Errors: Job Reflection

So finally the game is done....
Feels like a while since we started!
When I first began doing tasks for my team, I was very anxious. Having come back 2 weeks into the the second semester and missing approximately the first 3... catch up was needed. I was lucky that my team was so supportive and accepting despite this handicap. I was debriefed with the events and plans created while I was away and quickly took on the tasks needed- After familiarising myself with the needs of the team, I was given the role of landscape conception.. which I won't lie was tricky but after doing a fair bit of research and inspiration searching (including some of the sights I saw overseas) I was able to fulfill the task.
Sticking to the art roles... I next was presented the task of logo design - my research included thoughts of either doing something with the errors title or roman inspired. This task was personally more enjoyable for me as I wasn't stuck throwing trees and rocks everywhere (haha..)
Now... I'd say doing the cutscenes was the most stressful part of my job.
If I were to do this job again, I would've liked more time/more notice from my group to draw the cutscenes...I really didn't like the quality of the drawings produced.. but oh well... what's done is done. I'm just glad that it's all done and dusted 😅😅

Errors: Final Game Link

Errors - The game

Final cutscenes - video form

Errors: Game Trailer cut scene drawings

Scene: Demetri losing his family at sea

          (Demetri on the boat, sea is very rough, while his sons float away as he is screaming for them)

      Caption: Many years ago, Demetri lost his sons at sea…

                       He would risk anything to see them again.

Scene:  Ephesus and Belevi at war

          (could be a map drawing or could be people fighting people to show conflict between them)

      Caption: His search takes him into the hostile territory of Ephesus…

                       A country that has long been at war with his homeland, Belevi.

Scene: Demetri has been captured

          (Demetri handcuffed and chained to a wall in a dark cell, head hung low looking defeated.)

     Caption: While in Ephesus Demetri was captured and made a prisoner of war…

                     As he awaits his fate he is given the chance to speak his last words…

Scene: Duke Saloms looking down on Demetri

          (There is now some light in the cell shining on Demetri while the duke looks down on him menacingly.)

     Caption: His story of loss and pain forces the Duke of Ephesus, Duke Saloms, to give him a
                     second chance

Errors; Final logo - digitalised

Final Logo- We decided to use the skull and branches over the other two designs,
I designed the branches to look like an X as to represent a mistake or better yet  - Error.

I first took a photo of the initial sketch and brought it into SAI.
First I dropped the opacity and created a new line drawing layer and traced using a curve tool. 

This is the completed trace; The original image layer is hidden.

To complete it fully, I used the paint bucket tool and filled inside the lines black before adding text in the space underneath as I did in my initial hand drawn concept.

Erorrs ; Logo conception

Task: A Hero's Journey with a Shakespeare Twist: Hamlet the Video Game! ; The challenges of logo conception- Moodboard/inspirations

Task: A Hero's Journey with a Shakespeare Twist: Hamlet the Video Game! ; The challenges of landscape conception- WIP Moodboard, inspirations and more concepts.

Click images to enlarge v

Task: A Hero's Journey with a Shakespeare Twist: Hamlet the Video Game! ; The challenges of landscape conception- WIP Moodboard, inspirations and first concept.

Click images to enlarge v

Reflection

Making the game was tough, and due to it's shortness and many level relying points. Some concepts ended up falling through.
The Health bar was a challenge and trying to re position where it showed via code was a nightmare but was eventually solved. I was going to make it so that the orb followed the played with a particle effect but it was a lot harder than I had assumed so. Double jumps served as a useless feature so I did not include it but instead added wall jumps. Having double jumps in the second level would have made the level too easy within the time frame.

If I were to do this game again, I would potentially create more types of enemies and make better art for the game. Not to mention try bring in different aspects from my treatment which would indubitably make the game more interesting and deep.

Link to game: Gone Under

Download and play here

Final Game Trailer:Gone Under

Character Death animation frames

Backgrounds- Continued

Menu Background

Level background

Against All Odds REVIEW

http://www.playagainstallodds.ca/

Against all odds is a web based game (more specifically a educational game) surrounding the themes and struggles of refugees. It provides us with an insight and a deeper look into their lives. The run from their corrupt and chaotic governments and a society where even taking a wrong turn can mean the difference between freedom and felony.

The game is relatively straight forward allowing the player to go through the game "as themselves" before seeing the outcome. If the outcome is not one that the situation expects in the eyes of a refugee the game will prompt the player to retry.

Things I liked most in the game:

1. The art style of the game
2. The easy menu navigation
3. The instructions on what to do in each scene- easy to follow

Things I didn't like:

1. The controls in one of the scenes were more complicated than they needed to be. Why not just use the arrow keys?

Graphics = 8/10
Music = 5/10
Story = 10/10
Content = 9/10
Controls = 4/10

Overall I recommend this game as it is very educational and can help us as the audience gain more understanding of the world of refugees. It can be hard for us to see past what the media tells us and this game shows us more putting us the players in the shoes of a refugee. We need to be grateful for the peace in our lives, our lives could be way worse.

Paper Prototype

Game Treatment ~A collection of thoughts~

1. Title: Gone Under [temp name]


2. Characters: Protagonist, Spirit like villians/ enemies, a guiding light. 
   Location: A twisted reality, starting at the base of a tree. 
   Challenges: To maneuver around enemies and defeat them proceeding on.
   To motivate the player to carry on with the story, the story will be revealed as the player plays on starting from the scene of the crime/accident. 
   Genre: 2D Platformer
3. Urban kind of scenery, dull colors nothing too bright, potentially some reality defying things/scenery. 
4. The player will play through the levels, being rewarded with more story line and character background. The goal is to cure the protagonist and get medicine for them.
   
   
5. Heart rate of the player controlled characters could increase when nearing the enemies making him slow. Player suffers damage when touching an enemy, enemies are kill able. OR Heart monitor/health deteriorates over time - the player is forced to complete levels as fast as possible before all health runs out. 
   
   
6. Aim: Three levels for project: Game starts off with scene of crash - player needs to make character move along down the road to the next scene. 
   
7. Player will gain information from the guide (a guiding light) towards the start of the game. If full story- Player will be potentially be rewarded with memory fragments every 5 levels to reveal the background of the situation: (That the character is in a coma etc)

Pixel Art Character walk cycle - Gone Under (Game project)

Scene 1- Gone Under (Game project)

Undertale game review.

This review is about the game Undertale a popular 8-bit styled indie game developed by Toby Fox,
I recently got the chance to play this unique game, and immediately you are pulled into the undertale universe with a sense of the unknown as you walk around and interact with interesting characters.

Things I liked most about the game:

1) The 8-bit/ retro feel
2) The storyline and the fact that the story would change depending on the choices you made in the game.
3) The fact that every character that you met in the game was charismatic and interesting. This made you want to interact with them.

Things I didn't like so much:

1) There wasn't really much telling you how to get to certain menus when using a keyboard to play, especially opening the game after not playing it a while. You kinda had to feel around until you got the menu you were looking for.

2) wasn't really an easy reset button if you messed up the route, I heard from a friend that she had to go into the code to fix her game to get a fresh game.

Graphics = 6/10
Music = 8/10
Story = 9/10
Content = 7/10
Controls = 5/10

Overall I do recommend this game as not only is its storyline and soundtrack splendid but this game teaches values. The fact that violence is not the answer and that you should always try diffuse a situation by talking it out first.

8/10

TANGRAM Puzzle and RACE TO THE END BOARD GAME

As an exercise to demonstrate understanding of what genre was, we were tasked with first playing an age old puzzle game: Tangram. Provided with a A3 piece of paper and a set of rules, we cut out the needed shapes before beginning to frustratingly trying to create the possible shapes.

The next task involved getting into a group and creating a simple game using simple board game mechanics, such as a picking up cards, using counters, dice etc. My team decided to set our board game around rescuing a dog from a fire. We placed certain squares around on the curved path to the centre which we then explained their effects on the rule sheet. This made sure that the groups trying it out would understand and play with ease.

To set the dog free, the players must have had collected enough enough water cards by landing on the water squares (blue droplets), landing on fire pushes the player two squares back and smoke causes them to miss a turn.

Game Character description~

It wasn't easy for Hadrian to live through each day as hallucinations pierced into his dreams at night. Each time, he was reminded of the fateful day his mother and brother died, the crimson red that stained his view. As he fell asleep today, he found himself awakening to the deadly scene of the crash. Unlike other nights, he was unable to awaken from this hallucination. It trapped him within, forcing him to watch until a small orb of light came into view. The light, who is the helper, explained that he wasn't going to rouse until he was able to pass through the tests that his own mind offered. His own internal demons came forth as enemies, wisps of darkness that blocked his awakening. The only way the protagonist could awake, was if he defeated all these demons and managed to get to the entrance, where he would awake.

Game Character Design

Online game review: Layoff

This review is about the online, free to play game by the name of "Layoff" which uses similar game mechanics to those such as Candy Crush or Bejewled  but with a twist.
The game while staying true to its switch and match 3 of same theme is based around a large problem in reality: Unemployment. I found the game simple to play, with the rules clearly shown at the beginning of the game. It's a game made out of pixel art making it appealing to me with so many small details to each icon.

Things I liked most:

1. The pixel/8-bit style to it
2. It brings attention to real life problems. When you play a game you generally play it to have fun and escape reality.
3. Detailed.

Things I didn't like.

1. It gives you a reality check as mentioned in the positives.
2. It wasn't really challenging and the game mechanic itself got dull

Graphics = 5/10

Music = 3/10

Story = 2/10

Content = 4/10

Controls = 5/10

Overall I found that the game was a unique concept which taught you the truths behind how unemployment works. The bankers survive and the regular everyday people with any other jobs can be turned unemployed just so that the company saves money.

5/10

A game of Battleship

Last Monday I began my studies at AUT doing digital design, which focuses on cinematics, animation and game design in the first year.

Within game design we were asked to play a game of battleship with a partner, starting off with a normal un-modded version of the game on paper before adding in more elements to see how it would effect the game. One of the things we added were the element of the fact that when you manage to hit the other persons ships that you got another turn. This element caused the game to move along at a quicker pace which made playing a little less dull. You'd know if you've played before that the slow period of searching a predicting squares is of a tedious boring manner.

This experience was a good example of how simple modifications add and or change the way the game functions. Helping players to stay interested.

Crypt of The Necrodancer Review

The game Crypt of the Necrodancer developed by Brace Yourself Games, is a unique game featuring the mechanics of moving to the beat of music. While many games allow you to move the character freely, this game only allows the character to move with the beat of the catchy background soundtrack. 

The game surrounds the main character Cadence, a girl on a journey into the necrodancer's crypt in search of her missing father. But in order to find him, she must go through a series of dungeons full of monsters picking up items and treasure on the way.  

Things and points I liked most on the game:

1. I enjoyed the art and 8-bit retro style to it.
2. The catchy soundtrack and how it was a different beat for each level.

3. The challenging and difficulty as you progressed with the game.

4. The large (but not too large)  range of individual items you could collect within levels.

5. The menus were easy to navigate

Things and points I didn't like as much:

1. Although there were three levels per "zone" (4), it would've been nice to see more zones and levels as after you finished all for zones of a character, the game relies more on the different attributes and effects of the different characters vs new levels. This also effected the amount of soundtrack music, seeing as it was a different soundtrack song for each level.

Graphics = 8/10

Music = 8/10

Story = 6/10

Content = 6/10

Controls = 9/10

Overall I do recommend this game despite the low amount of levels, which are balanced by their difficulties. I have really enjoyed playing and will continue to try complete the achievements it has. The soundtrack is something this game would not work without and fundamental to it's success. 

8.5/10