Character Sprites

Just a quick post to show the three characters from my game as they will appear on screen. From left to right they are; Blair, Grim and Pierr.

Click the image for better view.

Level Concepts #1

Each level in Grim Happenings will be loosely based on Dante’s Inferno, the eight circle of hell, each circle will be a ‘world’ divided into four separate levels. Apart from Limbo (which will act as a tutorial world) will have a ‘boss’ represented by one of the seven deadly sins (Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Gluttony, Lust and Greed). In order to proceed to the next level on each circle the player will have to collect a certain number of souls.

Each level will begin as a paradise for the tormented soul’s and as the player moves through the levels they will restore balance and the levels will go back to how the should look.

I will now explain what each level will contain;

• First Circle – Limbo: This circle (or world) will act as the tutorial level of the game and will give the player a chance to learn the controls and such.
  • Level 1.1 – This level will have a few enemies and will give the player a chance to learn how to use ‘Grim’
  • Level 1.2 – This level will have a few enemies and give the Player a chance to learn how to use ‘Pierr’
  • Level 1.3 – This level will have a few enemies and give the chance to learn how to use ‘Blair’
  • Level 1.4 – This level will conclude the tutorial and have a small challenge to set the scene for the rest of the game.

Enemies: Enemies in this world will appear as regular uncorrupted cutesy animals, they will have no particular attributes.

• Second Circle – Lust: This circle will the first proper level in the game and will contain the first boss of the game. The level itself will appear warm and relaxed with lots of sensual candles and such, and as the player progresses through the level it will become barren looking with a large swirling hurricane in the background (the hurricane is symbolic of the tormented souls lack of control in life).

Enemies: Enemies in this world will appear lustful, having feminine attributes.

Boss: The ‘boss’ of this circle (which will appear on the final level of the circle) will be a large wolf, it will attempt to seduce the player’s character temporarily (stunning them) and then lunge forward to attack, typical of your generic 2D platform style boss (alla Mario). In order to kill this boss the player must attack the exposed heart on its chest three times.

• Third Circle – Gluttony: The level will begin by looking like a banquet. As the player restores balance the level will become desolate and covered in a vile slush, there will also be a dark grey snow falling throughout the level. (This represents the garbage that gluttons made of their lives on earth)

Enemies: Enemies in this world will be bloated and slobbering. They will be slow but powerful.

Boss: The ‘boss’ of this circle will be a large, drooling, pig. It will attack by charging from side to side of the arena, attempting to try and devour the player. Smaller animals will appear from either side of the arena, in order to beat this boss the player must kill these animals before the boss is able to devour them. After four ‘charges’ the boss will become starved and will only take on hit to kill, however if during any of these cycles the boss manages to devour either you or an animal it will become replenished and the fight will essentially reset.

These are the circles I will be designing by the end of the module, however I will write up what the remaining would be like. I will only be coding a couple of levels from Limbo.

Uploading Flash

Anyone know how to Upload flash documents? Been trying to figure it out and not having much luck up until now. Anyway if you’re one of my lecturers just imagine that a couple of flash files are here until I actually get them up! >.>

Braid Analysis

Braid is a game that I have taken a lot of inspiration from throughout the course of this project. I’ll start out by warning any readers that this analysis may contain spoilers.

Braid is an ‘indie game’ though it’s a little disconcerting that the developer sunk some $200,000 into it’s development. On the most

basic level Braid is a simple story of a boy (or man), Tim, trying to rescue a princess from a monster. However the story hints at many other possible underlying meanings to the game, the most interesting is those which hint to the development of the atomic bomb.

One thing in particular that struck me about the story behind Braid is that throughout the entire game you are made out to be some generic hero, stomping on monsters, solving puzzles, all to save the princess. However (and this is where the spoilers come in), there is a huge twist as the end of the game, after you’ve finished the entire level you rewind time and you see what is actually happening. Tim is actually the ‘bad guy’ and the monster is actually a brave knight coming to save the princess.

The concept of the game, in terms of actual gameplay, is quite innovative (having actually won the “Innovation in Games Design” award at the 2006 Independent Games Festival.) The levels are linear based and set out a series of puzzles for the player to solve in order to access the final level.

So far the game probably sounds quite standard, but what makes the game innovative is Tim’s time powers, in each world of the game Tim has a different power over time. To begin with the puzzles are extremely difficult to get your head around, but once you get past that the game is very enjoyable.

In my opinion, Braid has no major shortfalls, the game play is fantastic and the art is interesting. So to conclude,

Braid is an excellent game and it proves that you don’t need a massive studio and the current gen graphics to make a great game, that accompanied with the massive twist at the end of the game simply makes it a fantastic experience.

Har Har I’m updating my blog.

Hello again internet, I kind of forgot about updating this over the last few weeks (evidently). Well I’ll give a little insight into what I’ve been doing. When I started this project I had very limited prior knowledge about using ActionScript 3.0, so I’ve been learning that and I’m happy to say that I’m able to code most of what I wanted to be able to do by the end of the project. Aside from that I have mainly been doing drawings ready to begin animating.

I’ll pop up some .fla source files later this week so you can see my progress with code over the past month. I’ll also post up all my drawings over the course of the Christmas holidays.

Weekly Roundup, Yeah…

Been doing a few bits an pieces, but I have no real substance at the minute. Hoping to have some animations up soon.

 

So that’s it.

 

Cheers!

Weekly Round Up #1

*cough* I know I said I was going to do this on Friday but I wasn’t feeling so good, so here’s this weeks weekly round up.

 

 

The Concept

So here’s my concept, this post explains simply what I intend to do over the course of this module.

 

Game Analysis: Assassin’s Creed

Not much to say here, a recap of my Game Analysis which I did on the 9th of Oct. Currently writing up an analysis on Braid.

 

Character Development

The first of many posts focusing on the development of my characters, I’m currently in the process of doing movement animations for grim, and concept sheets for my other characters. Expect more in the following weeks.

 

That’s it for now.

 

– David

 

Meet Grim!

So I finally found a scanner (thanks Steve!), and have a good few concepts drawings to work with. I don’t want to just dump everything on at once so I’ll start with our protagonist, Grim.

As you can see Grim has gone through four ‘stages’ of development, here’s a little run down;

1. This embodiment of Grim was my first real concept for the character, I originally planned to make him a very cutesy character, but felt that this concept made him look a little too bulky.
2. Next up is a much ‘slimmer’ version of Grim. The first thing I dropped was the hand. The major issue I had with this version of Grim is that it didn’t have a hood (which is the typical of the Grim Reapers image). I did however like this concept a lot; it just wasn’t quite there yet.
3. This version is very close to the final of my protagonist, I really liked the way the hood was shaped, but it felt just a little too large.

These three helped me to develop my final Grim, a very stylized cutesy version of the lord of the underworld. I had initially planned to give him a scythe at all times, but I think it will be more interesting if the scythe appears as you attack. (More to come on this later)

Anyway, I’ll be editing the image a little later to add the coloured version of my protagonist.

On another note, I have decided to do a weekly round up post every Friday.

– David

Ass-ass-in… Durhur…

Hello again guys, just a quick post to recap on my Game Analysis from a few weeks ago. As you probably know I chose to analyse Assassin’s Creed.

Assassin’s Creed is set in the 1190s, and the main character is Altair, except not. It’s actually set in 2012 and the protagonist is Desmond, Altair’s great great great great grandson (or something of the sort). The gist of the game is that Desmond has been captured and forced to explore the life of his ancestors (using some mad science fiction plot device) to unearth some deep dark secret.

Assassin’s Creed art is fantastic, the cities are well designed and the graphics are still considered visually attractive today. However a major issue I had with this game is the shifting between ‘past’ (Altair) and ‘present’ (Desmond) pretty much destroys any feelings of immersion that was beginning to develop, and in addition to this every time you begin a mission as Altair you start atop a huge mountain and have to travel for roughly ten minutes before arriving at your destination.

Unfortunately this is only one of the games major shortfalls. The combat feels awkward resulting in large battles feeling like little more than a glorified version of space invaders, this accompanied with the pretty terrible AI made the cities quite tedious to navigate. And finally we have the Assassinations, they become repetitive and become very boring.

However it is not all bad, the game does have it strong points. Playing, as Altair is undeniably fun, this combined with the large sandbox world and fantastic parkour system creates a very immersive experience.

To conclude, Assassin’s Creed is not a bad game, but it is by no means a great game. I feel that there is a lot of missed potential, which will hopefully be fixed in the sequel.

Just finished playing Braid, so expect another analysis soon(ish)

– David

A Very Grim Concept

Grim Happenings will be 2D Platform Puzzler with ‘Hack n Slash’ elements. The game will be set in the Underworld; the protagonist will be The Grim Reaper or simply ‘Grim’ and various supporting characters. (More to come later)

The concept of the underworld will be based on that of Dante’s Inferno, which says there are nine circles of hell. The premise of the game is that the underworld is being over run by the living, bringing peace and happiness with them. Unhappy with this, Grim resolves to ‘fix’ this problem.

Grim will journey through the nine levels of hell, ridding his domain of the living plague. Each level will begin looking pleasant and welcoming, and as Grim and his ‘friends’ progress through the level it will slowly begin to look more like you’d expect the underworld to look.

I’m currently thinking about how to develop enemies, but for the time being I’m probably going to use a possession system, in which a soul can possess a living being and attack Grim.

This concept is still a work in progress, so check back for further developments!