Going off what was said in the previous post, Slime Shot is a game that revolves around physics and momentum. Just like the four atoms in Particle Play, we wanted the game to have a bright and colourful feel, especially the character that the player will be slinging around. We want him to have a personality, something the kids can interact with. As he sits there he will have an idle pose, being stretched and also bouncing off the walls his face will change. This week has been spent ironing out how the game will play, while trying out a few designs for some of the objects within the game. Below are just some of the development designs for how things may look. Obviously, a lot of it may change, but having a rough idea enables us to use the graphics as place holders. Once everything has been roughly designed we can then crack on with completing the final graphics and polishing the game.
One of the things that changed straight away was where the sling shot would be positioned. It was originally going to be placed at the bottom, in the middle of the screen. However after creating a couple of mock screen shots we realised that it would be better suited in the middle. This gives the player a full 360 degree aim, enabling levels to be bigger and causing players to think more carefully about where they sling the character. Another thing we added was that if the player slings back at the sling shot, they will latch back onto it and are then able to re-take a shot.
Next we added an indication to where the character has previously bounced. Where ever the character bounces a small slime spot will appear, this gives players indication to where they have bounced/aimed previously. This will be helpful if they need to adjust their aim slightly to hit the targets they were after. This could also be an indication to how many more times they can hit the walls before slowing down and stopping. If they know the slime can bounce 10 times, they are then able to track and plan their shots accordingly.
Just like our previously game, Tubes, once all the games assets are completed, we can then think about specific levels. Completed the assets first means we can just drag and drop them to create as many levels as possible. That isn’t something were leaving till the last minute however, having a small glimpse of how they may play out now will help us when creating the game assets and even the environmental hazards. The aim of the game is to smash as many targets as possible within a given amount of turns, once completed they will receive a rating based on that figure. There are two types of levels that could feature within the game, Level A; fewer targets spread further apart means the player will have to choose carefully where to sling the character, Level B; groups of targets that result in a more sling and hope. Both have different play styles and enable kids to compete against each other to see who can destroy the most targets.
Here is a synopsis of the ideas and notes for SlimeShot covered at the meeting between Dan, Harry, Josh and Bev held on Friday 27th May.
ReplyDeleteGraphics for this game could involve a colourful flexible, shape changing Slime-ball character with comical expressions.
The slime would have elastic properties to be pulled about and flicked with the aim of destroying as many targets as possible.
Question: Does the flicked Slime lose energy over time?
The game is reminiscent of Pool or Mini golf.
When the Slime-ball hits a wall it leaves a splash of slime behind to indicate the number of wall collisions. This helps the player to track his progress. He may only have say 10 wall hits per session.
What material properties does the Slime have?
Is it made of rubber/ flubber? It can stretch in order to be flicked and bounced around the screen, hitting targets as it goes.
It could be thought of as a polymer, made up of many parts.
It could be unvulcanized and elastic or vulcanised and more solid. Or there could be a variety of Slime-balls with different properties.
Imagine a power ball or an elastic ball versus a hard ball.
A squashy power ball would need more hits to smash a target but a hard ball would bounce hard from one target to another and leave more slime hits on the walls. The balls could be colour coded to indicate their properties.
The soft balls could have smiley faces and the hard balls could look ‘mean’.
Really bouncy balls could stretch further but hard balls would be more rigid.
Would the balls be sticky and possibly combine with other balls?
Maybe some balls could split to form new smaller ones? The hard balls could be smashed against a wall to break them into smaller balls. You could also aim at them to break them down further.
Another type of slime ball could spill out viscous liquid when hit, which could be used to slow down other competitive balls.
A few notes about artwork production: make sure the graphical resolution is high enough to meet 2 x magnifications on the iPad. An alternative method to Flash for producing the game would be needed for the iPad.
We like the designs for the targets. Aim to keep that bright graphical look.