So, What's Next?

The Orb Collector (Friend Feedback)

After posting the game to some friends, I received some interesting feedback. The game had to change drastically. Here are some of the points that were brought up:

• This game cannot be played by people with colour blindness
• The bullet shouldn’t be the same colour as the orbs
• Add the text ‘Password’ above the actual password
• It’s too hard
• Use the keyboard to skip to the next screen, because jumping from mouse to keyboard is tricky

Colour Blindness

A friend brought up the fact that he could not play this game due to colour blindness, which is something that I didn’t think about. So after looking into the condition I found out that there were many classes that affect various colours. This was a problem, because I didn’t want to exclude anyone.

I thought of a solution to this problem. Seeing that there are different types of colour blindness, why not add shapes inside the orbs to make them more distinctive? For the Yellow Orbs I added a thick black line running through the middle; the Cyan Orbs were left alone and a dark circle was added inside the Magenta Orb. I was worried that the orbs were too small for any detail to be seen, but my friend approved of the idea. There were still issues with the three colours, because he can't tell the difference between Cyan and Magenta. He later sent me three colours that are more distinctive and aesthetically pleasing.

So in the next few weeks I will adjust the game and make it suitable for this condition.

Original Colours (Fig 1)

Adjustments for Colour Blindness (Fig 2)

Cyan Bullet, Cyan Orb

This is a problem that I did not intend on fixing, but I do agree that it’s a nuisance. This will be fixed though, as the Colour Blind version will have three different coloured orbs.

Bullet and Orb comparison (Fig 3)

Password?

A random number after each level can be confusing and could possibly be mistaken for the score. I added the text above/ below each password, so no one makes this mistake.

Too Tough?

People brought up the fact that it’s a hard game, so I have made it easier, especially in the green area that contains toxic gas. Some of those levels required pin point accuracy because the timing was too tight.

Skipping screens with the keyboard

This is something I really agree with, especially considering that some levels start with a mutant charging towards you. I haven’t added this feature, but I have delayed the charging mutants.

What’s Next?

Originally, I wanted to start a project using XNA. but instead I'm going to adjust an old Flash project, and then create a new Flash game. The reason for this is that I want to create a few completed Flash games before I jump into another language (C#). XNA is completely different from Actionscript 2.0 and it would be tricky alternating between the two. I have recently found out that XNA 2.0 is now redundant and that I will need to learn XNA 4.0. So this will make things harder.

When I do make the jump into XNA, I will most likely re-make one of my Flash games, because the blue print is already drawn out.

New Flash Project

The gameplay is still uncertain, but the next project will be based on an old character I created, back when I was 14 years old. His name is Rox9. The game will still be based in ‘The Orb Collector’ universe, but many years in the future. Humanity is worse than ever and multiple gangs have taken over the land.

Below is an old, rough animation that I made many years ago (2004):

In my next post The Orb Collector should be updated; a newer version of an old project should be completed and I should have some concept art for the Rox9 game.

The Orb Collector: The Post Mortem

Introduction

The game has been live since my last post and it has received mixed reviews. Some people loved the aesthetics, the difficulty curve and the concept, yet others disagreed. The overall rating on Newgrounds.com is 3.11/5, which isn’t bad, yet it isn’t great. During this post I’m going to analyse The Orb Collector and explain how I could improve it.

How I could have improved this game

Everyday hundreds of games get uploaded to these websites, many of which will get poor scores and fade away. Getting your game noticed is an impressive feat in itself. Because there are so many games, first impressions mean everything. Gamers on these websites only spend a few minutes to test the water and if there is something they don’t like, they’ll most likely skip to the next one. This is where I went wrong.

My game was easy for the first two levels, but the difficulty level shot up. Most people commented on the platforms being too far apart in level three, but what they didn’t realise is that the character needs a run up and not jump from the idle position. There were many sections in that level where this rule applied. Again, because there are so many games to play, people tried this a few times, jumped to the conclusion that it’s broken and then skipped to the next game. I should have eased the player in and made them realise this mechanic, instead of expecting them to pick it up instantly. After reading these reviews and noticing it was a big problem, I re-edited the level and added more platforms. Unfortunately, by the time I made these changes, the popularity had already died. It was too late.

Another mechanic that could frustrate the player, is taking away their ability to backtrack and pick up orbs earlier on in the level. This is something I managed to eliminated from the earlier levels, but remains in the later, harder levels. Hopefully by this point the player will start using the 'Area Report', which displays how many orbs are in the level. This is why I chose the genre description as Puzzle/ Platformer, because the user has to collect orbs strategically.

Two people commented on games with one hit kills and the lack of power-ups. If I were to re-make this project I will NOT add lives, energy bars or power-ups, it does not need them. This game is not suited to these features as the levels are incredibly short and fast. This style resembles Super Meat Boy’s, where the user needs patience. I am a huge fan of this type of game and I find the challenge appealing.

If you look back at the Flash greats; Alien Hominoid, Super Meat Boy, Flash Portal and many others, you’ll see a pattern. Yes, the gameplay is fantastic, but most of the games have chunky, funny, cute characters and a comical tone. Other popular series are spoofs of existing franchises, like Sonic, Mario, Halo and Streefighter. A big mistake of mine was making a game that has a serious tone. People want to dip into a Flash game and feel good, yet my setting was dark, serious and the music was a little depressing. So in my next project I will take this information and make a less serious game.

Alien Homonid (Fig 1)

Super Meat Boy (Fig 2)

The Orb Collector was missing a scoring system – A high score table made up of peoples’ completion times would have been ideal. This gives the player an incentive to continue playing the game. People could compete with friends and people all over the world. regrettably I didn’t include this feature, because I thought adding it would cause too many problems. I'm still kicking myself.

The Orb Collectors' controls are not perfect. There is a big problem with the jumping frame. The frame itself is wider than the rest of the character's animations (please see fig 4), and this can cause problems when jumping onto smaller platforms. Because it is wider, the foot can sometimes give the illusion that the character has made the jump, but only to pass through it (please see fig 3). This makes the player want to track me down and punch me in the face. Next time I’ll have the main character tuck his/her/its legs in as he/ she/ it jumps, so all of the frames are of equal size/ width.

Zimmer passing through a platform (Fig 3)

Zimmer's frames of animation (Fig 4)

Due to my lack of practice in Flash, I had problems with the programming early on. One of these problems was the fact that every time the player jumped onto a platform, they’d sink a little into the ground (please see fig 5). This will happen three times and on the fourth, the character will land on the correct area and then process repeats. This is only a minor issue, but it is still annoying at times.

Sinking depth (Fig 5)

After creating the full game, I looked at the project and thought, “wow, it's running smoothly”. Then I uploaded it to a Flash site. It was not smooth, it stuttered, badly. This game needed trimming. I deleted the intro stills, all of the unused items and I also cut down excess code. It’s better now, but it’s still not perfect. Again, I’ll learn from this mistake.

I am very pleased with the audio in the game, but ideally I would have let my friend design all of the audio. his work is well thought out and it always fits the project. This game had a great track, but it only had one throughout. If I had more time and space within the project, I would have had a track for each of the five areas. but because of the memory limitations I had to cut back.

Conclusion

So the overall changes I’d make are:

• Keeping the jump frame the same width as the rest of Zimmer's frames.
• Add a Scoreboard listing the players’ fastest times
• Stop the character from sinking into the ground
• Add more music tracks
• Try to reduce the frame-rate problems
• Let the user backtrack to collect passed orbs

Anyway that’s enough of me ripping into my game. I still thoroughly enjoyed project and think of it as a success. I hope that if you play it, you enjoy it too. Be warned, it’s hard and requires patience.

The link is: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/563429

The Orb Collector: Uploaded

The game has been completed and it has been uploaded to Newgrounds.com. You can find it here:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/563429

It's hard, but I hope you enjoy it.

In my next Blog I'm going to write an evaluation on the project, discussing its good and bad points.

Random Picture (Fig 1)

The Orb Collector Update (Part 3)

The game is very close to completion. All 25 levels have been created, the gameplay mechanics are complete and all of the sprites are satisfactory. I'm still missing the audio, but this is something I want to plan, when the other elements of the game are 100% complete. A work colleague has offered me his services and after listening to his audio portfolio, I am more than happy for him to design the music and sound effects.

The only remaining tasks are:

• Adjusting the passwords (they are very predictable at the moment)
• Pre-loader
• Edit/ input text before each level
• Implement the audio
• Implement the mute button
• Add a pause feature
• Trim down the project in size
• Beta testing stage

My desk during the creation of the art.

As promised I’m going to upload the images that were going to be used for the game’s introduction. These images will be used for the introduction, to explain the gameplay, but if they drastically increase the size, they'll have to be scrapped from the project. I want to keep this game's size below 10 Megabytes, so the project can be uploaded to most of the Flash websites. I have found out that Newgrounds.com allows Flash projects under 10Meg and Kongregate.com allows projects under 20Meg. So far The Orb Collector is around 4Meg, so hopefully the audio doesn't increase the size too much.

Here are the images:

The Orb Collector (Image 1)

The Orb Collector (Image 2)

The Orb Collector (Image 3)

The Orb Collector (Image 4)

The Orb Collector (Image 5)

The Orb Collector (Image 6)

The Orb Collector (Image 7)

The Orb Collector (Image 8)

Thanks for reading this post and hopefully the next will include a link to the game.

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.

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.

The Orb Collector Update (Part One)

In the past month I have started to program “The Orb Collector”. I have been busy with my job (yet again), but I have managed to stay organised and work hard on the project. There are many elements of the game which I have completed, but there are also new problems that have arisen. I’m going to talk about what has been accomplished, what new problems I now face and what new elements will be added.

The Projects Progress

At the moment I am feeling positive about the progress of this project. The following features have been completed:

• The Start Screen
• The Options Menu
• The Credits
• Game Play Screen
• The Objects within the Game
• Player’s Animations
• Player’s Actions
• Enemy Animations
• End of Level Trigger
• Enemy Attack
• Player’s Attack Action
• Scoring
• Key Pick Ups

A new enemy has also been added to this project (Fig 1). I found that the game needs a floating character to give the enemies more variation in attacking styles. This character floats up and down, so it is not the most original idea but it will be beneficial to the game.

The New Floating Enemy (Fig 1)

Because I have had a break from Flash, it took a day to get used to it again. Little things have slowed me down, just because I’m slightly rusty when using Actionscript.

Problems I am Facing

Whilst building this game new problems have emerged. There are three problems that are preventing me from progressing. After I figure out how to overcome these problems, I am confident that I can go onto creating more elaborate levels. I am hoping to create twenty levels in total. The three problems are:

• Having five more of one orb, than the other two, kills the player.
• Have the VCam follow the player correctly, because at the moment there are a few problems in the way it follows the player.
• The player sinks into the floor after jumping or falling from a height.

The following features will be added or adjusted:

• Enemies will now kill instantly, instead of infecting the player.
• As mentioned before, a new enemy has been added (Fig1).
• An introduction will be added that consists of still images.
• There will be an ending that will consist of still images.
• A password feature will be added, so the user can skip the levels they have already completed.

You can tell from this picture, that this is where I spend most of time since starting this project, plus I drink too much coffee.

New Project (The Orb Collector)

The last few months have been incredibly busy. I have designed a new website for myself (Anthony-Rowe.com), work has been hectic and I have been trying to catch up with my gaming. But now things have calmed down I want to work on my own projects in my spare time.

During the past two months I have thought of three solid gaming ideas that I want work on, but deciding which to work on first was the toughest task. In the end I decided to work on a game called ‘The Orb Collector’. This is a one player, platform game, which will be created in Flash.

Basic Storyline

A researcher named 'Zimmer' has been issued a dangerous task, on an earth ravaged by chemical warfare. Human existence is in decline due to the high amounts of poison in the air. Zimmer must search for surviving plantation that can be used to purify the earth’s air.

A spaceship named 'The RoX9' drops Zimmer into high risk environments, where time is of an essence. He has to locate the specimen, collect it and then make his way to the ship. This sounds like an easy task, but in his way are clusters of poisonous orbs and dangerous creatures.

There are three kinds of orbs, which are three different colours; Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. Zimmer must try to avoid these orbs, as once touched they will infect and absorb into him. If untreated, Zimmer will die, but he can neutralise this poison. To do this Zimmer must keep his poison levels equal. If the poison levels are not equal, Zimmer will be denied access to the ship and if Zimmer absorbs too much of one orb, he will die.

Also, there are three types of infected. These creatures are infected with one of the three orbs, if they hit Zimmer, he will be infected with 3X the amount of that poison. The user will be able to tell what type of poison the creatures are infected with by the colour of their eyes.

Types Of Infected

Wall Hanger – This creature hangs off walls and tries to swing into the player.

Zombie – This creature is brainless, but walks incredibly fast and jumps at the player. If this creature touches Zimmer, he will get infected.

Spider – The spider has long legs, if they touch the player, they will be infected. This creature will try to swipe at the user.

Concept Art

Title Screen (Fig 1)

Game Layout (Fig 2)

Game Layout (Fig 3)