243 Final SWF Game
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



