Apple App. Game Dev.

Today I worked on the Antagonists for Somnia. My comments are included in the picture.

So here it is:

They were so much fun to make. Basicly I started with just a black blop of paint, and than used the eraser tool to shape it up into something more interesting. They were ment to look like some encient wall mural paintings. Something that some ancient civilization might draw on the walls of their temple. very simple, but i like it.

Apple App Game Dev.

Today i concentrated on the main PDF. document and Environment design.

This is what i have ended up with:

 The Cover is meant to be very simple and symmetrical, with a hint of the theme that the game itself will have, I took the big red button from the main menu and stuck two wings i did earlier to it. The result is strange, But i like it.

For the in game environment i went for a generic level design with outdoor and indoor areas. I had this idea with the big tower in the middle. it could possibly be knocked over to create a pathway to the other side, that way physics and environmental manipulation could be implemented. Which would create more depth to the game play.

Apple App Game Dev.

Once again, just like my last project. I am doing the development the other way around. I Come up with the visuals first, and than add/improvise in the mechanics and actual play details. This is exactly what we did in the the last group project. Sure it might not be the correct or most effective way, but it works for me. I find this way better as I find it easier to create visual concepts first, and than while working on those, I come up with the game play mechanics.

Today i worked on some HUDs and the main menu, Like with my previous concepts i try to stick with a certain color scheme. That is lime green, yellow, orange red, and turquoise.

At first i thought about the composition of the HUD that the player is actually going to see while playing the game. I wanted the top part of the HUD to be similar to the style of the background's and all. And than the actual buttons and controls to be transparent and almost invisible, so that the player would know they are there, but they wouldn't annoy in the game play.

After i was happy with the compostion, I started to paint in some details into the interface.

The left side serves as the main indicator of the players life, Mana, and Spirits. This is displayed by the big red swirl in the middle and the green and blue glass spheres . The less life the player has the smaller the swirl is. The less mana/spirits the player has the emptier the spheres become.
On the top right side is the Pause/Quit button. Whenever touched, the game pauses. There will be an animation of the red sphere swinging as the player touches it. 

On the bottom are the controls, The one on the left is the movement dpad, Controled simply by touch. On the right side are three buttons, one for jump, one for attack and one for a special action.
Finally on the bottom in the middle is the text space. To inform the player of various things like, Level, Help, Actions, Dialogue.

Later that night I also worked on the main menu which was surprisingly very fun to do.

I like how it turned out.

Basically there is the name of the game "Somnia" meaning "to sleep"in Latin.
Under that bright Blue neon Sign we have a big red button. That's the "Play" button
Than there is the options button which, well has all the games options like sound and video
Finally there is the info button which will have the credits and help to anyone wanting to know more about the game.

In the background there are silhouettes of the enemies in the game. This idea happened by a mistake actually, when i accidentally made a smudge in the background and it looked like a creature. So i figured i might as well work into it and make it look better and make all of the enemies in the game look like these "spirits".

Board Game dev. Week 4+ Journal

Now that we know that the game is playable and working, I started working on some finishing touches. This here is the Box Cover. I wanted it to look fairly simple and in a way that would show the board game mechanics and atmosphere. The big red techno machine corner is actually half of the station that each player controls. I thought that would be a nice touch. The grid represents the tile based nature of the game. And asteroids, Planets and player ships and stations as a meaningful background.

After the box cover was done I had two more tiles to finish and print out. The Mine Field, and the Warp Tile.

Board Game dev. Week 4 - Journal

Week 4: Play testing

We dedicated almost everyday of week 4 to play testing. Terry provided the board, Even though just a mock up it worked great except for a little glitch where the board tiles connected. But we were certain he would get it fixed soon. Play testing went surprisingly well, Even the very first game was smooth and fun. Daniel printed out his cards and I helped him cut them. During this week we found lots and lots of various glitches and errors in the game play, and recorded them in my notebook. It was just a matter of suggesting a quick fix. Everyone except for Terry and Jack participated in Play testing and fixing the game. Terry was working on his new board and jack was, missing?

I invited a friend from the other group to bring his group and play test the game. And so they did, and gave mostly positive feedback. We were satisfied that our game is so fun for everyone to play and that even the newcomers picked it up with ease. 

Now that we know that the game works and is playable and fun. We started to concentrate on the finishing touches.

I was going to create the box cover, even though terry already made one (without telling us), the group decided I was to make another one and we will decide which one we use next week.

Daniel will finish up his cards and laminate them, David will finish his playing pieces and Amy will finish up the rulebook. We also had to look for a suitable box. But these are details to be sorted out during next week.

Apple App Game Dev. - Journal

We have been given a new project. To design an apple application. This time its all me, no team mates. 

After a few lenghty brainstroming sessions, I came up with an idea.  The idea came from many sources, so I have created an Influence map to show my inspirations.

My inspiration came from many different sources, Internet mostly but also books and movies. The dreamcatcher being the most important. I have looked at differnet artists and artworks. So far I would like the art style to be very original and colorfull, Each level could possibly be in a different monochramatic theme. But those are details that to concentrate on later.

Basically the idea of the game is, that you play as a character called the dreamcatcher. And you somehow catch dreams in a fairytale like world. After some research I discovered that this idea has already been done before in some ways. I have a personal vision though. So even if this concept might exist somewhere else, I will add elements and art my style and that will make it unique and my own.

So i started with concept art of the main character. I imagined a rat like humanoid creature with a staff with the dreamcatcher on the end of it. Inspired by Martin the warrior and the redwall novels.

For a few days I ignored this project because of my lack of motivation. And concentrated on my other drawings. I ended up with three colored pictures. And i thought to myself why not put them to some good use. Therefore I decided to make them a part of my project. Not sure how they will be incorporated into it yet, But I am sure I will find a way.

Board Game dev. Week 3 - Journal

Week 3: Space Tiles Everywhere

Over the weekend I used my concept sketches to paint the tiles. I used Photoshop and my pen tablet. Created a total of 12 different tiles. Using various brushes and techniques I tried to keep the color scheme and the overall design very thematic and colorful. Because we have decided earlier the look of the tiles should be very bright and almost cartoonish. And that’s what I did. All of the tiles went well except for one. The derelict tile. Which I had a really hard time imagining and the finished one just didn’t look good. These are some of the finished tiles. Once They were done I aranged them on a A3 format document and took them to the printer. Printed them on A3 heavy paper and cut them on the cutter. With the feeling of accomplishment week 3 ended.

Board game dev. week 2 - Journal

Week 2: Design

During the start of the second week, my group had to make a decision. We had three Game Concepts at hand and we had to choose one. There was my platformer/rpg, Terry’s oilrig game, and finally David’s Space exploration game. Since I have already decided that my game idea was unplayable from the beginning. I voted for David’s concept. Since it seemed the most interesting and original concept to work on. I liked terry’s game but it just did not seem as fun, and I wanted to work on a fun game. So I voted for David’s idea, just like the rest of the group. I was quite surprised terry voted for David’s game as well, since from the beginning he was quite determined to do his own game.

So with the chosen game theme we had some planning to do. I proposed a simple idea of splitting the team into even smaller groups where each one would be a separate “department”. We also voted For David to be the leader of the group.

With the help of David I decided that me Terry and Dan will be the art Department. I was going to work on the tiles, Terry will work on the Board, and Dan will create the Cards.

 David and Amy will work on the rules. And finally George and Jade will be the testing and additional work department.

This setup seemed quite equal where everyone would do the same amount of work. I was very pleased with my job as the tile maker. Later I had to have a little talk with Dan and Terry as to what the Art Style should be. We decided that a Retro Cartoonish style would fit best. The rest of the group agreed. 

During the week I started to Sketch down some visual ideas for the tiles and also the player ship pieces as a bonus. Also while sketching down the tiles, I came up with rules that could be used along with the tiles, which I later proposed to the group. I have also drawn a small concept of what the game might look like when it’s actually set up and played. David seemed very pleased and the rest of the group agreed. I felt very pleased as to how the game was turning up so far in my head. And the fact that I was coming up with most of the rules, made me feel like I was working on a game of my own, and shifting it towards my own likes. Even though I knew it was a group project, but since none complained and everyone agreed it was no worry. I was told to create the actual tiles over the weekend. I was given a list of the individual tiles. And it was up to me as to how they would look.

Board game dev. week 1 - Journal

Week 1: Brainstorm/research

During the first week, my group was introduced to the Project, and to the scheduled 4-week plan. We have decided that it would be best if everyone in our group would research as much as possible on board games, and try to come up with idea for Friday. We also played lots of different board games. Like Carcassonne, a tile based game where players build their own kingdom and gather resources using a simple tile placing system. As I have already played this game before I was able to explain the basic rules to the group, and after a lengthy game everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Later during the week I also played magic the gathering, and wings of war both of which were very enjoyable.

After my group researched and played some games, we have decided that tile-based games seem the most interesting to play, and that we will eventually create a tile based game ourselves. Out decision was based on the tile based systems, randomness of each play, the freedom the tiles gave to the player, and that each game felt very different from the previous one.

To make things easier, I wanted to try and convert a video game game play mechanic into a board game, which in the end was not that easy at all. My idea was to take an Indie style video game, for example, Dungeons and dragons. And use the idea of exploration and dungeon crawling as the basis for our board game. To make things interesting it would be a side/platformer, where the map would be seen from the side, rather than from the top as most tile based games did. Also to make thing a bit different from other board games, the players would have to cooperate with each other while exploring the dungeon rather than fight against each other. When I proposed my idea to the group, everyone seemed pleased with it, and it was put on the list of our possible games. Meanwhile David and Terry had their own game ideas. It was the end of the first week, and we decided that we would vote for the game we are going to make next week.