Portfolio Item: Integrated Development (Ark!) (MSc Games Software Development)

Introduction

The Integrated Development module is the penultimate of the course and our final group project. Here we get to use the techniques we have learnt throughout the course to produce a prototype of our choosing. There were a variety of options open to us including projects involving the NHS and the South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Services. However, following our disappointing rejection from the Dare To Be Digital competition all but one of the original team were still present at university (we lost a programmer, Jon Winwood, who by pure chance has been able to replace someone at the competition). We still felt that our game idea was a viable option and we pushed to produce the prototype that would have appeared at the competition. From my personal viewpoint I felt this would better my career prospects since:

  1. Whilst the potential clients were exciting the projects weren't
  2. I already have commercial experience of working with external clients
  3. I enrolled onto this course to learn how to make games and not simulations

The Team

The team (known as Heavenly Duck Studios) that I will be working with until early July is made up of the following:

The Deliverables, Our Approach and My Role

We are due to present a working prototype of the game on Friday the 9th July along with a group report and our individual reports.

We have taken a SCRUM like approach to the project by breaking down the tasks into short sprints. We have also reduced dependencies between ourselves where possible by producing "placeholder" components for each other thereby giving us the freedom to start integrating the entire game from an early stage.

My role in all of this is to work on the gameplay aspects of the game, including the AI, inventory and basic physics. I am also responsible for the inclusion of music and sound effects. My aim is to produce various cohesive modules that will Achim to plug in to the update cycle with minimum effort yet with total control over the game should pan out.

Ark!: The Game

In the year 2926 and it's the end of the world! You have been ordered to collect two of each animal for preservation. Unfortunately you can't rescue EVERY animal on the planet and you need to keep the surplus animals off your ship otherwise you'll never take off in your high tech ark! A fault to your draw bridges means you have to defend the ark of unwanted animals until they can be fixed. You will be able to set up barriers and use a variety of deterrents to prevent the flocks of animals from reaching the ship.

Ark!: The Technology

We are using Ogre3D for our graphics engine as it allows us the freedom to choose DirectX or OpenGL - in this particular case we're using DirectX but are not using any direct references to either technology in our code. The gameplay is entirely bespoke and a large component of it is based on my work on Flocking from the last semester. Keeping with the openness of the project the sound will be handled by OpenAL which fits well with Ogre3D.

Presentations

Videos

The Game

Download the installer (48MB)

To check whether you have all the components installed download our setup file.

If you get the error "This application has failed to start because d3dx9_42.dll was not found" open the file plugins.cfg in (installation location)Heavenly Duck Studios\ARK!\bin\Release. Comment out the line saying "Plugin=RenderSystem_Direct3D9" by adding the # character at the beginning of the line. Save the file, close it and start the application again.

Images

Ark! Concept Art Heavenly Duck Studios Logo Whiteboard Screenshot Concept Whiteboard Project Plan Milestones Particle Effects Test and Minimap Concept Screenshot Early Development Screenshot Early Development Screenshot 2 Prototype Submission Screenshot

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