Project 2 - 2D Platformer: March 2014

Thursday 27 March 2014

The Unique Element

For our project, we don't just want to leave our game as a bog standard 2D platformer. There are hundreds of platforming games in the market, so we have thought of a way to make ours unique and bring something new to the genre. We wish to use the rotation element of smartphones and tablets to add a new dimension to our game.

Here is the view you would see when you hold your tablet or smartphone vertically. We want this view to change depending on which angle you are holding the device. So when you look at your device horizontally, the view would change to...

This! Depending on how you position your device, it changes what you can see on your screen. We believe this will add an exciting element to the game, as it can help the player decide how they will progress. The rotation of view could also be used to solve certain puzzles, by having to see things in both views to understand the situation.

This is a concept we wish to develop, however due to time constraints and skill limitations this is unrealistic to create at this moment in time. We wish to create the game as a regular 2D platformer, and then develop that further to add the unique elements, including the rotation for particular devices.

Friday 7 March 2014

Software

As stated previously, we are using the software "Construct 2" by Scirra to create the game. Construct focuses a lot more on the design aspects of the game rather than the actual coding which is more ideal for us as we are stepping into new territory. We now have plenty of designs to play with and can begin to properly construct the levels. First off however, here is a quick run down of the software.

Layout

Here is the layout of the software. It is simple to import your own designs and you can drag & drop items where you want them to be and resize them. Here is a small scene of two of our characters and a block I drew in Paint.

Behaviours

You give anything you import characteristics through giving them "behaviours". This includes how the item moves, if it has line of sight, and if it is a solid object that the player can stand on.

Animation

The animation is doing by importing numerous frames of the character. You set "collision points" on each frame which tells the software at which point you want the character to collide with over objects, for instance so the character stops moving when it hits a wall.

Events Sheet

The events sheet is used to add more characteristics. For example this image on the left shows that we have set the characters "walk" animation to occur when the character moves left or right, and the stationery animation occurs when the character stops moving.

Tuesday 4 March 2014

Poster, Logo and Title Screen

This is so far the final design for the Logo for C.Legs the game. We tried to keep the design informal and comical as that's the whole style of the game it however still needed to demonstrate the pirate themed style. though not making it to overbearing.

Once the logo had been developed we started on creating the poster several designs were put together for example fig 2 which was based in the cave had a more darker context. though we decided on fig 1 as the final poster design which is still under some more review however. We decided to choose that as it was more lighthearted and somewhat explains the situation of the game without giving too much away.

Fig 1

Fig 2

We then followed up by creating a Start page for the beginning of the game. The aim was to keep it simple and straight to the point so the user can essentially hit start and go.

Backgrounds and the Little Details

Now that the main character and the general characters have been developed the next steps graphically were to set the scene. Each scene shown is the main background along with additional components featured within the scene However we may be adding more as the game develops.