onsdag 9. februar 2011

Case 3

In this week’s case we were told to get a finished and playable game as possible. The level-manager should be expanded with a front-page and an ending-page, an NPC (or enemy if you want) that follows the main character, score-points and something for the character to pick up.
It looked like this case where mostly made for the programmers, but also we animators and designer had a lot to do. While Ole Magnus were put to work on this case, Hege took care of the backgrounds for the intro, and start and ending-screens. Ravel continued with his dragon, and Sondre animated and created the rest of the intro. And, as usual, you can read more of everyone’s work below.

Animation!
Well back again for another week. As mentioned last week, I have worked my ass off with the intro to the game this week. It stood in this week’s case that we needed to have a intro and an ending for the game. And this became my responsibility with help from our great designer Hege who created the background, and classmate and musician Alexandra Leong for providing with the music.
First off, I began creating a storyboard to get a vision of how it was going to be in the end, and to make shore that I get everything I want into this little sequence that is supposed to introduce the game. And after 12 scenes I felt I got that.

                                          The beginning of the story.

The story begins with a little house in the woods in the middle-ages where wizards and dragons exist. In this house, the great wizard of the elements water, fire, earth and wind lies sick because the dragons takes away his powers and uses them against him. His only hope is an elixir in the dragon’s great castle, but he is too weak to get it himself. So his little apprentice decides to get it for him and save his lives. The sorcerer’s apprentice gets the wizards last powers from his hat and a magic wand, and with this, he goes out in the world to defeat the dragons and save the day.

                                          First scene of the game.

I chose to start the intro with some text that tells the background of the story, and then I animated Hege’s background and gave it a kind of 3D illusion, to get the players attention. In the next scene you’ll see another one of Hege’s backgrounds from Photoshop, which shows the inside of the house, but now with two Flash-drawn characters lying by the bed. The reason I chose to do it like this, is to create a softer transition between Flash and Photoshop, because they make quite a contrast, and for almost the rest of the intro I have used Flash. The story was told over here, so after the sorcerer’s apprentice gets the hat and the wand and runs out in the world, I end the whole intro with beautiful backgrounds from Photoshop, to wrap it all up and give the player lust to explore more of this world.

                                          The sick wizard.
                                           
This is how far I have come for now, and it starts to look more and more like a game every week. Now we’ll have a break the next few weeks to concentrate on some other classes, but then we will continue with three new cases. My plans next is to work some more on the details on the intro and make it a little better, maybe an ending-sequence, spells the apprentice can throw on the dragons, die and damaging-animations, and maybe a Game Over-screen. But we’ll see what the next cases will be about and how we split up the tasks in our group.

                                         The magic wand and hat from the wizard.

It is fun to see that we work well in the group and getting closer and closer to our goal; a finished and full playable game. That gives much motivation, and I’m looking forward to continue this project after a break. We’ll be back!

                                          He is ready!

SondreJ   


Second animator!
In this third case I've continued to work with the design from the first case, constantly adding more detail to the dragon and improving different body parts, as well as trying to correct things in the walk cycle. I've also started on what will become a Sprite for the head and neck of the dragon, that will enable the dragon to make attacks, for instance in the form of biting and spitting fire (for the dragon representing the element Fire. I'm planning that the other dragons will have some form of “water-attack”, “stone-attack”, “wind-attack” and such.
Ravel
 
Designer
We are now in our third case and we’re all working hard to get the game ready in time. I think the progress in our work is going well and I’m sure we’ll be able to deliver a good product after these three cases.
During these last weeks we had to put it all together and finish all the levels. We also had to make some small adjustments in the game to make it look even better.

I have mainly been working with the drawings for the intro and it has been a lot of work. But this week I have also created the report which we have written partially together and individually.   Sondre and I have been working together on this part of the project and the co-operation has, as far as I know, worked very well. I drew the surroundings and the scenes while he animated it, added text and put it together. Sondre had some ideas on how the intro could look like and I thought it was a good idea. We then agreed and divided the tasks between us and Ole Magnus implements it into the game.

In the intro the Sorcerer’s apprentice sits by the old Sorcerer’s bed in his old cottage. The Sorcerer says to the apprentice that he needs to get the potion for him because the old man is weak and bedridden. The apprentice is determined to get the potion from the castle and he gets the Sorcerer’s magic hat and wand. In the end of the intro we can see the apprentice running off into the forest to start his perilous journey.
The drawings for the intro, like all the drawings for the game, contain a lot of details and that’s why it has taken a lot of time creating the various scenes and surroundings. Sondre has done a great job finishing the intro. In this case I have also made the front, win and lose “page”. I wanted it to have elements from the game so I used the clouded sky, the apprentice and the dragon and put it together as a whole.  
Now, when I look at the almost finished product, I wish I had simplified the drawings for the scenes and surroundings. I think it would harmonize better and provide the game a more holistic impression. Maybe if I drew it in Flash it would have been better. But I am satisfied with my drawings and I think the special appearance will give the game a certain character. 

During these three cases I’ve had the pleasure to work with talented co-students and I really liked working as a part of a group. We have been using our skills as well as taking part of the whole process. I think all the members of our group have done their best and we all have been working hard to be able to deliver a good game.  I look forward to the next three cases and I’m eager to see the final result after all six cases.

-Hege-

Programmer:
I started importing graphics and code from the demo, into the level editor. I turned out to be a lot more work than I thought. I worked on making the hitboxes better for the new graphics. A lot of rules were added so you can play the game as a game with a goal. Use a spell and remove the enemy's hit points before he eats you. After defeating a dragon you can pick up a sphere of pure element force, that heals you.