Filed under: 243Project1

243 Final SWF Game

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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

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

 

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.

(download)
(download)