Missing Piece
During my studies at Carleton University, I was on a team of 5 students, looking to make a meaningful VR experience exploring a Mother Earth Mural.
I acted as team lead and project manager, while also aiding on code and sound design.
The following page is a history of the project milestones, written to update our professor on progress and track the game’s development.
Milestone #1
A Journey Begins
OVERVIEW
Welcome to my first blog post as a member and project manager of Model&Story!
Model&Story is a team of 5 Carleton University students, with varying skill sets. The team consists of myself, Chloe V., Chris H., Gavin I., and Zoe P.
Our first official week working together had us selecting one of three major projects to complete throughout the duration of this semester, along with setting up the GitHub repositories, Google Drive folders, Trello boards, and any other forgotten administrative task necessary for our team's beginnings. Additionally, team roles and general aesthetic has been chosen, and future meetings have been planned to fully flesh out our chosen topic.
Challenges
Our challenges this week primarily involved around how new and budding our project is. Without many prior classes discussing our overall goals and deliverables, as well as a proper application design yet to be made, some decisions proved harder to make than others. We did, however, manage to get on our feet rather quickly.
As we execute more meetings and all ambiguity on our project fades, our list of challenges will likely extend.
Another small challenge I personally faced was in the creation of the Trello board. Without a clear, defined design, it's more difficult for me to plan out manageable tasks for my team. That said, as the ambiguity fades, I'll be able to run my team more effectively, and creating clear plans for our design is my primary goal at the moment.
Successes
We were successful and efficient this week in choosing our various roles with minimal fighting for positions. Our team seems as though it will be well suited to working together, with all aspects of design necessary for our project covered by one individual at minimum.
Selecting a project also went efficiently, as we all had equal interest in our chosen topic. A unanimous vote had our most important decision easily made.
Media
Without any code available for our main project, I'm including the general low-polygonal aesthetic we hope to use as inspiration throughout our project.
Our aesthetic inspiration comes from Tyler Walters on ArtStation, available by clicking the image here —->
Milestone #2
The Planning Phases
Number of Hours Total: ~8
OVERVIEW
Welcome to the second milestone blogpost as a member and project manager of Model&Story!
Our second week has consisted of settling on the tone and themes behind our VR experience, as well as discussing various mechanics that we could implement. We are in preparation for our alpha presentation, and preparing our proposal document. Additionally, I've made large strives on the project management side in creating general deadlines, as well as a Trello Board.
Challenges
At the moment, our largest challenge has revolved around a lack of information on the project, however that was cleared up on the 4th when we met with our clients. Unfortunately, due to the nature of many of our group members working part-time while in school, we struggled to find a good time for a lengthy meeting. However, sporadic calls have aided us in preparing our proposal document and presentation.
Another challenge simply came from our program leaving us with 7 projects/assignments due in the span of a week, and so it's been difficult on our team to spend sufficient time on this exact project. That said, our sights are set on reading week to power through a bulk of this project.
Successes
Luckily we've managed to get a cohesive sense of what we'd like to create, focusing on a small, enclosed apartment unit model, keeping our scope feasible, while still allowing the user to affect things outside of their immediate interactable area.
As I mentioned, our Trello board is going well, and we're motoring along in our proposal document.
Media
While we have few assets at the moment, and I'm a bit of a deadline-nut, I'm including a picture of our pretty Trello board here.
Milestone #3
Proposed and Ready
Number of Hours Total: ~18-20
OVERVIEW
Welcome to the third milestone blogpost as a member and project manager of Model&Story!
Our third week covered the tasks of finishing our project proposal and creating an alpha presentation. Our proposal covered many basic technical aspects, as well as included many sketches, moodboards, and wireframes of our desired product. We’ve also gone through two separate iterations of our experience’s name over the last week. While we begun with the name Turning Point, we’ve since settled on Missing Piece as our experience’s working title.
Challenges
Our largest challenge revolved around time - due to our other courses, we were left in a bit of a time-crunch for our presentation and proposal. This led to a solid two-day stretch of team work (and, in my case, monitoring said team work to ensure it all went according to plan).
Successes
Using this section to gush for a moment, I’m genuinely so impressed with what my team managed to accomplish in that two-day stretch.
The proposal was put together efficiently, with every team member carrying their weight and doing what they volunteered for without hesitation or complaint. This resulted in a stunning 24 page document that perfectly outlined what we’re hoping to create with Missing Piece. The artists especially blew me away, with their wireframe, moodboards, and design comps, as my focus was primarily on formatting the document and working on blocks of explanatory text. I don’t think I could have hoped to achieve the beauty or cohesiveness that they achieved in their diagrams.
Additionally, a small prototype had to be created in A-Frame in order to use for our presentation. I built the base of it, implementing a small day-night cycle as a mechanic, and setting up a rough apartment scene (which admittedly started as just a floating platform in the sky). Later, our other coder and resident escape room expert Gavin went in and fleshed out a very blocky layout of the apartment to move around in.
Finally, our presentation had to be put together. The lovely Zoe was kind enough to put forward a lot of work in creating and editing the presentation, and the work paid off, as the slides are gorgeous and our respective videos now flow together nicely.
I believe I should be noting my own personal successes, but I’ve been filled with such pride and such genuine excitement to work with this team that I feel it would be amiss to not explore their own successes as well. In previous projects, being team lead has often led to me needing to pick up slack where certain team members refuse or forget to do work, but I’ve yet to have a single issue with this group. In fact, apart from being the one to organize meetings, take minutes, and format our papers and strategy, I almost feel as though I’m slacking compared to the others, given how efficiently this is running.
I look forward to showing off my team’s efforts in future milestones. I’m confident this team will produce something fantastic, and I’m honored to be a part of it.
Media
Given the majority of my work has been code and paper writing (which do not photograph well), I’m including a beautiful image created by Chris Hearty as a mockup of things to come. It encapsulates our art style goal very well.
Additionally, clicking on it will take you to the alpha presentation of our project, Missing Piece.
Milestone #4
Trucking Along
Number of Hours Total: ~ 24-26
OVERVIEW
Welcome to the fourth milestone blogpost as a member and project manager of Model&Story!
Our fourth and fifth weeks included reading week for the program, as well as a touch of illness on my part. As a result, it’s condensed down into one milestone post.
Over these weeks, I’ve focused on keeping up to date with and motivating my group, as well as working on some code and sound work for the project.
Challenges
Two challenges of mine involved being sick - progress is difficult when you’re laid up in bed - and adjusting to A-Frame’s updates. Many hours were spent working in an old library that this current version of A-Frame doesn’t support. Luckily, this challenge was fixed by our professor Anthony supplying us with a bundle of updated libraries.
Successes
Using the time over reading week, I successfully managed to implement physics and collision systems into our project.
Additionally, I’ve checked in periodically with my team members to ensure that we’re on track according to our Trello Board.
Finally, I’ve been re-acquainting myself with sound design, and learning how to use Ableton Live in order to create ambient music for our creation.
Media
Given the majority of my work has been physics code (which does not really photograph well), I’m including an updated clipping of our Trello board.
Milestone #5
Musically Motivated
Number of Hours Total: ~ 28-30
OVERVIEW
Welcome to the fifth milestone blogpost as a member and project manager of Model&Story!
This week has primarily focused on monitoring the progress of some other teammates, and planning our next stretch before the beta presentation.
Challenges
A challenge of mine was primarily time management - I had very little to give to this project this past week due to overscheduling at work.
Successes
Despite the lack of time, progress was still made.
Within the actual application, I’ve begun entering small sound effects to add to the experience that we currently have. I’ve also begun planning phases of how to implement the environment changes once puzzles are completed (however, they can only fully be implemented once the puzzles themselves are active). I’ve also cast a glance at the presentation slides for our upcoming beta presentation. Finally, I’ve attempted to keep the team on track and moving forward, despite the lack of pressure to complete any massive milestone for this particular assignment this week.
Media
Given the majority of my work has been physics code or sound (both of which won’t translate very well here), here are a couple of screenshots of our upcoming presentation.
Milestone #6
Beta Prep
Number of Hours Total: ~ 32
OVERVIEW
Welcome to the sixth milestone blogpost as a member and project manager of Model&Story!
This week has primarily focused on preparing for our beta presentation.
Challenges
A challenge of mine was primarily time management - I had very little to give to this project this past week due to overscheduling at work.
Successes
Despite the lack of time, progress was still made.
I acted as a floater primarily, checking bits of code where I could, and beginning research on how to implement the environmental effects later on down the line. Additionally, slides have been prepared for the beta presentation, and roles are assigned for who will be speaking and when.
Media
Given the majority of my work has been code or simply task management, I’ll include some beautiful assets created by some of the members of my team.
Milestone #7
Beta Recovery and Coding Frenzy
Number of Hours Total: ~ 40
OVERVIEW
Welcome to the seventh milestone blogpost as a member and project manager of Model&Story!
This week has primarily focused on finish the beta presentation, as well as continuing to move forward on coding tasks.
Challenges
Challenges were primarily the time crunch of the Beta Presentation, and also…CSS.
Cue the shudder and the shrieking violins.
Because yes, after nearly 3 full years of Interactive Multimedia and Design, and an several years of Computer Science beforehand, CSS still makes me want to cry.
Successes
The Beta Presentation was put together very well! My team worked very hard, and even despite some small setbacks in the video making process, my team and I coordinated the changes and fixes smoothly. We were even the first group to post under the beta presentation channel, which, as a competitive human, gives me a small dose of glee.
Then comes some coding wins!
I’ve begun working on some small environmental effects (primarily setting up booleans and conceptualizing how the changes will take place in A-Frame). I touched base with the group regarding some small aspects regarding doors and pushing commits to the Git. And for the big win (which I’ll include in the Media section below), Missing Piece finally has a title card!
It’s yet to be pushed, as I’d hate for the testers to have to go through it every time, and I’m not content with the final choice of font or background, but it functions.
And my lord, coding a fade in and out effect in CSS and HTML should NOT have taken the near 4-6 hours that it did.
Media
Behold, the first gif of the project - Model & Story’s functioning (but not very pretty) title cards!
Milestone #8
Floating
Number of Hours Total: ~ 45
OVERVIEW
Welcome to the eighth milestone blogpost as a member and project manager of Model&Story!
This week for me has been focused on floating around between various coding tasks.
Challenges
Challenges this week was primarily myself and my team recovering from a bit of burnout on behalf of some of our classes.
Additionally, coding elements of a program without the element’s necessary parameters is far more difficult than originally anticipated.
Successes
In terms of my team, I’m very proud with all of the work that’s been done. Teleport controls have finally been fleshed out. The models are coming along (with a VERY cute cricket model to show for it), and the puzzles are fully planned and in the works.
Then comes some coding wins on my part!
I’m still slowly working on the environmental effects, however, coding these without certain models prepared, and without the puzzles fully functioning, is a little more difficult than anticipated. Still, all of the environmental effects are roughly coded and just commented out so as to more quickly implement them later.
Additionally, the title card has been aesthetically finished, and our wording in the introduction has been altered slightly after receiving some feedback from Luc.
My last coding triumph has been inclusion of sound effects and small modifications in the audio tags. Altering sounds due to certain game states is a minor slice-of-life thing, but I believe music is pivotal to any experience.
Scope Re-Evaluation
Not quite a challenge, not quite a success, but I do feel as though I should note some scope re-evaluation that has occurred within my team amidst these last couple of weeks.
Music: A personal note, but I initially had hope to compose my own piece for the project. Full time IMD and 20-30 hours a week at a job have proven this to be…less than feasible. Instead, royalty free pieces shall be used.
Animations: Our initial hope was to include an end-game animation, in which the walls of the apartment fold away to reveal a lush landscape as opposed to the dark, grey city (Almost Okami-styled, if you’re familiar with the rejuvenation cutscenes). This has proven to be unfeasible, and as such we’re setting it aside to focus on a minimum viable product.
Puzzles: We had hoped to have a number of other smaller puzzles scattered about, however time and skills demand that we set our sights on select puzzles.
Endings: Initially we had hoped to have multiple endings based upon how many of the aforementioned puzzles the player completed. As our product is now focused on 3-5 puzzles, we’ve decided instead to track the player’s progress and have one ending once they are all completed.
Media
I don’t have much to show as most of my work is internal, so here’s a snipped of my commented-out code for the environmental effects.
(Also, Chris’ cricket model. It’s just so darn cute!!)
Milestone #9
Nearing the Finish
Number of Hours Total: ~ 50-55
OVERVIEW
Welcome to the ninth milestone blogpost as a member and project manager of Model&Story!
This week for me has been focused on floating around between various coding tasks.
Challenges
Challenges this week was primarily myself and my team, as we have been split between various classes attempting to finish off final projects for all of them.
Additionally, I’m still attempting to code elements of a program without the element’s necessary parameters. It’s hard to anticipate how a gltf model will need to be manipulated in A-Frame before I actively have the necessary puzzle finished or the models complete.
As it stands, the biggest challenge now and moving forward is getting the team to hustle on combining our respective work and branches. Work has moved somewhat efficiently on everyone’s own time, but we need all of the elements to come together. The “Missing Piece” of the puzzle, so to speak.
Successes
I’ve only had some minor coding wins this week, as Aframe and CSS have both proven themselves to be infuriating.
Credits have been completed and are ready to be implemented in the main branch (I’ve avoided doing this, as waiting for the intro and credits sequence to pass in order to test changes to the system would be incredibly annoying.)
Additionally, environmental effects are still in the works. City sounds can be replaced with bird noises, and I’m working on efficiently changing gltf models within an Aframe element. The next steps will be to add some lights for the stars, repeat the gltf change for the river, and finally add in many plant models on completion of a task. I see most of this as being tedious, but easily accomplished.
(Yes, I’m now knocking on wood to ensure this doesn’t prove to be more difficult than anticipated).
Media
All of my work has been code-based this week, so I’ll include a snipped of the final credits code.
Milestone #10
Reflection
Number of Hours Total: ~ 65-70
OVERVIEW
Welcome to the final milestone blogpost as a member and project manager of Model&Story!
This will contain a reflection on my time as project manager, as well as a glance at my first real experience coding for VR in A-Frame.
Overall, I can genuinely say this project has been a delight and a learning experience in code and time management. My team was a strong one to be working with, and we all brought our own skills to the project. It was a time trying to learn how to function in the A-Frame environment over the course of one semester, while also creating a product that our team might be proud of presenting, but apart from a few bugs I truly believe we accomplished that. At the end of the day, the hardest task was balancing our 4 other classes, our respective lives, and putting in the hours we wanted to our most interesting project of this program so far.
Challenges
There have been a number of challenges for me personally over this project, the majority of which chalking up to time management. It’s a possibility that a perfectionist personality with my projects, alongside taking on ~30 hours a week at my job, was not the smartest move on my part, and my tendency to overwork certainly affected my contributions to this project at times. It prevented me from composing an original score for this project as I initially intended, and had me delegating tasks more often than I am used to.
I also had some difficulties with code. Technical errors such as swapping out GLTFs in Javascript, learning about A-Frame’s inspector a little too late when it comes to placing objects, and spending one too many hours completing a simple CSS task ate up a lot of my contribution time for this project.
My final difficulty came in the form of my own leadership insecurities - I walk away from this project now far more confident in them, but near the start I believe I was a little meek in my lack of wanting to step on anyone’s toes.
Successes
Despite the challenges, there have been numerous success as we completed this project.
Personal successes included growing more confident in my management style, and leading the team in what I believe to have been a successful way. My Trello task management was on point, and I believe I managed to help keep everyone communicating and active on this project. Additionally, I believe I’ve created some beautiful effects in the environmental effects department (The reward for the plant puzzle being completed is my favourite).
As for team-wide successes, I couldn’t be more proud of the Model&Story group. All of our deadlines were met, apart from class-wide extensions granted by the professor. Our product (in my eyes, at least) is incredibly aesthetically beautiful, and even if it is a bit buggy, I believe it’s a great functioning feat for 5 students with busy lives and no prior A-Frame experience. We’ve created a very solid demo to show off, and I don’t believe I’d change much about it even if I had the time to, apart from cleaning up some code.
Media
As a final piece of media to show off - the final living room. The UI isn’t the prettiest, however I added it as I believe it’s important to inform the player of their progress.