This week’s Pixelles’ homework was a lot less defined than other weeks and so I think my focus ended up being a lot more diffuse as well. I guess the easiest way to track my progress this week is to make a list of the things that I did and the major things that I still have to do before I have a working prototype of the game.
This week, I worked a lot on art and basic movement. I made a title screen, a set of instructions, a world map, and an interim level (not one that’s an actual destination but one to test). I also made several sprites – the animation isn’t perfect but I feel like that’s in the details. I made a scuba diver who moves in two frames, a pike, a sunfish, a weight belt, a snorkel, a submarine and an airplane.
For your viewing pleasure, here they all are:
My animated diver.
My weightbelt object viewed at 1000%.
My sunfish sprite viewed at 1000%.
My submarine viewed at 1000%.
My snorkel viewed at 1000%.
My plane viewed at 500%.
My pike sprite viewed at 1000%.
On the world map, the character is able to move around without going out of bounds and the same is true for the diver in the interim level.
I’ve uploaded the game here so that you can give it a shot. For the first couple of screens, click through with the mouse. But don’t forget to move around and run into my submarine and my airplane on the map!
I also made a sound effect – it’s a scuba diving regulator and then the expelled bubbles. I used resources from creative commons and freesound.org and a program called Audacity to adjust the pitch, tempo, speed, and the fades.
What I had hoped to accomplish but didn’t this week was:
– Having a scene transition when the player pressed enter around an object on the world map – like the submarine or airplane, which are going to be my two playable levels for the purpose of the Pixelles incubator.
– Having a second diver sprite who would follow around my main character.
– Having the fish move in a set pattern (right now you can push them around the screen if you want to be mean to them!).
– Assigning a points-value to the fish and some other objects that would then be added to the score when you interacted with them.
What I didn’t expect to accomplish but still need to figure out (and that I expect to be fairly challenging):
– Assigning different rates of air consumption at different assigned “depths” – I might just make it vary with the level.
– Assigning a faster air consumption rate when the character is carrying something (oh, and making those objects carriable, period).
– Actually creating a decreasing air bar!
– Actually creating a way to accumulate points.
– Creating a feedback page after each level where The Divemaster tells you what you did well and assigns bonus points and such as described in my design document.
If I can achieve this by the end of the Incubator, I will be ecstatic. If I have to simplify, that’s good too. After these goals, I think I’ll feel free to better the game art and animation at my leisure and create new levels when I have the time.