I think that advertising the demos at the degree show is key to gaining popularity! We have set up a website and once my trailer is perfected with the updated gameplay, it will be released onto facebook, various other social networking sites, our website, and various game reviewers that can look at the game and hopefully give it a good review!
Saturday, 21 May 2011
Finished Gameplay Added to Trailer!
This is my final trailer for handing in for my degree! I have added the music to the gameplay so that you can see how the music progresses in layers to give a good idea what it would be like to play the game. Also I have put in a death scene, just to add some excitement at the end of the trailer. Then it is brought down with the fast heartbeat and the out soon!! It's very exciting!
Game Development..
I have been working with the coder for some time now, and he has put together my game to a standard that I think is up to handing in for my project. Of course there are a lot of tweaks to be made in terms of perfecting the gameplay and how the music runs, but it shows off all the animations I did and how they work in their context. I do eventually want to add in things like shadows and bubbles, as long as they look good inthe actual game, (will have to be tested in the future), but I think this could easily be shown with the 2D trailer as first look gameplay!
I have created a thumbnail and an opening display
image - for showing when the app is first opened on the iphone! To begin with I created a thumbnail like this, showing off the gameplay of Bloodbeat:
However, I have now changed it to the 50s style of the trailer. I think it is a bit more different and cool, and it contrasts so well with the bright colours of the gameplay. The gameplay is almost a surprising change for the gamer.
I think when I begin to create menus for this game, I will also make these into the 50s theme, so it all goes together and looks uniform.
Gameplay footage!!
People Testing Out My Game!!!
The best thing about the gameplay of Bloodbeat, is that I have achieved something that is actually fun! The addition of a scoreboard caused a small competition between some friends and I to see who could get the highest score! I feel really happy that people were actually competitive over the game that I have created. Hopefully when it is actually finished and all the kinks have been worked out of the gameplay, (with it actually being on the iphone), it will be even more fun to play!!
Trailer Finished Animation
For the bat animation, I had to look at a reference of someone swinging a bat to be able to draw out the key frames. This actually proved to be the trickiest part of the animation for this trailer. I wanted to make sure I got in the anticipation of his bringing back the bat, and the getting the right weight shift on his body as he swung the bat around.
50s Style Voice Overs!
With the help of Amit from my company, we have created a voice over effect on garage band that picks up a very similar effect to the sound found on 50s animations and films. We managed to put a very grainy sound to Amit's voice, and with him putting on an old-fashioned american accent, I think it's really effective!
The animation after the 8mm recording!! I think it really is effective. It almost looks like a real 50s animation that someone could have taken from youtube as a reference!!
Trailer Designs
Luckly, Shaun from my company, as part of his professional practice module has written me a script for my trailer. It is a great parody that really captures the essence of 50s infomercials. To match this, I have created some characters based on 50s style characters, using similar shapes and line work.
I was influenced by the illustrations from the game "Fallout", as these have a very similar style, and are based on sketches from a similar time, as well as all the other previous research.
These are my storyboards and character designs:
I have decided to animate this trailer in flash, as I have discovered that is is really simple to get that uneven 50s linework using the brush tool with a fairly high smoothing rate on it.
Also, another idea to make it look authentic - after animating this, I will video it off the screen using the 8mm camera found on the iphone. This gives a black and white, grainy feel to both the visuals and the music.
8mm iphone Camera Test:
I think that this idea has been really effective! Even though this was created in flash, it could almost have been mistaken for a real 50s animation. Not only that, this animation was done without drawing by hand as a test, which means that with the added bonus of having hand-drawn animations, this trailer could look very authentic!
Trailer Research
Since I have decided to create a trailer for my game, I have decided to make it humorous, which if pulled off correctly, can really draw people in to liking what you're promoting. I don't want to be obvious in the humour, so I have decided to do a parody of a 50s infomercial, informing the public of the dangers of the virus, Bloodbeat!
To try and get something thats really effective, I have been looking at various 50s infomercials and animations, and also later cartoons that parody the style, to see if I can get any tips.
Top Cat has the style of drawing that I want to to achieve. The animation is very pose to pose, which is very stylistic of the time for animation.
The comedic naivety of this film about the family is what I ideally would like to have in my trailer's script. Of course at the time this film was not patronising in anyway, but in modern times, this style of film has become a commentary on how people lead their lives, and what society was like in the 50s.
The above animation very much gets the style that I am trying to achieve in my trailer. The lines go from being fat to thin, the colour is very roughly applied, and the animation is minimal and simple - relying highly on key frames for the character to express itself.
The Simpsons have done many parodies of these type of infomercials. They really get the type of humour needed to create a successful parody, expressing the naivety of the time, and showing them in a modern context.
Ren and Stimpy also do the same, but they also stylise their animation slightly to create characters that look like they would fit in in a 50s animation. The subjects are also very simple, and of insignificant things, advertised to sound wonderful and exciting - how the 50s could be considered in one opinion by a modern audience.
Death Scenes and Text
These are the finished death scenes. I have also created my own font that is similar to the Gitaroo man font, but is changed into my own style of font and highlighting so that it looks slightly old and not coloured correctly, which actually ties in with my trailer idea.
Death Scenes
These are the story boards for the death scenes to my game. I have taken influence from Gitaroo man's deaths as a small homage to them, for being a big inspiration to my game. It is only a small reference, and done in my own style.
Since Floo also gets eaten, I have decided to do my own take on the level four dying scene "it's dark..." - U-1 is eaten by the shark and then spins in the darkness, having been devoured.
These are the animations for Floo for the death scenes. I have re-used a render of the white blood cell, and the blood vessel and have just tweened their animations in flash, so they look like they are part of the same scene. Luckily, the lighting is all the same on all the characters because every part of my game is pre-rendered, meaning that these death scenes won't look out of place at all!
Music Making
Making my own music is necessary if I want to sell my game eventually! Therefore, I am working with someone who can write music in my company to create my music. He has helped me learn Garageband - a great free software that comes with any mac, on which I have edited loops we have created together, and have been able to create my own additions to my music. This is the first time I have written any kind of music track, but I think it actually turned out pretty well.
I wanted to get a sound similar to this track from Sonic Colours, but obviously sticking to the rules of the short loops that go up in layers for the progression concept of my game.
Working with the Coder!
Working with the coder has been really interesting. He has made us think about our games, not just in terms of animation for a film, but in a more practical way to make them come to life in a game.
I have had to make sure that everything is the right size and the loops are seamless so that the animations look smooth in the coding.
Also, I have had to make sure everything is as cropped as possible, to make the game file as small as possible, and easily accessible for people to download over 3G. Under 10 MB is the limit, but I think it might take some time to make sure my game is that small a file, and that efficient.
I have also been learning bits of very simple code, and very simple concepts, such as the tick engine that he wrote for us. This sends a tick out to the screen, which decides what is called to the screen at that particular moment, (each of these moments being much much less than a second, and faster than human eyes would notice.. hopefully).
I have also learnt how to edit some of the points, such as where objects appear on the screen, and how much they increase by when they enlarge.
Apart from this, I have learnt how to import updated animation files, (as PNGs) to xcode, and to make sure that the coding is connected to the file that you have imported. This way I don't have to just rely on Ian (the coder), to do even the simplest tasks for me.
This is a mock-up of some of the gameplay that we have worked out so far!
Transitions
The transition, at first, I thought would be very tricky to deal with. However, by writing down each of the angles that I want to rotate him to - according to each of the 6 directions he has to face, I can easily key frame his movement from angle to angle.
Because Floo is moving so fast, I can also get away with not animating his body or hands. In fact, if I did so, it would be very difficult to join up the ending of the transition with the beginning of the swimming animation that he is going back into.
This is an example of one of the transitions:
Rendering
Changing the 9 angles to 6 angles!
In terms of rendering, it has been quite a repetitive process. I have had to render each animation out 6 times. Originally I was going to have Floo come from all 9 angles, starting in the middle - like the flash test earlier, but I have decided to definitely stick to 6 angles.
Firstly, it is less complicated in terms of how many transitions are needed; secondly, it helps keep the memory down, which is what the coder keeps telling us to try and do.. and thirdly, when there are 9 angles, the middle angle obscures the view of the center of the blood vessel.
Gobbler Animation
The gobbler I took influence from the chain chomps, also from Mario. I liked their exaggerated biting actions. As they have the same purpose as the gobbler, exaggerating the gobbler's biting animation too should also be very effective.
The gobbler's final animation:
Floo Animation
Floo's swimming animations I had difficulty with to begin with. I couldn't get the flowing movement of his wiggling to be smooth enough. I showed it to some of the people in my company, and they suggested animating him like hair! This was, surprisingly similar to the reference that I used, of the small intestine's villi moving in this game, "Earthworm Jim 2". The wiggles actually have similar weight to that of hair, and floo for that matter - the movement is lead by the head, and the end bits have to catch up after the head is moved. This is especially emphasised if it is in liquid, which floo is!
I also took influence from the floating movement of a bullet bill from mario. Like Floo, he has hovering hands beside him that follow in the direction he is going in. Almost like the the head and the hands direct the rest of the body.
Floo's Final Swimming Animation:
Red Blood Cell Animation
My Oxy, and De-oxy blood cell spins I have kept as the same animation, in the same angles, but with the de-oxy's frames moving backwards in the coding, so they look like they've been hit in a different direction. Originally I was going to vary the spin of the blood cells, so they rotate from more than one angle, but I have realised that this would just take up much more space in the iphone game, by using more frames and will be more tricky to match up the angles. To be honest I don't think it is needed as once the blood cells increase in size as they get closer to you in their different angles, I think it will give an illusion that they are spinning in more than one direction than just one.
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