We needed animated visual representation of the "force field" power up so after some sketching, trying to figure out what it would look like, I decided to test something very different from what I had thought about to help myself think outside the box. I took inspiration from our first version of the defenders and Taz, the tasmanian devil, and created a tornado. The result did not feel right and did not really fit the profile of the power up, with some additional work it could potentially be used as a trap for another map in the game.
Instead I took inspiration from the pick up-sprite for the power up and made a semi-transparent bubble with a light going from the bottom to the top. I added one highlight and a half circle shadow to make it look rounder while trying to maintain the flatshaded, cartoony artstyle. The moving light I made by using timeline in Photoshop, moving and adding to it while moving it across the circle, bit by bit in the frames, in total I used ten frames. This fit the power up a lot better and after showing it to the team we decided to implement it in the game and it looks really well.
A lot of my time is spent going back and forth between the team members, helping and giving feedback to the artists and discussing things with the Lead Designer and the Lead Programmer, especially yesterday when the Lead Designer was ill and I got to take on a lot of his responsibility. The team worked really well and I made sure that everyone had a clear task to do so that the work would flow effortlessly, which it did. We were not able to start playtesting with four players this week as I had wanted to but hopefully we will be able to do it next week.
Today I compiled the artwork we wanted to hand in for the GGC, it included logos, concept art and screenshots. The screenshots are what took the longest time since the rest only needed our logos added to them, I tried to arrange them so that they would show as much as possible of the gameplay.
In this screenshot you see some particle effects I threw together today, as well as the shield and a volcano created by another artist.
The yellow and red defenders have just collided and are traveling away from each other, the purple gatherer has picked up a shield (or force field) power up and the yellow gatherer is holding the totem and earning score. The blue gatherer has picked up a crystal owl, which is a score multiplier that increases the score when holding the totem, as well as giving some score when picked up. The representation of this in the GUI is something I have also been working on this week and after a lot of testing and discussing with the rest of the team we settled with a crystal owl miniature appearing on the player's block on the totem, as well as a number showing how many you have, there will be a maximum of how many times it will multiply the score though.
I felt it would be a good idea to have a proper blog for the development of our game so I created one where we could post pictures and posts that follow the project in general, covering all aspects, while we write more in depth and personal in our own blogs. I think it will give a good overview and promote our game but also help the team to follow what everyone is working on. In addition to the blog, which van be found at totemicgame.wordpress.com I created a Facebook page where everyone in the team can post things to promote our game, it can be found on www.facebook.com/totemicgame.
So this is pretty much what I have been up to these past few days, during the weekend I will have to work with the Lead Designer to prepare and practice for our practice presentation monday morning before starting another week full of work.
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