Here I’m just pasting a copy of the READ ME FIRST file that I handed in, so forgive the references to various files that you’ll never get to see. This details the problems that still exist within the game at the moment. It’s partly for the reference of anyone reading, and partly for me to have documented improvements on my game.

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Concerning the actual project:

-The project file (Platformer.swf) and all the code files and the .fla are in the “Platformer” folder. There are still several problems with the game, so I’ll forewarn you of as much as I can right now, even though honesty in this case might cost me more points than it saves me. Oh well.

-When you first open the .swf, on the start menu I’ve instructed the player to “avoid the abyss monster” – I did not get to implement that mechanic. The monster was supposed to be spawned at the bottom of the stage and chase the player up the first part of the level, however with all the trouble I had making collision work correctly, this didn’t make it in. It also (currently) would’ve been the only thing that can hurt or kill you, as there are no other traps in the first puzzle level, so this means you’ll also never see the Game Over screen.

-As long as you’re holding the “up” arrow key, the player rises. I didn’t have time to make the function for velocity tapering off to let gravity take over, so she’s still able to fly forever, but at least if you release the key she’ll fall back down.

-Regarding collision, I finally got the character to detect the platforms and “land” on them, but for some reason she doesn’t just stop moving. Instead she sinks into the platforms like quicksand, and while I realize it makes traversing the level almost more trouble than it’s worth (and means the player is able to make it outside the level area), it’s much better than it was without the collision. I had collision working correctly once, but as you may remember I lost a couple weeks worth of work a while ago during this quarter – and that was one of those pieces of code I can’t remember.

-As far as the level design itself goes, I haven’t been able to playtest it and find all the tight spots where the player has trouble moving through – but since she can move through the platforms themselves instead of colliding correctly, you can still make your way through to anywhere, fortunately or unfortunately.

-Another thing I lost and didn’t have time to make again were the animations I had done for the character. Her “hurt” state, “jump” state, and “falling” state are no longer animated, and so the calls to those animations have been commented out in the code for now.

Concerning the assets belonging to the project:

-I have to explain why I don’t have all the original assets to show off:

-Another classmate and I originally started writing this code in the second of the two basic programming classes with Steve Rhoades. I created the art for the assets, which she’ll vouch for if you ask her: Kay Dell (azure-cactus@hotmail.com). However, I was the only one who had a copy of the .psd file that contained them all, and I recently lost all the data on one of my external hard drives, before I was able to back my school work up to my new computer. So I no longer have those original assets.

-When I got the code back from her to work on the project in this class, of course I had no copies of the assets outside the .fla file. I’ve made new assets and replaced the old ones, of course, and those I DO have the .psd file of to show you. One of the only things I didn’t replace was the character. Originally she was in her own .psd file, in several different pieces to make her easier to animate. But since I no longer have those original files, I’m afraid I’ll just have to show you some screencaps from the .fla file. Those screencaps can be found in the “Assets” folder, called “Character_Breakdown.jpg” and I hope that’ll be enough to show you what you need.

-Also, I’ll explain the difference between the two .psd files that contain the (currently) final assets. “Platformer_Assets.psd” is all of the assets before I merged the layers together to import them into Flash as whole assets. “Platformer_Assets_GameReady.psd” contains all the same assets after I combined the layers.

I have to put gravity back in the game so that the player doesn’t float endlessly – I don’t know WHAT I commented out or accidentally deleted to make her forget falling, but she has. Hooking up the rest of the animations shouldn’t be so bad either. She’s really just a placeholder character – I might be able to do better with a whole new one, actually.

She needs to walk a bit faster too, come to think of it. Maybe even run.

As far as escaping the abyss, I kind of like that idea for one of the first levels. For the ascending areas of this level I wanted to have a monster chase you up the screen and slowly speed up after you. Then after adding more space to the level, I could expand on these ideas.

If there’s a way to upload a .swf onto your blog, I’ll find out and put it up here in its various incarnations for people to test and give me feedback, though for now it’s nearly pointless because I know what the main problem is. Without seeing the game itself, this post probably hardly makes any sense anyway.

Since I’d like to do a 2D game in Actionscript 3.0, I’ve been thinking about it from a somewhat-skewed perspective of the levels from above, where a player could see their character easily and wander through levels that would scroll up, down, or side-to-side as needed according to their movements, and interact with different obstacles within the boundaries. The “obstacles” in the drawing are only a few of the possible things a player might meet depending on the environment.

As for the look and feel of the levels, I’d planned to have a whole array of different mazes and different sorts of obstacles for the player. Since the point for the player is to make their way through different sorts of prisons and rescue captured NPC’s, I figured it would be appropriate to set each level in a different environment according to what would best keep the relevant NPC trapped, and prove most entertaining for a player.

For now, mostly I’m concerned with figuring out what I’m supposed to design/implement first. The story is outlined and the characters are already established, which leaves me thinking I only really have to concentrate on game play and levels, which are the huge deal here anyway.

Should I start coding and add art as necessary? Should I start designing and code later? Should I have every level planned out before I start or should I go one function at a time? I’ve never worked on anything quite like this before. I know I want to keep it relevant to the class and within the scope of the ten (now nine) weeks we have, but how much is enough, how much is too much, and where do I start?

Team: Hydromance

Contact: kitkat_701@hotmail.com

URL: http://hydromance.wordpress.com

Logline:

A group of “super-humans” have been captured and imprisoned by an old-fashioned shaman who thinks they’re a danger to the rest of the world. They now have to escape his prisons and traps to get back to saving the planet… or watching TV, whichever.

Synopsis:

The player controls one of these *super-humans to try and escape various trap-laden maze levels (**and bonus levels inbetween?), in order to free their friends and return to society so they can go home. They will have to use all the powers at their disposal (and maybe some regular old brain power) to solve the mazes and rescue their allies. Traps in the mazes are still under consideration. They may consist of monsters wandering the area, lasers on a timer, falling rocks, spike pits, some other old platforming game tricks, or other context-relevant traps I can come up with. ***If it’s feasible, I’d like the player to be able to take advantage of all the other characters’ powers as well, as they are each different. As they progress, the player earns a score to show how well they’re doing – I’m not sure yet how I’ll indicate it exactly, but I’m thinking a regular old numeric score might work as a starting idea, if there needs to be one at all. They may earn higher scores/bonus scores (aside from just beating the level) by freeing the trapped characters, completing smaller puzzles within the level, destroying/passing safely through traps, collecting things (if that’s even necessary). I’ll start big and keep my options open, and cut out anything that isn’t efficient or doesn’t make contextual sense. Better scores may dictate if the character’s powers get stronger, or boost the capacity to call on them a number of times, and other “you’re doing a good job so here’s your payoff!” rewards/feedback/achievements, etc. When the player has freed all the side-characters (and overcome their captor in whatever way is most fitting to the game and story), they win and get a compiled score from all levels played. Woohoo!

As for why I’d want to make this game at all, I’ve played a lot of puzzle games and I adore them even though I’m not good at them, and I know a lot of people who are still interested in them (hopefully meaning it’s not only fun for me, but marketable). I’ve wanted to take a crack at a game like this, and whether or not the idea in its basic form is original, I’d like to make something of this particular genre that other people can be thoroughly entertained by in my own personal rendition.

*Why “super” humans? One reason I chose this cast of characters was because I’m familiar with them and their world. Second, I would then have an answer to questions like, “Why can the character jump 12 heads high? Why can they punch through a wall bare-handed? Why can this girl levitate a building and this guy turn into a shadow?” At least, having a background behind the overdone superhuman-ness makes a lot more sense than, “Well, because it makes the game more fun,” Even if that’s true.

** I would like to have bonus cool-down levels between the main stages to implement some already-existing game mechanics in a different way, and let the player earn more points. Maybe the bonuses should be optional – but that’s if the idea even makes it in. I may have to wait until after this class to add a system like that.

*** If the main game mechanics are all in place and going smoothly with lots of time left, then I’d like to try working in more of my ideas – such as allowing the player to play as characters they’ve saved in various levels of gameplay. However, I’m happy to cut things like this out if need be for the purposes of this class.

Reference:

The idea, as it is in my head, makes me think of Fire Emblem + Resident Evil’s “Mercenaries” minigames + general 3rd-person puzzle/adventure games. In the end it’s 98% the latter and only a passing influence of the other two, but the thought is there.