New Web-Store!

Hello, everyone!  I'd like to introduce you to my new web-store, located at www.TessaLee.co/store!  There, you will find posters that I've made and/or compiled for sale.  I'll add to them over time, but you are absolutely welcome to purchase whichever one you want.  For now, only PayPal payments are being accepted.  Once you pay, I'll contact you for your shipping address, and off it'll go!

And I can do commissions too, but those prices are negotiable.

Aside from the new store feature, my portfolio got updated as well!  As you may have known, I worked with Carnegie Learning and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh to develop some wonderful, educational Flash games called Math Wonders.  I had my hand in the development of four different games:

Castle Constructor

Castle Constructor is an educational math game that focuses on getting the player to practice using their skills in counting, permutations, and combinations by building a three-story castle out of an inventory of blocks. If the player succeeds in building all of the possible combinations with the blocks available, they can choose to add another block to keep going, or continue for a higher score in permutations. With combinations, the order of the blocks used does not matter, only the types. With permutations, the order and type of block matters, so click wisely!

Fly Trap

Fly Trap is an educational math game that focuses on getting the player to practice using their skills in statistics by capturing flies to meet the challenge of a specific mean, median, or mode in a set number of trials. The number of trials per round vary from three to nine, so you're never playing the same game twice! Capturing a fly gives you a single coin, while winning the challenge gives you ten!

Poke The Animal

Poke The Animal is an educational math game that focuses on getting the player to practice using their skills in probability by testing the limits of various forest animals. Take your chances poking three animals based on their current moods. Will it bite you, or won't it?

Save The Garden

Save The Garden is an educational math game that focuses on getting the player to practice using their skills in quadratic functions by using a two wheel sprinkler system to keep the pests at bay. Spin the blue wheel, and you change the water's pressure; spin the red wheel, and you change the water's angle. Time is of vital importance!

Other minor updates include small adjustments to my resume, re-sized and re-positioned arrow buttons for navigating between portfolio pieces, and a new Store button for the main navigation menu.

Carnegie Learning Projects, Commence Beta!

I apologize for not posting in quite some time.  I've been shoulder deep in projects since two of my main projects are approaching their deadlines in March.  One of which is Modus Operandi.  You should check out the progress on its blog!

The other project are the four casual, but educational, games I've been programming for Carnegie Learning Inc.  Three of them have made it into Beta.  Please play-test them!  I could use all the feedback I can get!  Keep in mind that the art assets are still in development, so you'll be seeing a lot of wire-frames!

Alison Huettner, Carnegie Learning Project Manager
Patricia Huettel, Art Institute of Pittsburgh Project Manager
Jessica Leadbiter, Art Institute of Pittsburgh Junior Project Manager

Save The Garden - Beta Version 1.1
Tessa Liddington, Game Designer & Programmer
Amanda Wallenhorst, 2D Artist
Katherine McLellan-Benedict, 2D Artist

Poke The Animal - Beta Version 1.2
Robert Shilling, Game Designer
Tessa Liddington, Programmer
Alicia Thorpe, 2D Artist

Fly Trap - Beta Version 1.7
Theresa Drennan, Game Designer
Tessa Liddington, Programmer
Alicia Thorpe, 2D Artist

Math Wonder Takes Shape!

One of my latest projects is between the collaboration of the students at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and their client, Carnegie Learning, Inc.  The students have formed groups and each group is working on their own educational Flash game, also known as a Math Wonder.

My Math Wonder is called Save The Garden.  I'll be working with Amanda Wally, my character artist, in making this game fun, functional, and pretty to look at (oh, how I love the pretties!).

While this game is not yet into the Alpha phase, it is still in development, I'll soon be inviting you all to play-test this game (:

Deep Breath.

I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend.  I had a lot of work going on for me, such as programming the HUD for Modus Operandi, trying to make Pretend a little more appealing, brainstorming for a better demo reel, and working on the construction of my portfolio booth.  However, the portfolio booth is the only thing that I have pictures of right now.  The rest have their own respective places on the internet and you can click on their links to learn more about them.  So without further ado:

Latest photo of the semi-assembled portfolio booth.

This is my portfolio as it sits in my bedroom, minus the top-middle piece of fabric.  I haven't quite decided how I want that part to look yet; but whatever I do with it, it'll need to be done at the beginning of the show because it wouldn't be able to fold up neatly otherwise.  The two on the sides have been folded and stapled nicely.

Also, I got the monitor to stay up!

My monitor staying on the booth wall like a boss.

Last weekend, I was having an issue because it was too top-heavy.  My mother thought it would be a good idea to make a lip in the front for the monitor to sit on, but it is actually too narrow.  Naturally, I asked my mom for help because she's the construction woman of the year, and this is what I got.

Yes, that is indeed crayon.  No, I didn't get my drawing skills from her.

So... It was pretty close.  I just made this instead.

Displaying my awesome girl scout knots (not).

Those are absolutely, without a doubt, lanyards.  Three lanyards, actually.  But unlike my mother's very detailed drawing, the monitor was top-heavy like I mentioned before.  So I had the lanyards pull down on the back of the monitor (reversing what my mother suggested) so that the screen would appear upright and correct.

The lanyard is clipped onto the screw-loop thing.

About a year ago, I wanted to buy a lanyard and two card holders, one for my school ID and one for the bus passes.  However, they didn't seem to sell just one lanyard, so I had gotten a pack of ten.  Over time, I've been finding different uses for them.  My roommate used two to makeshift a temporary strap for her camera.  I have one rigged up to the standing fan in our apartment because it sort of broke and it's holding the fan to face people rather than the ceiling.  Another one was cut and melted to mend a belt.  I believe only one is actually being used as a lanyard for a USB drive (that I don't even use anymore).  Go figure, when I got a car and a fancy purse, I didn't need the lanyard anymore because I didn't want the whole thing dangling from the ignition and tickling my legs like little spiders.

Anyway, I had felt like a genius when I pulled out the lanyards and tied it all together.  They're actually quite stable the way it all holds together.  And no, you can't poke them at Portfolio Review.

Checkpoint!

So the booth had a concept, was measured and constructed from plywood, and now the fabric has been bought and mostly applied.  There's still some things that need to be done, such as creating the anchor in the back of the monitor that hangs on top, a banner with my name (and maybe my logo, it hasn't even been designed yet), and the cutting of the fake, red velvet to place neatly along the top and sides.

Other than that, fixing up my missing website pieces (portfolio thumbnails and missing videos) are my next priority!  My first demo reel will be available this Wednesday.  But, avast ye; here are some updated photos of the portfolio booth thus far:

Pictured above:  How not to use a staple gun (my mother and Tammy).

My mother and our friend, Tammy, had gone to the local Jo-Anne Fabric's store on Saturday and was working right outside their front door to rush in getting the base, gray fabric all tight and stapled onto each board.  We needed to make sure we had enough materials, hence being right outside their doors.

I'm screwing in the hinges of the left wing onto the back base.

After all of the gray fabric was stapled on and I bought a large amount of fake, red velvet fabric, I strapped the portfolio stand to the roof of my car, we traveled back home to Pittsburgh, where I reassembled the pieces in my bedroom.

The reassembled portfolio booth after being covered in fabric.

Personally, I think I did an okay job for not being able to see the lines.

The portfolio as it stands now (as of this post, of course).

The decorative fabric, tassels, and whatnot haven't been fully decided yet, but that's where the project leaves off this weekend and will continue onto the next!

Save Before the Boss Battle

Although I haven't posted on here in about a month, I've not been idle!  I've been doing some reworking on Pretend, my website, and the newest project called Modus Operandi.

Portfolio Review is in just a few short weeks, and my mother (who's much better than me at carpentry) is helping me build and assemble my portfolio booth (actually, I'm more or less watching and sometimes holding something, she's the real deal).  At any rate, I spent Sunday and Monday at my mother's house, and it's quite a fun project.  Here's some fun photos of the project in progress (more pictures available on my Facebook)

A rough 3D model I made of  my portfolio booth I imagined (this was done back in December of  last year).  A keyboard and mouse is currently missing from the model.

My mother is measuring the board for where the monitor will poke through.

My mother and her cat, Squeakers, work diligently together on the hinges.

Pictured Above:  How not to use a saw.

The front base has the hole cut out to hold the lower monitor.

The stand is almost complete!

The skeleton for the stand is finished and ready for the next step.

I'll be visiting my mother in my hometown again next weekend.  We'll be sanding out the boards and painting them with Gesso, and then finally wrapping them in fabric for the big finish.

Looks like I'll need to design a banner or something with my name on it.  We'll see what looks good once the base fabric is on.

On another note, I've gotten 500 business cards printed out!  They have a glossy finish too.

My phone number has been blurred out for obvious reasons.  I also cleaned up the background in Photoshop because it was an ugly napkin, ha!

So keep the Portfolio Review date in your minds!  It's September 13th!

Hear ye!

So I've been pretty busy with my work lately.  As you can plainly see, my blog had gotten a style pass similar to my website.  And guess what?

My website has finally been updated!  I feel it looks cleaner and more professional.  There's a few odd looking buttons (I personally don't like those arrow buttons in the portfolio gallery, but I can always change them).

There's still a few missing content pieces where I've got placeholders, but they should all be finished by September.

Aside from that, Modus Operandi is coming along nicely, I figured out that weird issue with Pretend's back button with the help of Patricia Huettel, and I'm thinking about making a little menu for Camel Ship before I make it downloadable (something that gives the rest of the team's names in the credits and whatnot).

Don't forget about portfolio review on September 13th, and now I've got the graduation ceremony's date too!  I'll be walking at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh on Friday, June 14th, 2013.  Yeah, while that's like... an entire year away, so no excuses for missing it!

Work Before Play

So it is currently between the second and third week of school and a lot of work has been done, is currently being done, and needs to get done.

My website and blog are in the process of getting a styling pass.  I'm currently working on my photographer friend's website as well, and even fixed up the DGPX website so those who had worked on it won't be ashamed to link to it from their resumes.  See?  Here's a link to it!

On another note, I've been much inspired in working on Modus Operandi because I really love the science and psychology behind murder, mysteries, and forensics.  I've been bothering the design and concept team a lot to make sure they keep the science true in the game.

Other than work (and on a much less professional level), I had taken my ten year old dog to the veterinarian office on Friday.  She hasn't been doing too well recently.  Unfortunately, my baby has been diagnosed with diabetes.  I just hope she's still around when I graduate.  Good luck, Angel.

Compulsive Saving

The National Game Development Month (NaGaDeMo) event has wrapped up.  As you may have known, I was working on the project called Pretend.  You can find all of the submitted games for the NaGaDeMo here.

Fortunately, the production of Pretend isn't over!  If you continue following it's blog, you'll see that the team is still working on it to create a mobile game, and later, a 3D game in Unity.

SnowDog Derby - AiP Game Art's Winter Challenge

Another event, well, more like a challenge, that I've joined in is a Winter Challenge that's being hosted by AiP Game Art.  This challenge is accepting all kinds of mediums, such as 3D modelers, concept artists, etc.  I've decided to create a menu system using Flash, Action Script 3.0, and UDK.  I'll be posting my progress for that project on my blog here, as well as on this thread in the AiP Game Art forums (it's a requirement for the challenge).

Speaking of which, here is a site map, or flow chart, for the menu system.

I've decided to call the game, SnowDog Derby. Here's the game concept for my "fake" game: the player creates a sleddog team and races at various, snowy locations against the clock. Depending on the race results, the player is awarded money which can be spent on new items, dogs, and accessories. During the race, the player must guide the team around, over, or through obstacles that may be in the way.

Modus Operandi - 7th Level Studios

Now this is a project I must not forget to talk about!  My final quarter at the Art Institute has started this past week, and I'm enrolled in the Advanced Team Game Production class.  This class runs a small studio that creates projects.  The studio, coined as 7th Level Studios from last quarter, has started the pre-production phase of the newest project, Modus Operandi.

This team is divided into four teams: Design/Concept, Character, Environment, and Engine.  I am the lead of the Engine team (yay!).  My job is to worry about the player's experience while playing the game and to get the project to achieve that experience as a prototype version.  Therefore, I am to worry about the processor and be that person to remind the artists of their limitations so that their submissions will successfully work with the engine.

The engine team's first priority is the gameplay's mechanics.  I'd like to focus on getting a playable prototype working.  The second priority is the menu system.

With all of these projects at play, I'm excited how the next three months will unfold.  Let's not forget about that class that I've been taking at the Entertainment Technology Center.  My next project there will be for the Wii.  There aren't any details yet, but be sure to keep an eye out for them!

The Never Ending Story

So I'm finishing up this Spring quarter at the Art Institute and summer break will soon be upon us!

Oh, but I won't be idle.  Like I had mentioned in my last post, I'll be working with my team for the NaGaDeMo for the first two weeks of summer break.  We'll see how far that project goes and hopefully we can produce something portfolio worthy.

Speaking of portfolio, looks like I'll be moving up again next quarter.  Which means I've got to get my stand built for portfolio review (I'll see you there) and major updates to my website.

I've gathered some constructive criticism and critiques regarding my website, so big changes to my site will be underway starting in the Summer quarter.  Changes will include an overall style pass on the banners, background, and icons, some layout revamping, and definitely some content updates and additions for new projects and games.

If you're following my blog or twitter, you may have noticed that my blog is now being powered through blogger.  I didn't mind editing a static, html blog, it's just that I wanted the ability for readers to comment, vote, and whatnot.  Why reinvent the wheel, right?

NaGaDeMo 2012

Today marks the last day of Week 10 at the Art Institute's Spring quarter. That means there is only one week left until those lucious three weeks of Summer break!

But today ALSO marks another event, the National Game Development Month (also known as the NaGaDeMo)!  Okay, so it really started last week, but don't you worry,  this event lasts the whole month.  This event is similar to the National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, which occurs annually in November, and the annual Global Game Jam (GGJ) that lasts for a single weekend in January.  The goal for the NaGaDeMo event is to create a game, but you have an entire month to do so.  While the GGJ has been running for the last four years and the NaNoWriMo has been around since 1999, this will be a first for the NaGaDeMo.

"Okay," you say, "And why are you telling me this?"  Good question!  My personal blog here will mostly be inactive since I'll be knuckling down for the rest of this month while participating in the NaGaDeMo.  If you're interested in following along with the team's progress, we'll be frequently updating this blog here.

"But Tessa, who do you mean by we?"  That is another good question, anonymous-but-talkative-stranger.  By "we", I mean my team.  I've been putting a team together this week.  These are people I've worked with a few times, or only once, within the last three years.  They are people who I've noticed are dedicated to their major and have the spirit and motivation to do anything that gets thrown at them.  These people are great to work with and they get along with each other fabulously.  The people I'm talking about are listed here:

• Oliver Austin: 2D Artist;
• Travis Kehler: Level Designer;
• Tessa Liddington: Programmer / Technical Artist;
• Osei Mcmillan: Concept Artist / Technical Artist;
• Andrew Richards: Concept Designer / Scripter, and;
• Alexis Stinson: 2D Artist / Concept Artist.

Not all members and positions are finalized.  Some may change throughout the course of this project depending on schedules and skills available.  Aside from who's working on this game, you may also be wondering what it is we're making.  Well, I won't be dishing out the details here until the game is finished, but you're always welcome to follow us on the project's blog!

Leveled Up!

May 3rd was the "Building Virtual Worlds" event at the Entertainment Technology Center.  There were so many games available, some of the more memorable ones for me being Raily Tricky, Battle Lines, Chase, and a few more.  I had so much fun that I got all of the available buttons from the game that traveled inside a human body to defeat an infection and all of the yellow and blue pins from Battle Lines.  Those character models were simply adorable.  Raily Tricky had a great presentation and game concept.  I enjoyed playing the Chasing game as well; the set up was unique.  The game whose story revolved around Fudge was unequally hilarious.

The project I worked on, the Bridge, wasn't available at the start of the event.  My instructor, Ruth, described the game we made as a bust, but I agree with her statement when she mentioned that the work we put into it was still a great demonstration on the provided challenges and potential that the Bridge has.  For my portfolio, I created a short splash video that shows off the interface interaction that I worked on with the Bridge (some camera work was done by my friend, Thomas Underwood).  I'll be uploading a finalized version of the video shortly, so keep an eye out for it!

Another new piece of content I added to my portfolio is a splash video of my work with a group project called Camel Ship.  The team was Space Camels made up of Ryan Allgeier, Luther Loomis, Tomas DeBenedetto, and myself.  My job on the team was programming and engine work in this single player UDK map.  Although I've been having issues with uploading to YouTube lately, so the video isn't view-able online just yet.  I think I may be making a Vimeo account soon if this trend keeps up.

So a lot of work has been wrapping itself up in this past week, but that doesn't mean I’m done and ready to hand it all in.  I still have plenty of content to get polished so I can turn it in for the quarter - and hopefully that’ll mean I graduate!

Achievement Unlocked!

So I'm getting a lot of mixed feelings lately.  Sometimes I'm feeling confident about this quarter, and that I'll pass it with flying covers only to graduate timely in September.  Other times I'm feeling less than confident, like I won't get it all done on time.  Fortunately, this is one of those 'sometimes' rather than the other.

Later this week, I will be at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center proudly showing off the Bridge, version 1.0, at this year's Building Virtual Worlds Festival.  I mean, just take a look at this awesome flyer!

Click here to visit the official website

Now unfortunately, this is a private event that allows admission through invites only.  However, I do plan on filming a good portion of the project that I've worked on for portfolio purposes; specifically, I helped with the interface interaction design and programming for a game on the Bridge called Gold Spike.

Keep an eye out because the Bridge will make an appearance in my specialized skills demonstration reel that will be produced closer to my graduation date.

Alright, world, it's a bright and sunny day out.  Let's get some work done!

Hello, World!

Hello, visitor, and welcome to my blog!  I've never written any blogs before, but as I'm preparing myself to enter the professional world of video games, I decided making one would be a good idea.  Other portfolio websites of professional technical artists also indicated that it would be a good idea.

So let me tell you about a few things that I've got going on.  I've recently updated my website (twice), but I doubt it's far from being finished.  I'm currently working on a few prototypes (do they ever really get finished?).

My favorite one is still untitled, but my home page displays a demo video of the character coding that I've put into it thus far (my home page will usually display a demonstration video of some sort, so it may change depending on what I'm working on).  I'd like to see how far I can take this project in terms of the pipeline production.  I've concepted it, modeled it, rigged and skinned the character, and wrote some codes to get the player part functional.  I'd like to see some cooler stuff added, like "edge detection" - if the player is standing next to the edge of a cliff (or box rather), then the game should know and react accordingly.

I've also recruited a friend, Briana, to work with me on creating better graphics for Mayan Math.  I plan to finish that game entirely.  Upon completion, it will be donated to the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council (GPLC) for the students to use to practice their math skills in their down time.  While working there, I've met a lot of students that really anticipate seeing what games I've made.  These students are all very interested in what I do, which is great considering my next prototyping.

This other prototype that I've made is a little maze game.  I've written a tutorial on how to make it on my other website here.  I focused on making the code extremely modular so that when I go to add in additional levels, there isn't a whole of of changing to the main class.  In fact, I plan on using this game as a little collaboration project with the students at GPLC (or anyone else for that matter).  Anyone who is interested can design a level and send it to me.  I then make it functional within the game, with credits due to the creator at the start of the level.  I'm sure a lot of the students who participate will be pleased to see something they've worked on go into something bigger.  I'm sure interested in the results in any event

Other than my projects, I'm entering my twelvth quarter at the Art Institute.  My most intimidating class is pre-portfolio.  The next, most intimidating class is the special projects class that I'm enrolled in.  Every Wednesday, I go to the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) to work with a staff member there to learn more about video game programming.  Last quarter, I learned the basics and a few advanced aspects of the engine, Panda 3D, and it's language, python.  This quarter, I'll be working with my teacher and a few other people in preparing their project, the Bridge, for the demo presentation they have coming up next month.  I'm really excited to be a part of that team and to really learn how my codes can affect the actual hardware of a project.  As you can see, all of my prototyeps have strictly been software related.  This will be something that's entirely different and new to me.

My other classes include interface design and team game production.  They will be tough, I'm sure, but I have [some] confidence that I'll be ok.  Confidence is good, right?  Well, look at me, typing for a decade, now I'm glad I put in a scroll bar instead.  This is probably why I've never written a blog before, ha ha.  Anyway, take care and I'll type your eyes out again another time!