Game is Done

Well as of April 21st 2011, the finished version of Sol Invictus has been turned in and, with that, the Spring semester is over.

I want to take this opportunity to personally thank each and every person of team Voodoo Magic and team Lemon-Scented Miles for helping to make this game. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we all learned a lot from one another these past few months and we're all the wiser for it.

Let me take the time to thank everyone individually:

Kyle: Thanks for giving this group of juniors a really cool game idea and the initial passion to get us interested in making it. I know your senior year put a lot of stress on you and that you wish you could've put more work into the game, but trust me, we all understand and sympathize with your situation. And at least it payed off since you're now a graduate, so congrats man, you survived!

Matt: Thanks a lot for putting up with my nagging self during those submission deadlines and making those small changes to the game while testing the installer and making sure we passed enough of the TCRs at the same time. And thanks for always trying to make it to every team meeting to work on the game, despite having not-always-reliable transportation. It meant a lot having someone else stick around late on those Fridays to code with me, even if some of those times were spent playing WoW at the same time. But seriously, thanks for sticking with this team and with this game to the end.

Bobby: Thanks a shit-ton for putting so much effort into not just our game, but the artists' game as well, over so short a time. I mean refactoring the physics engine, redesigning and adding to the flight controls, tweaking the camera, getting physics working for the artists... I could go on but my fingers hurt. I wish I was more of a help to you while you were working on the artists' game, but hopefully next semester I'll be in your shoes and be working in Unity with artists, too. Then we'll be even. Anyway, thanks again for all the work you did, not to mention the occasional ride to / from school.

Liz: Thanks a ton for the amazing art that you provided for us, and for doing it so freaking fast. Alongside your other classes workload, too. It was a lot of fun critiquing your work while at the same time you were helping us figure out just how exactly we wanted this game to look. I learned a lot of neat and random art concepts from both you and Steven and I thank you both for all the fun that I had putting your art into our game.

Steven: You were no help whatsoever and your model was poop.....haha just messin' with ya. Seriously though, I have to thank you the most for working so hard modeling, rigging and animating that kickass dragon just to spend so many frustrating weeks at the end simply getting the dragon to face forward and look right. I'll definitely make sure I don't repeat those same mistakes in the future. And thanks so much for suggesting that animation hack idea and spending so much tedious time exporting all those frames during that last week. I'm really glad we at least got the dragon animating in-game, but I'm going to aim to improve my skills (animation pipeline-wise) for my next game. And thanks again for being my first fellow Digipen student on my Xbox Live friends list haha. It's always a blast playing Halo:Reach with you and your friends.

Well, that about sums it up. I wish we could have all gotten together for Red Robin one last time, but hey, it was fun while it lasted. I hope everyone has either a relaxing summer vacation or, like me, at least had a relaxing week off before your summer classes started. I hope we all manage to stay in touch with one another and I'll be the lucky one if I ever get the chance to work with any of you again in the future. Take care, stay safe, and continue kickin' ass.

- Ryan