"Bluebeard" Week 3 - William Marshall - Pickups and Level Design

"Bluebeard" - William Marshall

Week 3 - Level Designs and Pickups

Intro

This week continued my Design Phase, where sketches and ideas are being experimented with in order to have a fully thought-out background before I begin developing fully-finished assets, to make a nice strong supporting structure and developed ideas.

There was one interesting development this week that I will talk about later in this blog - a game with 3D assets being produced in the 2D perspective. This would fulfil the requirements of the game whilst drawing upon my 3D ability. However, it would increase the amount of time I would need to complete my product, which I am already strapped for time for.

Hazards & Pickups

One of the key requirements for my game is to have hazards and pickups which will (presumably) be able to decrease and increase the player's health, providing more challenge for the game. These were sketched out this week to see what I wanted to go with.

Task 1 - Hazards

Hazards became a key part of my game that I realised I needed to design, in order to add additional challenge to my game. I began by thinking of some stereotypical Hazards that could possibly confront my player in a Castle Crypt, such as large holes in the floor, as well as spikes that have been laid down as a precaution. I came up with a few different designs for both, to get a wider range of production material. They will be rather simple to make in either 2D or 3D, so I am hopeful.

Even though I did not take these hazards very far into production, it has been invaluable to begin thinking about how they could be presented in the game, as I am not leaving it to the last minute. However, if I wanted to improve these, I would begin experimenting with colour and place them into my level design to see if they fit properly. I would also want to look at additional types of Hazards, as well as enemies.

Task 2 - Pickups

Pickups came in two different forms. Health Pickups will be used in order to increase the Player's health and ensure that they can recover it (making the game more fair). Key Pieces relate back to the original fable of Bluebeard, where the bloody key was the clue that tipped Bluebeard off about his wife knowing about his murders, so I have decided to incorporate this into my game, as I have taken inspiration from the story. It'll add a bit more interest to the gameplay, rather than mindlessly running right.

I'm quite pleased with both sets of designs, due to the fact that I know which ones I will want to take forward, now. From this point, I know that I will want to develop a health potion for my health and begin drawing out fully-coloured pieces of Key for the player to collect.

Level Design Final
More experimentation was done with the Level Design this week. I thought more about the Fable of Bluebeard and thought that the crypts of his castle would make for an interesting location.

Using the level experimentation that I had worked on last week, I made certain to include the cobbled floors, pillars, windows and mountains to provide effective parallax scrolling. Without colour, this is what I expect one section of my level to look like. I took particular inspiration from looking at some images of Castle Crypts, attempting to make my level look very similar.

In order to understand more in-depth, I would have liked to add some colour to this design, as well as add some more background scenery so that it isn't so bland. But I would be quite happy working with what I have right here, as I already know the exact assets I need to make to put my scene together fully.

In order to figure out where exactly I will be placing certain assets, I drew up a few quick diagrams of their positions and ideal paths, as well as the path that the player would be following in normal gameplay. To avoid the enemy making their way forward, the player would have to jump on the platforms (whilst picking up two health potions and a piece of the key they require), adding a bit of interest and strategy to gameplay.

To improve on this design, I would need to create a level design for the entire level, rather than just this short section. But now I have the gist of how my game is going to look.

Main Menu Creation

After planning and developing my Main Menu last week, I began the process by creating the appropriate buttons, title and a static-looking animation that relates to the horror theme of my game.

Task 1 - Buttons and Title

This is how my main menu currently looks. It currently isn't in the layout that I originally picked just due to the fact that not all of the assets are available at this moment in time. Using my 'Horroroid' font, I was able to create multiple states for each of the buttons so that they appear animated and interesting to click. Finally, my title is large and tinted a slight red colour, to link back to the Bluebeard Fable (this may be changed to blue, but I am concerned this will make my menu seem quite passive and calming).

There are a few things I want to change and develop with this main menu:
-Add Background Art
-Add a fade-in/fade-out effect using the static
-Add some animation for the buttons appearing on screen when the game is loaded
-Improve the static effect, as well as darkening it (the grey isn't working too well)

In my opinion, my title screen looks quite bland and boring, even if I have taken inspiration from horror games. Using the suggestions above, I may be able to change this to make my main menu more artistically interesting.

This is the sprite sheet that I used to create the static animation for my main menu. 8 frames is quite unnecessary, so this may also be changed as I continue to develop my ideas.

Task 2 - Background Art

Since I am basing my Main Menu on the Horror Game examples that I collected last week, I wanted to have an up-close piece of artwork of Bluebeard, sitting in this rather intimidating pose as he stares you down from a tabletop. This will be developed further next week, adding detailing, colour and a facial expression.

Plans For Next Week

Naturally, I will want all of my plans completed by the end of next week, allowing me to enter the stage of production where I can simply spend time producing assets and getting my game together. I've quite enjoyed having all these design sessions, as it has given me a solid foundation for the rest of my work.

-Level Select Screen Planning

-Level Design Full

-Background Art Creation

-Potion Implementation

-Potion Particle Effect

-Key Piece Implementation