Friday, January 20, 2012
Meeting
Now Chris is back in the country its time we all got together for a catch up. When is everyone available?
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
My Contribution
Before you start reading know that there’s only one part I would like to take from this, so if you can’t be bothered reading all this please jump to the bottom where it says NOW.
This is an idea that I came up with before I joined the course (a good 2 years ago) so please take it with a pinch of salt….a lot of salt, I’m talking about a proverbial mountain of sodium chloride here.
I know we’ve decided on using Unity, but I’m hoping we can take something from this.
It may sound a bit juvenile because I meant it for children, I’ve also though about it a lot so there’s plenty to read :S
BASICS: It’s a 2D side scrolling adventure platformer (ringing any bells?) that makes heavy use of physics within it’s game mechanics (similar to how LIMBO works, before it existed).
STYLE: A 2D cartoony, bright, childish, colourful and “wobbly” aesthetic with little black. Visuals are shown on three planes: The Background, Foreground and player space.
STORY: I’ll explain this as a short narrative: The players takes the role of an alien space trooper and is at first present at a trial of their latest prisoner: An evil alien overlord. The overlord escapes however and the player takes off quickly in their ship to try and apprehend them. During this chase the player is granted control of 3 different player characters (representing 3 different class roles). This enables them to familiarize themselves with how each character works.
At this point the player chooses which character they would like to play as based on their short time playing as them. The two characters that weren’t chosen fall back leaving the chosen character to continue the chase.
Eventually the overlord shoots down the player and they crash on a seemingly uninhabited planet scattering their ship’s parts over various islands. The overlord seeing this decides to set up a base on the planet at it’s pole.
From here on the player, determined to bring the villain to justice, sets out to recover his lost ship parts and capture the overlord.
There are 3 different main environments and 2 minor ones.
(Tutorial Level) The Island: Just a small beach island were the player learns the basics.
(World 1) Jungle: This world consists of 5 levels each introducing a new element (enemy, puzzle etc). They are:
A Cliff Level: A basic level involving a few jumps and introducing the player to crumbling terrain (more on that later).
A Waterfall Level: Introduces mossy terrain, floating platforms and water.
The Ruins: Involves several physics based puzzles involving jumps, rolling boulders and collapsing terrain.
Thick Jungle: A tougher version of the first level introducing swinging vines and monsters.
Beach: Boss Level: The player must defeat a large robotic piranha created by the overlord and collect the ship piece it is guarding. Once this is done they can progress to the next world. They are all fairly similar in structure.
NOW, This is what I mainly like about this idea, it’s the only thing I really like and it can be applied to any platformer.
In traditional platformers you always have that one platform that either slowly or quickly crumbles, leading to your characters messy demise. What I never liked about this is that there’s no room for the player to be careful or exercise much skill, the moment they touch the platform it will fall for certain. So, I would like to see a platform that you know can crumble if you aren’t careful or clever about your movements, not by chance. Think of the platforms as held together like an upright jigsaw puzzle or a half completed Jenga tower. It has it’s weak points and if the player steps on one of these weak points it will begin to collapse as simulated by in game physics. Players will have to assess the path ahead and choose their steps carefully. It’s hard to explain this idea so I hope it wasn’t too hard to understand.
Anywho, that’s my idea contribution. I’m still massively for the circus idea btw.
This is an idea that I came up with before I joined the course (a good 2 years ago) so please take it with a pinch of salt….a lot of salt, I’m talking about a proverbial mountain of sodium chloride here.
I know we’ve decided on using Unity, but I’m hoping we can take something from this.
It may sound a bit juvenile because I meant it for children, I’ve also though about it a lot so there’s plenty to read :S
BASICS: It’s a 2D side scrolling adventure platformer (ringing any bells?) that makes heavy use of physics within it’s game mechanics (similar to how LIMBO works, before it existed).
STYLE: A 2D cartoony, bright, childish, colourful and “wobbly” aesthetic with little black. Visuals are shown on three planes: The Background, Foreground and player space.
STORY: I’ll explain this as a short narrative: The players takes the role of an alien space trooper and is at first present at a trial of their latest prisoner: An evil alien overlord. The overlord escapes however and the player takes off quickly in their ship to try and apprehend them. During this chase the player is granted control of 3 different player characters (representing 3 different class roles). This enables them to familiarize themselves with how each character works.
At this point the player chooses which character they would like to play as based on their short time playing as them. The two characters that weren’t chosen fall back leaving the chosen character to continue the chase.
Eventually the overlord shoots down the player and they crash on a seemingly uninhabited planet scattering their ship’s parts over various islands. The overlord seeing this decides to set up a base on the planet at it’s pole.
From here on the player, determined to bring the villain to justice, sets out to recover his lost ship parts and capture the overlord.
There are 3 different main environments and 2 minor ones.
(Tutorial Level) The Island: Just a small beach island were the player learns the basics.
(World 1) Jungle: This world consists of 5 levels each introducing a new element (enemy, puzzle etc). They are:
A Cliff Level: A basic level involving a few jumps and introducing the player to crumbling terrain (more on that later).
A Waterfall Level: Introduces mossy terrain, floating platforms and water.
The Ruins: Involves several physics based puzzles involving jumps, rolling boulders and collapsing terrain.
Thick Jungle: A tougher version of the first level introducing swinging vines and monsters.
Beach: Boss Level: The player must defeat a large robotic piranha created by the overlord and collect the ship piece it is guarding. Once this is done they can progress to the next world. They are all fairly similar in structure.
NOW, This is what I mainly like about this idea, it’s the only thing I really like and it can be applied to any platformer.
In traditional platformers you always have that one platform that either slowly or quickly crumbles, leading to your characters messy demise. What I never liked about this is that there’s no room for the player to be careful or exercise much skill, the moment they touch the platform it will fall for certain. So, I would like to see a platform that you know can crumble if you aren’t careful or clever about your movements, not by chance. Think of the platforms as held together like an upright jigsaw puzzle or a half completed Jenga tower. It has it’s weak points and if the player steps on one of these weak points it will begin to collapse as simulated by in game physics. Players will have to assess the path ahead and choose their steps carefully. It’s hard to explain this idea so I hope it wasn’t too hard to understand.
Anywho, that’s my idea contribution. I’m still massively for the circus idea btw.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Another pitch
Since we're agreed we need more than one idea I've been thinking of stuff that is different to the other idea but still meets some of what everyone likes.
Personally I really like the idea of miniature things, so tiny versions of reality or where characters are tiny in a massive world.
So here is my next idea:
A game where the player character is very small, either a small person or a little mouse/insect or a come to life toy. (out of these I think a person is probably the least cliche/over done and the most interesting) The setting I'm imagining would be inside a house, most likely in a bed room. I would want to have just one room/section because I feel one of the problems with the other game would be that it could be too big for us to do well. So you're a tiny person in this massive room and the goal is kind of like minecraft. You collect different things and then craft them into something more useful/build stuff. Of course its a lot more interesting than minecraft because the things you're collecting aren't boring old trees and rocks and dirt. You can get building blocks and game pieces and crumbs of food that you have to match together etc etc.
From what everyone has said we want slightly more story than that though and we want darkness instead of just cuteness. My solution to this is to have some kind of over arching plot involving dirt. In a bedroom for example there is this dark, mysterious area under the bed where (especially for little kids) all this broken, dirty stuff ends up. The main villain is some kind of evil overlord of dirt personified with his stronghold under the bed or in some other dark ominous place. Throughout the game you have to defeat his dust bunny minions while exploring and collecting and eventually begin to dismantle his stronghold.
The things you would craft from objects would be aimed at cleaning so you could get a balloon and attach it to a party whistle to make a dust blower. You could get CD's and attach them to some sort of mount so that theu bounce light into dark places. You could get animal hair and attach it to a pen to make some kind of broom. The crafting wouldn't be as detailed as something like minecraft but you would have to collect specific items to progress throught the storyline. Armour would be doll clothes and so forth.
This might seem a bit cliche and over done to you guys but it does have some important differences to the other idea
- Can be less intensive with less stuff to do
- We can adjust the amount of content more easily and on the fly
- Can be a kids game (the other idea is probably too dark)
- Less characters to make
- Not an adventure game, not as focused on story
- Makes a fun toy on its own and then becomes a game without much more work.
- Can have a very simplified look to save time and be very cartoony.
- The focus is almost entirely on the art here and the 'innovation' comes from the items we come up with the craft and how they can be used so I think its a good match for a group with mostly artists/designers
- Less work for programmer because their won't be anything too complex.
Personally I really like the idea of miniature things, so tiny versions of reality or where characters are tiny in a massive world.
So here is my next idea:
A game where the player character is very small, either a small person or a little mouse/insect or a come to life toy. (out of these I think a person is probably the least cliche/over done and the most interesting) The setting I'm imagining would be inside a house, most likely in a bed room. I would want to have just one room/section because I feel one of the problems with the other game would be that it could be too big for us to do well. So you're a tiny person in this massive room and the goal is kind of like minecraft. You collect different things and then craft them into something more useful/build stuff. Of course its a lot more interesting than minecraft because the things you're collecting aren't boring old trees and rocks and dirt. You can get building blocks and game pieces and crumbs of food that you have to match together etc etc.
From what everyone has said we want slightly more story than that though and we want darkness instead of just cuteness. My solution to this is to have some kind of over arching plot involving dirt. In a bedroom for example there is this dark, mysterious area under the bed where (especially for little kids) all this broken, dirty stuff ends up. The main villain is some kind of evil overlord of dirt personified with his stronghold under the bed or in some other dark ominous place. Throughout the game you have to defeat his dust bunny minions while exploring and collecting and eventually begin to dismantle his stronghold.
The things you would craft from objects would be aimed at cleaning so you could get a balloon and attach it to a party whistle to make a dust blower. You could get CD's and attach them to some sort of mount so that theu bounce light into dark places. You could get animal hair and attach it to a pen to make some kind of broom. The crafting wouldn't be as detailed as something like minecraft but you would have to collect specific items to progress throught the storyline. Armour would be doll clothes and so forth.
This might seem a bit cliche and over done to you guys but it does have some important differences to the other idea
- Can be less intensive with less stuff to do
- We can adjust the amount of content more easily and on the fly
- Can be a kids game (the other idea is probably too dark)
- Less characters to make
- Not an adventure game, not as focused on story
- Makes a fun toy on its own and then becomes a game without much more work.
- Can have a very simplified look to save time and be very cartoony.
- The focus is almost entirely on the art here and the 'innovation' comes from the items we come up with the craft and how they can be used so I think its a good match for a group with mostly artists/designers
- Less work for programmer because their won't be anything too complex.
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