Final... Again

I made the high score table work, also uploaded the game, here is the Final Link to the game: http://www.ozosil.com/RetroBall.html

**NOTE that the online score board only works with the online version of the game, when it is run in flash or w/o an internet connection the score board will not function.

Project 3 Update

For the last week or so each of our team members have been improving different parts of the game. I have been working on the online score board and the game cover, Tim has been improving the playability and also addressing some essential game play performance issues and finally Jeremy has been working on some new sounds for the game.

Progress update:
I finished the game cover, it is getting prited as I write this, the score board is kind of working. Here is an early test: www.ozosil.com/RetroBall5.swf in this version the only problem is that every time someone gets a high score the entire score board gets the same score, all 10 slots, I am addressing this issue and should be able to fix it up.
If worst comes to worst, only 1 score can be saved online, but that still gives the player something to try and beat.

Box Art

Here is the box art for our crazy retro game, if it ever goes on sale.



Update on the game, we are just about to finish it off now.

Project 3 Update

The main game is finished, really happy with how it turned out. Everything seem to be working really well. I will add the menu onto the main game, update the tutorial and I will also try and add a working score board.

Update

At this point, the game is looking pretty good, and should hopefully be finished by next Wednesday for handin

Project 3 Update

I Worked on finishing the menu, I also made some particle like "death" animation for our characters in the game. Later I will work on getting some music into the game and also some sound FX

Project 3 Update

I started working on the main menu of the game, making sure that the menu really captures the look and also the feel of the game.

Project 3 Update

I made our official company logo!! yay

Project 3 Update

I have made a start on researching some trail effects in flash and also how to implement these into our game, the trail effects serve as eye candy for our game. Tim is working on the game engine and graphics while Jeremy is researching also making the music and also the sound effects for out game at this point.

Project 3 Update

Me, Tim and Jeremy has had a long discussion about the game, and we finally have come up with a concept we all agree on and also a concept that we all like. The game is called "RetroBall" for now, its a puzzle game that plays like something from the Atari era of gaming (1980's) but with updated visuals that immerse the gamer.

We all started working on the game proposal together.

FLA source

Game 1:
http://www.ozosil.com/285/flashgames/SilardGameOne.fla

Game2:
http://www.ozosil.com/285/flashgames/SilardGameTwo.fla

Here is the flash source for the 2 games.

Final Games

Game 1 SWF:
http://www.ozosil.com/285/flashgames/SilardGameOne.swf

Game2 SWF:
http://www.ozosil.com/285/flashgames/SilardGameTwo.swf

Some Problems with Game 2

I managed to get game 2 working with some problems, 1st off the frame rate seems to be really slow when scrolling, the second problem is that even though I got the climbing to work, for some reason the climbing animations wont play while the character "IS" climbing. Due to work load and other assignments I probably wont be able to fix the problems present in game 2.
Level 1 more or less works to expectations with some minor glitches

More Inspiration

The 1st game level draws allot of inspiration from the 1st level of Micky Mania on the Sega Megadrive, where when you 1st start the level off the game looks like an old grainy movie and as you progress in the level the environment will be intreduced to color some colour, and by the end of the level the game will be in full colour.

Update

For stage 1, I decided to use a grainy effect, kind of like an old film. Just to give the game for atmosphere and identity. The first level will be pretty basic you will have to collect all the coins and watch out for pits, because if you fall it will be be game over .

The Story.
Well the story behind the 1st level is that the character (rachoohin) is trapped in a crazy world, where the whole environment is sketched, and further the game gets, the more detailed the level gets. Also rachoohin has to collect coins in order to buy himself out of the situation he is in.

2 Final Stages

Stage 1:

Stage 1 will be continuing and building on the environment that was created for project 3, but this time how the stage will work is as the player gets further and further into the level, the environment will start changing, for example it will become colored and more detailed. This will create an environment that is more interesting and of course less repetitive. This level is inspired by the levels of contra, because the level is non linier and its just a straight side scrolled.

Stage 2:

This stage is a little different, its inspired by the levels of the original Donkey Kong. The object in this level is to collect the coins by climbing up and down trees and also jumping from platform to platform, all this while avoiding falling debris from the sky, get hit once and the character will die

Project 2 Update.

I made a start on building my level, as stated before its going to be a mix between the levels of contra and the levels of the original Donkey Kong, here is a very early screen shot of the work in progress level.

Project 3, Game Concept Idea

Introduction:

My main goal for this project is to create a game that can first of all be done in flash under the time limit that has been given for this project. My other goals are to make the game simple so anyone can play it without any difficulty and also to create a really fun experience for the player that can be enjoyed over and over again.

So there for I decided to create a puzzle game with a touch of strategy elements, The reason I really like puzzle games is because most are really simple to play and also are addictive and can be played over and over again, also flash seems to be perfect for creating a fully functional puzzle game.

The Game:

My game takes inspiration from games like: Tetris, Lumines and Breakout.

Ok here goes my pitch; it might be a little difficult to understand so bear with me.

The game plays like this, in a scene there are falling blocks, kind of like in Tetris, these blocks constantly fall and cannot be controlled by the player, if the screen is filled by these block the game is over, but to stop this from happening there is a ball bouncing around the screen, if the ball hits a falling block or a block that is already on the ground the block will be destroyed and the ball will bounce off the block. Now when a block is destroyed the player gets money and score points.



Above is an Image showing what the game window will look like, the text in red will not be in the game.

To control the ball, all the player has to do is click on it to change its direction, this helps the player destroy as many blocks as possible as fast as you can..

With the money the player can choose from multiple upgrades to the bouncing ball to eliminate the blocks faster and to help in higher levels. Some of the upgrades include making the ball faster, making the ball heavier so it does more damage and also buying a new ball to help with destroying the blocks.

If the ball hits or destroys multiple blocks without hitting the wall the player will gain score and money multiplier, works like this: hit 2 blocks in a row and get 2X the money and score, hit 4 blocks in a row get 4X the money and the score and so on and so forth, this will be called "combo".

As the game gets harder the blocks will fall faster and also take more hits before they are destroyed, this is represented by the color of the blocks.


Extra Features of the Game:
Some of the finer touches in the game are:
Every time the ball hits the blocks a unique sound will play, so its kind of like every time you play the game you make your own music by the ball hitting the block.

Also another unique thing about the game is that every level of the game has a totally different theme, meaning that the art style of the blocks, the ball and the background changes!! Also the music and the SFX that is played when you hit a block changes too. I think this gives the game a unique art style and also gives the player a goal to see all the unique level, so it will keep the player playing the game, which is very important!

There will also be a Score board in the game, The game will be timeless, so unless its game over the game will go on forever and will get harder and harder, this will also keep the player coming back to try and beat the high score.

this was just the general concept for the game, I am sure if this game is selected input from team members can even make it better.

This game will be fun and addictive, and it will be very possible to make a very good and functional version in FLASH!

Here are some Pics of the games that inspired mine (just incase you cant remember which ones they are just from the title mentioned above):

To the Left is Break out, in the middle is Lumines, and Tetris to the right.

Project 2

I decided to look at 2 game environments.

The 1^st game environment I chose to use as an inspiration is from 1986 game “Contra” for the Original Nintendo (NES), I liked contra because it was a fast paced action game, and the environments really helped to justify that, it was one of the 1^st of its kind. The environments looked rich and detailed (for 1986). This was side scrolling at its best.

The 2^nd game environment I chose to look at was the original Donkey Kong game for the NES, This was one of the 1^st games on the system and introduced the character “Mario”. What I really liked about the environment was the fact that it was so simple, yet effective. The object of the game was easy, climb ladders to get to the top of what looks like a construction site, all of the while avoiding rolling barrels thrown at you by Donkey Kong. I think my character will integrate with the environment really well since he possesses all the abilities Mario did. The game was fun and addictive; the environment had a big part in that fact. Timeless classic!

Final Flash Document

Full Screen Version : http://www.mediamax.com/ozosil/Hosted/285character.swf

A little "Making of" Tutorial

I decided to use 2D motion capture technique to do my animation, of course this technique has been used in allot of successful games in the past. I found this technique to be effective and visually pleasing while it is also time consuming.

Here is a quick walkthrough of some of the technical aspects of how I made my character and also the animations. 1^st of all get a good friend or a hobo off the streets to model movements for you for free or basically. Next take the animations you want to use from the video and convert them into pictures. Next go out and get a coffee and take those pictures into a photo editing program and go through the annoying and sometimes even long process of cutting all the animations up.

Now take the cut out animations and add animal like features to every SINGLE frame. Yes this also takes a long time

Now all that is left to do is take those animation frames into Flash and put them together to make your real and excellent looking animations. Also make sure to make the character look more cartoons like by doing some vector mapping.

Final Sprite Sheet

This took a while, but I have made all the sprites, I made sure that my animation have as many frames as possible for a smoother motions, i have also gave the character the ability to climb objects mainly trees like recoons do.

Further Development

Just some further development of my character, as well as the art style, as you can see I am trying to go for the more artistic, cell shaded look. I think this will make my character unique in some ways!

Character Motion / Technique

This is just a demo of how the animations of my character will work, as you can see all the movements of the character have been captured from the real world and imported, i feel that this will give my character lifelike motion and movement.

The technique I will use for this character is motion capture (as you can see from above). What this means is I capture an animation in real life and using that animation to create the character. This technique has been used in 2D games in the past, one of the more well known example is the popular Mortal Kombat games back in the 90's

Character / Story

Character: Racoohin


Rohin was just an average university student, until one day he was mauled by a diseased radioactive raccoon, it wasn’t long before he started to look and feel like a raccoon. He is now called Racoohin, he no longer attends university instead he roams around chewing wires and beating up people for no apparent reason. Some of his actions consist of walking, chewing, jumping, punching and also crawling.

Help Recoohin battle all the raccoonists of this world, and stop discrimination of people who happen to also be a raccoon.


This is his incredible story…

1st Blog

Just posting this blog to see if this works