Megaphone for sale

So I found a megaphone on trademe today this will be perfect for my experiment.

Though a bit more than I would like to spend it is exactly what I need for this project to work. Once it arrives I can begin testing.

Latest Version of Game

Below are the links to the current version of the game
Play
Download

Hanging now works!

The solution turned out to be really simple and just came to me randomly. I just put an invisible tile at each end of the vines that slants your movement downwards. Then I coded in that when hanging and you move down you automatically let go. Problem solved!

Double jump complete and Hanging almost...

Got the double jump working in about 10mins so I'm happy I've got something working. This seemed to get my flow going and the hanging code problem is almost solved. The problem with the freezing was it was trying to load 2 animations at the same time. So now that's solved I just need to solve the problem of the seed floating in space next to the "vines".

Hanging code more trouble than first thought...

So I have the seed disable gravity when he hits a ledge he can hang onto however I have run into a number of problems with it. First off when the release button is pressed he falls ridiculously slowly. The second is he doesn't when he moves to far left or right of what he should be holding onto, he just floats in space. And then when I had fixed all that the game would freeze when trying to load the hanging animation. I think I'll just code the double jump and come back to this as that should be easy.

Sensory Experiments

So I decided to carry on with skateboarding as my base action. I feel that skating is losing the rebellious status that it once had especially here in Wellington and so I have chosen to try and invoke a sence of rebellion in these experiments.

Experiment 1: Graffiti
What's more rebellious than graffiti? By putting spray can on the back of the board you are now "tagging" the street as you skate down it. The sound of the spray cans is notorious and I believe its works very well with the existing sounds of the wind and the wheels. It is also a constant reminder of what you are doing and so grants a sense of daring that should result from rebellious acts.

Experiment 2: Fireworks
Fireworks in New Zealand have always been a rebellious activity. With the legal age to buy going from 15 to 16 to 18 and the time span to buy them dwindling to to a single day. Therefore setting off fireworks from your board as you are hurtling down a hill invokes a definite sense of danger and rebellion.

Experiment 3: Smoke
And finally there is the act of burnouts. Boy racers have always been a major front for rebellious behaviour in New Zealand and doing burnouts is right at the heart of that. I wanted to emulate that with skating so I have taken smoke bombs and attached them the the board so that when you skate around in a tight area you get a very good "burnout" going.

500 Word response

 

From these the main feedback I had was that I needed to get the results form the experiment into the writing and to even add the photos from the experiment as they wanted to see them after reading about it.

Coding the different move functions.

So to start with the basic run, jump and fall code is done as it is the same as the game I made from project 1. The first thing I will tackle is the hanging stance. I need the seed to hold on to overhanging vines when he jumps up into them and then release when a certain button is pressed later on. After this I will move on to the double jump.

Group Meeting 1

Group meeting 1: 

Discussing game goal, environment, movement, enemies. 

We discussed on several new and different ideas to help improve the base of our game idea by changing different game characteristics.

Game Goal:

- Changing the original linear game into a game that has 6 zones and has 5 levels per zone each with ways different ways to interact with objects in game

-changing the character to collect resources by completing the jump puzzle and getting to the ideal planting spot. 

- the layer of polluted smog will be placed only on certain levels where the level design will be a horizontal layout rather than horizontal + vertical as it would have been far too difficult.

Enemies:

additional enemies that can be added to game.

- Polluted air bubble

-snails and slugs

-birds

-venus fly trap

-thorns

-quick sand

Environment:

-We have decided to change how each level will be, as the game is now going to be in zones, we though each zone should have an independent theme when say zone 1 is underground and zone 2 is in the morning and frosted over. 

- current consumables that we have come up with for the seed to collect and oxygen/carbon dioxid bbles, water droplets and sunlight. These are resources required for the seed to continue to the next level before planting itself. 

- on certain levels the seed will need some power ups to advance through the level, some of these are oxygen bubble shield that will deflect 1 hit from a monster, arms that can be lashed out like vines to swing over pits.

Movement:

Movement is a huge part of a game and really depicts how a user thinks of a game, if the character is hard to control then it can be very frustrating, especially in a game similar to ours. We have come up with a variation of movements for the seed to do to enhance the interaction of user to character.

Group Meeting 2

Discussing game mechanics, aesthetics, individual roles.

Game Mechanics: 

- Player Lives:

deciding on whether or not to have player lives. As some levels may be very difficult to complete and require many tries before succeeding. But still have not decided on whether if you die ‘x’ amount of times you will have to restart the zone, rather than the whole game. Or rather you have an unlimited amount of lives and you just restart the level when you die.

-Point system:

seems irrelevant for a game like this and will most likely not be included. instead of this we will just use a count for how many resources the seed has collected.

- End level

Still a tricky thing to decide, overall the character will be a full size tree at the end of each zone, rather than the end of the game, so it seems as if the seed has reached its maximum potential and has successfully saved that particular zone. But whether or not to choose if the seed plants itself and progressively becomes a larger tree at the completion of each level, or just to continue each level until it will plant itself at the end of the zone.

Current Individual roles :

- Jordan Shand - Character, art design

- Zac Bird - game mechanics, coding

- Chris Hughes - animation, level design