Fall semester has begun. Our team has reunited and we’ve got a new set of goals for the game.
The game will become less linear. We will be creating tracks to give the illusion of turning and tracks that split as well to give players the option to take alternate paths. We’re also changing our animals. We now have a goat, rabbit and tiger. The game will still be on rails and the goal will be to reach the end as fast as possible. We discussed the merits of other ideas and drew upon games such as Agent Dash and Temple Run as inspiration and found ways to meld some of those games ideas together. When players come to the forks in the road, the game will automatically put them in the left turn if they’re on the left side of the track and vice versa. These little things should hopefully prove simple, but I’m sure the engineers will have their work cut out for them. There is a lot more on my shoulders in terms of design, but I believe using modular level design will help us whip out levels quickly and offer fun and frantic paths for players to use. We also need to tighten up the poses and offer variances for them.
It’s gonna be a busy semester, but man, it’s gonna be good.
Further insight on to some of the upcoming design changes:
Linear Design to Branching Design: We have a wonderful assortment of track pieces for the final level. Last semester we only had a linear level. This was due in part to the fact that the engineers had not been able to implement our level editor. This level editor will require a lot of engineering from their side – the animals must be able to stay on the track and not fly off. Eventually, we will apply this to elevated track pieces. By utilizing a level design that is branching, we give the players more options and reasons to replay the level. Since it is a student game, we will probably only get one level out of this project, so if we can shoot for a well-polished level with multiple branching paths, the game will have more life rather than just single play through.
Changing of the animals and their poses: We opted for these three animals – Goat, Rabbit, Tiger – because we feel that they will be more visually dynamic than the original cat, rat, and bull. We chose the goat because it still maintains the ramming aspect that the bull did within the first build, but also because we think it’ll be more interesting to look at than the bull. It’s more cute and I think the character’s polygonal build will read more goat than the bull ever did. The rabbit is our small character – larger than the rat – and I think the connotations with its abilities make more sense to players – rabbits jump high, run fast, and are comfortable in dark tunnel environments (like our caves). I think the choice of the tiger gives players a strong character to play as in this game and is in stark contrast to the choice of goat and rabbit. Where the goat is dopey but stalwart, the rabbit cute yet frantic, the tiger is strong and noble. It will be a solid choice for players in terms of speed and jump height. Its pose is an aggressive one, distinguishing it from the goats pose (a grounded silly flexing pose), and the rabbit’s upbeat, excited pose (hands high up in the air). These poses retain their dynamics from the previous semester (high, medium, low), but will have subtle changes that give more context to the transformation.
Oh, and next week? I’m gonna be in Burning Man! Time for some inspiration!
Josh Lee 