Sunday, December 15, 2013

What has happened... to me

So I have been away from all everything for about a week now... This is not through laziness. On Sunday December 8th I went skiing some some good friends because it had been snowing and the skiing was promising. The day was pretty cold, but we were still having a fun time and finding some good skiing. With early season skiing there is always a risk of rocks and other stuff poking out. On our last run we decided to traverse out to see if we couldn't find some good snow. The traverse was rocky and patchy, but it was to be expected and was easily dealt with. However, going over one tree line in the traverse, there was something different. Instead of there being snow, it dropped off into a rock garden with some pretty large rocks. I watched two of  my friends ski into this and they seemed okay so I went through the gap with more speed not knowing what was on the other side. I ended up flying pretty far and landed directly on top of a rock with my elbow... it hurt, bad. I rolled down the hill a little ways losing both my skis but eventually stopped. My friends that could see me asked if I was okay, to which I said : "I think my arm is broken." A friend asked if I could move it, I could, but my arm flopped back in a disgusting manner that was in-human. I knew it was not okay and promptly had my friends help me get my skis back on so I could ski down. They urged me to let patrol take me down, but I said it would take way too long and that I would manage to get down to them (plus I am too proud of a skier). I went in to ski patrol where they were surprised to learn that I had skied down on my own. They sat me down on a bed and began to peel off my clothes and ski gear. As they took off  my final upper layer a bunch of blood began to poor out. They took x-rays and gave me some morphine it looked as though I had a compound fracture. They had me go down to the University Clinic immediately because I would need surgery very soon. I was very surprised and depressed to hear this. My friend Randy took me into the ER where they took more x-rays and prepped me for surgery. Upon second inspection, my elbow had been completely obliterated and my forearm was in pieces as well. I was told this was the worst elbow injury the surgeon had ever seen and that he was worried it would not piece back together well and might be much weaker in the future. The surgery was a success and went much better than he had first thought. They reset all of the bone and moved the pieces that were sticking out of my skin back as well. My arm now has two plates and about 24 screws in it holding it together, these are permanent. 
(What my arm now looks like.)

However something also went wrong during the surgery. A nerve going to my right arm was pinched, leaving it paralyzed. I woke up unable to use either arm... this past week has been very frustrating because I can literally do nothing for my self. My right arm is supposed to come back eventually, though the doctors don't know when. After a week I can use my hand though it is half numb... I truly hope that the rest comes back soon so that I might feed myself and perform other very basic tasks again. I spent about 5 days in the hospital under constant surveillance before I was finally released to my parents who had to drive from California. We made the drive back yesterday (which was long and pain-filled), and I am now at home where I will hopefully recover the use of my right arm before next semester start.

It is unfortunate that I missed the last week of school and all that it entailed because of this, and have made no progress on the project either, but I am basically incapacitated at this point. I will try to work some over the break, health permitting. 

Progress: none, bed ridden.
Game play: none, bed ridden.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Intermission

Unfortunately, Kyle has been the subject of a severe skiing accident this weekend, and has not made any progress on his video game. However in the spirit of this blog he will continue to post through me, his personal assistant, Randy Malm.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Cannon Fire

So it seems like our game is going through the ringer right now and has been getting changed in so many ways recently that it is kinda worrying me. It seems like waiting till right before alpha to change a bunch of stuff probably isn't the best idea, but it is what it is. I have just been working on some art assets as of late, and have been running into issues where I start working on something just to find out that someone else has recently finished it despite the fact that I had signed up to do it. I guess there are some communication issues occurring which is slightly annoying, but at the same time not too bad because then there is some variation in a few of the things that we are working on. The one thing that I did do that no one else worked on was cannons for the game. I made a 3D model of one and then played around with some different styles for it. I also hand drew (Computer drew?) one, but the file is on my other computer so I cannot post that on here for now. The 3D stills that I took will be bellow, and for those of you that see them, let me know which style you like the most!



Tuesday, November 26, 2013

To The Future

We had a guest speaker in class come in and talk about the application process and resume guidelines when it comes to apply for a job in the game industry. It was pretty eyeopening and has me even more worried and scared of the future haha (un-needed stress), however it was very helpful and her presentation gave me a lot to think about when it comes to reworking my resume and what not in the near future.

As far as class stuff goes, I completed the rough edit of the 3D character model. It is very rough around the edges, but it is a start! I am going to continue working on it to make it more rounded and pleasant and fitting for our game.


Monday, November 25, 2013

Getting to the CRUNCH!

We have been doing our Saturday meetings and what not lately and will be shifting gears from concept art to actual game art finally. I have started to work on a basic 3D character model for our group that is reminiscent of a powder puff girl standing on a ball haha. This model will be a base that can be used for multiple characters in our game if it turns out okay. Our plan is to basically "paint" the textures onto the model to represent the different characters in our game. This process will save a ton of time by only having to do UV's for one model and then reusing the UV's for all the different characters. Hopefully I can make an awesome model that the rest of the team likes. I will post some pictures on here when the model is actually done, right now it is just a body and some legs, though I should have it done by the end of the day.

Games that I am playing: Still trying to get through Dark Souls (havnt had too much time to play between work, school, and the ski season starting). I have also been watching a lot of lets play videos for a game that I am more than less likely going to buy called Space Base DF-9, which is made by Double Fine studios which has me really excited! I want to wait till the end of the semester before I get sucked into something like that though.

Other things going on: Been skiing and working out to try to get into shape before the Skier Cross season starts, I will be participating in a semi-pro circuit for USASA. Wish me luck!

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Concepting Away

The past week or so the art people have been working on some concept art for our game and some of it is looking really cool. For some reason I am having issues getting what I am imaging down on paper, but am still trying my damnedest to get everything done. I have been working on creating a dilapidated castle that has a nomadic tribe living in it, I thought it was a pretty cool idea and am proud of the hallway picture that I drew (Shading did not translate well through my scanner). Ultimately though my ideas are not going to be used, which is okay since this game is meant more for younger girls who probably wouldnt want to live in an old dilapidated castle haha.

I have also started to make some floor tiles for our game which has basically consisted of me taking patterns and cutting them up to make a repeating floor tile that can be used in game. This is one such thing that should fit the earthy adobe like theme that we are going with. 

Anyway, things are going slowly but that's okay.

Games that I am playing: Dark Souls... oh the humanity! (haha see what I did there?) ((No but seriously, I love this game and Demon's Souls, think they are brilliant challenging games)). 

Monday, November 4, 2013

First meeting

We had our first official group meeting on saturday since the inception of our larger group a few weeks ago. It was pretty cool just kicking back and having fun with everyone while also being productive in some ways. We did research while playing games, as well as nailed down what we wanted as far as design elements go for the first build. After the meeting the team leads got together and came up with tasks for each group to work on. I drew out some character concept art today for the game and have put those up, hopefully they are good!

Games playing: Moar Fallouts! (Time permitted of course)
Also finished the Lord of the Rings series finally today for the first time, so that feels nice! (The Books that is)

Thursday, October 31, 2013

This is Halloween!

Halloween, such a fun day, got all dressed up as Hank Venture today and went to class. I was a little disappointed in the number of people that were dressed up on campus and by the lack of those that were in our humble little class. Out of the 5 that there were, 4 were on our team... so that is a win haha.
As far as our project goes, I am still working on some concept art as well as compiling a list of possible game elements to help out with the design side of things which is pretty cool.

Games being played: Beat Ni No Kuni! What a beast of a game, very good and would recommend to any Ghibli fans out there. Started to replay Fallout 3, oh how I have missed the good ol' wastelands.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

BIG DAY!

Well, the groups have all presented in front of the industry panel now. It was pretty cool, but at the same time nerve racking having some industry people there grilling our games and giving feed back. I think that the Roly Poly presentation went pretty well and seemed to spark some interest from the industry people. Hopefully that is more from interest rather than confusion. I really do hope that Roly Poly Quest moves on and has the opportunity to become a real game at some point!

Games: Made the mistake of getting Animal Crossing: New Leaf... was a terrible terrible idea haha. (It is so addicting)

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

ChChChChanges

So... change can be a good thing... it can also be frustrating. Our game sounds like it is changing again, which could be a good thing, but also could lead to frustration. Apparently we are going back to the puzzle idea and going from there. I am okay with this, but really hope we get a solid idea down soon so we can start doing some real work. I have just been doing more character art as of late and helping figure out some puzzle ideas.

As far as games go, still making my way through Ni No Kuni which is still so much fun!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Just a check in

I have not really posted on my blog yet, which is an issue! Just wanted to say that I have been plugging away at the art aspects of Rolli Polly Princess and have gone through some changes since we first started. We decided to go the way of voxel (3D pixels) spheres to create our rolling characters. I originally started by using a program called Sproxel, which was not the best program in my opinion. It basically only lets you place voxel pixels and has no pre made that you can play with. This meant making a sphere from the ground up which would take a while doing it one pixel at a time. I got fed up with that and looked to other resources yesterday and found Qubicle. This program is awesome as far as I am concerned! I have now been able to make a conceptual princess for our game, might not be the best, but I am happy with it for now.
There ya have it, making progress!

As far as games that I have been playing go, I have been playing Ni No Kuni as well as Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on the 3DS... this only happens when I have time between work and class work... so not very often.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013