Game Development Thread - Out Of Sight

Game Development Thread - Out Of Sight

Group Members:
Me, Jack, Bex, Michael, Hunter

Job Roles
Me - Character Development & Artwork/Animation
Jack - Founder of Out Of Sight, Level Design, Level Development
Bex - Level Design, Level Development
Michael - Sound, Narrative
Hunter - Ray Casting, Level Prototypes

NOTE: We all chip in and help each other if we can


Game Overview:
The game writes out the issue of government surveillance and how destructive it is/can
be. The game has a dark, noir feel to it, plus a 1950s sort of American aesthetic, whilst it is set in modern day Wellington. The objective of the game is to make your way through three levels in an art-deco style office building without being spotted by guards or surveillance cameras. Each camera has a specific movement which will determine the difficulty of the situation in that particular level. The guards walk along certain paths made and demonstrated in level prototypes. When he player is caught, the guards will gang up on the player and the 'defeat' screen will appear in this case. The final part of the game is to shut off the security system on the 3rd level. There will be an elevator cutscene whilst progressing up to the next floor/level.

Game Development:
For my part in the groups game development, I came up with some characters/spites & objects/tiles for level & character design.

CHARACTERS:

ENVIRONMENT:

OBJECTS/TILES:

Characters:

Protagonist: 
-Wears a beige chanel suit & a beige hat appearance is demonstrated on title screen.
-The characters abilities consist of bombing (the character will drop bombs to destroy various objects e.g cameras + tasering guards (enemies). The character cannot jump as the game is in a birds-eye view format and there will be no necessities for this mechanic.

Antagonists (Guards): 
-Typical police appearance (cap, suit, whack-stick etc)
-The characters abilities allow having a flashlight to track down your character, plus using their whack-stick to beat down your character. (this is to be confirmed)
-Displayed in grayscale/black & white as they do not have the importance of the main character at this stage.

Dossier Files (Which will include various characters & suspects)
TBC


CHARACTER MOVEMENT & ANIMATION:

The characters each have the same movement throughout the basic stages of the game, a fast
march-like walk. 

I will post vids in the future to show y'all how the animation looks in action. For now take it easy.

The protagonist below has a secondary movement

The officer in attack mode:

VIDS:

Protagonist (Normal Walk):

Protagonist: (Tase):

Protagonist (Arrest):

Protagonist (Elevator/Smoke):

Guard (Normal Walk):

Level Design & Refurbishment:

As a group we decided to re-pixelate the tiles to a standard sizing. Jack & Bex designed the levels and put them together to make the artwork come alive.

LEVEL PLANS:

Level 1













Level 2

Level 3
















REFURBISHED LEVELS:
(Note red areas indicate safe spots)

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

PROJECT II - Prototype/Proposal

My 3 Concept game ideas

The aim of the project is to sketch and iterate multiple game ideas that will have a serious message which may regard physical or mental health plus environmental issues. We will aim to design and construct a physical prototype for our chosen game idea. We will also have to code in a digital interactive prototype of the game displaying the character and the environment. We will begin with development sketches of our game ideas and articulate the game mechanics, ideas plus the proposal.

I came up with 3 game concepts and will explain them in detail below


DRUNKEN TIME

This idea outlines the effects of binge/excessive drinking, particually during working hours. The environment portrayed in the game is a building site in South Auckland - this refers to the recent alcoholism issue in South Auckland and the environment is based on this particular area. The players character is simply an intoxicated looking guy with a beer glass in his right hand and can take a drink to heal himself by pressing a button in the top right hand side of the screen. The environment will have moving platforms (will move left to right, up & down, in a rotational circle etc.) plus moving cranes which the character will be able to walk across, flying choppers which will have landing skids that the player may grab on to etc, plus diggers, unstable buildings that will collapse as soon as the player sets foot on it. These objects would move much faster the more intoxicated the character got, and would become almost impossible at his full intoxication level before he dies of alcohol poisoning. The issue in the game I thought was clear and well address however this game didn't make the cut seeing as the aim of the game was unclear and wasn't very challenging plus the game would require a lot of time and effort to code.

Below are some concept sketches of the character plus the game objects

RED BULL RUSH

I was really keen on this idea to start with, at is has a very clear theme, RedBull, however the message in the game failed as it taught players caffeine was an energy boost and there were no flaws relating to the effects of caffeine. The game was based throughly on Robot Unicorn Dash, except the mechanic was a Mega Charge ability, which allowed the character to perform a fired up fast paced charge which would allow him to break through anything inside apart from land platforms. The ability was limited as there was a bar that would run out while performing the mega charge. The player could refill the bar by collecting red bull cans scattered across the screen. The bull has 3 specific movements, left arrow key which enables brakes, right arrow key which enables Mega Charge + space bar which enables smack down attacks. There was one or two flaws to the game though, it was quite ripped of from the Robot unicorn attack plus it wouldn't be a good idea to make it unless the RedBull company was paying us. So this didn't make the cut either.

I was pleased with the character concepts and designs however so I decided to show them onscreen below.

HYPERTENSION HEIGHTS

After weeks of decision making and choosing between game concepts, this idea finally took priority. The game outlines the issues regarding safety in certain environments, and although obvious, the level design and the aim of the game was very clear to me. The game addresses the climbing mechanic as a whole, enabling the character to climb certain kinds of rocky terrain inside a volcano with a limited time to reach the top. The character has the ability to jump from rock to rock. The character has limited energy and can restore his energy by collecting air tanks. The hot lava at the bottom of the level will slowly rise after about five seconds and the player must work their way up to the top of the volcano before so. In secondary levels falling rocks will be introduced plus enemy creatures such as bats which will hinder the players progress. The levels will also introduce ropes which will break after a few seconds and reappear again. I was happy with the level design as a whole, which will start of basic and not to challenging. The character design is very simple and will be easy to animate. The environment will consist of much more detail though. The characters abilities vary per level, and will be able to climb upside down on certain rocky areas but will not be able to climb over corners. The character has no attacks as the game is simply to dodge dangerous objects and species. The game addresses the issue of climbing without a harness in dangerous environments such as active volcanos.

Control keys are simply arrow keys to move left, right, up, down etc; pressing the J key will enable the character to jump;
pressing J while holding down an arrow key will enable the character to jump left/right/up/down etc

The character designs/concepts are portrayed below in an orderly fashion

PHYSICAL PROTOTYPE FOR HYPERTENSION HEIGHTS

The main materials I used for the game prototype was cardboard thickness paper in two different hues of charcoal, the pale hue was used for the climbable rocks and the dark hue was used for the background. The non-climbable rocks scattered around the level ere made from moulding clay and painted gold. The arrows inside the level indicate the arrow directional keys to indicate which direction the player must travel to work their way up the volcano. The prototype is quite simple as you can see, it could be made into a board game where there are several squares connecting to the arrow keys, and one must not land on a rock or the player will be sent back to start. To include more fun, the games steps can be counted and as for every step the player takes past a certain point, the lava rises towards one step at a time, and if the player gets sent back to that step for whatever reason, the player is out of the game.

The actual game will be much more complex than the prototype itself as it will include much more obstacles such as bats, falling rocks, lava & ropes etc. On the digital prototype the obstacles will be shown more clearly.

DIGITAL PROTOTYPE FOR HYPERTENSION HEIGHTS


In Game Objects:

Level Design & Gameplay Screenshot:

P1 - The Study Of Mechanics

PROJECT ONE - VARIATIONS (The Study Of Mechanics)

My 3 Chosen Game Mechanics:
Health:
I chose this mechanic because it is a very common mechanic used in video games to determine how much damage the character can withstand. Hit-points are often depend on the power of the character, in games like Pokemon, the number of hit-points are dependent on the level/stage of the character. Character (or object) health is often displayed in bars, which represent a thin, horizontal rectangle full of colour. The coloured area gradually reduces towards the left as health is lost.





Upgrade:

I chose to briefly analyse the Upgrade mechanic, because it is interesting as it also plays as a built in feature as well as a mechanic. The Upgrade mechanic has the purpose of allowing the player to change their character/object or change their character/objects abilities in order to improve combat or make them harder to destruct.

In games like Age Of Empires, the upgrade will usually commence by pressing a button installed into the game. 90% of the time, the further you progress in the game, the more upgrades available.

Editor:

The Editor is a built-in mechanic exclusive to a small number of real-time strategy games such as Warcraft, Age of Empires & Civilisation. I chose to look at this one because it is a unique and interesting mechanic. The Editor allows the player to build their own game using the games built in objects, terrain and characters. The player will simply choose each players civilisation and colour (which will code the player). To play your custom-made game, simply save your map and the game will be able to be accessed and played in the game menu.

Health Mechanic Investigation:

In many cases health can refer to the hit-points, status or lives x of the character or object. Health can be displayed in many different and interesting ways, which may not include bars, but numbers (or another unique visual aid) as a visual indicator.

The aesthetics and dynamics that accompany the health mechanic will be demonstrated in the examples of games I have chosen below.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary

In the action/platformer game, the characters health is displayed in a rectangular bar like many games. When underwater, Lara has an extra bar for 'holding her breath,' an interesting feature built on top of the health mechanic in this game.

To regenerate health, Lara must obtain bags of medicine throughout the game

Crash Bandicoot (Original)

The old platformer game Crash Bandicoot demonstrates the characters health with a visual feature - the characters mask.

The character must spin crates to regenerate health and gain lives.

Pokemon (Original Handheld Series)

In these games, the health bar will appear green when full, yellow when half full and red when low (will also let off an alarm sound at this point)

In this game health can be restored using collected items such as potions, moomoomilk etc.

Health can also be affected by status problems such as poisoning, burns etc.

EXAMPLES OF BASIC GAME MECHANICS

1. The most basic game mechanics (which can be seen in any game from any era) are moving your player/character left/right. This mechanic was usually seen on old GameBoy games such as Mario Bros, Donkey Kong & Sonic. The mechanic simply enables you to progress through the level by pressing the directional buttons. You may move your player up/down across the screen if your character has the ability to fly.

2. Another basic mechanic is jumping. Enabling your player to jump is one step up from moving across the screen as it will allow the player to avoid obstacles that will be useful for progressing through the level. Jumping is usually enabled by pressing the space bar, or the up arrow on your PC, or if you are playing the PS3, it will usually be enabled by pressing the 'X' button

3. Aiming using the 'Triangle' button on the PS is another simple mechanic, which enables the player to toggle the main game camera left/right/up/down. This is a useful mechanic for 3D games as the player will need to have a full view of the screen.

SKYROADS MECHANICS:

The retro early 90s game 'Skyroads,' even more so the 'Rock of Ages' overlays genres. It can be considered a driving game, but at some point we call it jumping in a platformer style + the action in angle to it. Mechanically the game is all about driving the screen rather than the player. Each level is a gauntlet of driving + jumping. Like any game today, the difficulty will increase as you progress through the game, but just for fun different levels have different gravity levels which affect your jump mechanics.

Here are the basic controls for the mechanics for SkyRoads:

Here are the types of roads with certain colours that have certain effects:

The fan-made game known as CubeField is a half-replica of SkyRoads in some ways. Again the game involves driving the screen rather than the character. Like Skyroads, the difficulty will increase as you progress. One major contrast between SkyRoads and Cubefield is that Cubefield is an everlasting game, as the difficulty will come to a halt at some point, but within the first 4 or 5 levels the screen/player will speed up after an array of obstacles, as where SkyRoads comes with selective levels that will unlock with every other level that is completed.

The mechanics in this game are very simple. Just use the left and right arrow keys to move the screen left and right to avoid obstacles.

TOMB RAIDER - LARA CROFT MECHANICS

An example of a much more advanced game, the most recent Tomb Raider game was released around a year ago. I have never played this game as I tend to play the older versions and don't tend to buy new games anymore. I looked into the game and will talk about some mechanics and how the game has evolved since the early Tomb Raider from the PS1.

1. Jumping & Catching

The mechanics for this action are broadly similar to the classic Tomb Raider. The usual stuff, left, right, up, down + leaping from object to object. It is a much for fluid and realistic movement of course.

2. Walking On Edge

This mechanic enables 'balancing before jumping' which the developers really nailed for bringing the original Tomb Raider experience, however it's not realistic because the maneuver would be impossible in real life.

3. Rock-Climbing

Not quite the same as the old Tomb Raider as Lara will climb freely without using a grapple, just her hands and feet. To put realism into the game, Lara will only climb or hack into walls that are white and rough.

4. Ropes

A new feature in the game, Lara now uses her bow to attach a rope on the other end and tie the other on a pole or a harness. When she makes this device, she would do a sort of monkey crawl to get across.

5. Weapons

In the old Tomb Raider she would just auto-aim. Now she uses a wide range of weapons such as the bow, handgun, machine gun and shotgun. You come across upgrades for these weapons as you progress through the game.

POKEMON - GAME MECHANICS

Pokemon has been a popular game for handheld electronics such as the GameBoy & the DS for many years. Most of you would have played these games at some point in your life, but are oblivious to the complex mechanics the producers pack into these games.

Below are a list of examples of the mechanics shown in Pokemon:

1. TALL GRASS:

Tall Grass is a mechanic shown in almost every version of Pokemon. Wild Pokemon supposedly leap out of the grass, and is almost always the first form of wild pokemon encounter in the game. Other forms of wild encounter can be in caves, water, forests, factories etc which work in the same way as the tall grass. Patches of tall grass are displayed throughout grassy or basic land areas. In recent pokemon games such as Black & White, rustling grass allows the player to encounter a rare pokemon.

2. CATCHING:



Wild Pokemon can be caught using poke-balls from your items pack, ables to be accessed during most battles. There are different kinds of poke-balls e.g the great-ball(more chance of success than a poke-ball), master-ball (catches anything without fail), and dusk-ball (works better at night). The pokemon may break out of the ball after a wiggle or two if not weakened with attacks (with the master ball this is not possible). Each type of pokemon has a catch rate from 1-255 (the higher the catch rate, the easier to catch). However it is pure luck, just like wild encounter and is probably a random value within game-coding.

3. LEVEL:

Every pokemon, caught given or stolen has a certain level from 1-100. The higher the level, the fatter the power in general. Pokemon gain experience points from killing another pokemon, and when that pokemon gains enough experience points they will move up a level. When the pokemon gets to a certain level, they may evolve into a stronger pokemon.

4. TRADING:

In Pokemon games, you can trade your pokemon for someone else's via game-link, or you can trade with the computer in-game. Some pokemon need to be traded in order to evolve into a more powerful pokemon. 




Above is an example of trading. The player is trading his Pikachu (yellow bunny thing) for a Lapras (blue loch ness monster thing).