MDDN 243 - Presentation Video

MDDN 243 - Basic character motion!

 Idle Left

 Idle Right

 Falling Left

 Falling Right

 Jumping Left

 Jumping Right

 Walking Left

Walking Right

MDDN 243 - Concept images!

 Here is the imagery of the light sources i talked about in a previous post. Each light source has its own special ability and these abilities determine how frequently they appear. For example, fireflies will appear a lot more often than glowing sticky jelly's because the jelly's special ability is far better than the fireflies.

 This is an image of the monsters that plague the planet the character crash landed on. They won't appear too commonly, because there there is no combat system. The only way to escape these monsters is to move to the far end of the screen and move onto the next scene. These monsters eat the character, killing him and causing him to restart from the ship with no light sources in their inventory. The monsters will also eat any light source it comes across on its random roaming.

 The first of the two main, important mechanics that are being implemented in Pitch.

The red lights indicate an important system that the character has to repair. I am yet uncertain whether the character has to use their light sources to repair them, such as an eel attaching two broken wires and starting the system, or not. There is limited light inside the spaceship, provided by the broken exterior shell and the main doorway leading outside onto the planet. As well as this, the character has glowing lights on their suit that indicates where the character is on the scene. The player must use the light sources they research to light up the dark ship, shown in the image below where the character has stuck a glowing jelly to the roof.

The other key mechanic that drives this prototype.

 Research is broken up into two sections - Analysis and interaction. First there is Analysis. The player analyses the light source by holding E for a duration of time, which is indicated by a red circle filling up (Shown below) Then once the light source has been analysed the character can interact with it, whether its collecting fireflies in a bottle or harvesting a crystal to put in a tube. This has also been simplified to the most basic level to avoid confusion by having the player tap F to interact.

MDDN 243 - Stencyl Crash

I've come across a problem with my stencyl file. Whenever I play the game, it starts perfectly fine and the music runs and all the imagery comes up. But then! as soon as you press a button to move the character from side to side, the flash player freezes, not responds, and crashes. I haven't changed anything from the time that it worked to now, and i have no idea how to fix this...
I severely hope that the code that is present in the prototype and the behaviours and animations that are present are enough for the teachers to mark, because i have no idea why this is happening!!

MDDN 243 - Really slow.. Fireflies

This is just a really basic movement of the fireflies. I need to create more images to make it smoother, but this is the general idea that i was going for. When the player sees the fireflies, they will just be moving around in a group, but because they are in colour, they will be noticeably interactive.

CCDN 231 - Description of Assignment

Photos will soon follow, but here are the descriptions of each persons interview. These will be printed out and put onto the frame along with the "preserved" piece of gum that they chewed.

Henrietta Hitchings

How it was Chewed – Henrietta chewed with her back teeth and so much that it gave her a headache. She used her tongue to roll it back on itself so that the gum remained circular.

Duration of Chew – She chewed the gum until her temples and jaw hurt. She didn’t mind about the taste changing but stopped if there was a gross texture or was too sore.

 Feel – She felt like the gum was a hindrance in her mouth, making it hard to talk or eat. She didn’t think about her tongue position or the gum position but focused on the shape of the gum.

Taste – Taste was not important to Henrietta, she focused more on the feeling of the gum.

Sebastian Voerman

How it was Chewed – Sebastian had two pieces that he kept separate in his mouth so that he could maximize the amount of flavor. Once the initial flavor was gone he strung both pieces together and rolled it around with his tongue a lot.

Duration of Chew – He felt that the gum had a strange oily feeling and taste that could perhaps be his own saliva after the mint had faded. He stopped chewing then since the gum had gone rubbery and lost its taste.

Feel – The gum felt dry at first, and felt like “Cutting through the consistency of an apple, without the crunch”. Once his saliva “melted” the gum it was rubbery and felt like a “strange rubbery glutinous mass” in his mouth.

Taste – The initial burst of flavor was strong and good when the gum was first broken. When the flavor faded it had a rubbery fake taste.

Michelle Bicknell

How it was Chewed – Michelle kneaded the gum with her tongue, moving it from side to side in her mouth so the mint flavor was all throughout her mouth.

Duration of Chew – She chewed until it had gone rough and rubbery, whether the flavor had gone or not. With mint, the flavor lasted longer so even if the gum had faded, she still felt like it was fresh.

Feel – She said it “Feels like a blanket over your molars” when the gum molds around your teeth. It felt sleek at first until it had been chewed too much, and then left a rough feeling on her tongue.

Taste – The initial blast of freshness had the most impact on Michelle. Occasionally she would flatten the gum against the top of her mouth so the mint would flow into her mouth.

Dan Young

How it was Chewed – Dan chewed the gum in the side of his mouth until it was flat, then folded it over on top of itself with his tongue so that it is round again. He then continuously repeats the process.

Duration of Chew – He chewed for so long the gum had no flavor and was hard and rubbery. Dan chewed because it was a natural feeling for him rather than for the taste.

Feel – He said he didn’t mind the rubbery feeling of the old gum. It felt normal for him to chew for those long durations and felt like an automatic action to chew.

Taste – The taste had long gone by the time Dan had finished with the gum. There was a slight rubbery flavor and felt like it should taste like something but no taste was coming from the gum after a while.

Sarah Duweke

How it was Chewed – Sarah flattened the gum a lot, whether it was against the top of her mouth or against the shapes of her teeth. She did this to get the flavor rather than the chewing action.

Duration of Chew – The gum was quickly spat out after the flavor had been lost. There was no further chewing when the flavor was gone.

Feel – She didn’t chew the gum, but flattened it and folded it to get the majority of the flavor. This made it feel like a “film over her mouth” when she had the gum in. It felt nicer to fold it and get the taste rather than repetitive chewing action.

Taste – The flavor of the spearmint was better than the peppermint as the peppermint was too sweet and less minty. As she folded it the taste leaked into her mouth, tasting just the right kind of sweet.

MDDN 243 - Light Sources ideas!

light sources ideas

classic fire - Fire surrounding the spaceship that provide a small amount of light. Just so the player doesn't die right at the beginning.

Fireflies - Most common occurrence. Appear at night and when the player interacts with them, can catch some and put the in a jar. This jar can then be thrown, releasing the fireflies and lighting an area. After some time the fireflies will disappear.

Torch crystals - Crystals found in caves that can be harvested and combined with a small tube or pipe the player has to create a makeshift torch. This will provide light in a cone in front of the character.


Glowing Eel - When caught by the player and cracked over the characters knee, these eels glow somewhat similar to a glowstick! They provide a large area of light around the character, but fade after some time.

flint cricket - A small cricket that sits on the characters head once it has been caught. It rubs its hind legs together to create small sparks of light that light the area in flashes. Less effective than the Glowing Eel, but more commonly found out of swamplike areas.

Sticky Glow Jelly - A swamp creature similar to a jellyfish that can be used as a lantern style light. It can be thrown on to surfaces and will stick there for a long time, glowing. After a while the Jelly will fade away. Its special ability is the fact tha tit will stick onto walls or even the roof.


If the player nears the any of the creatures, their abilities are shown just by observation - An important part of Research and development of technologies.

MDDN 243 - Images of lo-fi Prototype

MDDN 243 - Chosen Concept

Pitch

'Pitch' was my chosen idea. It uses the mechanics of research and development of technology, Escape and Repair. The concept revolves around an astronaut that crashes on an alien planet. The planet is far from the sun so very dark. To progress through the game, the player must research different natural light sources and collect them to light their crashed ship. This is so they can actually see within the ship and so the indigenous creatures of the planet don't attack them and kill the player. As the player lights the different levels of the ship, they must make repairs to important sections of the ship so that it is operational and they can Escape from the alien rock. Below is images or the character and the motion of the character when they are walking. Along with basic left to right walking, the character has two different foregrounds that they can transfer between so there are multiple paths the character can go. Also the character has a small amount of fuel in a jetpack that they can use to jump over cracks etc.

  The important items and important parts of the game that the character can interact with are different from the background so that it is clear that the character can in fact interact with them. For example, if there is the natural light source of fire flies, they will be in colour while the majority of the background will be in black and white, shown in the image below.

This is a huge shot of the screen. It would actually not be as wide as it is now, but this was purely to show more of the detail on the screen. Everything that the player can interact with is in colour, such as the ship and the fireflies. Once the player walks near the fireflies, text would appear at the top of the screen to instruct the player what to do, such as catch a firefly or study them etc.

MDDN 243 - Concepts

Pumpkin Idea

Pumpkin headed guy
Killing zombies and mummies - risen from dead because of toxic pollution
Coming back to life because of toxic pollution
On a quest to stop the nuclear plant and provide the world with sustainable power
Mechanics - Fighting, Jumping

Snow Idea
Perhaps snowball fight style?
but the barricades melt - global warming?
so it slowly gets harder and harder, against more people.
Mechanic - Command? 
Commanding unit to build snowballs,
command one to throw balls,
command one to rebuild walls slowly?

Underwater idea
Use water power engines to create electricity?
sustainable energy using turbines that run of water currents?
defending the turbines from rabid sea monsters?
collecting... pearls from clams to use as resources or money?
Mechanics - Collecting, defending, building

Vine Idea
Vine idea - Trapping poachers or woodcutters with vines so trees can produce more oxygen..
use oxygen to create more vine traps?
Tower defense?

Mechanic - Command, defense

These are my ideas so far at their most basic. With images that could interpret how they could turn out. These are not the concept ideas i have chosen however, and were just other ideas that I had.
All Images collected from: http://digital-art-gallery.com/picture/gallery/newest