After making up for 3D work last quarter, we can finally work on our game, which we have renamed to Strangeview. The game process was long and arduous, with a lot of us going back and forth on certain ideas. Most of which were probably for the better, we finally have a menu set up that makes sense, along with a Viewmaster inventory system that adds to the charm of the game. It's changes like this that make our game stand out a bit more, B movie survival horror games are pretty cool in our opinions. We also got to the specific mechanics, which are separated by floor, are now defined and in a set order. We also have our controls down, so we have a less ambiguous game now. What's also important is that we don't have to do as much thinking as to what we should do, it's already outlined in our document.
Other than that, we can actually start posting on the website made for the game, and give a bit more into what we're working on. See you then.
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The seventh game in the mainline Touhou series, or rather the second game in the more well known Touhou games developed for Windows, it improves upon Embodiment of Scarlet Devil and fine tunes the game's system for a more rewarding system. There are five base levels, an extra level, and the Phantasm level. You play as one of three playable characters shooting enemies which fire danmaku (projectiles, lasers, anything that can kill you) towards you, a mini boss, then a boss fight. You have a limited amount of lives and three continues, you can cancel enemies and projectiles with a limited amount of bombs. Bosses and mini bosses consist of regular projectile patterns, and spell cards, really difficult (and pretty) attacks where you can't die or use a bomb if you want to capture it. You obtain different bonuses when you clear the stage. The main objective is to finish all the stages, but the good ending is when you can beat it without a continue, and also collect the highest score you can. This system is a very solid example of using flow, if you've ever seen the game without playing it, it looks impossible and very visually appealing. But when you actually play the game you see something else, you can see a path to sneak through and the right way to take it, also you have a tiny hit box, you can practically kiss the danmaku and you will live. That is the first part of playing any sort of bullet hell game, getting to understand danmaku patterns and knowing how to lead shots at enemies as you do that. You will die a lot, use a lot of bombs, and eat up your continues just to see what the stage and bosses even look like. But after a lot of repeated attempts, you can practically do whole stages without using any bombs or dying. The impossible eventually becomes possible, then it becomes easy, this is the skill return that makes the series so addictive. The changes in difficulty do have a sorta steep curve once you get to The Prismriver sisters, since their stage's enemies have large chucks of projectiles all flung at you. On the first play through, You would die a lot, the only way around this and to grab all the score items in time is to fly around the edge of the screen, which goes against a lot of schmup thinking. But, that's Touhou for you, so the best thing you can do is go with the flow (ooh pun) and always play with the whole screen. The flow stays intact since there is a practice mode, so you can focus solely on the stage and boss, eventually mastering that one boss that tears you in half without the hassle of the bosses you already mastered just eating up your time. You also tend to find favorite bosses through practice (*cough* Konpaku *cough*), which also keeps you going. With some precarious curiosity, you can eviscerate through some spell cards The flow learning the pattern and shooting the boss until it's become second nature. But what keeps this system going is the difficulty setting before you even start. What makes Touhou difficulty settings so interesting is that each pattern and spell card is revamped with more projectiles, lots of bosses and mini bosses will even have new spell cards that you can't even witness until you play higher difficulties, further rewarding mastery of previous levels. Which leads up to the fact that it's really up to you on how confident you are in your abilities to see what else the game has to offer, self-challenge is what keeps the flow flowing without infuriating the player, since the player is deciding how difficult they want to play. But there is another feature that follows completion and that is score, because this is a traditional arcade game at heart. There are many ways to get waaaaaay more score than playing normally, from shooting unfocused to item grabbing by going to the top to shooting closer to a boss so a spell card can be beaten for a better time score, they are all very dangerous and can only even be considered if you know the original stage/spell card. But this is what throws the flow into the stratosphere, building a new score as you learn projectiles is addictive, supplementing the gameplay further. Cherry is also important since it auto-grabs items so you can focus on dodge projectiles So, the last thing to talk about is the game's main draw, which adds a new score feature called Cherry. You get cherry from grazing, shooting, and cherry items. If you collect 50,000 points worth of cherry, you activate a barrier, which acts as a free bomb that activates when you are hit are you use a bomb. But, you can keep the barrier up for a nice score bonus, which means you can't use a bomb or die when it's active, further reinforcing the skills that is expected of you. You will be cashing out your barrier bonus for a large score during a spell card, which is fun with the sound effects and huge numbers on the screen, really really addictive. There is also the characters and music, what makes Touhou so unique. if you've been on the internet and have even grazed (oh look another pun) anything video game/anime related, you have maybe seen a character (Cirno probably lol) or heard a music track without even realizing it: Bad Apple, Night of Nights, UN Owen Was Her, Hartmann's Youkai Girl, Gensokyo Past and Present, and the millions of popular tracks covering each song. So does Perfect Cherry Blossom's characters and music tracks stack up? Yes, absolutely because of how energetic and powerful they are, the tone and mood is perfectly set by each track. MIDIs fit the Touhou games well from the fact that they are meant for PC games from that era (early 2000s). But really, all the Touhou tracks in every game are actually good, so yes they do stack up. If you want to know more just look them up and see what fan made anything is made on them. Touhou characters are easily recognizable, which is where they're so popular. The interactions in the base game are funny too. It just works, separately or together. So overall, you should play the games, from learning how to be patient and gradually getting better to just being able to love what is arguably one of the most recognizably obscure video game series out there. What did we learn about? No seriously I went off and forgot what I was writing about
Obligatory Score: Chen/10 *All footage was recorded in medium difficulty of practice mode
Our first official (on class time) meeting went off without a hitch. We had to make a base narrative for what we want with the game, from characters to locations, we had to make sure we had a story we'd all want to commit to until the end of May. This resulted in a mood board we had to make, with images we found. These were images of rundown buildings, where we wanted the second half of the game to be like by going to another dimension, along with B movie posters in all of their overly dramatic and fantastical nature (invasion of the crab people). We wanted to combine these two types of clashing sub genres into one experience, with lots of back and forth we came to the conclusion of one half being an adventure game, and the second half being a survival horror game. It seems crazy now, but what game sounds cohesive when first pitched? What we made was a narrative that can put it all together, the message it conveys about being insecure in high school. Sounds less appealing having a really sappy message about inclusion right? Ahh, we'll do something about it, promise. But so far, we've got a lot done and are currently on the way to making characters and layouts. We goofed around for a short bit, with all the funky squiggles, but who knows? it might be in the game for all we know
As mentioned before, we have a new team to develop our new game. Now we have our groups and assigned roles, we can start learning all about them.
The past couple of weeks we've been putting together pieces of work to showcase our abilities and research to explain our role in the team (all of which is featured on my selected works). We organize into roles so we can best make the use of our time in one thing, and so one other person knows what to do in a certain part. This is done to make sure we all run smoothly to make our parts come together as one. So in order to show what I mean, I'll showcase my Producer role in my team. Judah - Modeler Our main man when it comes to the putting together the characters and environments. Along with talking to the programmer and artist on what everything will be like. Andy - other programmer Andy, who works together with Judah the most, is the one who actually puts all of our work together, in the form of anything script related. Jaiden - Residential artist Her main goal is to give all of us a sense of what it should look like. kidna like a preview to what the game is, that the rest of us bring to life. Moi - Producer My job is to keep the game concept the game concept, tell people what to make or what not to make, for the good of the game's original vision. This will require a lot of interaction with everybody's roles. That's our group, everyone does what there assigned, they tell others when they want something specific to be done, and I consult them throughout (or shut down ideas that don't conform to the story). So for the first unit in Advanced Game Art and Design, we are tasked with making an asset in 3DS Max for one unit, on our personal computers. This is quite the predicament since I have some personal issues with my computer, but it does seem quite detrimental for game development.
The reasoning is that the game we will probably make is most likely going to be made 3D, not 2D as I planned. Since we're starting out and we only have less than a school year, not enough to make a couple detailed sprites and interfaces. 3D allows us to make a more finished looking game, since we can use unity assets and just placing them for the time being. So unfortunately it is a necessary evil to go on. But, if it does turn out to become just studying for the unit 1 test, then the should be enough, as knowing the information to assist my team in their endeavors (since they 3DS Max working properly) then we'll still be golden. Next year we are taking AGAD and I am very excited for what we will be doing group oriented work and bigger projects. All the skills we have learned over the years, with 3D software, digital editing, and coding all come really come together this year. Even despite the quarantine, virtual communication will be how we manage and check up on each other (if we check up on each other since we're still not in school). Along with the fact we have made video game concepts during the past school year. We are all set to make our very own games, for real this time. I feel that we can all come together because of how close we are, we were selected from the only people that bothered to continue with this CTE pathway. We're all doing what we usually do in therms of teamwork, we just have to put more in as we finally help each other out and communicate in a big group project. This year's group focus is what will be our strength for succeeding for this year, as we are close friends and are willing to work together. AGAD will be full of a bunch of like minded people that aspire for game design
Here's to Another Year “Digital Arts Classes.” MR. BOURGEOIS - DIGITAL ARTS: GAME DESIGN, DSA, mrbourgeois.weebly.com/digital-arts-classes.html.
In the past week I have learned that the various ideas and concepts I've made don't seem right after a while, and that they need a new makeover. The previous game concept I've made seemed a bit overbearing to make in completely 2D, so what's the best thing to do? Draw inspiration to make a similar and more grounded (literally) system. After doing a lot of research, putting off work and playing video games, the one change that speaks to me is making the game into a beat em up. Mostly inspired by River City Ransom and it's spinoffs, an open ended metroidvania beat em up seems the most logical, since it keeps the fighting elements and distinct characters, along with making a simple ground combo based system to keep the game entertaining. Even changing the design can have a big impact, which is helped by feedback from close friends (who have the same interest so they know what they are talking about). Many types of media go through different phases, from books to movies and especially video games. Many of them are made to simplify a system, appeal to different people, or just because what the team saw in their product just seemed better off being different, changes are what can make it much better. It sounds like a weird Frankenstein monster but that's what all games and art styles go through to become interesting. If you don't think whatever you've made feels right, change it!
In progress Redesign Nishiyama, Christine. “Artistic Style Isn't Static-It's Evolving.” Might Could Studios, 24 Apr. 2020, might-could.com/essays/your-artistic-style-should-be-evolving/.
ChristopherKerry. “4 Steps to Your Own Signature Art Style.” Copic Marker Tutorials, 7 Jan. 2017, copicmarkertutorials.com/how-to-find-your-own-personal-drawing-style/. Sketching and planning are very important skills that were learning after a while. This is so because Whenever I draw something, I usually just draw a circle, hair, then draw some bean shapes then put some details on it. Nowadays, I have to sketch a light circle, some lines to direct where it will look, then plan out the body's shape and position before any real work, then I hard line every aspect of it. This takes a lot more work and time (ewww work) but it does make much more good looking people, along with carrying the small characters within it. I always used to draw tiny chibi characters because I was too hard headed to really get into formal drawing, now that I can do both, it allows so much different characteristics that are much less limited than stubby leotard girls. Sketching as helps, as laying down everything in a general aspect before any solid lines makes it much easier to visualize as you go, and less of a pain when changing one part on the whole image. But, they do then to look like really stylized characters, so that's a step in the interesting direction I'm basically just doing what I was taught how to do it throughout high school, sounds a bit like a self problem but it still relates to what I've worked on over the last month. Cheers to that. If you don't plan out what you're drawing, you'll get lost in what idea you were drawing
Character Sketch Staff, Creative Bloq. “20 Sketching Tips to Help You Make Your Mark.” Creative Bloq, Creative Bloq, 24 June 2020, www.creativebloq.com/illustration/sketching-tips-beginners-81516497.
“5 Essential Sketching Tips for Beginner Artists.” Erika Lancaster-Artist, Content Creator & Online Art Tutor, www.erikalancaster.com/art-blog/5-essential-sketching-tips-for-beginner-artists. Being quarantined at home is a very different experience, with so much time to do anything else at home, or time to slack off on work, then a lot can be gained from what has happened. Ever since we have been quarantined, it has given me a lot of time to do just about anything, it kinda sucks at first but it quickly becomes a worthwhile experience in such a trying time. Right now, it's mostly video games, my cousin coming over more (he's even considering moving in), cooking since my parents are out a lot (they're nurses), along with learning another language, it's a lot. I'm waiting for the school year to be over, since I can do so much more now that summer's come, it's really going going to show what you want other than school, hanging out and what you'd do in whatever future home you live in. So, since this is an assigned sketch that requires a blog post, i made an image of a certain someone living at home. It's quiet, peaceful, and shows something that I barely realize while still going to school every week, the room. Chores have also become much more "enjoyable" with so much time it really helps to slow down and just do these correctly. A small room in house does make me feel so natural. I would've done just the room itself and put more into it, but making it a quiet Japanese neighborhood adds to the nice atmosphere. Very, very quiet next couple of months... A small room for a small person doing laundry
After actually making the game in Unity, a lot of changes had to be made to better suit what can be done without headaches. A lot of ideas, like the aerial attacks and a lot of aggressive enemy attacks, are too hard to implement in a tiny space. Especially with pitfalls around a small building roof. So, the is not as complex as originally planned, which is most likely for the best as it makes it easier to explain how to play, and can be put into more situations with out feeling weird. But, it also allows me to put in different types of interactions, dialogue is easy enough to implement into anywhere, before fights or just in specific spots, it adds a whole new layer at the cost of designing a text box, some new portraits, along with writing dialogue, but it will be worth it in the end.
That's the changes and realism that I had talked about in the last blog post, with some better or worse, even the basic components are a little different, with the speed a bit slower overall, and wall jumps being stationary acts (especially since it's the only way to really go to another level it needs to give players some time to do that. Wow, I didn't even think about how death would happen. Guess I have to make that too. |
JamesHe aspires to be a game designer, let's just hope he gets there. He also happens to goes to DSA. Categories
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