I wanted to further develop the technical aspect and mechanics of my game and started looking at different ways Flash and Actionscript work together to make different aspects of my game work. First and most importantly was the idea of being able to move my characters on the stage, not with just one control as most one-player flash games operate, but with two simultaneous controls working together to simulate the kind of movement I want to emulate in my game.
So I basically developed a stage in which I would be able to move a blue and red circle with the arrow keys and W, S, A, D keys respectively. As well as trying my best to avoid any "key-lock" arrangements (I'll explain this another time in detail) when mapping my controls to different keys, it was to have both controls move at controlled space with different variables to determine speeds.
Later in my game, I was considering adding power-up collectables in the game, which when picked up will enhance certain character qualities such as hit damage, character speed etc.
I consider this one of the more ambitious ideas of the game, but if I was to add equations to variables that when the powerups are collected, variable values are then altered as a result of that pickup. This will mean I have to look into hitTesting for moving objects and hitTesting in relation to combat.
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Character Model Development
So after considering how I want to animate my game in Flash, I previously talked about developing a universal character model which can take multiple character skins being mapped onto the structure of the model itself. I thought that the benefit of doing this was great because actually having a character model means that any character that is reflected in game carries off a unique but continuous style throughout the game. I wanted to keep everything very consistent, but add lots of variety within that.
So here is a preview of the original character model developed further. On the left, there is an Illustrator improved version of the original bitmap character model in the middle. I want the graphics to be sharper, and converting my model to a vector graphic will keep the high quality I want to see in the game. I'm still wondering whether the Illustrator vector can be copied onto my scene effectively and preserve all of the separate elements of that character such as the arms, legs, etc.
You can also compare this to actually developing a skin for the character model which can be seen to the right. This vector is supposed to be a cartoon reflection of myself, wearing a white shirt and black trousers (I haven't worked around getting them to look like black jeans yet, but oh well), and white trainers. Although the model itself admittedly may deserve more detail, you can see how the basic character model has more or less been stuck to for this version, and I'm wanting to do this for the rest of my characters as I think there will be a genuine consistency and really nice value coming out of this.
The detail in the "skinned" model may need more work, but as I mentioned previously I'm unsure whether I am able to import my vectors into flash whilst preserving groups ready to be animated. If all of the layers become referenced as one, I can only animate and map controls to a static image, which isn't what I want (unless it's a statue fighting game). I'll be updating a little more as to how I came to my character model conclusion some other time in my blog.
Saturday, 12 December 2009
Character Model + Mechanics
So with this selected idea, I considered developing one character model and then extrapolating that model with designs to go over the top of that model. Each character in the game will then use this model in order for me to correctly develop functional animations. The animations I need to consider are:
- Running
- Blocking
- Attacking
- Stationary Stance
- Jumping
- Power Moves
- Blocking
- Attacking
- Stationary Stance
- Jumping
- Power Moves
Each character is going to be an Interactive Media Design student. It would be unrealistic of me to develop every single character in our course, so I will select a few for character development and see if I can fit them to my animation model. If I can select some characters with more attributes, with identities that I can develop further, I think I can have some engaging characters to work with in my game.
The breakdown of the animation model is the body anchors and joints, and the connections between those elements. I will try to work with this basic character model first in order to get the animations right, before I move onto the aesthetic element of replacing the basic character model graphics for those which are going to be relevant to each character in my game.
Each character is going to of course experience different emotions, and I want to be able to get those emotions down and carried across as effectively as possible. As a result I am going to work with simple emoticon-inspired emotions, as they are very identifiable and it makes my designs more accessible for a broader audience. I want everyone to be able to enjoy my game, without having to read too much into body language and facial expression, so as long as I can communicate such expressions I think I can make a lot of progress on other important elements.
Market Research
So if I am going to work on a beat 'em up game, I need to of course understand what exists out there, not just in the flash platform but other platforms too, as there may be limiting cross-platform factors that I need to address.
Street Fighter (Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix)
So I wanted to take a look at the Street Fighter franchise started by Capcom. One of the first beat 'em up games known to videogamers, this is one of the immediate stimuli I considered when I first came up with the idea of working on this type of game. Why? Because it was hugely successful when Capcom released the first game of the series in August 1987. The latest Street Fighter IV release has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide as of March 31, 2009.
- Simplicity: Street fighter is a hugely enjoyable game because the aim was easy, beat the other player up until they lose all of their health. The game dynamics and the introduction of a variety of moves meant that there is no singular path to success, but there are many interesting and quite possibly complex strategies to achieving your goal. Each strategy relied on the input of the user, moreso than the actual moves you're supplied with. And this is the great part of it, every user has a different way of playing, it doesn't matter if for one round you could effectively carry out a series of moves to win because every round is different. What I want for my game is to be able to simulate a similar experience where it depends on skill, not the tools you're given to reach your goals.
- Variety: As I mentioned above, the aim is simple, but there's a variety in the fights. As well as that, there's a variety in the players you can control, and consequently a variety in those players skills and techniques. If I can develop characters that can be identified with, and have a variety of styles and ideas, I can reach larger sectors of my target audience, especially when more and more people will be able to play my game.
- Animation: This will come with the variety, different players will have different styles, and different animations. The animations in Street Fighter seem to work well because of their fluency and accuracy, they relate to the player they are attributed to and I want to do the same, but of course in my own way.
Another franchise I wanted to understand was the King of Fighters series, which was a very similar take on the beat 'em up genre as compared to the Street Fighter series. There's an important point I wanted to address with this game though:
- Combos: Combos are a series of attacks which are stringed together and records hits made on your opponent in a row. The introduction of combos into these games added a new element of gameplay, as people who became aware of this wanted to string the highest number of consecutive hits in a row. This element alone made some players want to play the game aggressively, and some had to adapt to accommodate players who were aggressive by playing more defensively and smarter. To me it's amazing that one small element made such an impact, and this is the kind of interaction that made me want to develop a beat 'em up game in the first place. This type of gaming is something that brings players out of the box, and makes them want to parttake and play a more active role in their gaming experience. If I can take into account such ideas and innovate something new, it would surely be a bonus to my end product.
- Combos: Combos are a series of attacks which are stringed together and records hits made on your opponent in a row. The introduction of combos into these games added a new element of gameplay, as people who became aware of this wanted to string the highest number of consecutive hits in a row. This element alone made some players want to play the game aggressively, and some had to adapt to accommodate players who were aggressive by playing more defensively and smarter. To me it's amazing that one small element made such an impact, and this is the kind of interaction that made me want to develop a beat 'em up game in the first place. This type of gaming is something that brings players out of the box, and makes them want to parttake and play a more active role in their gaming experience. If I can take into account such ideas and innovate something new, it would surely be a bonus to my end product.
Selected Idea + Details
So the idea that I've selected to continue working on is the beat em up fighting game with Interactive Media Design students as characters in the game. I'm interested in seeing the results of having more than one person controlling characters that they can identify with, adding something deeper in the character development aspect as these will be people that are already existent. I will take a couple of people as starting points and try to develop them as much as I possibly can, from special moves to how they act in certain situations, and I think I can do something really positive with this.
The game will take place in a series of levels, and the interesting part for me is to be able to create some really nice environments, most probably with 3D software such as Blender or Cinema4D. It will give me experience in trying to model as well as create the 2D interactivity in Flash. I hope that the final result will be a flash game, so there will be a steep technical learning curve when it comes to actionscript, moreso than animating and tweening.
The end control will be the user playing as one of these in-game characters based on real people, and the aim is for one player to beat up the other (until the opposing player reaches zero health) to win the game. I will try to have two players playing simultaneously to breed some form of competition, which is what I hope will make the game itself successful, so two characters will be controlled by two players who really want to win. If I can develop at least one level or environment that the player gets to play, I'll be very happy with the progress I have made, as tackling one level is going to be a tougher process for me.
I'm creating this game because it presents me with a lot of opportunities to cover as much of the games design process as possible, developing characters, building environments, but also technical aspects such as animation, collision, statistics and more. What's going to be different about this game is the way that it plays, many games now separate players by controllers, so if I have two players controlling with one keyboard, it may bring them closer. The mechanics of the game itself will also differentiate it from some of the other games that are out in the market now, as well as other smaller flash games that have already been released online.
The general features for the game will be as follows:
- Full Player Control: The ability to manipulate your player as you would like the player to be controlled. What is expected of the player that is being controlled, and how will that player fulfil his role in my game world, of beating the other player up.
- Health Tracking + Statistics: Monitoring health in games such as these is going to be imperative to realising the full concept, so I am going to do more research into how I can achieve this in Flash, if there are any other fighting game engines that exist which handle this appropriately, and if I can find any other games that do things differently.
- Collision + Hit testing: This is another primary function for me, preventing players from walking off-stage, through objects, and allowing the two combatants to hit each other and in turn affect the way health is reduced and calculated.
- Combat: The combat itself is something that I need to consider, whether I want players to continuously hit each other by running towards each other and making physical contact, or whether I should streamline the combat and give players projectiles to use instead. Depending on the option I pick, it will change the way the game plays, so more user testing will need to be done in order to see if either of the selected methods work well when taken forward.
Thinking about it now, I am considering adding a story to the game, possibly only following one perspective of a selected character. The idea is that when you pick a player, you also pick their story and their perspective, but for now I will try to work on one characters background and start taking in some research to see how others have dealt with stories in such genres of gaming.
The game will take place in a series of levels, and the interesting part for me is to be able to create some really nice environments, most probably with 3D software such as Blender or Cinema4D. It will give me experience in trying to model as well as create the 2D interactivity in Flash. I hope that the final result will be a flash game, so there will be a steep technical learning curve when it comes to actionscript, moreso than animating and tweening.
The end control will be the user playing as one of these in-game characters based on real people, and the aim is for one player to beat up the other (until the opposing player reaches zero health) to win the game. I will try to have two players playing simultaneously to breed some form of competition, which is what I hope will make the game itself successful, so two characters will be controlled by two players who really want to win. If I can develop at least one level or environment that the player gets to play, I'll be very happy with the progress I have made, as tackling one level is going to be a tougher process for me.
I'm creating this game because it presents me with a lot of opportunities to cover as much of the games design process as possible, developing characters, building environments, but also technical aspects such as animation, collision, statistics and more. What's going to be different about this game is the way that it plays, many games now separate players by controllers, so if I have two players controlling with one keyboard, it may bring them closer. The mechanics of the game itself will also differentiate it from some of the other games that are out in the market now, as well as other smaller flash games that have already been released online.
The general features for the game will be as follows:
- Full Player Control: The ability to manipulate your player as you would like the player to be controlled. What is expected of the player that is being controlled, and how will that player fulfil his role in my game world, of beating the other player up.
- Health Tracking + Statistics: Monitoring health in games such as these is going to be imperative to realising the full concept, so I am going to do more research into how I can achieve this in Flash, if there are any other fighting game engines that exist which handle this appropriately, and if I can find any other games that do things differently.
- Collision + Hit testing: This is another primary function for me, preventing players from walking off-stage, through objects, and allowing the two combatants to hit each other and in turn affect the way health is reduced and calculated.
- Combat: The combat itself is something that I need to consider, whether I want players to continuously hit each other by running towards each other and making physical contact, or whether I should streamline the combat and give players projectiles to use instead. Depending on the option I pick, it will change the way the game plays, so more user testing will need to be done in order to see if either of the selected methods work well when taken forward.
Thinking about it now, I am considering adding a story to the game, possibly only following one perspective of a selected character. The idea is that when you pick a player, you also pick their story and their perspective, but for now I will try to work on one characters background and start taking in some research to see how others have dealt with stories in such genres of gaming.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
