Dakota Humphries (Project Lead)Thomas Impellitteri (Tech Lead)Daryl McGhee II (Design Lead)

Keith Rosier (Asset Lead)

Supernova Blindside

• Turn Based Strategy Game• 3 Grids to Strategize and Attack• Complete Objectives• Capture Planets for Money• Customize Ships for Added Strategy• Travel through space and progress storyline

Gameplay

Scout FighterGunship

Battleship Cruiser

Gameplay (cont’d)

• Buy ships from shop• Objectives are given at the level start• Do what you must to win– Destroy planets– Destroy stars– Capture planets for currency– Upgrade ships using currency

Dakota HumphriesProject Lead

• Scheduling• FMOD Sound– 3D Sound

• Collision• Combat System

3D Sound

• What is 3D Sound?– Emitter vs Listener– 2D vs 3D Sound

• Basic 3D sound update

2D vs 3D Sound

2D Sound:

2D vs 3D Sound

3D Sound:

3D Sound

• Updating Emitters & Listener– 3 Easy steps for updating• Update the position• Calculate the velocity• Send the information to FMOD

Current Position

Old Position

Time

3D Sound

• Updating Emitters & Listener– 3 Easy steps for updating• Update the position• Calculate the velocity• Send the information to FMOD

Thomas ImpellitteriTechnology Lead

• AI– Path-finding– Decision Trees

• Integration• Picking • Lua Scripting

Path-finding

• Path-finding– Start to Goal– Simple Distance Checks

Path finding, How its done

• Alone, lost in goals

Decision Trees

• Decision Tree– Brain of the Operation– Decides all options for path-finding– Finds who to shoot

Decision Tree, helping hand

AI finds its way

How its doneNodes with function pointers

Daryl McGheeDesign Lead

• Menu System• Shop and Upgrade System• Camera• Object Creation and Management

Object Creation and Management

• Composed of Two Parts:– Object Factory• Creates all objects used in the game

– Object Manager• Arranges objects deletes them properly

Object Factory

Object Manager

Object Manager

• After objects are no longer needed:– Back in the factory for later use– They are deleted in groups

Keith Rosier Asset Lead

• Rendering• Effects System• Render Engine• Texture Manager

Death of a Star

• Have a defined start and end• Figure out the major steps that will get you

from here to there• Figure out what tools (Art, API, Systems) you

will need to generate the desired effects

Death of a Star

• Start with a model• A “model” is a collection of vertices• These vertices form triangles• Triangles form the model’s surface

Death of a Star

• Texture the model (in this case a star)• Texturing wraps a “skin” around a model to

give the appearance of complexity

Death of a Star

• Add particle effects for extra detail• Particles first implemented in Star Trek II: The

Wrath of Khan• Used to generate visuals for things without a

defined surface (smoke, water, fire)

Death of a Star

• Change particles and textures to generate a dying star

Death of a Star

• Employ the use of “quads” for blast effects• Quads are two triangles used to generate a

square

Death of a Star

• Replace the old model with a new one• Add more quads and particles to generate

new effects• Stretch and rotate quads to achieve the

desired visual

Risks

Risk: Affected Resource: P C RF

Because we were behind for so long with tech and gameplay a lot of our Upgrade and Weapons system will need to be cut in order to be get a finished game.

Team

Response or avoidance:

Mitigation1. Continuously implement and test each

weapon and corresponding upgrade. Starting with the most fundamental.

Backup Plan 1. If a weapon and its corresponding upgrade

is not fully implemented and tested by Beta, then it is cut from the game.

Risks (cont’d)

Risk: Affected Resource: P C RF

Billboarded particles are not working and the problem is that the solution is unknown. If billboarded quads are not working with our game then our best effects cannot be put into the game.

Keith, Particle Engine

Response or avoidance:

Mitigation1. Seek help from Wendy the Direct X

teacher.Backup Plan1. If billboarded particles are not

implemented by a week before Beta then hard code the rotations.

Risks (cont’d)

Risk: Affected Resource: P C RF

We are loading meshes and textures multiple times and they are using unnecessary memory. This can cause major slowdown with the game due to many new and delete calls.

Keith, Rendering

Response or avoidance:

Mitigation1. Create a manager to handle the meshes

and textures so that they can be reused after they are done.

Backup Plan1. If the manager is not done a week before

Beta then create a hard-coded class that creates instances of the models.

Risks (cont’d)

Risk: Affected Resource: P C RF

We currently do not have a particle editor to create particle effects. This will mean that we don’t have a way to create effects besides hard coding values which will take up time and may prevent effects from getting put into the game.

Keith, Particle Engine

Response or avoidance:

Mitigation1. Create an editor to create effects with.Backup Plan1. If the manager is not done a week before

Beta then create a Lua script that handles the particle effects.

What Was Learned

• How to deal with losing a team member• Learning something new during a project is

much more time consuming and adds to resources

• Gameplay is more important than technology, when tech is done, gameplay should be right after.

• Modularity is much more important than it seems

Questions and Answers