Looking Into Games - Paper Moon

So far I have not really looked into the visual side of the game, what I mean is are we going for photorealism graphics, Self Shaded or a stylised game for example. First of we are ruling out photorealistic graphics. Its something I just don't think works for 2d games, they should be left for high polygon games where you can explore a whole world and not just a 2d view, It would just feel wasted. But I would be interested in seeing a game such as Call Of Duty or Unchanted as a 2d platformer however I don't believe i have seen anything that can compete. I have always been interested in exploring the cell shaded option it is something I mentioned frequently in previous projects however I have never got round to it but Im definatly gonna explore that option. Ive mentioned before my fondness of very stylised games and this is one of the most beautiful games I have seen for a while towards that style in Paper moon.  The game only focuses on 2 colours which are black and white but they compliment each other so well. One problem they overcome was to not confuse the colours for example been able to follow the path of the game and knowing when to jump on ledges and game assists for example. I really love the white online which stands out on the game objects such as the trees and ledges but does not confuse or over cram the level one bit. And the way it's not perfect and at times the images look one sided but it is done intentionally on creating that effect like its been stuck on paper with glue. the whole level looks like it has been made of silhouette stuck onto a piece of paper and then they just gave it live by animating on unity. I highly doubt the level has been created on Maya and is just strips of layers animated and to quickly mentionI can tell the huge influence of Saul Bass. I think it would have looked even better if they used a another colour, such as making the lanterns yellow or the skyline red. Either way I can't fault the design but it would have been great to see the results however its a style which I can see defiantly influencing our design. I also really love some of the animations on the level such as the water. its so simple but compliments the feel the designers have gone for. Its just a simple shape cutout to look like a wave effect however they have added layers behind to give it more dimension and with the game asset in-between the layers it works really well and makes it feel like its meant to be there and actually feels like the boat is in the water. We have mentioned a similar technique we could use for the backgrounds to provide that extra depth behind the level and assets. The game also has some impressive gameplay and an interesting level design but the main reason for this blog is to comment on the aesthetic beauty which is something I adore, below are some screenshots and a quick Video for you to enjoy.

Looking Into Games - Little Big Planet

Another great game which shows great signs of a successful 2D Platformer, is Little Big Planet.I really love the graphical media of the game and the Designs of the level, there so fun and offer a huge arrange of different challenges, it never gets repetitive and the game play is fun to add. The availability to customize a huge amount of aspects in the games from what the character wears to even designing your own level, and if you search on youtube you can find super Mario levels which have been recreated on Little Big Planet. I think as games are getting more competitive its elements like this which allow the player more control and offers more play ability which can can create a greater impact in the game, Of cause i'm not expecting to be at the level yet where I can create a sandbox mode for players to create there own levels using elements of my level, But its an area which id like to explore maybe for a further project. Also I think having unlockables during the game is a great idea as it gives you that sense of achievement. Ive mentioned many times the idea of been able to unlock stuff such a concept art and codes. I feel it gives you more of a motion to carry on playing the game, even if the game is not that great when there is something to be won. I recently Brought Mario 3D land and once I have completed the game I unlocked Luigi and A whole range of new courses, now I feel myself really motivated to complete the new levels to see if I unlock anything else which in the meantime means more Playability. So even something like once you complete the game you unlock a new outfit might be a potential idea to look towards. The camera views allow you to move up with the screen, aswell as down, This concept really works in claustrophobic areas as it adds to the impact of everything is cramped and you don't know what is behind each corner. Maybe we can mix it up for our game, depending on the upcoming level design. If your in a mountain, linking it with the idea so far of the ice cream mountains in Canada the camera is closer you you creating a similar impact to that what you can see below and the different routes lead off camera from the centre point of the character. However when your outside, and even if the camera can be much further away, and emphasises the world, and maybe how big it is as we will probably be having famous landscapes so obviously we want you to be able to see them and recognise them in as much detail so this camera view would be more appropriate, its something we can look into.<br />
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Looking into Games - Donkey Kong

With a more focused idea in development, I thought it was needed to look at other games of similar taste and to compare and contrast and to find out what techniques and methods to game developers use into enhancing both gameplay and the visual feel of the game.  One of my favourite  2D side scrolling games was Donkey Kong Country, the original version on the SNES. What  I love about the donkey kong franchise is the whole variety of different environments from snow worlds, to caves, to the sea and of cause the jungle which you are set to explore. it makes the levels seem a lot different and more interesting. What i mean by this statement is the actual level design and layout is very similar all the way through the game. most levels consist of ropes, barrels and jumping between ledges (whether that be trees in the jungle or mountains) you get the idea.  The game is constantly evolving and never gets repetitive. This has  influenced our decision when coming up with the initial idea for the game as in our game you are set to explore a wide variety of different landscapes, climate and culture. The theming of Donkey kong is brilliant, even when I play on the game now, it has aged very well. Some of the game obstacles are brilliantly thought out and provide a great balance between difficulty and enjoyment. Who docent like swinging on ropes, and ducking and diving between spikes. There are also plenty of open spaces in the game where there are enemies in the way, which you have to defeat such as the armadillos or snakes throughout the game, this provides a more varied gameplay. The gameplay is so fast paced and fluent which really makes the game enjoyable, the way you bounce of enemies and swing on ropes is animated brilliantly and just makes the game feel more slick, animation is not my strong point but its defiantly something i would recommend my team mates to look at on both of our projects, when we decide on the abilities the main player will have. The levels are'nt too long but all provide a good challenge except the first level, which is made for tutorial purposes and getting you in a feel for the game, but its the little things like this we have to thing about on our game. is the level we model going to be the first level, if so do we make it slightly easier or do we just throw the player straight in, depends on the interface. If we go for anything like our design a few blogs ago we will have to use a tutorial as there's special gameplay such as ned farting which requires the player to shake the controller, players might not now how to do this so it is very important or players could become very frustrated.

donkey kong like many other side scrolling games relays on the format you have lives and can earn more by collecting items in the game such as different colour balloons, and for every 100 bananas you collect you gain an extra live. Obviously the balloons are a lot harder to collect and other you an extra challenge during the game as some of the balloons are very difficult to collect, that they try and tempt you into loosing a life as they will be in some dangerous positions. The colour of the balloons also helps, There very bright and also only stay on screen for a limited time, even if you don't need anymore lives you find yourself attempting the impossible at times just to gain some extra lives. The one negative  I have about donkey Kong is that  you can keep playing the first level over and over again building up your number of lives to a stupid number. It just makes the game feel a lot easier knowing you have that safety. However I understand how frustrating it can be if you loose all your lives and have to repeat x amounts of levels again,  but there needs to be a balance between the two and as to this point I'm not sure but its something to look into. Do we even need lives, I'm not sure cause tbh there pretty meaningless in Donkey Kong. I think a better system is to follow a certain format like most FPS and you have to reach a checkpoints through the level and it saves the data there so when you come back to playing thats where you start, but i think its something to ask around as to what they prefer.

Heres a few screenshots and Video of this brilliant game which I recommend to everyone aswell as the remake which is on nintendo wi

Ned Bunsem Animating - All Rendered

Above is the rendered walkcycle animation of which from the playblast version you can tell that it needed fixing and when i went back into Maya i found that the frame settings were wrong and needed changing to real time 24 frames per second. Once i had done that i had to go back into the key frames of the walkcycle to make the animation flow much better but i had also needed to make areas of the model to animate where as before the movements weren't animated and i had to do this within the day as this clean up process was pretty much close to the deadline making other parts of the projects to fall back on the time, but with the animation this is the stage at which i ended upon at the end of the day and i know that there is much more room for improvement but due to the circumstances that time had to be limited. Above is the rendered turnaround animation of Ned Bunsem in a pose ready to attack the enemies with his sauce gun. Above is the rendered animation of Ned Bunsem of which i had to redo because as you could see in the playblast version the speed of the animations was pretty slow and so once i went back into Maya i found that i had not been playing the animation in real time 24 frames per second which after updating the setting the frames needed updating to the setting of 24 frames per second so using the graph editor i was able to push back key frames and set them at a pace of which worked much more efficiently to end up the animation you see above.
Above is the rendered turnaround animation of Super Ned the concoction of boredom.

Ned Bunsem Animating - Super Ned

Now Super Ned wasn't planned but rather something i had done quickly just because i was bored with animating Ned so i had taken a new scene consisting of the rigged Ned and just positioned him into a hero pose and modelled a quick cape and thus Super Ned was born and after i had done that i posted a quick render to Tom and said that this could be an unlockable costume and this is something Tom had mentioned previously where the use of social networks could help to unlock content.

Ned Bunsem Animating - Turnaround

Now for the turnaround animation i carried on my earlier notion in a previous blogpost where i mentioned that when i used the weapon modelling as a means of reintroducing myself to Maya and being able to use that model somewhere down the line, well here it is. I had taken the attack pose concept art and used that in the turnaround animation however there had been a problem with the positioning of Ned's left had as you can see it acts as a placement for the weapon where as the concept art he is hold the weapon. The reason for this is due to the rig prohibited the geometry to bend in that position as it would rotate so badly and had been substituted by this other perspective, which i feel still goes along with the pose.

Ned Bunsem Animating - Walkcycle

When animating the walkcycle there was much more of a problem as soon as i started to animate there would be a problem with the models geometry and rather than weight painting then i had left it till the end when i had all the key movements set and started to weight paint rather than moving the leg and constantly going back and weight painting. But along with that problem the fluid movement of the leg was an issue where once the foot hit the ground it seemed like it took a little bounce so i had to refer back to the graph editor and tidy up the animation to which i'm still not satisfied with but the issue i see now is the pace of the movement an issue i feel can be rectified through final cut.

Ned Bunsem Animating - Idle

One of the animations listed as my deliverable was an idle animation and what i had chosen was for the main character Ned Bunsem to be looking side to side and then start to wave, simple and friendly. Whilst positioning Ned in key poses from side to side i din't really find a problem that was until i started to animate the wave in which i found a dip in the left shoulder of Ned and couldn't really sort it out through the weight painting and had to lower the height of the wave and along with that, smooth the animation using the graph editor as the animation wasn't flowing quite the way i wanted, but in the end i had done the animation to where i had been satisfied.