Wrapping Up: Special Thanks

As the semester draws to a close and we finish up the last few tasks before our final release, it’s important to keep in mind those who made this entire project possible!

In this post, I’d like to thank each of the people who contributed to Buggy AllStars. This project was a massive undertaking, and keeping it all going was no easy task!

Even with 25 students working together, it wouldn’t have worked if we didn’t have all the support we did. So, thank you!

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Buggy AllStars – A Post-Mortem

Once your project has wrapped up, loose ends have been tied, and the game is out in the world for people to play, it’s standard to look back on how things went in the form of a “post-mortem.”

So, I invite you to join us as we look back at our successes (and failures) to see what was done well, what we’re proud of, and what lessons we learned. It’s been a long journey and there’s a lot to unpack, but the team worked hard and those results deserve to be mentioned! Finally, we’ll end on some thoughts as to the future of Buggy AllStars, and what we can expect in the next year!

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Week 09 – Carnival has been cancelled

Amid COVID-19 concerns, Carnegie Mellon University has had to shift to online-only education, and suspended all in-person classes. In accordance with CDC recommendations, all large gatherings have been cancelled or postponed and with them, Carnival and Sweepstakes.

But, even so, Buggy AllStars will go on!

In this post:

  • Carnival (and Buggy100) has been postponed
  • Buggy AllStars will continue as usual, with some slight modifications
    • Extending deadlines by 1-2 weeks
  • Certain features will be impacted
    • Temporarily pivoting away from VR

As of now, I am not sure what we will have to post next week, as CMU works to get everything up and running on Zoom. At worst, there will be a check-in post much like this one. Thank you for your patience, and please stay safe!

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Week 06

As mentioned in last week’s post, the Alpha deliverable is when your game goes from being a simple concept or “tech demo” to a real game — or, at least, something that is starting to look and feel a bit more fun. Even the simplest visual tweak (such as changing from a gray background to green hills or a picture of a skyline) can really make things feel different!

In this post, we have:

  • Pushing animations are in the game!
  • Several new buggies
  • Ideas for the “Disney” side of design
  • Goals for the end of Alpha

As a head’s up, next week’s post (Week 07) will go live a couple of days later than usual, on Friday, March 6th.

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On Playtesting

“Playtesting” is something that has come up quite a bit in a number of the latest posts, and for good reason: it’s a crucial part of any design process, and game design is no different! Today, we’ll take a look at what Playtesting is, and what the Buggy100 team has been doing lately at their playtests.

In this post:

  • The Importance of Playtesting
    • What is Playtesting?
    • Goals for Buggy100
  • How do we Playtest?
    • Our Protocol
    • Equipment
  • Results so Far
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Week 04 – Wrapping up the Prototype

With this week, our Prototype draws to a close and the team starts to look ahead to the Alpha deadline. Many of our design questions have been answered, but now new ones come to light. Specifically: is Buggy100 a game, or an experience?

In this post:

  • Art Progress
  • Design Updates
  • Looking Forward to Alpha
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The Global Game Jam – Iron Rations

Today’s post is going to be a bit different from the others and talk about a non-Buggy100 game. The regular dev post will be up later this week, on Friday the 7th.

This past weekend was the Superbowl Global Game Jam, and a part of the Advanced Game Studio team was fortunate enough to take part! In addition to being a valuable team-building exercise, this weekend kicked off a ton of creativity, and was a valuable learning experience for reasons I’ll soon explain.

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