My Attract Trailer

Tetris Analysis

Priorities:

• Interface! (HUD)
• Spawn random pieces 
• Piece Rotation
• Scoring
• "Tetris Bonus"

Assets:

• Pieces (see image below as reference)
• Background Image
• Fonts
• Background Music
• Piece sounds (upon scoring)

Attract Trailer Analysis

So since we're making an attract trailer for the sophomore spinout game, here's an older game (from N64 era) that is compiled using gameplay footage! I kind of love the use of humor to demonstrate different aspects of the game, which gives it a "cheesy" yet "fun" feeling.

I don't think this would specifically work for my level, but I did enjoy it.





Here's a more serious video though, Distance gameplay is very unique, so I'm glad they were able to show it and it's different aspects. The ending cuts at the end are especially appealing to me.

HUD

We are making a HUD for our racing game, and here's a mock-up of mine.
The lightning around the border of the speedometer is actually divided into 3 sections, and will deplete as the player uses up the weapon charges.

The circles behind what gear the car is in will not be there permanently, only the gear that the car is in will have a circle behind it.

The health bar works in a similar fashion to the "ammo" gauge, but goes by 25/50/75/100%.

Exploding "barrel"

Here's a destructible car battery I made for my racing level (you can see it previously in the last post)- this time I added an explosion to it!

The Destructible Crate!

Every game has an exploding crate of sorts, so in my racing level to keep the theme going, I made my "crates" into car batteries :)

Here's a few screenshots:

Racing level intro sequence analysis

Here's an intro sequence to NFS Hot Pursuit that I think is really neat. I really like the way the camera fades in and out of scenes showing different areas of the level. It's kind of dark and gloomy and even shows racers playing on the track itself which is kind of nice because it helps put the scale into perspective. I actually really like the part where they zoom in on the tires spinning out and creating smoke, then quickly zips the camera from the front to the back of the same car (a quick pan, perhaps). I think this is something I would like to incorporate into mine.

The seamless transition from video/sequence to gameplay is awesome!

My 3D model of a Bugatti 57sc Atlantic

Here are some screenshots of a car I have been modeling! It's an old Bugatti. I noticed after working on materials I have a little bit of a shading error on the door panel that I will need to fix- it doesn't show up in screenshots.. but it's there.

Anyway, here are some views of it:

My Electricity Particle effect

Here's a short video showing off the particle effect I made for my racing level in Unreal! It's a beam emitter edited to look more like an electrical discharge running across a power line- it can also be scaled up and put around poles to make things look electrically charged. Kinda neat :)

Still would like to experiment more with it, but I think I'd have to follow a tutorial that is made for lightning specifically, then tweak that. For what I need though, this one was perfect.




I also created an extra particle that isn't from a real life reference, so I'm not sure if it will count. I wanted it to have the appearance of an electrical weapon or machine that was charging up- all of the particles converging to one point in the center.

I followed this tutorial, and tweaked it further to suit my own needs.



And this is what I created:

Particle Effect Research for Racing Level

For the racing level we are making, we are also touching on particle effects. In order to create one, we have to reference some real world footage, so what I'm going to attempt will be an electrical arc. We just recently did some tutorials for class that also included an electrical current of sorts, so I'd like to make mine a little more special and different than that one!

Here's some video reference of what I'm talking about:



I also plan to make a few other particles, which include:
- sparks
- thick billowing smoke (the player must drive through this and should have their vision rendered)
- an oil slick being shot onto the ground (then in its place a mesh with a slippery surface appears)
- a wire with a spark at the end of it


Update: I'm not able to actually find a particle that has a tutorial similar to the references I've posted. I'm going to keep looking around and experimenting with materials, but for now what I have is a tweaked version of the "beam" particle we did a tutorial on for class.

I changed a few things about it- mainly the color, since I wanted a teal lightning throughout my level. I also changed the amount of beams, to make it more dense looking (i think in the video he uses 3, but I am using 5). I also changed it so it wasn't in an arc, and instead was a straight beam that would travel around pipes and electrical wires.

The final touch I added to my particle was that I edited the color over life so it appears to fade or pulse every few seconds. I think it's pretty neat, but like I said I would like to experiment more.

Even though we all have done the tutorial, for those who haven't, this is the base tutorial I started with:





So NOW my particle is more similar to a simple version of this (it's also blue) :

Racing Track Level Design and Ideas

The car I'm designing has a very interesting theme, and that's electricity. So I kind of want to roll with this idea and see if I can incorporate that into a level. For reference, here is my car concept:

I like the idea of bringing a lot of these turquoise/neon blues into my level, so I think I'll have the setting of my track be in the early evening, around dusk, or even at night. Also, it will have to be a power plant because.. that just seems to make the most sense, right?

I'm thinking some structures I could reference when I'm actually modeling some of the buildings could be like these:

And if I have to think of a setting, somewhere in the desert would probably be best. That way I don't have to worry about grass or foliage causing any frame rate issues. (I had issues in the last world building project we did with this).

So, that brings me to a color scheme! The deserts will obviously provide lots of browns, maybe even into the oranges. So a dulled blue/orange color scheme would probably be best. (Since I already want to incorporate the blues similar to my car concept).

So here's what I came up with. I included some callouts to explain what things are. I'll be adding some of my scanned sketches below the illustrator file!

I have a lot more grey in my level, so I will have to go back and edit my original pallette to reflect that. I think I actually like it more with grey, it seems to give it a cooler feel.


Here is the "beat sheet" for my level- marking the important landmarks and obstacles. Below it is also the original sketch for the level with some ideas labeled on it.

Stunt and racing track research

For our next project in class we are making a racing level, so, a little research is in order. We have to research some real life stunts, so I found an episode of Top Gear where they're trying to do a barrel roll. They don't pull it off the first time, so a little while later they have the same guy try it again (I assume):




Incorporating a barrel roll into my game might be fun, or at least a jump that requires the player to spin slightly through the air and land at an angle (like the second platform was perpendicular to the one launched off of.). If I can pull off something like that, I think that would be really cool.


We also needed to research some games that have mechanics that alter the track, or incorporate an element that can change the track.




So here's a video of one of my favorite games growing up, Crash Team Racing. There's a part in the level where the player is presented with a giant hall, and there are barrels of toxic waste falling down. The player can choose to travel under them if they are granted an immunity of sorts, or are risk takers... or they can swerve in and out to get the boosts... OR.. they can just avoid them all together. I also REALLY like the speed boost tunnel.. and would like to incorporate that into my track.. maybe it only appearing on the third lap or something!


I found a game that has a power plant level, and a lot of their assets are super close to what I'd like to have in mine. Here's some videos I found:

Programming a "spiky block" with an animated face.

Here's a "death trap" level I made in my programming class. We had to animate the faces of the blocks to light up/change depending on what it was doing. The eyes start off as grey, turn yellow when you activate the trigger and turn red when it goes to attack you. When it's going back to it's original position they turn blue.

 I didn't want to make a super long level, but it's a little challenging at least. The ending is also not rewarding, on purpose. Because it's a death trap.

Here's the Blueprint for it!

THE SINKING BOOTY

For my platform game I'm designing in my Game Design II class, I wanted to make something that would be simple yet fun. A lot of the games we demoed were just too hard which I think takes a lot of fun out of games. The idea is to make a game that is 3 minutes long, and hopefully there's just enough challenges in mine that allows the player to complete it in that amount of time.

The story behind mine is that you're a pirate and you have to make it from your ship (the starting point) to the sinking enemy ship, and find their hidden treasure room.


The large gap between the two sets of platforms is supposed to symbolize the gap between the two ships- and the rest is just mostly jumping puzzles with a few moving platform challenges.

If the game proves to be too easy, I'm going to add more obstacles like cannon balls being fired and maybe more traps (spikes).

2D Sidescroller Platform Review

Review: Bit Trip Runner Tutorial Level

Bit trip runner does an interesting take on tutorial levels- they basically break it down into 5 levels which are all about a minute long. Each level teaches you the basics, then provides you with a level in between the skill learned and the next one, to practice.

To clarify:

Level 1 : Jump
Level 2: Elaborate Jumping
Level 3: Sliding
Level 4: Jumping and Sliding
Level 5: Kicking
Level 6: Jumping, Sliding, Kicking

They continuously build up on previous skills learned with repetitive landscapes and obstacles to (lightly) challenge the player at the start. Obviously level 6 will be much more challenging than level 1.

They start to include different obstacles too, instead of just jumping over rocks, you start to jump over gaps, or slide under moving objects rather than sliding under stationary rocks. On top of all this, you're challenged to collect the gold bars and the special power ups, which don't add anything to the game other than points and a change in music/visuals. 

If the player manages to get all of the gold coins/bars in the level, they are awarded with a bonus level in order to get even more points.

There isn't much of a story to this game, which is perfectly fine. It has other nice aspects that keep the player interested.

Here is a breakdown of the fifth level which includes all of the abilities combined. I decided to do the level that includes ALL of the abilities rather than just jumping because it seemed more interesting and is still considered a tutorial level.