Current Progress Link to the Homepage home Link to the contact page contact

CURRENT PROGRESS (April 2006)

The actual implementation is devided into stages with different levels of feature und functionality details. We finished stage 3, the goal of our project and started to programm aditional nice-to-have features in our spare time (Stage 4).
See below for a list of things that belong to each stage.

Phase Gamedesign | Preparations | Technical Researches | GDD

100%

Phase Implementation , Stage 1 | J2ME Coding

100%

Phase Implementation , Stage 2 | J2ME Coding

100%

Phase Implementation , Stage 3 | J2ME Coding

100%

Phase Implementation , Stage 4 | J2ME Coding

30%

Phase Testing | Revision | Papers/Publications

90%

MODULE PLANNER

CONCEPTs and GAMEDESIGN (finished)

- General Features
- Multiplayer Features

- GAMEPLAY

The VLFs
Creating, Findig, trading
Collecting Items
Interaction
Communication
Competition
Raising and Training
Customization
Single- / Multiplayer Aspects
Gaming Sites and Publications
Saving, Loading and Persistence

- THE GAME WORLD

- GAMESTORY

- REPRESENTATION of the real in the virtual world

Overview
Travel, Scale, Characters, Locations, Weather, Day&Night

PRE-IMPLEMENTATION PHASE (finished)

- CONCEPT: Game Engine

- CONCEPT: Rendering System

Overview
Map view concept
Players view to the game

- CONCEPT: Architecture and Modules (client / server side)

Character Module
Interaction Module
Positioning/Location Module
Training Module
Sound Module
Menu Handler Visualization Module
Server Modules
Bluetooth Module
Map Module
VLF module
Game Control Module

- GENERAL GAMEPLAY FLOWCHARTS

- VISUALS

Moodboards, Character Sketches, Backgrounds
Sketches

- USER INTERFACES

Concepts / Flowcharts

IMPLEMENTATION (finished / running)

- Stage I (finished Dec. 05)

- Stage II (finished in Jan. 06)

- Stage III (finished in Mar. 06)

TESTING and REVISION PHASE (finished)

- starting January 2006

RELEASE / PUBLICATION (running)

- first prototype released fordownload in February 2006

- 2 scientific papers accepted for conferences

IMPLEMENTATION STAGES TABLE

Stage 1 (Okt - Nov 2005)

User creation: User is able to register his/her username and password (and personal data) via the mobile
VLF creation: User is able to create one VLF (without taking photo from camera) (random generation of VLF properties). The system can handle the VLF visualization
Positioning: The mobile can connect with GPS to get the geo position data
Map: The mobile can scan the map (connect to the server) automatically and display the player and items position. The map is not able to detect other players yet but should be able to handle the map-square-division issues
Item: The user can pick an item from the map, store it into the VLF’s inventory, or drop the item

Stage 2 (December 05 - January 06)

Record Management System, Saving VLF data on mobile phone
VLF drop: User able to drop the VLF. This VLF will be a self-controlled (with simple AI)
Choose active VLF: Select one active VLF from the list. VLF-related-issues (view property, change equipment, item use, energy, ...)
Online Trading (without Bluetooth and chat function) with AI or other player
Online message & Communication (without Bluetooth): User should be able to send offline message, and chat via online connection
Bluetooth discovery (GPS Receiver, other players, setup screen)
View other players and items on the map

Stage 3 (February 2006)

Fight against the wild VLFs and catch/tame them. Now the user should be able to have more than one VLF
Fight against other player via TCPIP (without Bluetooth)
Bluetooth message & Communication (including Bluetooth detection and connection), plus finishing the communication issues.
Fight against other player via Bluetooth
Bluetooth trading, and implementing the chat function for the online trading

Stages 4, 5, ...

There is a list of additional functionality and nice-to-have features (including so-called Mini-games) which will be added to further stages, depending on testing results and time left in the schedule.