Unit 6 Application, Exploration and Realisation in Art and Design

Project Introduction:

To create a 2.5d beat'em up genre of game. Some of the problems that I might run into are coding, as I am not sure on how to make a game like this in code from like how to get hits to register or health bars to work to way they should.

Constraints of the project:

The project must be interactive. This needs to work on PC and Mac is functional to the point of it showing what I would of like the gameplay to be. I need to keep the models and graphics as simple as I can to get the core gameplay out and refined as much as I can.


Context of the project:

Castle Crashers: Flashy beat'em up with fast moves

Streets of Rage: Beat'em up with fast moves

Devil May Cry: 3D spectacle fighter with fast flashy moves

Golden Axe: 2D fighter with difference combos for difference outcomes

Bayonetta: 3D spectacle fighter with fast flashy moves


Initial Ideas for the project:

A simple game where you can hit things and there health bars go down and once its to 0, they fall over, simple combo's that I can do maybe. SCORE. I'm making this game quite a fast pace to keep the flow of the game pretty well with semi weak enemies.


Deliverables, Targets and Milestones:

 Specify a list of objects or tasks you will do to complete the project i.e. what typography, colour scheme, process, materials, techniques, provide paper/wireframe/working prototype etc.

16th March (Unit 06 Brief issued) : Proposal

24th March Proposal document to be presented for approval : Finish Proposal

28th March Easter break 1 : Research

4th April Easter break 2 : Research

13th of April : Research/Coding

20th April : Coding

27th April : Level Design

4th May : Character Design

11th May : Character Design

18th of May : Texture Work

26th May : Modeling

30th of May (Whitsun holiday week) : Modeling (Animation)

8th of June : Bug fixes

16th June (Deadline for Unit 06 Final Major Project) : Feedback

Evaluation Methods:

End of year show, comments with other students and people who will see my work and give feedback as well. This will show that I have listened to more than one type of person and has got feedback from people with difference perceptive.



the game is somewhat limited to make sure I make the game on time

Any game and be limited or open worlds, that will depend on the developer constraints.

single-player game

Animation 

3D models

A.I

UI (menu, health bar)

SCORE

Golden Axe arcade

I have chosen this game as a influence because it matches up the kind of gameplay that I want to have for my final project. The games combat system seems quite simple and fun to play with a few added things on it to keep the game fresh like mounts and magic that you get within the level itself. The animations of this game works to make sure that you see the impact of hits when you connect your target or you miss your target. Graphics of this game works for its time as this game is quite old, it uses difference colours to tell you the difficulty of the enemies.The music of the game sounds adventurous, the sounds feels like it has a impact to each punch and kick plus the sounds all are distinct from each other from the picking up an item to hoping on a mount. The one thing I should take from this game is its simple and quick output of melee attacks and its item system.

Alien Storm (MegaDrive)

This game is a influence to me because of its fast beat'em up gameplay and its odd mid level parts like running at the speed of sound firing at aliens. The combat of this game is quick with quick movements and quick attacks, the slower heavy attacks takes less then a second to pull off. The animations of this game takes less then a second to pull off and makes the flow of the game faster because of it. The graphics of this game is old but works as well. The colours of the game pops out for anything on the foreground while the background is mostly browns and greys. The music is serviceable while the sound is quite repetitive. If I have to take something from this game, I would take the fast combat.

Double Dragon Arcade

This game is a influence to me because of its VERY simple story that takes 5 seconds to convey and the good use of animations. The games combat is pretty fast with quite stiff animations to make the combat seem heavier then usual. The animations of the game is very fluid for its age and it works well to show what part of the body you are hitting. The graphics is old but serviceable for its time. The colours are a bit bland for the most part, but it does have difference colours for enemy difficulty. Music is up beat and gets you ready to fight while the sounds are impactful and it sounds like you are punching someone. If I have to take something from this game, its that to keep the story VERY short and at the beginning.

Devil May Cry

This game is a influence to me because of its fast and flashy combat and its art style. The combat of this game has a huge variety of combos and ways to get rid of the enemies. The animation is very fluid and is very flashy to the point of it looking very cool. The graphics of the game works for its art style as in its very grunge and dark which makes it so the graphics don't have to put too much work into creating this world. The colours are mostly browns and greys but with key things like the main characters and the enemies so you don't lose track of yourself when you are fighting them. The music in the game is mostly atmospheric until you get into combat it becomes more heavy metal/grunge to suit the mood of the art style and graphics. The sound of this game is loud and distinct to what it should be, example being, when firing the guns, they sound very impactful and violent. If I have to take anything from this game is that to make the moves look flashy and fast to make the player look good, even though they are only pressing a few buttons.

Bayonetta

(Skip to around 17 minutes)

This game is a influence to me because of its fast and flashy combat. The combat of the game fluid, fast and flashy with a huge variety of moves to beat up some angels. The animations are fluid when making combos, it is also quick to move from one animation to another with a single button press. Graphics is decent with pretty good models to create the world well. The colours in this game are mostly greys and browns in the background with the bright and light enemies to easily see who is what. The music is upbeat and catchy to grab the attention of the player and the sound design its very impactful with a lot of flare within it. If I have to take anything from this game, it would be to make the action look as appealing as I can

Castle Crashers

This game influence because of its colourful and simple art style. The combat is a fast two button masher with jumping to create other combos. the animation is simple and fluid to make sure the combat flows well and quick. The graphics are simple and needed to be simple so there is not too much on the screen to detract you. The colours are all over the place and is a pleasing site. The music in the game is upbeat and catchy. The sounds are heavy and loud with a lot of impact to it all. If I have to take anything from this game, it would be the colourful and simple art design that makes the game easy on the eyes.

This is my mood board on health bars. These health bars consist of lines, normally from right to left, most of them are green but there are other colours being used for health bars like red and even some that have more then one colour or makes a transition from one colour to the next to help show where the health bar is at. I should make the bar of my health bar easy to see and east to know whats full and whats empty.

I started by playing around in photoshop and made a texture that is above the health bar I have made, I was thinking on either making the bar a line or give it a curve on each side.

I have made it curve because I wanted to make the player know that it is the players health bar by placing this under them at the start of the game.

after some edited like the main character's (?) face and the numbers that shows how hurt you are, I have done this for another way to show some one being hurt.

I was thinking of using textures for environment and no textures for characters to let you see the characters and enemy easier. This is because of the time constraints that was given to the brief and I needed to get a prototype working before the deadline. It is also because I wanted the art style of both complex and simple together in a strange way.

When importing my player model, I had this problem of only some of the textures showing up, so to fix this I made sure that every bit of patten was done in one selection, I do not know why this worked but it did. 

After using the textures, i have noticed that the textures themselves are very stretched and in poor quality so i have taken the picture to photoshop.

This is the original picture, as you can see the picture is not seamless so with some an hour of photo shopping.

I have made the picture seamless and able to pasted them side by side.

This is the picture with the stretched texture, its not the best looking so I wanted to change this.

So the new texture comes on and is placed side by side of each other to make it seem less stretched.

With the new textures that are on the level, it looks more polished and easier on the eyes which in turn looks nicer and more professional. 

This animation is the attacking animation for when hitting an enemy, its slow but can work still as i can increase its speed in unity. This suffers from clipping issues but you cant normally see that in game.

This is the idle animation for the character, I like this animation because it shows he is inpatient and ready to get going, one thing I would change from the animation is the face that his head might be moving too much to make it slightly unnatural.  

This is the walking animation for the character. This animation is slow but can work still as i can increase its speed in unity.

This animation had to be re-weighted for death animation, there was a problem with weighting the body and had to be redone to use all of the body movement.

This GIF has inspired me to create a simple beat'em up as it shows good animation to show kicks and punchs with varying speeds.

I have recently made this health pick-up as a way to make the game a bit more easier and is a small reward for doing well.

It started as a few cubes in 4D, then I gave it a light green material. I have made it look like a plus as its normally a positive and its a sign of medics and healing within games. I have tilted it back a bit and found code to rotate it to make it easy to see over other things like enemy and the player.

This is the video for my final work on unit 6

Evaluation: After a long time of doing my project I have learned that if a idea is too hard or annoying is to redo that part again or find another way around. I need to work to my strength more and find a more simple way to do the harder tasks. Plus if I get stuck on something hard, I should do something else instead.