Second Year Media Design http://loxyreid.posterous.com Lachlan Reid posterous.com Thu, 16 Aug 2012 20:50:00 -0700 243 Final SWF Game http://loxyreid.posterous.com/243-final-swf-game http://loxyreid.posterous.com/243-final-swf-game

Reid_Lachlan_MDDN243_Project_1_SWF_Game.swf Download this file

In this project we were asked to design a character and simple level for an educational children's game. These games were to promote sustainability. I chose to look at the idea of children turning on lots of power sources and leaving them on all day. My idea was to create a character that powered devices, but could only power a few at a time, so players would have to return to previous power sources and turn the power off to continue in the game. My character would be made of raw power and then place a part of itself into lights to give them energy. I decided to represent this in silhouette form, basing my aesthetic loosly on the game Limbo.

I decided that I wanted to study the movement of an animal in detail and create a realistic character. I chose to use a rabbit as they have a very interesting sillhouette and run cycle. I read some biology textbooks to learn how a rabbit runs and created a realistic sprite sheet of movements. I drew all the frames by hand and manipulated them using photoshop to give the end result. 

For my background I chose to use a very dark run down alley way. One of my initial concepts was to have a post apocalyptic world where humans are all gone. I combined some of this idea with my energy puzzle. The pictures were taken in Wellington using an iPhone and were Photoshopped to derive the end images. The lamps were drawn in by me and everything was given many adjustments to get the lights to work.

My level is very simple. Players can control the rabbit and move left or right using the LEFT/RIGHT keys on the keyboard. If they are below a lamp (can be a little tricky, try to position the rabbit directly below the ligthbulb), energy can be transfered into the lamp by using the Z key. Energy can be retracted in the same way, again with the Z key. Players are free to run about the street as they wish and turn lamps on and off. I focused more on the aesthetics of the environment and getting the character to interact smoothly than the gameplay. Only two lights can be turned on at any time which returns to my original idea about turning power off to continue to use it elsewhere.

Controls are:

Move - LEFT + RIGHT

Power Light / Remove Power - Z

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Mon, 06 Aug 2012 17:52:00 -0700 Soul Sprite http://loxyreid.posterous.com/soul-sprite http://loxyreid.posterous.com/soul-sprite

Here are my sprites for the rabbits soul turning the lights on.

I orignally just went with a wind blast effect to make it look as if it was floating up. But now I have changed that so it looks better.

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Sun, 05 Aug 2012 23:33:00 -0700 Some 243 development http://loxyreid.posterous.com/some-243-development http://loxyreid.posterous.com/some-243-development

I have added a small glow to the rabbit which moves through each animation in steps of 9 frames. This adds a nice subtle effect on my character, reinforcing the idea that it is made out of light. Whilst hard to see the effect is noticeable when up close or when it is looked for. These really small details are some of my personal favorite things about games. Where designers have added small touches in that you dont notice at first. 

I also made the rabbit shake around a little bit when idle to give the character some tiny subtle movement. It is reasonably noticeable and takes away from the staticness that the character has when just standing still. Also the glow is active here creating more movement.

After discussions with both Kah and Ben I have still decided to go with the outline approach. Reasons are that I felt the full silhouette was too 'blocky' and detail was lost. I felt I could create as detailed movement with just an outline and it is much more easy on the players eyes. They are not interacting with a character that detracts from the detailed environment around. I feel that the character complements the background nicely. I have reduced the amount of white in the character so it doesn't stick out so much.

I also tried adding in more detail with thinner white lines as shown here, but I felt that these were taking away from my original challenge to myself of trying to display the character through just a silhouette. I feel that both are as interesting as each other but my personal preference is the ones without the added detail.

Sgsd

 

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Wed, 01 Aug 2012 03:58:00 -0700 Run animaiton sprite sheet http://loxyreid.posterous.com/run-animaiton-sprite-sheet http://loxyreid.posterous.com/run-animaiton-sprite-sheet

First sprite sheet completed for the moment. Actual sheet has transparent background for use in Stencyl.

Run_spirte_sheet

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Tue, 31 Jul 2012 04:21:00 -0700 243 character 'color' concepts http://loxyreid.posterous.com/243-character-color-concepts http://loxyreid.posterous.com/243-character-color-concepts

Since my character will be just an outline of a rabbit I decided that it need to have a little bit more to it. Some outer glows and textures create a much more interesting creature.

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Tue, 31 Jul 2012 01:32:00 -0700 243 Finished Backgrounds http://loxyreid.posterous.com/243-finished-backgrounds http://loxyreid.posterous.com/243-finished-backgrounds

My level backgrounds. Including both on and off varients.

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Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:08:00 -0700 243 Background left with light on and off differences http://loxyreid.posterous.com/243-background-left-with-light-on-and-off-dif http://loxyreid.posterous.com/243-background-left-with-light-on-and-off-dif

I am hoping to just switch between two background pics for when the light is on or off. This seems to be the easiest way for me to make the backgrounds still look realsitic.

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Mon, 30 Jul 2012 22:09:00 -0700 243 Lamppost http://loxyreid.posterous.com/243-lamppost http://loxyreid.posterous.com/243-lamppost

I have decided to use this lamppost for my level. It relatively modern looking which fits my theme of a futuristic city. The angle of which it is facing will hopefully provide an interesting source of light for both directions. Rather than just being straight down this will provide more light to the street allowing a lesser number of lamps for the level.

3a2923d570d05e830e94e509b055c0fe

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Sat, 28 Jul 2012 16:53:00 -0700 243 Level Background http://loxyreid.posterous.com/243-level-background http://loxyreid.posterous.com/243-level-background

Last night I went out and photographed streets in Wellington. Mainly ones with graffiti and little signs of life. This is important for my level as I wanted an almost eerie feel to it. I then took the images, spliced them all together and applied various brightness, level and saturation filters to create a seemless black and white long photo. As I wasn't sure whether or not we would be allowed to use real photography in our 2D flash games I then tried to remove the realistic textures by applying some image filters to the photo. I also removed most of the light from the image so that the character would have to use the lights provided to see around the level. The end result is a almost vector illustrated picture of an empty street. I am really pleased with how it turned out. It is realistic enough to protray my point but not too much so that my character would look fake.

Background_-_bw_oil_painting

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Wed, 25 Jul 2012 18:58:00 -0700 Color scheme test http://loxyreid.posterous.com/color-scheme-test http://loxyreid.posterous.com/color-scheme-test

Quick color scheme for the rabbit. Hopefully with the white aura it should illuminate the area around it making it seem as if it is giving off light.

Test_rabbit

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Tue, 24 Jul 2012 20:03:00 -0700 Some 243 Concept Sketches http://loxyreid.posterous.com/some-243-concept-sketches http://loxyreid.posterous.com/some-243-concept-sketches

Concept 1 is a warning about global warming and the rising sea levels through a fun interactive game. A polar bear or arctic fox would be scuba diving around a submerged city.

 

Concept 2 would be after a nuclear apocalypse on earth where a robot would be cleaning up the city collecting human items, wall-e esque. This would involve a really dull pallete of colors, mostly browns.

 

Concept 3 is about a rabbit made of power which would be able to give power to a certain amount of things at once. This one is about teaching kids to switch off appliances that they have finished using. 

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Tue, 24 Jul 2012 19:57:00 -0700 Some rabbit sketches http://loxyreid.posterous.com/some-rabbit-sketches http://loxyreid.posterous.com/some-rabbit-sketches

Here are some rabbit sketches based off my third concept, which I will be continuing to develop over the next few weeks. These ones were mainly focussing on movement, especially in the jump/run animations.

004

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Thu, 19 Jul 2012 06:43:00 -0700 Arnt Jensen's Limbo http://loxyreid.posterous.com/arnt-jensens-limbo http://loxyreid.posterous.com/arnt-jensens-limbo

Limbo.ppt Download this file

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