Level 2: Test

Argh, sorry again about the quality, for some reason the video is only showing two of the three layers, it looks like theres is quite a lot of foreground, but there is another layer. I can't get Fraps to work so I'm using crappy CamStudio. The parallax works nicely with the layers, but I still have to sort the layer's colours and their speeds relative to their distance, which shouldn't be too much of a problem. Really need to finish the 1st level before moving on to this one, I think I'll stop at level 3, cos making the art assets as vector takes ages (plus, I'm not too good with illustrator, hmm I could just do it within Flash? dammit, oh well already done now). Soo...aiming for 3 complete levels, the rest I will be concepts. kay, tis 7, sleep time.

...this is the finished vectorized level looks like, its really dark in the video clip :(, must differentiate the tones more for each parallax layer that gradually fades further into the background...or it just might be the crap quality of the video, meh.

Level Designs: World 2 Progress

In the previous post I included a redesign of the 1st level in the game, but under that image was the 2nd level that I didn't mention, anyways, this level has an entirely differnt style compared to the 1st, it has a strong silhouette style set in a vivid, dreamlike forest with surreal rectangle shapes for leaves falling from the abstract trees. This level is broken up into 4 layers: landscape, background, middleground and foreground. These layers will be moving at different speeds as a parallax to increase the illusion of depth. The leaves will be a particles effect done in ParticlesIllusion. This particles effect will also be the characters health that slowly turns green to red if the player loses health in the game. Kays, the next step is to vectorize this concept, I tried just using this pixel art in Flash, but it seems to glitch when its moving through the parallax, so vector it is, It shouldn't be too hard to vector this up.

Level Re-designs

...I redesigned the first level. It was too dark, so as you can see it is much brighter and surreal now. I think having an interesting high detail background with vector might not work together, plus they might be issues with mem constraints, I might use these for the game's concept art instead.

Game Plans for Levels 2 & 3

...forgot to post the plans for the 2nd and 3rd level that was hiding in my sketchbook. Talking about sketchbooks, I've got tons of drawings of characters, creatures, environments and random stufffor this game, but cant be arsed to scan all of them in at the mo, soo will probabily be exhibiting it into the degree show. I'm making a portfolio website for this degree show, most of the sketchbook work will be in it...so until then.

Game Plans

These are some of rough plans and mockups for parts of the game such as UI designs, actionscript, game engine, parallaxing levels and a list of the art assets. I have also got some storyboards describing the game mechanics. I also might do some design animatics, which are storyboards that move. This might help me with structuring designs into gameplay. Need to be fast in designing gameplay elements and not get too stuck down with ideas that end up being impractical, mostly thinking modularly. I believe it gives you less problems in the long run...so im always open to change and everyone who is designing should be too.

These and some other rough designs of features will not be in the deisgn document (they MIGHT be in the appendix, but not sure yet, argh must start writing it), also some rough drawings and mockup art done in flash will not be in there either because only I can decepher them to be any use to anybody, but they essentially have helped me with creating a simple game mechanic, and defining rewards and and penalties in the game, that has evolved into a simple concept centered around some potentially innovative game mechanics.

GDD Structure

So, this is the structure for the Game Design Document. I will be using some of the sections from Chris Taylor's document template and coming up with an overview that fits this type of game. I will also be adding some sections from the Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) game called Shred Nebula, I think that this doc is well designed with it mostly comprised of actual production examples and gameplay diagrams, which might work better for implementing my game to visually communicate its ideas to the player.


Game Overview

* Philosophy
* Core Concept
* Common Questions

Gameplay Overview

* General Features
* Basic Control Layout - Advanced CL
* SP Special Attacks and Power-Ups
* Basic / Enhanced Soul Absorbtion
* Enemy gameplay overview

The Game Worlds

* Overview
* Level Structure Overview
* World Features
* The Physical World
* Rendering System
* Perspective
* Game Engine

The World Layout

* Overview
* World Layout Details

Game Characters

* Overview
* Characters
* Enemies and Nightmares

User Interface -

* Overview
* HUD / Inventory Details
* EXP / Leveling System

Single Player Game

* Overview
* Details
* Story
* Length
* Victory Condition

Game Concept Art

* Character / Enemy Art and Design
* Environment Art and Design
* Visual FX

Key Art Tech and Engine Features

* Rendering
* Gameplay Tech

Misc Stuff - Downloadable Content, Game Modes [Multiplayer], Online PvP battles

Appendix - XBL Leaderboards, Inspirations, etc.

Abs-orbing...

Yays, dissertation finished! now back to final major. I have been experimenting with different fun ways to collect the types of orbs within the game. Here is a demonstration of the character harvesting orbs by holding down a key, but to make it more of a challenge within itself, the orbs will move at different speeds as the and the player can't attack while absorbing the orbs. It works similar to Resident Evil's 'Run and Gun' feature that only lets the player do one or the other, the player can start to absorb but they will be vulnerable to attacks if they are. Orbs such as the ones that recharge magic and health will move slower, but experience orbs will absorb a lot faster.

There will be some enemies that require you to block or evade their attacks while you absorb, but when the orbs are dropped they will disappear if they are not collected in time, which will create some challenge for players not to lose any of the orbs gained. From the clip the orbs are collected and presented in the HUD, when enough orbs are collected to fill the circle guages(types of orbs are differentiated by colour, the player will be notified on what they are at the start of the game), they will be able to execute more powerful attacks or level up if their experience gauge is filled. so yeahh, I hope this game mechanic will make the game more of a crazy-ass fun experience.



I have created the animations for the red, green and blue orbs in ParticlesIllusion 3. The orb is exported as PNGs and imported into flash. I've only included a small amount of frames to be exported as PNGs because pngs are more performance intensive if they all the frames have alphas. The frames will be placed in sequence of the animation within a movieclip. I was having problems with looping a seemless particles effect in ParticlesIllusion, I have found it easier to make a looping animation for the orbs by reversing the sequence of pngs in the movie clip but not to include the 1st and last frames of animation when reversing back the animation.