Folks,

It has been another fun sprint for us here at CSE. Even though Tyler had the plague and we had a fair amount of lost time among the team, they came through with an awesome sprint. Our only misses were on low-priority items and on two of them, our misses were due to making a decision that will help us in the long term. We also had a couple of nice bonus items and I can say, without reservation, that we ended the week strongly. Here’s the scoop from the last sprint:

Complete missed tasks from last sprint.

• Working on infrastructure to support rendering in the editor, paperdoll. views, GM and stats   views, and other non-gameplay contexts.
  Completed.
• Improving prediction and smoothing for character movement.
  Completed.
• Make stats available via JSON –
  Completed.
• Finished real logins –
  Completed.
• Evaluation of third party software for possible inclusion in game.
  Miss – 50% Completed.

Current sprint tasks.

• Begin integration of Havoc physics engine for the server.
  Completed.
• In-scene rendering of UI – text over heads, etc., focusing on maximizing performance.
  Completed.
• Animation 3D Player integration.
  Completed.
• Continued work on account editor based on initial feedback from team.
  Completed.
• Unlimited transfer fix in review –
  Completed.
• Update Dvergr model with basic animation on new rig.
  Completed.
• Update Viking female model with basic animation on new rig.
  Completed.
• Update Valkyrie model with basic animation on new rig. Was listed as Hamadryad – typo.
  Completed.
• Animation editor prop parenting solution.
  Completed.
• First pass at shared falling animations for current models.
  Completed.
• BONUS – ADDED unique idles for generic male, TDD, Hamadryad and Dvergr.
• 1st pass armor concepts.
  Completed.
• 1st pass low-res Valkyrie texture.
  Completed.
• Create assets for testing against vfx editor.
  Completed.
• Finish high res Valkyrie model.
  Completed.
• Create low-res Valkyrie model.
  Completed.
• Re-weight low-res older models as time allows.
  Completed for Viking, Gargoyle, St’rm and Valkyrie.
• 1st pass Environment for January play test.
  Completed.
• First draft of Combat Vision Doc.
  Completed.
• Finish TDD race Becoming™ story and end current race cycle.
  Completed.

    As per below, the story expanded more than a little bit.

• BONUS – Two Part story is now up to six-part story revealing new insights into The Depths, magic and other aspects of the game and lore.
• Get invites out to guild members to join their guild leaders.
  Completed.

    As per our plan, first wave is out and added to our database, 2nd wave is OTW.

• Update website with race/models/concept art/lore collections.
  Miss – In progress.
• Update website with all additional shown concept art and models. –
  Miss – In progress.
• BONUS – New team member working with us on update and redo of the website. This slowed down the two items above but will result in a better website in both the short and long term.

Not bad eh? It was a great sprint and wait till you see some of the things Michelle and Sandra put together for the first round of armor concept work. Very proud of what they did with limited time. I know our Founders will be as well (except for those few who might, for some misguided reason, want Camelot Unchained to look like WoW) when they see the concept work for the armor system.

Here’s the next sprint:

• Animation editor weapon targeting implementation.
• Begin animation states to connect behaviors based on player input.
• Begin integration of animation transition states between primary animations.
• Begin work on behavior selections in client.
• Logging in and out error console.
• Animation 3d view flying camera controls for animation editor.
• Begin work on advanced handling failures in patch server.
• Complete first pass guild invites.
• Create a functional chat window.
• Implement character controls in animation editor viewer.
• Begin work on “kill spam” for January’s opening of IT.
• Completed Valkyrie combat animations.
• Complete animation editor weapon targeting test case.
• Create new intro video for future website use.
• Continued armor concepting.
• Second pass Valkyrie textures.
• New art work for future website use.
• Test vfx for January playtest.
• Re-skin St’rm to new rig.
• Create new renders of races/classes for future website use.
• Begin work on high res Luchorpan model.
• Second pass environment for January playtest.
• Website design work and oversight.
• Prep first survey for all Founders. Note: We tested the survey system this week with our IT testers and it worked fine. FYI, the IT folks that didn’t respond to this survey, you need to do so. Responding to surveys is part of being an IT tester.
• Second pass archery vision doc.
• First pass next combat vision doc.
• Finish next race Becoming tale. Note: At this rate this Becoming tale is rapidly transforming into “The Never, ever, ever ending Becoming Tale.” 🙂

That’s the list for the next sprint. With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up here next week, we will extend out this sprint for an additional week. As you can see, it has lots of good stuff with more of the items being obviously geared to the opening of IT in January than in other sprints.

FYI, for those who haven’t seen it yet, I did another interview with Gary over at GAMEBREAKER TV. Lots of goodies in the interview, including a bit about my first trip ever to the Middle East this past summer. Here’s the link! I think it’s a pretty interesting listen and my trip to that unnamed country was one of the highlights of my career. I met some really intriguing people and the outcome, and my thought process, should offer a lot of insight into how seriously I’m treating my personal commitment to Camelot Unchained, our studio and our Founders.

Have a great weekend all!

-Mark