I thought it would be nice if I could make it so players could create their own characters. The idea being that you draw what you want your character to look like and then I would import the drawing into flash where I would have a system in place to animate the sketch with the required animations for the game.

Drawn to Life is a game that lets you do just that and I think it’s a really nice idea that would work great in my game.

I set about trying to work out a way to do this but unfortunately I was unsuccessful. Theoretically I can work out how it should work, but unfortunately my skills in flash aren’t quite good enough to get it to function properly. I could not work out how to make it so that when you drew on specific areas of the guide it would change movie clips meaning everything would animate the same way rather than breaking up into individual parts.

Below is an example of some of the tests I did. If I had more time I would have continued to pursue this but unfortunately there are more important parts of the game that I must focus on.

Today I have been working on making my game more gamey. Up till now there has been no consequence for taking damage or getting hit in the levels that I have created.

Health Bar

In order to show that the character has taken damage I created a health bar. Whenever the character is hit or takes damage the health bar will deplete. Once the health bar is empty the game is over and you must start again.

Game Over Screen

Tablet
Touch Pad box
Mouse
Keyboard
Control Pad
Homemade pad/keyboard.

While testing the game recently I have been finding it quite difficult to control the character. The character was being controlled via the mouse. The character will go to where ever the mouse pointer currently is on screen. I chose to do it like this because I was planning on using either the touch pad that I made or a tablet to control the character. The reason I had chose to control the character in this way was that I wanted to try and remove the idea that the game was being played on a computer and was in fact being played completely in the sketchbook. The trouble with using those methods however is that it becomes very difficult to control.

HomeMade Touch Pad

I decided that I would try a more conventional method of controlling the character for my game. I didn’t want to use a keyboard from the computer because it was too large and completely shattered the illusion of not playing the game on in the sketchbook. So I decided to try using a control pad from a console instead.

PS3 SixAxis Controller

In order to get the controller to work I used a program called GlovePie. This program lets you assign keyboard key presses to buttons on the control pad. Once I configured the button presses the pad can then control my game.

At first I wasn’t sure that this would work very well because it did feel a little out of place with the rest of the project. However once I had set up the game and started playing using the control pad the level of control that I had over the character and the game was increased vastly and was a lot more responsive then the level of control that I had when using the mouse. By having more control over the character it also made the game a lot less frustrating and more fun to play.

I feel that the trade off here is worth it. The control pad is still small and I don’t think it intrudes too much on the idea of playing completely in the pages of the book. Using the pad also means that people won’t put their hands in the way of the projector blocking the projection of the level.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

While I have been working on my game I have been testing some of it on an onscreen version without using a projector. I did this originally to just save me time when testing something quickly. However I’ve realized that this could be a nice addition to my project. So I have also decided to make an onscreen version also. This will allow people without a projector to still play the game and hopefully have fun designing there levels.

Below is the game in its current state. I made a menu that uses images and textures from my sketchbook so it is consistent with the rest of the project. You can select which level to play using the menu.

Please note that it is still a work in progress and as a result may still have some bugs and things may not function as they are supposed to. To control it use it arrow keys Z and X. The game requires a webcam.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://zikayn.com/fmp/wp-content/uploads/alpha_onscreen.swf" height="360" width="479" /]

Here are a couple more games that I’ve found interseting both for their art styles and game/level design

And Yet It Moves

Castle Crashers

Alien Hominid

Ok so here I have tried to put together a level that uses the pushing function that I was playing with previously.

The objective is to get the block from its starting point to the high platform at the top of the page. To add a little bit of a challenge I have added an enemy that patrols the middle section of the level. He will continuously move left and right. I decided to have him move like this as I felt it would pose more of a challenge rather than having him chase the player. If the player pushes the block into the middle section while the enemy is still there he will eat the block and the player will have to start over. To remove the enemy the player has to jump on its head. Once removed the player can push the block into the middle section where the block will land upon a platform which can be raised. The player must pull a switch that will activate the platform that will lift the block to the top of the page where the level can be completed.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

When I tested this level it became clear that it was far too complex and there were too many factors that could go wrong when played on the pages of the sketch book.

Currently my code for detecting edges will only stop the character falling through from above. This means that it is possible to jump up through a platform if you are below it. It also means that the player is able to walk through a wall without being stopped. This makes the push block game very difficult to design a level around because if the block falls into a ditch it can be pushed through a wall without stopping. To get around this I created a number of hidden platforms inside of flash that the player won’t see but will stop the block from being pushed where it’s not supposed to go.

The trouble is that by setting up hidden walls in this way, it means that it is difficult for players to customize the levels as they cannot position the hidden walls themselves.

Unfortunately I have had to scrap this level and try to rework the box level idea so that it works better with the rest of the project.

Should I use sound effects?

I’ve recently been looking back at some more of the early platform games like Mario and sonic. At the end of many of the levels there is a boss encounter. These are events in a game where you fight an enemy that is stronger and has different abilities to many of the enemies you would have come across up to this point.

Below is a boss fight from the Megadrive version of Sonic

The objective is to hit the boss while avoiding it’s attacks until it is eventually defeated. The set up is simple but it makes for a fun challenge and mixes up the gameplay. I decided that I would try and create a similar type of battle as one of the levels for my game.

The challenge in my game is to defeat the cloud man by jumping on him until he eventually is defeated. He will move backwards and forwards continuously throwing bombs which slowly create a fire. If the fire touches the player they will take damage, if they are damaged to much the game will be over.
I liked the idea of the fire because when it is projected on to the page it looks like it is your own level that is being destroyed. In the video below you can see the level I made from a previous post as it slowly catches a light.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Little Big Planet

Taking inspiration from Little Big Planet I thought it would be nice to have a selection of pre-made drawings which the player can position on the page to make their level.

I drew out a couple of buildings and trees on to some cardboard and then cut around them to form individual pieces. I then added some blue tac to the back of each of them so they would stay in place when laid on the page.

Cutout Drawings for Level

I took the items that I had cut out and positioned them on my sketch book to form a level.

The Cut-out objects in the Sketchbook

Character Projected on the Level

I was pleased with the result and think that this is a great way for people to be able to make up quick levels if they don’t want to draw their own. It also quite fun to just design your own level like this and almost feels like a game itself.