kiranarcade

[kiranarcade]

Settings

For my settings page i've decided to just input an image from the start screen.

[kiranarcade]

Combat Glitches

For some reason the combat in my game is very inconsistent. Sometimes the attack from the pig or noah doesnt register and it becomes a game of "who can get a lucky hit register first"

[kiranarcade]

Rain

Throughout my level i have added a rain effect that stretches along the stage. This isn't heavy rain and isn't super noticeable but for me its a nice touch. This adds a sense of a calm before the storm

Using the "Niagara system"

[kiranarcade]

Frog Dialogue

Above I included a frog that warns the player of the enemy pigs that are ahead. To do this I created a frog in 30 seconds in photoshop with just the shape drawing tools.

From there i created a speech bubble. First i made a simple speech bubble until i decided to add dots going forward to make it seem more lively.

For the coding part, I made the frog and the speech bubble separate entities, I added the speech bubble actor just above the frog and made it so that a Widget would show when the player comes in proximity

I'm not entirely sure where the idea came from, this was a very impulsive choice that I don't understand where it originated from but i'm very impressed with how it turned out

[kiranarcade]

Attract mode

Attract mode is a screen on arcade machines that does what the title says, attracts the player to the game.

[kiranarcade]

An in-depth study of the levels in Donkey Kong

In the article shown above, cognitive scientist and game writer, Mitchell F Wolfe. conducts an in-depth study of the learning process of Donkey Kong Country's first level. In the screenshot shown above shows the creative process and thought intended from the developers at Nintendo

[kiranarcade]

Time Crisis II

Time Crisis II is an arcade game developed by Namco made in 1997 and was intended to be used by light guns. A rail shooter, light gun, shoot 'em up

[kiranarcade]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a video games made for the NES by Konami. A 2D game with 3D aspects. The player is able to move up and down, left and right but is stuck in a two-dimensional plane. What I really like about the game is the level design. Each level is more interestingly detailed from the next even when the detail isn't really needed. From this I will be taking notes of background details and techniques of the fire on the bottom

What I don't like about the game is the character design. I feel the turtles are too slim and should be a pixel or two bigger. I don't like the fact they don't particularly look like turtles, more green humans

[kiranarcade]

Jurassic Park: The Lost World

The Lost World is a dinosaur shoot 'em up. That uses light guns to control what the player shoots. Developed by Konami in 2001. Jurassic Park arcade games isn't a stranger to high rating arcade games. This might be due to the uniqueness Konami brings to the games. In 1990s early 2000s, dinosaur games were pretty much unheard of. Especially shoot 'em up dinosaur games.

From this i wont be taking anything other than the fact that uniqueness is everything when it comes to level design, or any design for that matter.

[kiranarcade]

Street Fighter II

Street Fighter II is one of the oldest and first beat 'em up games. The main objective is to defeat your 2D foe. In the arcade games of Street Fighter there will be two joy cons plus two sets of buttons.

What i really like about this game is the background. Each setting seems to be able to tell 1000 stories in just one image. From this i will be taking ideas of level design and implementing it into my own wordk. For example i will like to take the idea for the detail in the wooden floor.

[kiranarcade]

Space Invaders

Space Invaders is a 1978 arcade game published by Atari. The goal of the goal is to eliminate all the aliens that are slowly approaching you. To gain point you must shoot the enemy space invaders. If they reach the bottom of the screen, you lose a life. If they shoot you back, you lose a life. The main attraction of this game is the simplicity. No detailed graphics, no extreme powerups, no game changing hidden mechanics. Just shoot and keep shooting.

I really like the barriers, i think they are a cool touch and makes the player feel safer than they actually are, providing a sense of security.

I don't think i'm going to take anything from this game other than the fact that a game doesn't need to have a 10000 hours put into the development to be playable.

[kiranarcade]

Ending

Im planning to have the ending show this screen

and then cut to the image above with Noah's boat travelling off. I like this idea a lot as it gives an emotional response to the player to show their impact on the animals on the boat but also showing the impact of the animals he left

This would cause a mix of feelings for the player because on one hand, he helped a pair of every animal and saved himself but on the other hand, Noah sentenced a bunch of animals to their death, saving less that what he killed.

PARTLY SCRAPPED:

Ive decided to scrap the first image as it took away the significance of the player winning the game as well as making the ending/game more complex than it has to be.

[kiranarcade]

Banner pic

The image shown above is my banner pic. 1500x500 picture that is supposed to capture the whole games essence into one landscape picture.

I chose the title header from the title screen to deliver the notion of my game. I thought that the title "Escape to the Harbor" along with the font and the blue cloudy background, perfectly portrays the story and the ambience

[kiranarcade]

Enemy sprites

Above is my pig enemy. I chose to have fire come out its mouth with angry eyes to show it was an enemy and the player must avoid or attack it. I really like the attack move. It moves its ears back, tilts its head down and charges forward, once charged forward it bounces back with a squashed nose that goes back to normal.

I really like how its nose squashes, it keeps the charm of the game while keeping a threat to the pig

[kiranarcade]

Nibbler

Nibbler was an obscure arcade game, heavily similar to snake where if the snake crashes into their own body it will die. The player is given a time limit to collect all the points but if the timer depletes to 0 and the player hasn't collected all the points, the snake dies and uses one of its live

Rock-ola, a jukebox manufacturer, had produced this title to capitalise on the PACMAN craze back in 1980s.

What i like about this game is the "easy to play - hard to master" attribute to the game. This is shown through the speed of the snake and the tiny sized level, causing the player to think quick and play flawlessly.

[kiranarcade]

Music Creation

For the main theme for the song I was struggling even creating a melody to start with so I contacted an old friend Diego (MynxDzzh).

For the main theme, the start starts off with a solo synthesiser in an upbeat melody, later pairing with a piano sequence that compliments the initial synth. The isolated synth melody contrasts to a full-bodied, lighter piano/drum set piece making for a fuller room.

How does this contrast to my game?

This adds to the experience to the player. All the instruments and other sounds only add to the emotional response to the player. When i add the music in. Ill be adding it to play under the sound effects as i feel the music is too off beat and a too high volume of the music will change the ambience of the game dramatically

"Victory track" starts off as an upbeat electronic piano playing in the major key. The way the piano is played seems to be inspired by a Pokemon evolution music which is a very interesting choice for a victory music. I love how the drums that play throughout the song really elevate the melody underneath.

Boss fight is a 13 second interlude that plays piano tapping in low octave followed by what seems to be a snare playing along side. This seems to simulate footsteps

[kiranarcade]

Foreground

Above is a screenshot of Hollow Knight, a game developed by 3 individuals:  Ari Gibson, William Pellen and Jack Vine using Unity to make their game. A dark themed adventure game about a beetle type person traversing their way through an underground like labrynth. I am really attracted to the foreground as well as the background features. The layers that were put into this were then flattened to create a deep image while staying 2D. From this im going to be taking away the foreground, The way random things like graves/posts/plants stick up in front of the level is so unique and nice.

Star Fox SNES is a low-poly space ship/dogfight game that takes advantage of the new capabilities of the SNES. In the foreground, shows space ships made with little detail and made of a few polygons. To make up for this low graphic game play, the background is kind of realisitic looking mountains. I love that this is contrasted ith the low poly to make the game look like it was intended to look lowpoly and very basic shape like . From this game im going ti be taking a way the background and the way its hand drawn to look real

Above is a picture of game play from Yoshis island. Yoshis island is a game about Yoshi traversing their way through levels, avoiding and eating enemies. The thing i like a lot about Yoshis island is that the level has a theme like it was drawn by a child. This may be because of the baby theme (baby mario) but i like the handdrawn, flawed look of the mountains and then flowers. From this im going to be taking the hand drawn design and implementing it into my own game