Level 1: Progress

The first level has changed a lot since the last time I demonstrated a prototype. the setting has changed to fit an in-game tutorial level, but the next level will carry on within the same level. The intro / tutorial level is set in a parallaxing forest, which as I have explined in previous posts that the forest background layers move at different speeds and distances such as the foreground moving faster than the background to give a pseudo-3d illusion of depth.

The level is fairly consistent and predicable at this stage, allowing simple movement and a small selection of combat moves. The level gives the player time to get a sense of the controls until they can perform actions and instantly know what to expect from the new game machanics. It is designed so that the player can familiarise themselves wiith the new visual style and the platforms that lead two different pathways. The platforms are a part of the forest in the level, which allows the player to move across branches or on the ground, but there will be some instances that require the player to move to the platforms because of certain obsticles.

The amount of enemies present are very minimal and function at their easiest AI configurations. The player should find oppitunities to play around in the environment until they have a firm grasp of the health particles setting. They will also be visual cues such as arrow directions for platforms,weapons, achievements etc, everything that is needed to progress to the next level. New gameplay mechanics will be introduced slowly and built on the existing controls so that it will be easier for players to effectively approach and use their new abilities.

HPS: Progress

In the previous post about the the Health Particle Setting I mentioned that they were some performance issues when using pngs for each frame of animation in Flash. Testing with a sequence of PNGs prove to be a problem if I went with exporting all 200 pngs and sequencing them in order of the animation created in ParticlesIllusion 3 (This application allows for the particles effects to be exported in a sequence of PNG files with the option of alphering out the background). The animation would significantly slow down the animation in Flash, So after deciding not to use ParticlesIllusion, the only way to have a particle system work without having massive slowdowns is to generate it with code. I didn't see it at first but Flash's actionscript would be awesome in implementing a particles system with a low memory usage.

Flash is very efficient in generating a dynamic particle system that can easily be controlled and adaptable in the way I want it to act within the game's environment(particles that change from good to bad health), but I was worried that it would involve using particle physics equations in actionscript (I only know the basics of actionscript 2 and 3, I don't want to venture into more head aches than I already got with code). Luckily James, our games tutor was working on generating a snow particle system that was entirely done in actionscript. He was nice enough to let me experiemnt with the code to make it act the way I wanted it to.

So here how it works, the particles fall the same way as how rain or snow falls from the sky, which involves some sort of gravity and friction, but these forces are cheated to give the illusion of realistic rain/snow by making particles fall at different speeds and distances in Flash. The particles are also drifting across one side of the screen, representing a wind force on the particles. The last and most important thing the particles show is the player's health through a harminous sequence of colours that seemlessly change from green to red if the player takes damage. This is done by calling upon the player's current health, if the character takes a certain number of hits from enemies, the colour of the particles start to change after every 20 health points. If the player reaches zero health, the particles fade and the character dies.

Full/Medium Health Setting



Medium/Low Health Setting



Low Health Setting



The rotation of the particles also speed up everytime the health particle's colour change, where green is a very calm rotating speed and red is full chaotic spins. This adds stress towards the player, which makes them act more quickly and gives them the challenge of finding health to restore the particles setting.

Update:Game Engine

Hey ya'll, I have updated the engine, and done most of the things in the previous things to do post, such as the easing with in the background is done (the illusion of the character gradually slowing down), orb collection, enemy collisions, GUI, basic movement and combat controls for the main character are working, but the php leaderboard is non-existant, I'm still thinking if the game really needs one, plus I dont want to be given myself more things to learn because I have another project to attend to, so I'm leaving it out at the moment just until all major things are done in this game and a client orientated project I have on. I also want to include a lot more with the orbs, instead of just collecting them, the player could only absorb them with his gauntlet but some orbs move slower than others, and the player can't attack when absorbing orbs, this could add a survival horror type game mechanic to the game, and make it more or an experience. Argh, still need to do all the animation, I think that will be done after christmas now.
For anyone is interested in the design document of Dream Hunter, I will post after christmas, It has to be in soon, blargh!

The Core Engine

Before I integrate the graphics and special effects, I need to get an game engine programmed. The engine will include side-scrolling, platform levels with various collisions for the player and enemy objects. I have been prototyping a very simple parallax scrolling level, using all the graphics as placeholders.It has been a good way to develop and focus on the gameplay, so far. The key objective now is to finish the core engine to create a framework upon which the rest of the game can be built and added. Unfortunatly, I had to use graphics for these screenshots, just to see the overall asthetics of the parallaxing planes. Still need to include leveling up arrays and enemy collisions and AI. er..need some weeks to animate the characters and enemies, argh.



Things done in the Game Engine:
1. Parallax Scrolling
2. Easing
3. Character Movement Controls
4. Platform Collisions

Things that need to be done:

1. Enemy collisions
2. GUI
3. Particle Health Setting
4. A php 'Captured Souls' Leaderboard