Development

Final Exam Development:

This video explains how far I've come in developing Ren'py and the progress I've made over the years, but also recent weeks.

How We Made It:

It took a lot of work to make what the player sees in the game! Below, you'll see each of the steps we took to make T.R.A.S.H. and some of the scenes images of our game!

Brainstorming

First, we had to brainstorm. My partner Kelly and I both like to draw, so we wanted to draw our own characters, or sprites, during our development.

Ren'py

We picked Ren'py as our method of coding the game. If you want more information on the software itself or why we chose it, then see our research page. Below are some screenshots of when we downloaded it from the official Ren'py website. We also have some images of the sample templates Ren'py gives you to start with.

Our Code

Ren'py is a Python-based compiler, so it generally follows Python's syntax. We mostly use the code to call background and sprite images or to type the text that the characters say in the game. Because our game's outcome relies on the choices of the player, we have to use a lot of if else and elif statements so the routes are personalized for everyone. At the time of writing this, (November 2017,) we have 5000 lines of code. We also implement user input, so the player can type their own name etc.

To dissect the text a bit, green is dialogue, labels define scenes, and red are comments. The brackets around [player_name] call the user's input and place it in the code.

More snips of code! At the time of writing this, the rebel route is 1380 lines long. I started it this trimester (Fall 2017)

Virtualizing our Characters

As you can see from the sketches above, our characters start off on paper. We use an app called IbisPaint X to draw them digitally, and if you want to learn more about that, then see our research page. We also draw out individual facial expressions, as ween below with Ralph.

Our Errors

If we were to screenshot every error we've had, our website would be longer than you'd want to read. Our main mix-ups regard our code not working, but we also have issues with sizing, resolution, or even the orientation of our images. As described by Murphy's Law, if it can go wrong it will. We just have to work a bit harder to fix things sometimes and not get discouraged.

My First Youtube Video

I made a video explaining and dissecting the parts of my code as well as covering what we see in development versus what the user sees in the game. I tried to keep it brief and to the point so people could potentially learn from it.

Final Presentation Video

This is the second video I made, you can check out Kelly's site for her half. I show more of the actual gameplay in this video than the last one, and it also is the first time my new character Sherman Herwertz is featured during the game.