Week 9

Pitch is ready, Design Document ready, today I went to accommodate with the room we`ll use at the day of presentation. Sure, when it is empty, it is quite easy to perform, but things will be different next week.
Today I also booked E314 for an hour which allowed me and Cristi to rehearse our pitch. We started very slow and noticed that one hour was far away from what we actually needed to get things ready.
So after one hour in E314, we had another meeting at my place, where from 16:00 to 18:00 we rehearsed and I adapted the pitch according to our needs to fit it in under 15 minutes.
Now what started slow, now is something a little more smooth but still there`s still place for improvement.
Definitely 15 minutes aren`t enough for the initial form the pitch had, so we had to cut about 15% out to try and make room for Development and Marketing which we had not included yet.
Now the pitch looks promising and with more rehearse we will arrive to the point where we lose the hand notes and we can watch the audience while presenting.
Meanwhile here`s how the room looks like.

 

 

 

The room might have been intimidating at the beginning, but I rehearsed once in the room next to this one (Brough hall! which happens to be at least 8 times bigger, and HAS A STAGE!) and now this room does not scare me anymore.

 

I am ready, full of confidence and well prepared to deliver our pitch next week. Hopefully we can get a camera to tape everything.

 

Week 8

Week 8 has begun and the only chapter to write in the design document is the Sound Chapter. While it is hard to describe sounds in words, I`ll try to come up with something until the deadline. Now we must focus on the pitch which was set for the 26th November 2013. So in two weeks we have to finish the already started pitch and present it.

In the meantime here is what I covered this week. I split the Marketing and created a case study chapter which will be added in the appendix, the case study is an estimate of how would the company`s revenue would look like in the fortunate case of 100.000 digital downloads (of course, paid downloads and I tell you it would look awfully good!)
Also I came up with this nice cover which I will add it on my portfolio so it will be branded NT Games.

 

 

It looks real, it feels real, I even made it real :D

This is how it should look like.

The plan for next week is to focus on the pitch, and leave the sound for after the presentation.

 

Also here is how we are set up to now with the development plan at the beginning of week 8:

 

Last plan regarding the design document

Here is the plan for week 7 and week 8. I need to finish the Sound section, while Cristi has to come up with an outstanding and detailed Development Plan (at least as detailed as my Marketing Chapter)

 

The deadline is set for the end of next week for the design document, but this does not mean that I can`t go on further and work in parallel for the pitch.

Tomorrow we will have a photo session where you can get to meet the team.

Week 7, 89% done

It`s week 7 and we are starting to see the finish line way before the deadline set by our module coordinator. That is actually good because we have time to improve and tweak whatever we have worked on up to now. I managed to create a few more in-game pictures and I hope you like them.

These are made using the Beam NG alpha engine.

Here is a sample of what Beam NG can do thanks to the implemented physics:

 

Also, I managed to finish a fluffy chapter regarding the Marketing of FRAS, and basically now, with 5 weeks before the deadline there are only 2 chapters not covered in the design document, but 2 very important ones: Sound and Development plan.

Hopefully it will be all done by the end of next week so we can focus on the pitch for the game.



I`ll come back soon with the updated plan for this week and next week.

Menu clip

Finally managed to create, capture, sync with sound a decent video of the Game`s Menu. Enjoy and spread the word that there is something Romanian cooking in Scotland in the next years.

This is România!

InPlay premiere

Thanks to BeamNG Drive alpha, we managed to shape a picture to make an idea about how the HUD will look like.
We would be also proud to have these graphics implemented as well.
What is extra to BeamNG InPlay shot is the map on the bottom right side, the timer on top left, speedometer on top right and track progress bar on the top side.

This is only for FRAS Rally mode. I hope you like it.

Week 6 report

After two busy weeks I managed to get back on track with the plan.
I started to shape the pitch, which looks great up to now, work on menus and HUD from the game and update the plan.
I had to eliminate the Objects topics for now, and I`ll decide later if we include it or not.
Here is the updated plan, we hope to work a lot next week to get the design document almost finished.

I have to confess it becomes more and more difficult for me to manage time, but I have to thank to Cristi that he is doing his tasks on time, even though sometimes I have to double check his materials.

Overall up to now I believe we are far in front of the other students and I personally believe this is going to be one of the most complete game design documents with an outstanding pitch presentation.

With 4 weeks before OUR deadline we have only 3 chapters left to cover, but some of these will require some special attention: the marketing topic and the development plan.

I aim to finish this design document within two weeks and to have at least 75% of the pitch ready.
I`ll keep you updated.