I'll post up a progress report on the 10 day game project in the next day or so. Other projects need attention now, and the cricket starts on Friday. In the meantime, a photo of a French white rabbit.
Well we've been busy, honest. Busy talking and skyping about what the game will be. Busy making art, animation and code to make it work. Busy ironing out all the problems and broken bits. Busy making (so-so) music for the soundtrack. Busy realising that we won't have a fully functioning adventure game by Tuesday, when we present it to Flash Brighton.
*sigh*
What we will have is a framework for the main game into which we can slot lovingly crafted word based mini-games. In the main game, you play Little Red, who walks around a big map of the forest, looking for goblins to defeat. When you find one of the little pests on the map you can choose to do battle in one of the mini-games, like the picture matching puzzle that's almost finished. When all the goblins and other monsters are defeated, there'll be an end game, but that is just going to have to wait for the moment.
But hey, we have thought of a name for the game: Wordwood. I know, stunning.
Basically, games take time to make - often longer than you plan or hope - and that's the case with this one. So what we're aiming to have by Tuesday is a fully functioning top level for the game, and at least one finished and tested mini game with all it's bells and whistles present and correct. We will then finish the others when time and work allow. So, although we're a little disappointed with not making as much progress as we'd like, we've gained experience and a sound working method that will make our future game making even more successful and satisfying. We've also learned that working in the same room helps the process a great deal. Skype and IM are great but those conversations you have while drinking tea face to face are priceless.
One thing for our wishlist: a musician who's interested in collaboration. If you're someone who shares our taste for charming little games that a child might enjoy and German Oompah Sausage Band music, then please do get in touch. We don't expect anything for Tuesday, but it'd be great to forge a long term creative relationship.
More soon.
A bit of a slog today, but progress has been made. I've designed all the characters and monsters now, and I'm really happy with the way it's all looking. The above image is of the player's character Little Red discovering Xylona, who's been turned into a sleeping fish by the game's villain, Ylwa.
And above, is a full roster of monsters all based on letters of the alphabet. Getting a textured look using the tools in Flash is very satisfying, and an approach I'd like to develop further on other projects.
Owen has had quite a time implementing the interactive map (above) of the forest, optimising for improved (read: acceptable) performance in Flash Player, breaking it and then. Repeat 100 times. The artwork is all vector, with it's advantages of scalability, but when Blend modes and other effects are applied, it really slows the player to a crawl. But Owen proved the maxim 'Persistence is Omnipotent' and succeeded in optimising the code so much that the map looks and acts lovely.
Developing with Flash sometimes makes Unity3D look like a smart move.
Perhaps most importantly Dom, Owen and I created a puzzle document in order to hammer out exactly what the puzzles in the game would be, and how we'll implement them. Dom stepped up his involvement with the game, and provided lots of ideas and comments. He changed from an uncle to a little brother. We'll have a group chat on Day 3, which should make us all feel brighter, shinier, happier.
I'm making an adventure game! With Owen! And Dom! In Flash! We've got 10 days to complete it! Erk.
The Story
Zepherine (a nice witch) has had the letters stolen out of her magic spell book by that horrible naughty witch Ylwa (she's bad, that one). Ylwa's only gone and mixed up all the letters and turned them into 7 mean spirited goblins, who are hiding in the Deep Dark Wood. You are Little Red, and with the aid of Zepherine, you must defeat Ylwa and the 7 goblins to restore the letters to the magic spell book. Only then will you be able to wake up Xylona, the witch of the forest, who's been sent to sleep by one of Ylwa's spells. When she wakes up, something wonderful will happen!
The Characters
A date for your diary, if you fancy. I'll be running a short-ish Character Animation session at Flash Brighton in a couple of weeks. I'm planning to cover such things as character rigging and setup, work-flow from Illustrator to Flash to After Effects, and a brief guide to happy lip synching. This will involve me talking, pointing at a screen and answering some questions.
*EDIT* Anyone interested in attending this session, should register themselves over at Upcoming - http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4562270/
For those who don't know, Flash Brighton is a lively little group of Flash developers and designers who are very friendly and clean, so if you're not too bothered about hearing what I have to say, come along anyway and meet some nice people. Maybe bring some biscuits.
I'm posting this, as it's the image with the most views on my Flickr page, because I'm fiddling with my Flickr export settings, and I'm currently listening to the Lord of the Rings audiobook.
Synchronicity or something.
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