Cutting Corners: PWAA Forensics Project

     To get this thing done in time I made some very noticeable quality downgrades. The most glaring of them being the lack of smooth transitions, the static text, uneven lines of text, sprites that don't fade in/out, some missing sound effects, very flat/cheesy dialogue, and plenty of plot holes. What is intact is the information I'll be graded on and some interaction beyond just pressing the spacebar.

     If I had more time I could make it feel more like a proper Phoenix Wright imitation but I'm really swamped between this, other finals, and my urge to finish this and get back to Unicorn Quest. Some time when I get my grade back for it I'll find a website where I can distribute a ZIP file containing the whole Unity file so someone else can pick up where I left off or rework what I did into something much cooler.

Again, I'm glad this exists. I learned a bit from making it. But I'd really rather be working on something I find a lot more fun.

Crunch Week: Phoenix Wright Project

      I can say it now even though I felt it coming in the beginning... Never start a game project with only 3 weeks to do it when you could have just made a PowerPoint presentation. At least that's what my tired body keeps saying. My creative heart just wants this game to exist so somebody else will be inspired to make an even better one.

      It's due at 11pm on Sunday and I've got all the hard parts out of the way. With just a couple late nights I should have it done and off my chest. It's a bit more stressful than expected but that's mostly because the senior capstone got me so excited for the project I want to do after Unicorn Quest. There's also the nagging part of my brain that want to get back to Unicorn Quest and make it as awesome as it can be, but I'll have all summer to enjoy making my first dream project.

     Onward and steady. Time to get this thing done so I can prepare for finals with noticeably less weight on my back. I really hope this thing does it's job and makes other Gaming & Simulation students want to approach class projects creatively rather than miserably. And I hope I learn to plan these things out farther in advance.

Gushing About: Hack n' Slash Games

     Ever since I was a kid I've been enamored by games where you get to run around as a guy with a sword and tearing hundreds, if not thousands, of enemies apart. But despite how fun it is,when there's nothing to do but that in a game, it gets really old very quickly. This topic came to mind when I was thinking about Hyrule Warriors and how it could take what I like about Dynasty Warriors and making it refreshing and interesting for more than one level.

Phoenix Wright.exe Screen Size

     One of the big things to worry about in my forensics game is the resolution. What's the point of making the game if the whole thing breaks when screen size is adjusted. What if the teacher shows it in class and makes it full screen? What resolution works best on PCs in general? What about scaling a forced size like I do for my mobile games? Keep in mind the pixelated art style and how bad it looks stretched out.

     The Unity maximized preview didn't stretch properly (squashed with things cut-off on the sides) so I was worried the final game would look that warped. Luckily the built executable didn't do that and looked how I wanted it to. I settled on making it 1024x768 (iPad resolution) and set the scale to Fit Visible so it stretches horizontally and vertically evenly. The result looks pretty good now and that's one problem down.