorrow decide what needs to be done to make the game more polished
  • Play test the game and work on Gameplay Balance