Further progression

We have decided to continue and finish the game over the next few months, to what we have originally planned. We have already made some new progress especially with game mechanics that already improves player experience. Not being confined to a deadline will give us the chance to really improve the quality and quantity of the game to hopefully be a full - arcade game experience.
There will be many radical changes to the game that will eventually fit the story we have created for the game.
fixed mechanics:
- new added dash move
- players now will not get stuck into the sides of platforms
Parts in development:
- New enemies: several additions to new plants in the first areas, including cluster bombs, spike shooting mushrooms, falling boulders.
- positional deaths:  enemies will have deaths in relation to the current position of the character. for example while jumping and being struck by a falling stalagmite, the stalagmite will only pierce a small portion through the character. While running on the ground the stalagmite will completely impale the character and pierce it into the ground.
- Shield: the shield will have to be a very limited attribute but could be a very interesting mechanic to play with. this would show a strong relationship between the character and the great tree that originally had a protective shield. But for the character, a much weaker and smaller shield.
- Charge rune: a heads up display for the character that will only contain a small rune stone to show the link between the shield and dash move, To show when these moves will be available.
- Bestiary: Information about each new species of corrupt plants you come across, these will be unlocked in the main menu to see the lore of the plant in its initial use, and possibly a picture of how it use to look before it mutated. Additionally we might add tips on how to pass the enemy, and also a death count to see how many times you have died from a particular enemy.
Parts being planned:
- Cinematic’s:
   cinematic’s for the initial game story, induction to further zones, introduction to fully  mutated plants ( bosses ), End game cinematic, possible sequel cut scene.
- next level zones in between crater & great tree
- Bosses - this area was a bit tricky to come up with, to keep the player engaged and challenged. We have come up with an idea to make the whole map composed of the boss, the environment will change depending which boss. but will provide a challenging map for a combination of plants that has mutated and combined to form this enormous mass that you must climb upon itself to progress.
- Charge moves - in addition to dash and shield, there is the possibility of coming across new moves the player can perform further into the game. as the enemies become much harder.
and more to come soon….

Level creation

Level creation is a very important job and me and Zac ended up both doing this. We already had ideas on the first level being an intro level with signs telling the person playing for the first time what to do and what the controls where. we first stared making levels very small and square but after testing it ourselves and getting user feed back we realized we needed to make the levels higher so that's what we started to do with having the idea in mind that we can put a fast pace short level in where we thing it would fit. 

 For our demo we did end up putting a fast pace short level but it ended up tuning out very successful. One bit of feedback we got was that the leaning curve is too steep which we will be putting into consideration.  

 Probably the most successful level. This was made by me and Zac. I made put all the platforms and mushrooms and then Zac put in more enemies, spikes and changes the positioning of some of the tiles. It was made so that the toxic gas was always on your tail and one big mistake could be fatal. This is the sort of difficulty we were thinking of having when the player is close to the end of the section.

Since we have decided to continue the game after the assignment in our own time I have started on making levels for the transition to the next section by adding in some grass covered rock tiles. Once I complete the level I will have people testing it to tell me the difficulty for that level

Death animations with sound

Considering that the death animations where one of our favorite parts to do I wanted to make the death animation sounds fit really well and make them believable to make them that much better. I think with these sounds it was the right type of sound at the right time and I tried to make it a very extreme sound to have it quite gruesome. These sounds were challenging but very rewarding in the end.  

Blade death

Spike death

Flame death

stalagmite death

Toxic death

CCDN231 P3 pics and video for second test

I also did the same test that was done by my tutor and took photos of before showing the sign on the candy jar which was the rebellion temptation and then the aftermath of that temptation.
Unfortunately not caught on camera but to fully simulate what I was going for I picked up the candy jar, read the sign, tried to open the lip first which was glued shut and after then decided to smash the candy jar in my act of rebellion. 

Charactor sounds

These sounds took a lot of refining from the Pendula V.1.0 with more sounds being added on such as a sound for the slide etc as the game progressed. The first thing that I really wanted to change was that horrible jump sound which I made more subtle and more appropriate where it fit the surrounding and most surroundings and also that it isn't that noticeable but you know its there and the sounds make a lot more sense especially with the jump sound and the double jump sound being different. Important sounds for animations that were also added in where the respawn sounds which I wanted to get a nice glow sound to go with the visuals and then the starting sound with the floating. Some sounds that I made/edited was the sound for running and the sound for going along the vines but due to coding error it didn't seem to want to play since it was such a short sound bite being replayed. Although this was a shame with the mix of the ambiance noise and all the other sounds it wasn't all that necessary 

Run

Jump

Double jump

Floating

Resurrecting 

Respawn

Slide

Vine CLimb

Smashing the candy

My tutor doing my rebellion experiment and smashing the candy jar in front of everyone, I did not ask for feedback after she smashed it but she seemed to enjoy the experience and of course she felt rebellious.   

Test level

Good start to level making. more of just a test to make sure everything is working without bugs but seems like levels could be higher up but that will be decided after some more feed back but in the meantime its good practice for how we will lay out our levels and because Jordan made the platforms as tiles it makes the process of making levels a lot faster. 

Editing

Typical routine of editing up the sounds to make them sound sharper or quickly making the sound effect a bit shorter or faster

A good start. Pendula V.1.0

If not working here is the alt link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/90650866/Pendula%20V%201.0.swf

 First off there is a nice ambiance track that I found off a creative commons site and it works quite well with the scene that we have atm but this could change since we are planning on making different environments. With the sound effects with the enemies and the character they are very basic and minimal at the moment but it is some where to add from. The jump is quite horrible and doesn't seem to fit and some of the sounds such as the stalagmite falling are a bit rough but I think it will hopefully not take too long to fix up so I can move onto other sounds.

Start of sound for character

What we think will be the final concept character is done so now just looking at the character and researching and looking for sounds that will match all his movements such as running jumping etc.

Group meeting 4

Due to the extent of the game relying on the artist for the rest of the team to progress. We decided to have some changes of role to keep the progression of the game going as fast and effectively as possible. 

Final change of roles include:

Jordan - Artist, Animation, game tester

Zac - Coder, Game level design, game tester

Chris - Sounds, Game level design, Game tester

The sounds has been put directly on Chris to learn, as it is such an important element this should be dealt with as quickly as possible.

Jordan has taken on Chris’s role of animation and will do both. This will give Chris to constantly be working on improving/learning Audio design, and not have to wait for new designs to be made.

Glow animation on final character.

Having problems still with animating in flash so now I am learning how to animate in Photo Shop which will hopefully be more flexible and as a start and more for a bit of practice I have put in a glow for the hieroglyphs on the main characters leaf which I plan to put in for his idle animation.

Storyboard (concept)

Group Meeting 3:

After having a few small group discussions, we have come to a conclusion that the game idea was too extent with too many game elements, and would be a non realistic goal to achieve in a small time frame. Rather we have decided to come back to the original game idea but lay out a refined back story to define and build upon the game mechanics we have already achieved. 

Idle animation: 1

The idle animation for the character. He seems all most too happy but I think that I will change that later on if need be but Jordan has said that he is planning on changing the main character so potentially this style of animation will fit the new character. 

Walk cycle attempt 1

For the animations I used flash and there is an IK handle tool which would of been perfect but that wouldnt work at all so then there was the bone tool but that doesnt work on PNGs so after figuring out how to convert it to use bone tool on it it seemed to just chop it up..

So for now until I find a better way I have done these rough animations with just using pivit points and classic tweens.

First level concept

Just a first level concept showing that it will be very basic to let the person playing the game get use to the controls quickly and understand that you are avoiding enemy's not destroying them. The only enemy that has been made yet is the one I made so I quickly coloured that in and put it in as a filler as well as the background because we are waiting on that a swell.

Enemy creation: Venus fly trap.

Just a quick concept of a character enemy that could be in the game since we are looking at "evil" nature things for enemy's. If we decide to use this unfortunately it will still have to be re-done again to fit Jordan's art style.

The Written Rational CCDN231

After researching how people put their shoes on, it was found that some people can put on their shoes quite rough and aggressively. To contrast this, I am going to create an environment of comfort.  Having an environment is very important when trying to create a comfortable mood. John E. Crowly in “The sensibility of Comfort” explains how the word “comfort” was frequently used in order to express the satisfaction and enjoyment with immediate physical circumstances. To incorporate this idea into my experiment, I am going to be having my environment being in the participant’s bedroom.

“To make up an environment of comfort, what after all could be more human than desires to be warm, and to have a cozy home?” Crowly, J. E. (1999, pg 750) – this idea was applied to the experiment for my activity. The initial testing involved the participants lying down on their bed. The purpose of this is to introduce the participant to a familiar environment and a place where they will experience an instant feeling/mood of comfort. As Goldberger (2009) states “we are most comfortable with what we know”. The next step involved altering the hearing sense. I put on relaxing music, had the blinds down to have a quieter environment and also put the blinds down to block out distractions from outside which completed my environment.

“Comfort alone, or ‘contentment’, if that term feels more natural to you, is enough some of the time, but not all of the time. What we need, more than anything, is to understand the importance of synthesis” (Goldberger, B. 2009). With this in mind I made sure to explain the reasons behind the environment and music to the participants before starting and then got the participants to lie down until they felt very comfortable but not to the point where they go to sleep. Once this was done I got the participants to put their shoes on without getting off the bed making them stay in a comfortable state.

The results of this experiment were interesting in the sense that the simple everyday activity of putting on shoes had changed due to the feeling of comfort being implemented with sound and enviroment.  Not so much how they put their shoes on but something to be noticed evidently was the approach to putting their shoes on which was in a very slow, lazy manner compared to normally putting on shoes in a very fast second nature way which is normally expected.

From this experiment I have come to find that by making a room which expresses comfort with familitary and a sense of comfort using feel and hearing as. As Farell (2009) states “Comfort is a low-key, steady-state condition. And people are animals designed for sensory stimuation”. It is very easy for someone to slip into a very comfortable state of mind and then this been shown in a physical way as a resualt with putting on shoes in a more slow manner, heightning the importance enviroments have on people aswel.

Bibliography:

Goldberger, B. (2009). Challange And Comfort. The Kenyon Review , 21-31.

Crowley, J. E. (1999). The Sensibility of Comfort. The American Historical Review , 165.

Farrell, James. J. (2009). The Clergy Journal.

CCDN271: Photos and Sound (for final and chosen exercise)

                                     

Showing the bed they were sleeping on and then points where they where putting on their shoes. I only had a picture of the bed they were sleeping on to avoid taking pictures of people resting on their beds. This person putting on their shoes relatively slower than in the last experiment. 

This person putting their shoes on with using their hands more for aiding their foot than just slipping it on.

With this interaction it was interesting that they went from sitting down to getting off the bed by the end of it but still showing signs of slowness like the other participants.

                                                                                                                     

                                   
 The music that was played as the participants where resting for comfort.

Experiment 2

Smell is a very strong sense to induce comfort so from this I got the idea to get incense candles and have the participants have the aroma of the candle fill the room before putting on their shoes. 

experiment 1

With my first experiment, looking at comfort I was thinking about other everyday things we do that are comforting and one thing that came to mind was having a shower. It is a very comforting relaxing experiencing atmosphere with mostly feel but also involving hearing and sound. The obvious problem was that it would be very weird to take photos of people having a shower. I wanted to keep this PG rated so I got the participants to be wearing togs and jump in the shower for 2 mins just standing there focusing on the comforting part of taking a shower and then after they dried themselves getting them to put their shoes on. Cant see this as something I will choosing as my main research but it was interesting. The participants explained how they did feel very comfortable and how it made them to put their shoes on in an "care fee manner"

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

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.