SWEATing...Day 1

Here I am, typing up this post during our brainstorming session of game ideas. Some of our game ideas are (for 2D, sprite-based games) "Try saving your work in Photoshop in IT", "Try loading Photoshop in IT", "Help Shane O'Brien prevent an own goal", "Where in the world is Liam Clarke?***", "Rolllll up the Rimmmm to Winnnnnnnnnnnnn!", "Justify a Mac", "Beat the @)$%^(&!@) out of Vista/Mac", and "File your tax". In total, (Brett) and I had 49 ideas (of which so far is the highest in our class ~!!! woot) Update: We got the best idea: "Drive thru Richmond" on a class vote.

My day started w/ me waking up at 6 am for breakfast and got ready for the bus by 6:45 am. The 492 came w/in 5 mins (unfortunately, it wasn't the comfy high-end yellow buses with AC). Got to W King Edward @ Oak St. and took the 25 Brentwood Stn. all the way to Canada Way @ Willingdon Av. (saw BCIT and EA Canada along the way-EA seems big!)

Got to the Art Institute-Vancouver eventually and saw Brett down on his iPod Touch, and later on, Liam and Joel.

We registered, got sent to our classrooms and started talking about programming in general, and introduced ourselves. We had an overview of our time at AiV for the next 3 days. The focus of our Game Production class would be to make a 2D game using Game Maker. It isn't exactly programming, but we do get a lesson (or two) on how to make interesting games. We might be doing scripting though.

At around 12:19 pm, we went for an "orientation" (saw some other McMath ppl, namely KG and DP) where AiV reps talked about applying at this school for next year, and AiV alumni services that are available.

Lunch break came, and I had a sandwich (nothing spectacular). Brett was awfully hungry this day, whilst Joel was as quiet as a sloth, munching on his very own sandwich gracefully...but this leaves one question in mind: "Where in the world is Liam Clarke???"

After lunch, we got back to our classroom and resumed our lesson. We went onto what makes a game great and started on brainstorming game ideas (see Brett's blog for our full list).

At this point, we need to finalize our individual game ideas and expand.
To make it easy on myself, I'll do my planning right here:

• the date is set back to early 21 C. Have Cloutier drive a Citroen Ami to GM Place for a very important hockey game, Game 3 of the playoffs for the Canucks.
• manoeuvre the car so Cloutier can make it on time for the game
• Help Cloutier stop numerous 'pucks' including beach balls to stay alive since in the series!
• after making a certain number of saves w/out allowing more than the alloted number of goals, Cloutier moves on to the Finals!!! (Who would've known this was possible?)
• Cloutier was awarded a Lamborghini from Luongo (an Italian God) for his stellar work
• use the car to manoeuvre thru the streets of New York (most Italians are found here in the US) to evade street trash and the NHL gang that try to prevent any Canadian team from winning the Cup (the award one)
• help Cloutier reach Madison Square Garden w/out harm
• once again, help him defend his goal from beach balls!
• CONGRATZ!!! Ze Ztanley Cup!
• as you progress, items aimed at your net will become harder to defend against (e.g. diff angles, more precision, more items per given time etc.)

The game idea might be separated into two parts (the game and driving part) for time's sake. I'll see how it goes. I'll start with the game part...or the driving part...or neither.