AO5 Paper version of our Game

Today the task was to create a paper version of our game, and then make a video of us “playing” it. This real life, tangible prototype will help us start thinking about the logic of the game, and how we might go about programming it in Gamesalad. To make this paper game functional we had many different layers and elements, all made from cut out pieces of paper. Things we wanted to move we stuck down to the background, and moving objects where put on tabs so they could slide around. The main character: Squid, was a cut out blue tacked to a stick, and moved around like a stick puppet.

First we did some planning in Photoshop, making a crude map as to what our paper level would look like. We incorporated all the core ideas present in the game: killing enemies with rocks, activating switches with rocks, collecting clues, and platforming.

I then took some of the pixel art I had created for the game in a frame, as well as some new elements made just for this project, and printed them out.

We printed out to images of Squid, one with him face left, and one of him facing right. What we did was stick them either side of the stick, so that as you moved him you could flip the stick and turn him around.

After we’d assembled all the elements and tested they worked, we went in front of the camera. We filmed a play-through of the prototype, with me controlling Squid and his projectile, and Aaron controlling the background and enemies. We couldn’t figure out how to make the game scroll as an in camera effect, so we filmed the whole strip in one wide shot, and then in premier zoomed in and added position key frames when scrolling was needed.

Main Character Design

The character we have in mind is someone who’s quite nervous and cowardly, vulnerable and child-ish, but also with a manic and awkward edge. There are elements in the characters that inspired Squid that really evoke these characteristics, and these design points can be used as inspiration. For example Courage the Dogs round form and stubby limbs make him seem very small and weak and child-like. Both Zoidberg and Courage have big expressive eyes, that are drawn very simply, that show both a mania and an innocent-ness With this mood board as the starting point, I started sketching out some designs and experimenting with the character.

The next thing to take into account is how the design will translate into pixel art. Obviously a lot of detail will be lost, so it’s got to be all about the bigger shapes. I think the design already accommodates to this well, but something to remember is to keep the head big. The squid-ish head is the focus point of the design, so should be clear through the pixel art.

First go at rendering Squid in pixel art

This is my first draft of a pixel art Squid. I think this can be refined and improved, pushed into weirder places and made more streamlined. The legs are too long and the eyebrows are too close to the eyes, giving Squid a meaner look. I do like the way the face tentacles turned out, as they were the thing I was worried wouldn’t translate well to pixel art.

3 Things to Change/Develop

3 things we will change/develop based on our feedback.

1) The main thing is to emphasise the theme and character design. There was a lot of good feedback on this and most saw it as a big selling point. This Under water but in space idea is something to emphasise across the game, in menus and level design etc. Make sure it’s always present, but still evolves across levels. The character design was also a strong point, someone said “you remember the characters.” So the visual of Squid should be used a lot, incorporated into the logo etc. The final design of Squid should also make sure to retain his memorable features from this pitch.

2) Complexity seems something that needs to be adjusted. With our audience now being more casual some said the game was too deep, and praised the simplicity. I think we need to bring it down a bit and simplify. However if we take out too many mechanics and ideas it could become boring, and there were those who liked the more complex ideas like changing gravity across the levels. It might be that the wording of the pitch needs to be revised to make it clearer.

3) The praise for the 8-bit art style makes us think we should put focus on this and use it through-out the game. Before we were not sure if the 8-bit should be used across the menus and the logo etc. This is something we could add to the pitch.

AO5 Feedback on 1 page Pitch

We’ve had very good feedback on our pitch, with positive comments across all the sheets.

Most of the people giving feedback were casual gamers, and they gave the pitch high marks. The two Core gamers seemed much less eager to play the game, one saying they didn’t understand it but it would be good for kids, and the other saying it sounded great, but it wasn’t a game they would play. From this feedback sessions it seems that our main audience is more towards the casual gamer.

Something thats probably connected to this is the feedback on the complexity of the game. Some worry it’s to deep complex, whilst some want more intricate mechanics. There was good response to the variety of the game, the idea of having different levels and worlds.

There was positive response towards the theme of the game, both in concept and it’s design. Everyone really responded to the “Space but underwater’ idea and thought it was original and inventive. Theres a feeling that the characters and worlds are really unique and could be used as a strong selling point.

I think we can take this feedback and use it to really refine the game concept, and make it even better.

AO5 One Page Pitch

The next stage is to take all the information from the core diagram and the “game in a frame”, and use it to put together a one page pitch.

Next we will receive feedback on this pitch, which we can use to develop and improve the design.

AO6 Pixel Art Tests

As I’ll be doing the graphics for the game I’ve started doing some tests for this pixel art style we’re going with. I’ve made significant progress from the first early rendering of Squids character that I did, that didn’t really follow the pixel art rules and lacked a design elegance.

After going through a lot of internet tutorials and posts about this art style, I got the basic rules down: All the pixels used must be the same size and their placement must follow a grid pattern. So the pixels can’t rotate or half overlap with another pixel, they must rigidly stick to a grid, like coloring in blocks on  graph paper.

So now with the theory I need a way to set that up in Photoshop. First I set up a very very small new canvas  of 40 by  50 pixels, and then turn the grid guide on, just to help me out with planning the shapes. Now I use the pencil tool at a size of one pixel, to draw the shapes and forms. The canvas is so small i’m working on the scale of pixels, with my pencil tool only filling one pixel a click. Because of this i’m all set up to create the art, the pixels are all on a fixed grid and as long as I don’t change the pencil size the pixels will stay the same.

With everything I learnt, I made some early passes at some of the characters and objects we’ve created, for use in the “Game in a Frame” but also for experimentation. I’ll continue looking at tutorials and experimenting to try and improve my work in this style.

Game in a Frame

The task here was to create one frame of our game that showed off what it is, that brings every element of the game together to represent it, similar to  a mood board. The frame had to include all the things we knew we wanted in the game, the narrative, villain and hero, designs, representation of other levels, and the graphic style.

I had our Squid character jumping from one platform to another to show that the game would be a platformer, and to show the narrative I had Squids father locked in a cage with the main villain; King Crab sitting atop it. The different levels are represented by the planets in the sky: the earthy rocky world, the exploding space craft, and the volcanic planet. I rendered the frame in pixel art form as this is the art style we want to go with. By doing this piece I’ve really developed my skills at this art style, and will continue to experiment and try to improve.

AO5 Game Design Document

1. Title Page (Phoenix)

2. Story/Gameplay (Aaron)

3. Game Flow (Phoenix)

4. Character and Controls (Aaron)

5. Main Game play Concepts and Platform Specific Features (Aaron)

6. Game World (Phoenix)

7. Interface (Aaron)

8. Mechanics and Power-Ups (Aaron)

9. Enemies and Bosses (Phoenix)

10. Cutscenes, Bonus Material, and Comps (Phoenix)

AO4: Basics of Gamesalad using the Pong Game

Game Design – Initial pitch

Tweet pitch – Condensing the pitch into the format of a tweet, using a limit of only 140 characters.

‘Navigate strange planets, jumping, sliding, and throwing rocks, to collect clues to find young Squids lost father – 8-bit Platformer/Puzzler, Mario in a maze’