Finished the fourth week of prototyping with a bang! The Natz'n'Boltz prototype was well received by teachers and students alike at the presentation on Friday afternoon. Hence, the team has decided to further develop this prototype for our final game project.  Some of the latest concepts can be seen below, as well as the prototype available for download.

The team is really having fun with this weeks prototype. The name of this weeks portotype is officially Natz 'n' Boltz. It is coming together quite well, with the programmers already having a decent prototype underway, and lots of concepts from the artists to boot. We have finalised the character concepts, in so far as, we know what the character are, i.e. a little girl, and large robot guardian. Environments concepted so far include: a prison, cavern, and forest/jungle. Enemies have not been concepted in any detail. At the moment we are just concentrating on the playable characters, and the obstacles in the environment. Dave Sparrow has also produced some awesome 3D assets for use by the programmers in the prototype, along with some cool lighting. I've been doing some environment concepting myself, some of which you can see below: 

I am also working on the draft for the Game Design Document, and will work with Danny Pham to finalise this tomorrow.
Possble team name change on the horizon as well!

Feeling really good about where things are going in terms of the team and prototyping! In class today, the team discussed the prototype we would be pursuing this week, and we were all in agreement that it would be a  2.5D platformer, with puzzle and action elements.
Discussion of the main game mechanic lead to the idea of a switching mechanic, where the player would need to switch the mode/stance of the character in order to solve puzzles, combat enemies, and clear obstacles. In implementing this mechanic, the team discussed what form the player character would take in the game. Ideas were put forward such as:

• A single character that could morph into different shapes by absorbing enemies, or by picking up special items;
• A party of characters with different unique abilities, (e.g. The Lost Vikings), that could be represented on screen by a single character at any given moment, (that character being the one with the current selected ability, much like in Trine).

The idea for the player character that was agreed upon, was a duo of characters. A small (human) girl, and her large bulky robot. The idea is that the large robot would have high strength and toughness attributes for dealing with enemies, and crashing through certain obstacles. The little girl, on the other hand, would have speed and agility attributes that would allow her to avoid enemies, and overcome certain "hard-to-reach" obstacles that the robot could never get to.
The characters would work as a team, with the player controlling both to progress through the game levels. The player will predominantly control the robot within the game, (with the girl either riding on it's back/shoulders, or piloting the robot). However, there would be moments during gameplay when the player must control the girl, having left the robot behind in order to solve puzzles, collect items, or toggle switches in areas otherwise unreachable by the robot. The girl would then be required to return to her robot in order to overcome the next challenge that would inevitably require the robot's skills.
A support mechanic that was discussed, (which directly correlates to the switching of control from the robot to the girl), was that of the robot throwing/launching the girl into the air, to assist her in reaching hard-to-reach places in the game environment.
With the fruition of a game concept, the team has commenced with gusto on programming, and concepting for this week's prototype! Concepts to follow soon!

The team has been discussing this weeks prototype on Skype over the last few days, beginning on Sunday 23/6/13. Not all were present for the meeting, so further discussion will need to take place tomorrow at college.
The main topic discussed was whether the team wanted to pursue last weeks prototype, and take it further this week, or start on something new, thus giving us more options to choose from for our final game. All that were present for the meetings agreed that a new prototype was the way to go, the only question being, what do we prototype?
Well, the idea of a Crash Bandicoot style platformer was brought up, (an idea attributed to Dave Sparrow). The theme would be prehistoric/fantasy. The protagonist, (put forward by Dave as well), would be a caveman. I suggested a cavewoman, (possibly carrying a baby/child). Danny Pham strongly suggested NOT having a caveperson as the playable character PERIOD! (Because it's been done before way too often.) Which is true. But then again we need to start somewhere as well. We also discussed the potential game mechanics for the platformer. Some mechanics included: pathfinding; character mode/stance switching; risk and reward; realtime combat; item collection; and powerups.
No decision was finalised, especially as not all team members were present at the group discussions. As I mentioned before, further discussion, with the whole group, will take place at college tomorrow. Hence, we may not even pursue a platformer for this weeks prototype! Whatever gets decided, it is more than clear that all members of Team FreeFall are quite the enthusiastic and dedicated bunch that will see any idea through to prototype, and beyond! 
Below is a snapshot of Dave Sparrow's Maya mockup for a level in the prehistoric platformer: 

Week three of prototyping ended with the team feeling a mixture of excitement, enthusiasm, and anxiousness. Our programmers were able to get the main game mechanic working, in which the player can move their spacecraft around the level and shoot as well. The player's base planet, as well as the enemies was enabled to spawn troops which then travel in a straight line to the oppenets base.  On the art side, we were able to create a basic level with planets, (with base textures), and an awesome space field backdrop (created by Dave Sparrow). A spacecraft was modelled and textured by Danny Pham to be used in the prototype for the player character. This same model was used, sans texture, to represent the spawned units as well.
The programmers were not entirely satisfied with their progress in making the prototype this week, and are a little wary of continuing on with this game idea in our fourth week of prototyping. The artists were more optimistic, having done some good concepting, (with ideas for alot more), and are all for either proceeding with the current idea, or starting something new. Further discussion will take place Sunday evening during the teams scheduled Skype meeting, to determine the final verdict. Below is a copy of this weeks prototype, ready for download and play:

We are well underway prototyping for week 3. The team has chosen to remain together for the rest of the year, right through prototyping, and on into the final game project. The team name remains Team FreeFall at this point in time, and I don't see it changing as there is no real need for it. Just to re-hash, the team consists of: 3 programmers; Tom Mulray, Joe Stephens, and Peter Chui, and 6 artists; Danny Pham, Matt Taylor, Kate Lyons, Rhett Mason, Dave Sparrow, and myself.
We started thinking about this weeks prototype game with a view towards the final game we would like to make. The game we are looking at making is an action-strategy game, with the setting being in space. The player takes control of a mercenary-type spacecraft that must strategically seize control of an entire sector of planets in order to push back an opposing force of automatons, that has already gained a foothold in the sector. The player will be able to build barracks, and defense structures on captured planets, and barracks in-turn will spawn ai controlled bots that will fight for the player. The player will also be able to fly around the sector with their spacecraft and both attack and defend as they see fit.
For the prototype this week, the programmers are concentrating on getting the ai mechanics for the bots working satisfactorily.For the artists, this has meant producing a simple level for the programmers to use in engine to get a better visualisation of the game. The artists are also well underway producing concepts for the game as a whole. Some of these concepts include: Map Layout, Defense structures, Spacecraft, Planets, GUI. Below are some concepts I have worked on so far:  

Apologies for the late update on prototyping for week 2. Our prototype for week 2 was somewhat less of a success in my eyes than the previous ColourFall prototype, although the programmers did get some awesome ai mechanics working. This prototype game, which we named Harken, involved a child trying to find their way to the exit of a haunted house, while being chased by monsters and ghosts. On the art side of things, we got some basic models for the child, and two enemies, (a goblin and a ghost), into the game, as well as an awesome haunted house level created by Matt Taylor. The child and goblin were made by Rhett Mason, (one of three new additions to our team). I was responsible for modelling the ghost, which you can see below:

As well as Rhett, our group has included two more artists. They are Kate Lyons and Dave Sparrow. Unfortunately Roman Sorochinsky was "let go" from the team on account of him not turning up for the entire Friday of week 1.
A disadvantage of this second week of prototyping was that we missed out on the Wednesday, due to the Queen's B'day public holiday. It meant we only had Thursday, and Friday to work on the prototype. We still made a decent attempt at getting a game prototype out, and I believe the team as a whole was quite content with what was achieved.
Below is a copy of the prototype game Harken, available for download:

My team finished our first prototype game last week, and presented it to the tutors and other students on Friday.
The prototype game was named ColourFall, in which a scientist is testing out a new forcefield-generating device that allows him to generate different coloured forcefields to pass through lasers of different colour.
It was great to see how much of our game design ideas actually got implemented into the prototype, thanks mainly to our great team of programmers, which includes Tom Mulray, Peter Chui, and Joe Stephens. On the art side of things, we got out some good concepts, with the highlight being Danny Pham's Zbrush sculpt of the falling scientist. We were also able to get some simple art assets into the prototype, which vastly improved the prototype's "likeability" factor. 
Below is an initial mock-up of the game that was put together by Danny Pham using Maya:

Here are some of the concepts I created for the prototype game:

I will get a webplayer version of the prototype up and running soon! In the meantime, please feel free to download the game prototype (below in a zipped file), and give it a go. Would love to here your comments. 

Looking forward to this second week of prototyping. Unfortunately we will only have Thursday and Friday to work on this prototype, as we miss out on Wednesday due to the Queen's Birthday public holiday today. It would also be a lot simpler to stay in the same team, due to the reduced time to get this prototype out. But it would be good to move to another group, if only to work with new people.

I will be starting game prototyping this week in my games development course at AIE Sydney.
Last week (Prototyping: Week 0) involved the game art and programming students merging classes to form teams for the next few weeks of prototyping. Teams are recommended to include a ratio of 1 programer to 2 artists. The group I'm in consists of 4 artists and 3 programers. The team consists of: (the programers) Tom Mulray, Joe Stephens, and Peter Chui, and (the artists) Danny Pham, Matt Taylor, Roman Sorochinsky, and Noel Lopes. The team spent most of last week brainstorming ideas for game prototypes. No less than 25 ideas were required to be put forward by the team. We then whittled the 25 down to 10, and further expanded these, stating in a paragraph, (or 2), what the gameplay would be like. The ten ideas we came up with are as follows:

1. Spooky House
2. Lava Platformer
3. Asteroid Game
4. Verbal Fencing/fighter
5. Free falling/Scrolling Arcade Game
6. William Tell Archery
7. Underwater Diving
8. Kung Fu Fighting Fish Tournament
9. "RELEASE THE KRAKEN!"
10. Tumbleweed Game 

You can read about them in the attached pdf:

It was on the afternoon of Thursday 30/5/2013 that our team decided on the first game we would prototype. This game is the Free falling arcade game.
While the team spent the morning of Friday 31/5/2013 fleshing out the game ideas for our top ten, (poor documentation keeping on our part), we did get to prototyping just before lunchtime. Although it was not neccessary to start any prototyping in week 0, it was good that we did, as everyone was eager to do work, and we also got a little organised so we don't head into this week totally blind.

It was on the afternoon of Thursday 30/5/2013 that our team decided on the first game we would prototype. This game is the Free falling arcade game.
While the team spent the morning of Friday 31/5/2013 fleshing out the game ideas for our top ten, (poor documentation keeping on our part), we did get to prototyping just before lunchtime. Although it was not neccessary to start any prototyping in week 0, it was good that we did, as everyone was eager to do work, and we also got a little organised so we don't head into this week totally blind.