11/16 post

Now that the text boxes are working I started to assemble the first level. Each character has their own dialogue box for each situation, and you interview two people. Since I'm in game maker and I know how to make buttons, each object is now its own button so if you click on the folder you will view their file, if you click on the book you will get information about the decade, if you click on the phonograph you will get to play and stop music by that character as well. Then, in the interview process of each person you have three options to ask them about and they will respond differently to each one. Since most of this was just plugging in, I also started working on the sprites for the third level. After considering the decades and looking up artists, I decided to skip the 40's and make you go on location to a spot to interview. There are two people in the bar, which was a real location for the time, and each person has some history with the place. One of the patrons is Edith Eyde, she wrote under the pen name Lisa Ben for lesbian magazines. The other is a character I made who represents what drag queens and cross dressers had to deal with at the time. The button on his shirt was something common for the time because they added a new law that could arrest people for impersonation.

11/9 update

This week I did some research and figured out how to make a text box work. I found someone else who had a tutorial on it, copied their code, then spent a lot of time getting it to work. The text appears letter by letter and moves onto the next set of dialogue when you click. The text is in the standard game maker font and is white, but it works against the textbox I made. It also makes the box disappear when the text has finished. With the text there was a lot of trial and error, but I learned how to do a little bit of simple coding out of it. Once I got the code down once, I can just copy it for each set of dialogue and change the text the character is saying. The code took a while to figure out because there were a lot of tutorials that taught the same thing but with different codes, but eventually I found one that worked after I spent more time debugging it. To create the text, I had to make each textbox and object and then each object gets three pieces of code.

11/2 update

After attempting to fix the buttons and crashing the game several times, I have decided to switch everything over into game maker. I originally wanted to use unity because it would be a new experience; however, I find that putting this game into game maker will still push me to learn more about a program that I already know a few basics in. This week was spent transferring over sprites and getting all the rooms reconfigured. After looking at how much work I have to do, and also looking over all the information I have chosen I decided to split level 1 into level 1 and 2. Some of the characters were more important in the 30's than the 20's, so I wanted to show them in a time which best fit them. Plus, it keeps the levels not too long so the player will be able to get through my game in one sitting. For level one I am keeping Gladys Bently and Ma Rainey as the two suspects you interview. I am still working out how to do text, but I have placed a text box where I want it for now.The white arrow was made so that people can move onto the next room when they are done with the current one.

Set up 10/26

This week I took some time to figure out my setup for the gallery. I want a desk with a computer, a mouse and headphones. I feel that by itself that might not look as inviting, so I wanted to add some props that are related to the game. A police cap can sit on the table, and then next to it there will be a coat rack with a masculine and feminine object on it. They both represent the homosexual lifestyle and the two characters, them selves and public version, that they had to perform to be able to exist without getting in trouble. I'm expecting my piece to be in a gallery type setting; however, I want to go explore around the CFA and see if there is a better location for my work. I have kept working on the button problem of my game with not as much success, I have a few more things I'd like to try and then I will officially give in and use game maker. I have also looked into what other songs I would like to use for each character. For Gene Malin I will use  his song "That's What's the Matter with Me." For Douglas Byng I will use "I'm a Mummy (An Old Egyptian Queen)." Finally, From Ma Rainey I will use "Prove it on Me Blues."

10/19

This week I have taken all my sprites and music and have put them into place for the first part of the first level. I am still having trouble with the buttons, and after getting everything set where I wanted when I tried to replace one of the preexisting button sprites, it crashed my game and lost some of the data. After plugging it all back it I am once again at a spot where the player can go to many different scenes and can have options when interviewing the musician; however, I am going to keep elaborating on it. As of right now, I have Gladys Bently started. Later I'm going to add it where when you are talking to her if you push her on the right subjects she will slip up and say something that gives you a clue. I want to do that for all my characters. The song I choose for Bently is her song "Worried Blues". I am still trying to find the lyrics to this piece but if I can't find it soon I will ask my teacher for my music class. If I can't get the buttons up and running soon I will switch everything over to game maker because I am a little more familiar with that and I don't want to get hung up on this problem for too long.

Progress 10/12

This week I got a few more sprites done and I started playing around with the game. I got the pictures done for some of the backgrounds and the objects. The backgrounds that I have done are the chief's office, the desk of level one and the interrogation room. I have started working on how to route everything to the spot it needs to go, and it seems like I will have to have different scenes for everything. I have started writing some of the dialogue as well for each area. I'm still looking at how to get the buttons to work, so for now I still have the default white ones. My goal is to have it to where if you click on the phonograph you can play music, if you click on the notes you can look at the lyrics to the song, if you click on the folder you can look at the person's profile who you are inspecting and if you click on the book you can view some key things to look out for in the music. I have also decided that on the profile for each character there will be a real life picture of them.

Update from 10/5

Since I have started getting the basic outline of the game going I spent this week making sprites. First, I sketched each one, then I put it into Adobe Illustrator and finally colored them in Adobe Photoshop. I know how to do coloring better in Photoshop which is why I moved them to there; however, I feel that outlining them in illustrator allows me to go back and slightly change their poses so I can animate the sprites in the final versions.. Last class we had talked about how I was going to transition between the different era's of time and I decided to have each ear be a level. Level one will be the 20's, two will be the 30's and so on until the 60's. At the end of the 60's, early 70's the Stonewall Riots happened and so I think my game will end with those. Here are pictures of the sketches and final version of the characters I have chosen for level one. There is Gladys Bentley, Gene Malin, Douglas Byng and Ma Rainey. For each of them I will pick one song they were famous for and have information regarding their arrests.