I decided to go with the solar backpack mechanic because it fits the themes of restoration and technology working with nature, not against it. It is mainly used for opening the door to the workshop, but any of the rubble around can be made to light up as well if they player wishes to practice, and if you approach the gate from behind you will be able to open it and create a shortcut to avoid backtracking. I enjoy the sort of design where when you get the key item it allows you to create a shortcut to prevent backtracking, but also I gave the option where if you do backtrack, you still can have an enjoyable experience by being able to mess with the ruins.
This weekend Alisa and I worked together to make a NES game at the Sarasota Game Jam! We made a top-down adventure game called dragoNES, where you stop a war between humans and dragons. Since the nesmaker program doesn't work on macs, and I don't have a working PC, I mostly churned out pixel assets like a machine while Alisa edited them and made them work in the program. Then we were able to put it on an actual cartridge and play it like a real NES game. It was a super amazing opportunity. If you have an emulator that can run it, we have it on itch.io here!
And here it is! A lot of the scenes are similar to what I made for the storyboard, but the order is a bit jumbled up. 15 seconds is a hard time limit to work in!
Pokémon Snap is probably still one of my favorite N64 games to this day if I had to pick. It was, and this is a bit embarrassing, but my first Pokémon game that I've ever played. I watched the anime, read the comics, I had Pokémon storybooks, plastic figures, VHS tapes, and bedsheets. But unlike many people who started with Red, Blue, Yellow or even Silver, Gold or Crystal... My first game was Pokémon Snap and I was just absorbed into this world. I even had a small book that I taped pictures I took of my Pokémon toys into, mimicking the gameplay. I'm one of the loud but few Pokémon fans clamoring for a sequel. So far the closest we've gotten was that one 3DS dream world game where you used the 3DS's AR cameras to find Pokémon in the "real world" to capture them, and the AR photo feature in Pokémon Go, if you are being generous. So naturally, when I saw youtube's algorithms recommending me a video analysis on Pokémon Snap I click it. And I'm glad I did! It does get the fact wrong that Snap was the first game to have 3d Pokémon (Pokémon Stadium beats it by half a year but Snap got a worldwide release first). But that aside it is a very interesting look at how Snap toys with and combines both puzzle and on-rails shooter mechanics. With how the video puts it, I'm almost a bit surprised that the game wasn't more influential than it was. But I guess that just how it goes sometimes with "kiddie" stuff. Anyway here is the vid:
Gameplay footage taken from the level, the destructible cover didn't work out so I replaced them with indestructible glowsticks. I also added giant soundwave producing speakers. Here are some screenshots:
Secret of Mana was originally released for the SNES in 1993, and has been ported and remade to many different systems since then. It was published by Square, now Square Enix, and is the second game in the Mana series. In these games you fight your way through tons of colorful baddies using sword and sorcery, and the Jabberwocky is just one of these many foes. You fight him fairly early on in the game (and later fight up a powered up version of the same boss, now called Hydra) so he isn't too difficult. He does give some people a fairly hard time, but isn't quite so notorious as the Spiky Tiger. You can use magic to attack from a distance, but melee works just as well since you haven't yet unlocked his weakness. He has two spells/AoE attacks: Acid Storm, which reduces your defense, and Poison Gas which has the chance to poison your whole party. His melee attack is snapping at you with his heads, and this can stun one of your party members. He is slow and mostly stays to the central part of the room in the early parts of the fight, but after he loses a head starts to speed up and become more aggressive. You may think that the best way to fighting this boss is to play it safe but, well, he can regrow his heads back if you take too long. Keeping an eye on your health while inflicting steady damage is the way to go. Here is a video of someone who makes it look way too easy.
The Jabberwocky is a fairly straightforward fellow. If I were to re-create him in blueprints I would probably make his melee attack proximity based, maybe on a timer at first and then after a certain level of health has been reduced he will attack instantly. A collision capsule around his head could detect if a player is hit, so then its a matter of animating the head to where the target is. The spells can be made leveraging the techniques learned during the previous project for the arena unique selling point. Large timing-based attacks that can affect the whole area. The movement and changing of movement can be used by an array system similar to what was learned in the adventure game. The regrowing head could be a timer that starts after health goes past a certain point, and will then revert the boss to a previous state if not dealt with quickly enough. Now, as for why I chose this boss over some of the more iconic ones...
The boss I have planned is a big, slimy, gross, multi-headed worm. The corrupted ruler of the Fallen Log Kingdom, our brave Beetlebug must vanquish this foe to free his homeland from evil! Here are the planned phases:
3 heads, only rotates in one spot, fires projectiles at player
Uses player location to determine rotation constantly checked on an event tick. Current rotation determines direction of projectile
Can be damaged simply with basic melee attack by going in close and smacking it with your weapon, just be watchful to avoid the attacks
using a random integer to determine what head will fire the chosen head will timeline backwards and change color to "charge up" before lunging forward again (using timeline) and spawning a projectile
2 heads, starts to move around slowly
Phases change by a branch node that checks for health value. Once health depletes enough one of the heads becomes hidden and removed from the possible options
But this causes it to be able to move, and a vector array set up is added to the mix
Heads rotate to face player for projectile attack, body rotates to show direction of movement.
1 head, faster attacks, lunging attack
Another check based on health value. Only one head is left, but it will fire faster
Instead of just slowly moving around with the vector arrays, it will now wiggle to "charge up" before moving quickly in a desperate ramming attack
Level design for a tank battle game, themed around a futuristic rooftop neon dance club. The colorful blocks provide only temporary cover, as they can easily be broken. The large central tower picks one of the four animal team emblems at random after a certain period of time and a health pickup spawns at whichever one. It is the only way to heal so it causes a mad dash to some precarious ledges!
Today in my programming class we learned about different projectile types in preparation to create a weapon system for the weapons we made in our 3D class. My weapon shoots concentrated emotions at people to apply different effects, the default one I focused on was "happiness" that caused the target to lose their will to fight. The simple implementation of this would just be to stun the target for a short moment, but I think the more fun way would be to cause uncontrollable dancing but I have no idea if that is possible in any way.
Because of the precision required for this basing the weapon around a line trace would be ideal. But I also want it to fire a "beam" of emotions using a particle trail, so I may have to find a way to combine the line trace with another option, most likely projectile movement since I don't need the fine control of a physics object. Because of this I'd likely have to apply the damage or effects on a hit event.
As for sounds and VFX my plan is to continue to lean into the cute and silly. The particles will be a beam made of hearts, stars, and smiley faces that launches from the nozzle of the gun and "explodes" into a pink cloud on impact, possibly also with cute graphic elements. I think it would be very silly if I used some kind of generic children going "yaay" sound clip when it explodes but I'm not entirely sure of this idea yet. Otherwise I think some kind of "ka-chunk" noise for the wind up and a cute little "peeeew" would work for firing.
If I'm going to be honest, I was at a loss for what sort of theme to use for my top-down adventure level. Unlike my platformer where I instantly knew what I wanted to do, for this project for most of the time I was thinking "fantasy, probably" but not much more than that. Thankfully (depending on your perspective), I like to surround myself with cute knickknacks and baubles and one little figure I had on my windowsill gave me the inspiration I need:
Say hello to "Twinkles Beetlebug"
A tiny little plastic ladybug (with a glittery noggin) was just the right size to fit in a single square on the map, so I worked around the idea of a little beetle adventurer. The dungeon would be a palace made of a fallen log, and the decor would be empty snail shells and leaf patterns. The weapon was originally a wooden sword, then a twig, then an evil-banishing wooden staff with a crystal flower. The boss is a worm hydra and I've been back and forth on what the enemies should be. I'm also still undecided on the protagonist's looks (sorry Twinkles).
The basic story idea I wrote at the top of the paper map is this: The Kingdoms of Sweetgrass have slowly been falling to evil magic, causing the inhabitants to mutate and change into mindless beings. One day, an adventurous young Beetlebug found the legendary Wand of Lilieae, Banisher of Evil, and became the chosen hero, and set out the purge the Kingdoms of their corruption.
For colors I know I want a lot of earthtones, browns and greens. I've picked out a couple different palette ideas.
I really like "Break for Lunch" but it may be a bit too light for the mood of an old hollowed-out log turned into a castle full of creatures irreversibly transformed by evil magic. Really, "Orchid in the Attic" is probably the most reasonable, but I want to toy around with the others too!
Here is the grey box version of the Cheese Heist level design I proposed earlier. It went through many changes from that first version, but the basic idea is still in tact. Jump over mouse traps and dodge tricky cat paws while you make your way to the big cheese!
This video demonstrates the spiky Cat Paw block I made in my programming class. The default cat paw is simple in that when the player enters a trigger box it shakes and then begins to descend. The "claws" change from a silver to a red and it hits the ground with a meow and a camera shake. The camera shake can be toggled in case you have a paw that doesn't touch the ground/wall/etc. Here is a peak at the blueprints:
A timeline was used to make the platform feel more "alive." It also allows for the meow and camera shake to be timed with the impact, and the color changing for the claws.
The other spiky block is a hybrid mover and spiky block. It uses the basic properties of a mover but adds deadly red claws at the bottom and after a lot of brain-scratching hard work I managed to make it even move in a square if one so chooses. Take a look:
The teal area is more or less the same as a typical mover but the blue area has a branch where if the condition is true it will allow you to set and additional two destination points to create a square like near the end of the video. A closer look:
For an assignment we have to design a tutorial level for a 2d platformer, one that will gently ease the player into new situations and help them learn naturally. My concept is of a mouse on it's way to the Big Cheese, collecting cheese bits and dodging mousetraps and cat paws along the way. The cat paws can be ridden up if you are crafty, though. I bought myself Rhythm Heaven Megamix with holiday money over the break and music from one of the mini-games, Rat Race (the characters are actually mice despite the name), keeps playing in my head whenever I work on this.
Rhythm Heaven Megamix, Nintendo SPD1, 2015, 3DS
I didn't really want the level to be in a kitchen though. I toyed around with the idea at first but then I couldn't really figure out what the platforms would be and how the mouse would be climbing. Chairs and a table seemed like a good idea at first, and riding the cat paws ended up being a concept that carried over from this idea, but it just didn't seem to make sense. So, if it wasn't going to make sense anyway I decided to go for something more abstract. The background is colors that are reminiscent of a kitchen, but the pattering and platforms are more of the candy colored abstractions found in Kirby games.
Kirby's Dream Land 3, HAL Laboratory, 1997, SNES
Another thing I struggled with were the "spike" traps. I wasn't sure how literal I should be. Mouse traps were the first thing that came to mind but I wasn't sure how well that would work, so I thought about other things. Stationary cat paws... A Fork... But I decided to just go with the mouse trap. You can see some of my spit balling on the paper version of my map.
Like most Sonic games, Advance 2 sends you right into the action, but while it may seem intimidating at first it is really just a simple run down a hill (and not a forest at all). There is a higher path that weaves in and out for those more skilled and trying to improve their times, but falling from even the tallest point wont kill you. There are no death pits in this area, and even the water is shallow enough you'd really have to try to drown yourself there. The first enemy you will encounter doesn't really do much other than hop up and down. These red monkeys, Mon, are easily beaten just by jumping or spinning at them, and they never move to attack you.
Up, up, and away!
A little further along you can encounter your first spike trap. This is optional, however, by going under the spring, but chances are you will encounter this set up: A capsule with a shield, next to a spike trap. Further along is a Buzzer enemy that will fly in that direction if you wait, but it doesn't fly past the spikes, or will it try to shoot you until after you cross the spikes. The shield-spike placement is really neat, but I feel the inclusion of the enemy may be a bit too much, but this is also part of the way to get to the harder "upper route" so that may be the intention.
You can't scare me!
If you continue along past the spikes and Buzzer you will encounter the first loop in the level, it's nothing too challenging you just keep holding the direction you are going in and you will run right on through. These loops are a flashy staple of the franchise. The Advance games also have these sideways "corkscrew" style loops, basically the same concept. This level is also very liberal with springs, poles to grind on, and these looping handles that you can swing on. The player is free to play around on these (assuming they aren't zipping right on through this level is over in a flash) without any fear of death.
Round n' round we go!
As previously mentioned this level shows you water areas right away. There are two shallow pools, one you run along the bottom and the other, because of a speed booster, you run across the top of the water then onto a grinding rail. It looks very cool, but if you can contain yourself and decide to drop into the water below you will be rewarded with a 1-up for exploration. Running across the water does grant you a "special ring," however. Managing to collect all 7 in a level opens the area to the special stage where you can try and complete a challenge for power ups or the chaos emerald, but those are very hard for me to get playing as Sonic and I don't have everyone unlocked on this emulation so I cannot show this off. That isn't the first special ring in the stage, but most of the ones prior are on to the upper route, so if you are just plowing through the level normally that will probably be your first encounter with a special ring.
Here is me running through the stage for the first time in quite a few years and trying to figure out the keyboard controls:
