TEAM WASABI FTW.

(Apologies if you get the email and this post again XD. Not everyone is on the blog yet and I really don't want to type this out again ...)

Holy shiz gaiz you're all amazing.

Seriously, today's first ever Team Wasabi meeting was probably one of the best days ever in terms of a collaborative creative endeavour. I really can't thank you guys enough in your enthusiasm and awesomeness and generally just liking my crazy ideas and slight obsession in Asian horror games. You guys rock my socks :D.

Team Wasabi has suddenly grown in size since it's first inception (BWRMMM) and just to make it clear once again: my deadline is sometime in October so I'm aiming to get this project done by September 30th. By 'done' I'm aiming for a high quality game demo for class.  All I really ask for is [some] commitment and no worries if life suddenly gets in the way.  As long as I know that you can't do something, I can organise myself or someone else to take care of whatever and work around you.   

-TEAM UPDATE-

GENERAL STUFF:

As a general update for those who's been recently out of the loop and the newer members (welcome!).

- http://hungrywhispers.blogspot.com/ is our team blog.  I'm not sure if you can view the blog when you're not logged in/invited but I'm pretty certain I've set it so that you can (mainly for my tutors) so it is semi monitored.  I'm the main admin and you guys are authors so I actually do have the authority to change your posts *evil laugh*.  To be honest I'll probably just add labels to keep the house tagging clean. 

Newbies, please make sure to read the TAG FAQ for tagging rules on http://hungrywhispers.blogspot.com/p/faq.html?zx=34a71326dfc70804 .  This should make it easier for everyone to quickly look up certain posts instead of scrolling through 70+ posts XD.  I also suggest that you have a quick flick through the posts labelled: 

- "Hungry Ghosts" : Information about the festival in which Hungry Whispers is centred around. It's essentially the oriental version of Halloween and that there is a distinct history and lore on it which I highly recommend that you look into.

- "Inspiration": This is probably the best and quickest way I can think of for everyone to get a good idea in the game art and play style.  It's essentially Phoenix Wright meets the art style of Hotel Dusk, set in the context of Asian Horror XD. Game play wise it is very Nintendo DS-y and very visual novel-y.  Simple animation, simple but hopefully effective sound design/music but loads of pretty visuals.

- "Narrative": Don't really need to read through all of these posts but please do look through the latest post for these.  At the moment I've only written up to Day5 and the script for Day1+2.  I'm really sorry for those who are new to the project that the story is still pretty new to you guys - there's just so much to HW lol but I hope you'll get the general gist of where the story is going!

This blog basically documents the creative process for the HW project.  If you have an idea of anything related to it, MAKE A NEW POST! Then everyone will be notified and will be able to comment and discuss it.  Don't be afraid to post any crazy ideas too - while I may not have time to incorporate the idea into the demo for my class project I don't see why we can't work on it and possibly develop it even further for a full free playable game.

FUTURE POSSIBILITIES:

Since I'm on this tangent, I think it'll be cool to actually be officially part of this team as Team Wasabi and Studio Wasabi (lol) possibly ;).  As there are many of us working on this project, I have an idea of producing a hard copy booklet on this creative process mainly for ourselves.  Not only will it look great on our CV/portfolio but if Hungry Whispers do actually hit it off in the real world (including the 'Making of' books) I'm thinking of giving all the profit we make in memory of Nadine and donating to cancer.  I could actually be thinking too much into the future but this possibility makes me want to work on this even harder and I hope you'll all join me for this cause if you can.

Kelly, Chris, Tim, Si, I have sent an email to you guys as an invitation to be an author of the HW blog, please let me know if you get it (Kelly, I've sent the invite to your googlemail account and I'm just letting you know that I've done this to your hotmail account).

GAME CONTEXT REFRESHED:

I can't remember everything for this, but just a reminder about this project:

- Set in current modern times (probably 5-10years + in the future or something).  I'm trying to make this chronologically vague as HW is fictional and I don't want to be constrained to 'real life' rules of the Hungry Ghost Month/Festival as well as offend anyone because this is a real life religious festival lololol. So it just makes it easier that we'll use this as a foundation for our contextual/conceptual ideas.  For more, please refer to the posts labelled under "Context/Concept ideas" : http://hungrywhispers.blogspot.com/search/label/Context%2FConcept%20ideas .

FOR EVERYONE:

Please download and read through the scripts, schedule and asset list if you haven't done so already!

Script day1.2 = http://www.mediafire.com/?kwtcp12ojj7jl2h

Script day2.2 = http://www.mediafire.com/?ueeqmngtnl7024e

Schedule = http://hungrywhispers.blogspot.com/p/schedule.html

Asset list = http://www.mediafire.com/?e0fiexre41196n7

And because I'm lazy, I'll copy/pasta this ...

Just to clarify the naming conventions:
"hungrywhispers-script1.2a":
'1' = refers to the day, '2' = refers to the script version, 'a' = refers to which version of the version (lol) usually it's a minor update/edit. So...
"'hungrywhispers-script1.1" = Hungry Whispers Script Day 1, Version 1
"hungrywhispers-script1.2a" = Hungry Whispers Script Day 1, Version 2 with a slight change. This is the latest update for day 1 version 2.

- So far I've only properly gone through the script for day1 and I've yet to go through day2. I'm not a writer so please let me know of typos and if anything majorly wrong with the script.  Make sure to write a post about is so that I can think up of how to amend it. This leads to ....

THE IDEA BOUNCING GUYS:

(Nadia/Tim/Chris)  

You guys are to focus on proof reading and idea bouncing with the team. When I run out of ideas and/or creative juice this is where you guys will step in and throw ideas about which will be of great help to me especially when I can just talk things out. You guys are like my advisors in some weird way XD.  By all means, do creatively contribute to any concept art, mood boards, posts, whatever, I don't really care.  I want you guys make sure that there is some motion happening with the development, keeping it 'alive' essentially and to have fun too.  Go forth and discuss everything and anything to your heart's content.

THE ARTY PEOPLE OF THE TEAM:

(Michelle/Mike/Rumzi/Emma/Errol/Kelly)

Those whose forte is within the visual medium I would need you all to have a look at the asset list and divide it up amongst yourselves in what you'd like to focus on. I admit that I won't have enough creative juice for as much arty stuff since I'll be focusing on doing the blog animations/storyboards and audio design. I will need you guys to just generate awesome imagery and I'll just go "yep this is great" or "can we tweak this to make it more like that" and I'll generally approve of what we will use in the final demo.  Go nuts with your crazy drawing/painting/colouring/animation skills!

For convenience's sake I'll assign team leaders with the different art/design departments:

Background/Environments: Mike (train), Errol (urban/city and others once I think them up - Mike will also be in charge of programming hence you've been promoted in the environmental design department :P)

Item design: Rumzi

Character design/animation: Michelle (I hope this is okay since you've been pretty active since the beginning and you have the best idea on the characters XD).

Don't feel that you have to be stuck in one art department either: I want you guys to actively help each other with the design elements as well as the animation. Each character will have different expressions so explore what kind of visual expression they would have to suit their character profile.  I definitely won't be able to handle all this so I'm giving you the creative freedom to explore.  In terms of the final animation, I will do the final lineart for the character animations and I'll leave it in your hands to shade and animate them.  

PROGRAMMING NERDY PPL:

Programming/Engineering Lead = Mike

I will help Mike as much as possible in terms of programming as it is based on my original engine but I believe EVERYONE should contribute to the game testing and bug report filing once the whole thing starts going and Mike starts compiling the assets within the Wasabi engine.  Now that the main engine is done, we just need to do the assets so that Mike is able to sub it into the engine.  Again anyone can join providing you know Flash AS3 coding...XD

AUDIO/MUSIC/SOUND:

Audio department lead = Me

'nuff said. Hit me up with Youtube links in which you think sounds creepy and/or suits a character/environment theme.  The more audio I listen to, the better.  Also Si, I don't know how busy you are but you're included in the Audio department anyway lol. You shall be my advisor for audio goodness.

RIGHT. I think I have bored everyone to tears with this long ass update.  Thank you so much once again for you guys helping me out with this. You're all legends <3.  Remember, I don't want everyone to be stuck in one department, I want everyone to interact with each other and have fun! 

I shall go through the script for day2 and write a proper asset list and post it up here on the blog soon. I will also compile a list of scary events and puzzle events soon.  For now I hope that everyone has a clearer idea in what's going on and what to do :).

Off to bed, already spent like 2 hours writing this out LOL. Catch everyone later!

-Wasabi