Think outside the box contest game - 'ESCAPE ARTIST' By Stormystudio
StormyStudio
United KingdomMember Posts: 3,989
This is a thread about my game for the 'Think outside the box contest'.
(contest link here: http://gamesalad.com/forums/topic.php?id=17247#post-131639)
Admittedly I setup the competition, so wont be winning anything, but it gives me a short deadline for game completion.
My game is going to be called 'Escape Artist' (Already saved the name with Apple).
THE CURRENT IDEA (IT MAY WELL EVOLVE)
Draw shapes using the touch screen and release the trapped people. Each shape will get trickier to draw, the time limit will get shorter and the more mistakes you make the more energy you lose.
A highscore will be tracked for how many shapes you can complete before the timer or your energy bar gets you...
Style wise, I'm not quite sure, it lends itself to the Doodle style quite a lot, but I don't want it to just look like 'another' Doodle game. Maybe a thick oil paint style could be good.
I'll post some sketches later, first of all I need to figure out how to make it work in the best possible way.
I've already got a pretty good flight control mechanism setup that I was perfecting yesterday for drawing and tracking paths so some reworking of that will come into play.
Quite a lot to get working in two weeks, but I think it's do able. As long as I keep the idea fairly simple.
And of course I'm gonna use the new pause feature in there too.
(contest link here: http://gamesalad.com/forums/topic.php?id=17247#post-131639)
Admittedly I setup the competition, so wont be winning anything, but it gives me a short deadline for game completion.
My game is going to be called 'Escape Artist' (Already saved the name with Apple).
THE CURRENT IDEA (IT MAY WELL EVOLVE)
Draw shapes using the touch screen and release the trapped people. Each shape will get trickier to draw, the time limit will get shorter and the more mistakes you make the more energy you lose.
A highscore will be tracked for how many shapes you can complete before the timer or your energy bar gets you...
Style wise, I'm not quite sure, it lends itself to the Doodle style quite a lot, but I don't want it to just look like 'another' Doodle game. Maybe a thick oil paint style could be good.
I'll post some sketches later, first of all I need to figure out how to make it work in the best possible way.
I've already got a pretty good flight control mechanism setup that I was perfecting yesterday for drawing and tracking paths so some reworking of that will come into play.
Quite a lot to get working in two weeks, but I think it's do able. As long as I keep the idea fairly simple.
And of course I'm gonna use the new pause feature in there too.
Comments
QS
Looking forward to getting this game working. It's by far the most fun part of making a game, the first few days when ideas are developing and you can decide on the style, quality etc...
I can see quite a lot of attribute tracking is going to be needed for the things I want to include...
Designed how the basic easy level will run,
On easy: load image of shape, you draw round the shape as quickly and accurately as possible. Your drawing is scanned for accuracy, you get up to 5 stars depending how accurate you are. Less than 50% and you fail.
Medium - there is a timer so you have to draw quickly.
Hard - the image that you have to draw disappears after a 1 second preview.
I've quickly drawn, all the different shapes that will need to be drawn...(Its like being a kid again).
The 'Stick man' is by far the best one yet. (In my imaginary chart of favorite shapes)
Edit: whether I get medium and hard versions ready for 2 weeks I'm not sure. But if not I'll add them in an update.
Taken a while to get it working flawlessly, but it seems to be fine...
Basically I can now draw a path and then have an actor follow that path at what ever speed I like...rotating to follow the path, and if I click a new one is started.
It also does'nt keep looking for a path once it reaches the end to save on some processor power at times.
Its the first main step to getting the game mechanic I want.
The real question is;
"How is it simple?"
(To be honest, mine will be simpler
As for this not being simple enough, you maybe right. But most of what you see will be hidden. The player draws the shape, gets it right, draws the next shape etc etc. How many can they draw . . Simple? :-/
or whether they can let go of the screen and touch it again to carry on. Don't want to get too bogged down adding more attributes to track. Perhaps I can limit you to one line on the early stages, and up to 5 lines for more complicated shapes, e.g. stick men, cars, olympic circles
There are a few bugs to iron out, but the main elements are all in place.
Then its a case of triple checking it all works ok, test this one level on a device to make sure it runs ok, and the brush size is about right, then get all the graphics looking good, then churn out lots of levels with different shapes... Oh and add sounds...
There is only one unique attribute in each scene, which decides how many lines are available all the other ones are pure prototypes, so updates and fixes should be easily done even when the game is a bit bigger.
Considering make the dots you draw into connecting lines (like some of the drawing demos show), we'll see, maybe I'll dot that in an update...
Any feedback?
I think you need to make the "scanner" actor visible. It really seems cool..
And why it said level failed? You made a good accuracy.
*Sorry, it was below 50% but, it looked like you had a good accuracy. :P
At frario, yeah I think I'll save any fruit ninja ness for next time. Should learn some stuff on this one for other types of game.
Also browsed the fonts on dafont.com to get some inspiration for the games title logo. Liking some of the hand drawn sketchy ones...
I'm not sure how much fun this game will be until I play it on a device. Fingers crossed the spawning wont kill playability...
Drawing the shapes might be so easy there's hardly any challenge...if thats the case I defintately need to add a timer, then if its still easy, I'll start making the camera move in the scene or something...
Maybe it can have audio shouting 'SQUARE, TRIANGLE, PENTAGON, POTATO,' ...whilst your trying to draw a 'circle'. :-)
Just realized I'm gonna lose a few evenings work on the game...
Tonight - my evening of sport, playing squash. (only the 2nd time I've ever played)
Friday night - first time back to the cinema with my wife since our daughter was born last January. Her sister has offered to babysit as a birthday present.
Monday - Its valentines day, so the Mrs might not be too thrilled if my head is buried in my laptop.
Hopefully I'll find a good few hours over the weekend. Or I could secretly book a day off work...and hang out in a pub with a laptop...ooh that sounds good.
Shows a possible, colour scheme, though I'm not sure yet. The main thing is that I have done all the setting up so I can allow up to 5 lines per level. With accuracy trackable for each one.
(The drawn and accuracy % numbers were not turned on for this preview vid, but do work)
Had a busy weekend doing normal family stuff, but squeezed in a bit of time to plan levels in
My sketch pad. Designed a possible intro narrative, and worked out a time bonus setup soothe better you play the further you can get in the game.
Should get back on it properly tomorrow night. Shattered tonight after a weekend of running around with a one year old.
I've implemented drawing/painting lines instead of dots, so you can see more exactly the path you've drawn. As you can see there are a few little bugs that need ironing out...pretty sure I know what needs doing...Just keep running out of time...
I've made it so no matter how long the line you draw the stripy texture of the line always stays consistent and is not stretched. Also I've fixed it on the first line so the scanner should travel to the very end of the last drawn line...
~CTM
Current thinking for the game...
I might change the brush for a more realistic oil paint texture rather than the stripey lines...
Also not sure if I want it to be a game that you play from the beggining each time and see how far you get, or have unlockable levels...
Basics I want completed before version 1 is finished: (+ how long it will take)
MENUS:
Stormystudio Title screen, (2 mins)
Game Title graphic/Logo (1 Hour)
Cool Menu, with pushable buttons ( 2 hours)
Sound/music volume controls, (30 mins)
Save/load attributes/keys (30 mins)
Possibly a level select option? (4 hours)
LEVELS:
Sound FX / music for the levels, (Will take 1 hour)
Camera move that increases the difficulty as you play on.(1 hour)
Scanner graphics/animation/particles, (1 hour)
High score function, with time bonus idea (1.5 mins)
Custom font for scores, (1.5 hrs)
30 levels, (5 hours)
Hmm...quite a bit to do in 5 days...plus I'm busy tonight and Friday night!..
(I've got 3 lunchtimes at work, with maybe 45 mins GS time each day...then maybe 2 to 3 hours each night I've got free.)...and I need about 21 hours...maybe I'll skip the level select idea..
Video showing the progress on my 2 week project Escape Artist... only 4 days left on the project and there's a lot to do and not much free time to do it.
This video shows the menu design and the draw to select function.
I'm going to add a transition between scenes, and a count in "3,2,1" at the beggining of the game...
Need to work on a custom font for the highscore. Which I've never done before, but have found Firemaples demo so will take a look at that and see how easy it is...and more importantly how quick...
Added custom font highscore... and tested on my phone again...
Lots of little things I'd like to tweak...
DL
Yeah, I might do, once I've finished a simple game with it myself. But we shall see...Email me a crazily tempting offer at (jon_draper(@)yahoo.co.uk)
GAME IDEA DEVELOPMENT:
I've not touched it much for a week. Due to lack of sleep with an ill one year old, who is now much better.
But I've had lots of time to think about it, and work out how to make the gameplay as 'fun' as possible.
I'm now thinking a quick reworking of the game may be in order so each new shape will be loaded in the same scene. As the loading times would annoy a lot of players. I need to do some testing to see how much memory performance would be affected if you kept spawning more and more things in the same scene even if old spawned items have been deleted.
STORY
Seeing 'Tiny Wings' do so well also makes me want to work out a simple storyline that will tug at the heart strings. Perhaps a world where 'the darkness' has stolen all the shapes, and you have to draw all the shapes back into it to help the pygmies escape...(or something like that :-)