Week1 Month1

Week 1 of Month 1.

So I got my first Challenge on the 1st of May. The Challenge is for a Game Design, an exploration of small scale game design. I must produce an app that can be played on a smart phone and make it available on the open market.

Awesome.

After a little research I've found the free program called 'GameSalad' which allows you to create game for use with iphone and even has a publishing feature. The app utilises object oriented program without the need to know specific code language, which is perfect since it's been a long time since I've done any coding whatsoever.

The type of game that I will be developing will be an endless runner. My concept for the game is that you play as a Drop Bear, a somewhat mystical creature known only to Australian folklore. The Drop Bear will run through the national park collecting Picinic Goodies ( It's not a typo), earning points along the way. The Picinic Goodies will also help to fill you 'Drop Bear' meter which once full allows the player to launch into the sky and come smashing down on an unsuspecting picnicing family. All of their Picinic Goodies will fly into the air and the player will have to bear swipe them down to get the extra points. There will be hazards along the way which can include logs, rocks, low hanging branches, water, birds, monkeys, hunters and bees. Failing to avoid these hazards will end the player's run but in tripping over and falling to the ground they get one last chance to earn some points and the Bear's Picinic Goodies get thrown in the air.

So far research into endless runner tutorials for Gamesalad has given me lots of useful tools and understanding of the program and I feel confident I should be able to produce the game to the standard I'm hoping for. I've begun creating a scrolling background ( a necessary staple of the endless runner genre), a quick animation test, and some prototypes of the endless runner.

 Background plate - others to come to create a layered scrolling background effect.

 Initial sketches of Drop Bear - in normal run and 'Full Powered' run

 Picinic Goodies - Different shapes for readability at small screen scale.

 

Animation Test, First I've done in a very long time.

The challenges I've met while addressing this challenge have really come from getting to know a new program. GameSalad is still in beta for the windows version and doesn't always give you all the information you need when something goes wrong. I can be very frustrating setting up rules and behaviors for game elements and to all your understanding have done the right things to make them work and then have them not respond at all. Coding is very difficult and while the node based coding allows for alot of ease of use it can still leave a lot of logical gaps in it's execution.

I have enjoyed learning so far and am very happy to create some art for the first time in a while. Although it's as simple as it can get for a run cycle, knowing that, that information about animation hasn't left me makes me feel relieved and happy.

Next to come will be learning more code to be able execute all my ideas for the game and getting stuck into creating all the art assets.