MDDN 243 - Level Select Menu

A brief draft GIF of what the level select menu will end up looking like. The rotating background is a bit distracting - This can be slowed down once put into stencyl, so that it is more smooth and less distracting. The main levels that are locked are a little bit lighter than the other levels so that they can be seen as the obvious main levels.
Discussion between Scott and Chris took place to remove the wind level and combine it with the electricity level so that there is one less level to do!

MDDN 243 - Main Menu

This is a rough gif of how the main menu will be. of course, it will go more smoothly and wound have that weird little jump, but that is the idea. When the rotating background goes completely dark, it will flash to a new environment which will give the player a minimal glimpse into what they will be playing in.

MDDN 243 - Menu Sketches

Here are some sketches from my little notepad for the layout of the Menu screens and each tab.
There is a faint background environment that is rotating slowly off centre that fades in and out of focus and brightness. This will change to different environments when the image fades to black.

Levels and Achievements will have a similar layout. The image of the unlockable characters and the different level environments will be the main focusses, with smaller text below that gives details. Each of the tabs do not cover the whole screen, which means you can see some parts of the original main menu background moving. This is there so that the screen isnt completely flat and motionless.

MDDN 243 - Electricity/Lightening Mask!

So the next mask concept i drew out was for the electricity power-up. This means the mask needs to be all... lightening-ey! From the initial concept drawings Scott had done, we picked a couple that worked the best and i refined them to create this:

It uses the cell-shaded style in the highlights and shadows, not having more than a simple block colour rather than a fade. The idea around the floating parts is that electricity is holding them out there and for the animation of the mask they could possibly have a fraction of a second of drag behind the movement of the character.

MDDN 243 - Refined Earth Mask!

So a couple of changes had to be made to the earth mask to fit the new style of cell-shaded sorta stuff that were doing for Soul Furnace. This was an easy change however, just means i cant do too much detail on shading and what-not. Anywho, i changed the mouth of the earth mask so the two large teeth are the main important parts instead of the whole mouth, it works a lot better now.

MDDN 243 - Earth power-up Mask development

This is the development mask for the earth power-up. When the character collects a combo of Earth Souls and the power-up is obtained this mask is put over the default mask. It has been put forward to the group on our facebook page, and i will make any changes whether they don't like certain parts. Further development may take place with the input of the others in the group!

MDDN 243 - Final Earth Unlockable!

This is the final design for the earth guardian unlockable!
Because the head was just a space saver, i had to redo the head with something that appeared more suitable and more... menacing.. somehow..
The mask was inspired from a mixture of a couple of earth power-up masks that Scott drew out. It has the basic white that can be relatable to the general default character, as well as the solid black body and a couple of coloured details.
He's the first of a few different unlockables. The Achievement the player must obtain for this character is:
   Completed the Deforestation Level

MDDN 243 - Character Designs!

The first character has been designed to its first stages. From here it will be shown to the rest of the group and criticised, pulled apart until i have a new design!
This character can be unlocked after completing the deforestation level. This makes the character style a Forest Guardian theme!

There are two designs.
The first design (below) is a general ape shape, with a butch humanoid skull. The skull is a similarity to the default Voodude deer skull head, which makes the character somewhat relatable to the default. This will also make the power-up masks that are being designed able to be placed on top. The basic ape shape is somewhat cartoon-y, which is similar to Voodude's body too!

The second design (below) is a lot more... "Foresty". It has hanging moss falling off its body, and a tree branch coming up from its shoulder/arm. Its lankier, its arms and body being skinnier. It still has the general shape of an ape, because i consider a big ape similar to a Guardian, and could be considered the guardian of a forest or jungle or whatever. I used the same head from the other once, which doesn't suit the body but it fills the space. After showing them to the rest of the team ill see what they say and if they like this design i can change the head to something more suiting.

MDDN 243 - Monday Talk

I know this is very belated, which is horrible. I really should be more on the ball for blog posts!
Anyway, this is the first post for the group assignment of making our game, called "Soul Furnace" (working title). So we were able to keep in contact over the holidays, but sadly couldnt meet up to discuss things because of the staggered times people were all in Wellington.

The first thing we discussed on Monday is who is doing what. Andrew is focusing on the coding side of the creation of this masterpiece as he is the est coder in our group. He's doing a great job handling everything we're throwing at him and is currently working on getting the obstacle collision working. Then we can move on the create the levels.
Scott is designing the souls that VooDude picks up and the bosses that can potentially be fought at the end of each level. He came up with some great ideas over the break and sorted out the designs! Some of the bosses look really great as well. But you can find that on his blog.
Chris is working on the level designs, making them a bit more abstract and making them more interesting. He's using some inspiration from the style of artwork he used for his own game and implementing them into the designs that he's making for this game. It's coming along really well from what i've seen!
Lastly, I myself am designing the "Achievements" that can unlock new characters, and the new characters that can be unlocked. From the Monday discussion, because getting a fully working game is more important than the extra features that can be implemented later on, there will only be 3 or 4 different character designs. For now.
We discussed the idea of death in our game. Will the character die when he gets hit, forcing the player to restart the level? We shunned this idea straight away, wanting it to be more of a long level that can be played infinitely or for a short amount of time depending on the skill level of the player. With a fantastic idea put forward by Chris and Andrew, we decided that having your character lose souls when they are hit, which in turn fuel the level meter was the best way to go. This was then adapted so that when you are hit the level will slow back down to its basic state, where there will be a 100% chance that the most easy obstacles (such as a log or a buzz saw) will appear. The longer you play without getting a hit the harder the obstacles will get, such as a whole row burning or a log falling onto the two side paths. That can potentially make the level infinite, if you are crap enough at playing.
In addition to this, we discussed the power-ups that the player can collect in each level to give them special limited powers. The idea that seemed most appealing to us was the combo collecting to get a power up. So when the character collects 5 souls then a power up will appear that they need to collect. For each level there is a specific soul they need to collect, therefore a specific power that they can gain.

- Forest Level exclusive: Player channels the power of Earth to provide themselves with a shield that blocks one obstacle. (Player must then collect another 5 souls to unlock this power again)
- Oil Refinery Level exclusive: Player channels the power of Water to thin the level's fuel and deplete the gauge at an increased rate.
- Engine Level exclusive: Player channels the power of Air to keep himself afloat for an increased amount of time while jumping.
- Power Grid Level exclusive: Player channels the power of Electricity to detect oncoming obstacles before they arrive, giving them a warning before put in danger.
The final level generates each of the four souls randomly, giving the character the potential of having all four abilities activated at once.

Lastly we set ourselves a deadline to have the core elements of the game completed by. This gives us a two week "faff" at the end that we can add extra features like more characters, cut scenes, and extra little easter eggs that will make the game feel more addictive. By the critical presentation, we intend to have the game finished so that it is at a playable, multi leveled stage. This will provide us with the "faff" time.
The

CCDN 231 - each experiment

The first experiment focussed on the feeling when related to the structure of feeling – Austerity. The following quote from Wild Things by J. Attfield (2000) “defining the 'minimalist' lifestyle as the type who is 'not into clutter'” can be interpreted as “clutter” being size and the amount of space taken up. To become minimalist and be a type that is “not into clutter” the size of the chewing gum can be reduced. This will force the user to savour the small amount that they do have and adhere to the true nature of Austerity in terms of rationing. The size of the chewing gum felt minimalist, it felt like the user was being somewhat ‘Cheated out of a stick of gum’ because the piece was not whole. This also forced the user to relish what they had and made it feel as if a whole piece of gum was a luxury for their mouth in terms of feeling. The smaller piece of gum was considered pointless in the users’ mouth, feeling as if it was too small to chew properly.

The second experiment used the sense of feeling of Austerity. This experiment focussed on the sense of taste. Austerity can be described effectively in Minimalist Design by Franco Bertoni (2004): “In any creative activity the term Minimalism usually refers to the radical stripping away of the expressive means and to its consequent formal austerity.” This has been taken into account by stripping away what people take for granted when chewing on a piece of gum. In terms of chewing gum, the expressive means is the continuous chewing of gum, taking all the flavour until it is rubber. “Yet Minimalism stands apart from the numerous trends that have succeeded one another convulsively over the past decades.”

For the last experiment I took inspiration from a C. Dyhouse (2011) extract stating: “Glamour has not always been fashionable. In twentieth century fashion, glamour had its clichés: glitter, fur and slinky dresses, hothouse flowers and a slash of bright red lips.” Using this information on glamour, the experiment focussed on the sense of sight. One stick of gum was painted silver to appear more high-class or “glamorous” and had a similar appearance to a small bar of silver. Because of the gums natural colour, the stick ended up appearing more of an emerald hue, which in turn can seem more glamorous. Another stick was coated in an edible glitter substance that was stuck to the gum with vodka that evaporated, gluing the glitter to the gum. Before it had fully evaporated however, some of the vodka was absorbed by the gum. This gave the shining appearance to the stick of gum, as well as an enhanced richer flavour that can be seen as a high-class, glamorous taste.

References:

Attfield, J. (2000) Wild Things. London: Berg

Bertoni, F. (2004) Minimalist & Design. London: Birkhauser.

Dyhouse, C. (2011) Glamour: Women, History, Feminism.  London: Zed Books.

CCDN 231 - Photos!

This is imagery for the feeling experiment! The gum is cut in half and then tested. The result turned up that it felt small and rationed because it wasn't as large and wasn't normal.

This is imagery of the Glamour sight. The gum was painted silver and had glitter stuck to it with a vodka solution. The Glitter was brushed on with vodka, then the vodka evaporated leaving the glitter stuck to the gum. The gum had absorbed a little bit of the vodka so to add to the glamour it had a faint alcoholic taste.

The last experiment was for taste. The user was forced to stop chewing after five chews. The result was the user attempted to make the most of each of their chews and savour the chewing gum flavour for as long as possible.

CCDN 231 - Proposal

Here's the proposals for the experiment i intend to carry out!

I am focussing on a different sense for each experiment so that they end up being different. For chewing gum the main senses that come into effect are taste, sight and feel. So i will use these for the three experiments that i do.

First Experiment - The first experiment will use feeling. The statement of feeling chosen for this experiment is Austerity. For this experiment, the change will be quite minimal, but the change of feeling for the sense will be very extensive. The gum will be cut in half so that it is really small. Small change to the actual experience, yes, but the feeling of the gum when being chewed will be changed greatly. I am hoping that it will feel so minimal and quite strict which makes the user appreciate the size of a full piece of gum. This is taking into account the rationing of the Austerity feeling.

Second Experiment - The second experiment is also for the statement of feeling Austerity. It changes the sense of taste by limiting the user to only a small number of chews. This forces the user to ration the flavour that they get from each chew, rationing how they chew and when they chew. It's a statement on how people take the monotonous repetative chewing for granted.

The final experiment for sight had a change to the statement of feeling. Because chewing gum has a very minimalist appearance already, instead i have decided to change the minimal stick of faded colour to be more glamorous. I have taken inspiration from a glamour source that quotes "Glamour has not always been fashionable. In twentieth century fashion, glamour had its clichés: glitter, fur and slinky dresses, hothouse flowers and a slash of bright red lips." I intend to add edible glitter to the chewing gum and colour it more impressive of a colour, rather than just a faded dull colour.