New Prototype Project

On Monday we were given a new project for us to prototype. Our client is the School of Mechanical Engineering. They would like us to come up with a game that will introduce the principles of Physics to the Freshmen that may not have had Physics before.

So we know that the game needs to actually make the students solve Physics problems in order to progress. We decided that we would start out simple with first levels teaching principles such as cause and effect. The later levels would involve the students solving for missing values in order to get through the level.

This teaching or playing process is going to be manifested in our game "Prince Alarming's Repelzel Rescue" or something like that. This game Features our hero Prince Alarming trying to rescue Repelzel with the aid of his squire Wingman. Prince Alarming tries to reach Repelzel in her tower with the use of a catapult. He, of course, leaves all the work up to Wingman to see that he can reach her. This where the Physics comes in. Different variables have to be manipulated to ensure that the Prince can reach Repelzel.

Repelzel on the other hand does not really want to be rescued by the Prince. In fact she is in the tower to keep him away. She also sets up obstacles to prevent him from reaching her. When he does reach her, sh ends up pushing him off of the tower and retreating to the next level.

On Wednesday we pitched the idea and we divided up tasks to be done in order to get this thing done. This involved the other Engineer and me to get together and figure out how we are going to program this thing. We made up a diagram of game flow and and game states along with a list of classes or objects that we will need for the game to run. We then had to estimate how many working units each task would take. Our Producer then made up charts for us to manage our schedules and figure out how we are doing for the deadline of the prototype.

Crunch Time and Presentation

Our prototype was due for presentation this last Wednesday. In this meant that we needed to finish anything we wanted to get in the game on Tuesday. I may have said before that I thought our game was already good enough as a prototype, but that didn't mean we didn't want to polish it up.

I spent four hours Tuesday morning making a final design for our level and remasking it. After this was involved adding pending art assets into the background image and resetting the game objects once the new background was inserted. I also added many more enemies to the level to give it a bit more of a challenge. Before this, they were pretty much non-existent in the last half of the level.

Once the level was in I polished some of the buggy mechanics that were in the level. this included included the AI for some of the germs and the mechanics for the final boss fight. After this polishing I sent the files I'd worked on to the rest of the team and they polished some more. That is, they added remaining sound effects that needed to be placed, and getting the background music to transition properly from game to boss battle. I met up with them again later on Tuesday and we made some of the images larger so that they could be seen better. (We also did this because our instructors mentioned that it might be a good idea.)

Well Wednesday came around and we presented our prototype along with the rest of the class. I think all of the games pretty cool. I'm biased towards the one my group made, but I wouldn't mind playing the others. As a special treat I'm posting the design for the final Boss. That's right when you fight the last guy he transforms into the uber-boss-guy-man! Rogerm!!!


The next project we will be working on in class will be built using the XNA studio. Stay tuned for more details.

Art Assets and Sound

So one of the main tasks that I've taken for "Germinators" is that of putting the art assets into the game. Basically, our excellent artist scans his inked drawings and sends them to me. I crop out the inked version of the drawings and set them on a transparent background. After this I scale the images to the size they need to be for the game, and then I give them the texture they need to have for the game. When I took on this responsibility I was not aware of how time consuming it would be. It takes quite a bit more time then I expected. To the left you can see our main character.

I have, however, been able to put quite a few more assets into the game. Our Producer sketched up a level for us and I went ahead and put it into the game and added masking (this is what lets the sprites or characters know where the floor, wall, ceiling, platforms, etc... are) so that we could start testing the placement of platforms and other objects. We also now have four "normal" germs and the "Boss" inside of the level. I also created a "super-form" for our main character. He assumes this form when he hits a power-up. To be honest I created the form using already existing art from our artist. Yep, crop, copy, and paste are my friends. The power-up form is on the left. Our character becomes "Super-soap boy".

We also have some music and sound. I imported the files that our Producer produced and set them to play at the appropriate times. There is the normal level music, the power-up music, and the end-boss fight music. in game so far. I still need to place some of the other sounds we have. These are just general effects like taking damage and collecting items.

I've also been involved in setting up the way the game functions. I'm mainly responsible for the main character and the end-boss. Originally we were going to have our character get "sick" when he touched a germ. At this point his health would steadily decrease until he succumbed to his illness or he washed his hands. Unfortunately we have not been able to find this functionality in PGF. We have decided that the character will just have lives for now as that endeavor was taking up too much time.

Another obstacle that we found was getting the "Super-form" to function properly. The already created power-up in PGF only makes it so that the character isn't harmed while in that form. We wanted it to act more like the "star" in "Super Mario Brothers" where he killed everything by touching them. Unlike other areas of PGF the power-up item cannot have its attributes edited. I was finally able to get the functionality that we wanted by creating a "hotspot" in the game that activated a script that would change the character to the "super-form" for a certain amount of time and then change back. So now we every power-up item in the game is encapsulated in a "hotspot" box. This way when the power-up is collected the script is initiated and the desired effect is seen.

I've also worked out the Boss' characteristics and how it fights. The boss is initially in the form to the left. When enough bars of soap are thrown at it it transforms to another form that also needs to be beaten. I've got all of that working now and the first incarnation of the boss is pretty good. I need to work on the logic for fighting the second form of the boss now. I may put up that image later.

The game is gong quite nicely. I think what we have now would make a pretty decent prototype as is, but as we have more time we are going to continue improving the game.