Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The Orb Collector Update (Part 2)

The fun has stopped, I have recovered from the chocolate overload and I’m back in work mode. I’m more than happy with the progress of this project. A target of 25 levels has been set and I have created 10. After creating five levels I was a bit worried that the game would become boring, due to the lack of new features or challenges to keep the player interested. To overcome this I have split the 25 levels into 5 different areas and each area has a different colour set.

  • Area 1 – Black and Grey
  • Area 2 – Blue and Black
  • Area 3 – Purple and Black
  • Area 4 – Green and Black
  • Area 5 – Red and Black


Each of the five areas will have unique challenges for the player to overcome. This will hopefully keep the player’s attention, so they will keep coming back for more. Some of these features include:

Enemies that move incredibly fast, but if the player shoots them, they will freeze in position. The enemies will still be dangerous in the frozen state, so the player will have to freeze the enemies in specific places for them to progress through the game.

There will also be a lava chase level, this has been done many times before, but I think it will fit in well with this game.

During Area 4, there will be a poisonous gas on the lower half of the level and if the user falls into it they will have to keep rising to the top to refill their air gauge.


Photobucket

A new screenshot of the game (Fig 1)

Audio

A key element that is missing from this project is audio, which is underrated in games. Getting the mood right will be essential when immersing the player and a good sound track will help this. Even though it’s a side scrolling platform game, I want the audio to be eerie and mysterious.

This title also needs sound effects for the following:

  • Shooting
  • Dying
  • Killing the enemies
  • Button presses
  • Jumping


Intro and Ending

For a game that only spans over 25 levels, is it necessary to have a story? Even though this project is small I believe it is. There is a very basic storyline, which gives the game some meaning. I have created some stills for an introduction/ ending, but it will be decided closer to the end if they’ll be implemented in final game. Either way I will post the stills here for everyone to see.