MDDN 243 - Settings Page

So the settings page had to be redone because of the change to the style and the change of size (from 640x640 to 1280x720) This size change is fantastic, makes everything bigger haha. So the settings is relatively the same design, with a couple of differences. The 5 sprites for the volume are  now a hue from yellow to red so that they don't confuse the user with the cursor. Cool Beans.

MDDN 243 - Voodude Drop Shadows

So above are all of the voodude sprites that Scott produced. My job for these however, was to add the cool little drop shadow on each frame. Because the light of the background is in the center, the drop shadow is spreading out in front of Voodude. I added perspective to the shadow by decreasing the size of the feet of the shadow and increasing the side of the head so it appears as if the shadow was getting bigger the closer it got to the outer edge of the screen. With the animated background Chris produced, the opacity of the shadows play off the light flickers on the lanes which look absolutely amazing! Each shadow is a duplicate of the voodude shape, which is then flipped to be the opposite. Also, when the character jumps, the shadow reduces in size until its just a simple dot on the ground, then grows bigger again as the character lands. Fancy stuff yo.

MDDN 243 - Loading Screen

Though it is unnecessary because the game loads quickly enough, the need for this is to allow the player to know all the controls. The loading screen has each motion when a button is pressed (space to jump, up to teleport, left and right to dash). These are all displayed with moving sprites on the loading screen. It will be set to show this screen for five to ten seconds and then move onto the real game.

MDDN 243 - LOSE Screen

Were getting so close to completion now. Were just fleshing out the left over necessities such as a Pause screen and a Lose screen! The player loses when they get hit by an obstacle while having no souls. When this happens, the player will see this screen. It is based around the same layout as the Paused screen menu, having the 'You Lose' slide out from the side of the screen. Creating this was a lot easier since i already had the base from the Paused sprites. All that needed to happen was changing the text. Simple!

MDDN 243 - Pause Screen!

There is a pause screen needed, just in case the player needs to take a small break or something like that. This screen just dims the display, so its obvious that nothing can be moving but you can still see the beauty that is going on behind it. On this screen, the stained glass window has been used to create a background for each of the words. Paused appears in the top in big letters, which slides out from the side then pulses, and RESUME and MENU appear at the side, both pulsing as well. The sprites for each of these appearing are just below, then an image of what the final screen would look like.

MDDN 243 - Main Menu

The main menu of the game has been completed! First off, the Voodude mask was used because it is unique, and blown up like that with the yellow glowing eyes creates a dark, but really cool effect. To fill the other space, Chris created a stained glass window with Voodude and the spider on it. I photoshopped it to fill the space while Chris finished the lane animations, and then created his own more detailed one. Obviously what i created didn't fit his vision. No matter, his window does look fantastic! Anyway, without any further ado, here is the Main Menu Screen!

The controls used to navigate the menu are the same basic controls that are used int he game. To move the cursor up and down between 'Start Game' and 'Settings' the player must press up and down. Then to select the option the player must press spacebar. Looking at it now i realise that this should be displayed somewhere on the menu, else no one will know..

MDDN 243 - Music update

So the upload of the sound track didn't work. I have no idea how to upload music onto a blog properly.. To review the music files properly in the right context the game must really be played. But just in case, below are the screenshots of the files in the dropbox, just to show how many different sort of sound effects and music tracks we are actually having. The first screenshot is of sound effects. These were collected from free to use websites and then each one is edited in audacity to make them better suit the style that we are going for. They are broken up into two categories. The first is the sound effects that relate to the boss, such as piston arm movements and landing impacts. Then there are the sound effects that are related to Voodude. The hurt and jump sound effect were recorded with high quality equipment at Jarrod Bakker's house. These were then edited in Audacity to create a more abstract, nearly demonic sounding voice that would suit Voodude.

The below image is of the music. The Main menu tune is an ambient synth chord sounding tune that was recorded on the in-program keyboard on garageband. This is supposed to make the menu screen seem aerie and spectral almost. The files names 'Boss Boom','Full' and 'Fullv2' were the original works of in game music. These are developed further to V2 and V3 in the next image.

The four files below the folders in the below image are drum beats that were recorded with Jarrod as well. We used a plastic container thing with a towel draped over it to get a light drumbeat, which was then edited slightly to make it sound less plastic-ey and add a bit more bass to create a war drum feel.

That is what has been taking up my time for the past couple of weeks. Editing and fiddling with the in-level music and boss fight music has been my number one priority, to create a feeling that was intense and quick, but does have a bridge so the player isnt blasted with noise constantly.. Cool.

MDDN 211 - Interview

So i have been absolutely horrid at updating my work on the blog for this whole paper in general. So here's a sort of recap on what ive been doing for the past assignment!

First off ill start by uploading the storyboard for the assignment. I intended to interview a club of people called the Company of the Dragon. They do medieval reenactment and western martial arts (SWORD FIGHTING!) Before anyone asks or thinks it, NO it is NOT like LARPING. Seriously, those nuts give us bad names! The Company of the Dragon use real metal weapons and though they practice the art as safely as possible, some serious injuries can still happen. The members wear armour that can range from 15 kg to 25kg full plate, wearing full faced helms and carrying steel weapons that weigh approximately 2-4kg each. This is no joke (unlike LARPING, which is a joke in everyone's eyes). I decided to interview this group because i was a member of a similar club in my hometown of Palmerston North, where i participated in Medieval Reenactment for about 7 years.
Storyboard:

I got the film (with the help of Josh Hargreaves) of the Company of the Dragon all in one sweep. I had about an hour and a half of footage to sift through and sort out so that the audio files from the recording device matched up with the video files. That was a fun fun fun job... took a long time and i have a few audio files left over that i cant seem to pair with any of the video.. But i have what i needed. The interview, once put together in Premiere will be just shy of three minutes, because im interviewing a group of people about a common hobby, rather than a single person (which seems to be a big theme). Somehow i feel like my interview will be easier to make longer because i talked to about 4 or 5 different people and got lots of different footage from the questions i asked.

MDDN 243 - Background music!

It's been a long time since my last post.. ive been working on the sound effects and music since most of the vanity stuff has been cut out! So above is the main music that is in the background of the game. We want to keep the tribal sorta theme on the game so the music mainly consists of bongos and drums etc with a bit of shakers and the fantastic VIBRASLAP! The name is fantastic.. There's also a cowbell thrown in there. I have met up with Jarrod (one of Scotts friends) who helped me to record a few voice effects for the character and some drums using a plastic container. Kiwi ingenuity! Anyway, when the music slows down for four beats is when the game will move on to the boss fight music. The part before that can just be looped for the level duration!

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.

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.