Since my last blog update I have made some huge improvements on my game, below I will discuss everything that I have done recently
Interactive Puzzle
I have an interactive puzzle that consists of a set of 3 Uilleann Pipes. You must interact with these and press the up arrow to do so. You must then get the right pattern to unlock a door that takes you to the next part of the level.
Enemy AI
I have designed a character called Amadán. It is said in Irish folklore that if he touches you with his outstretched hand you will die on the spot. I want to recreate this in my game. To help the player avoid the touch of Amadán I have implemented a set of platforms to go above him. If you time it right, you will avoid Amadán and complete the level.
Collectible
There is a collectible in the scene too that if you interact with it you can pick it up and carry it with you and it will also play an audio clue as to how you can solve the puzzle coming up later in the scene.
Checkpoint
There is a checkpoint placed in the scene so if you die you will go back slightly from the position you died in.
Movement
The character moves across the screen by simply pushing the left and right arrow key. There is a walk cycle and also a skip cycle to make it feel more like the character of Síofra. There is also a jump on the character which you can use by pressing the spacebar.
Dynamic Audio
There is a mysterious placed called the Transition in my game. I used this as an area to prepare the player for the danger ahead. I did this by adding thunder audio and turning the background black for a brief moment. Also the ground turns into a “hellish red” to signify the danger that the player is in.
Game Flow:
The flow of the game will be very fast. You are thrown straight into the magical world where Síofra has been sent by the fairies. I wanted the player to feel like they are in serious need of getting out of the area that they are in. The goal of the entire game is to get Síofra out of this terrifying place.
Characters/Units:
Síofra:
The main character in my game is going to be a small girl called Síofra. She will be the only playable character throughout the game. She lives at home with her parents in the county of Sligo. Síofra is your average, shy Irish girl who never causes any trouble at home or in school. But one day all this changes. When Síofra is taken by the fairies it forces her to grow up pretty quickly as she needs to escape from the fairies and make it back to her parents who miss her dearly. My character animations on the first level will reflect the innocence of Síofra, she will not know the gravity of the situation she is in but will come to know this later on in the game.
Amadán:
Amadán is the main enemy in the levels. In Irish mythology Amadán was the fool of the king. Someone that was looked down upon by everyone. In Irish Mythology it is said that Amadán had a deadly touch. If he outstretched his arm and touched you, you would die instantly on the spot. I thought this would be something interesting to include in the game.
Artificial Intelligence:
The main AI in this game is the enemy Amadan. He moves across the screen in a certain zone of the level. If Amadán touches you at any point the character dies on the spot, just like what happens in the Irish Myth of Amadán.
Functional Requirements:
To play this game all you need is a screen that has a resolution of 1024 X 768 and a keyboard to move the character.
Here are some requirements to run this game requirements on your PC:
Desktop:
OS: Windows XP SP2+, Mac OS X 10.8+, Ubuntu 12.04+,
SteamOS+.
Graphics card: DX9 (shader model 3.0) or DX11 with feature level 9.3 capabilities.
CPU: SSE2 instruction set support.
iOS player requires iOS 7.0 or higher
Android: OS 4.1 or later; ARMv7 (Cortex) CPU with NEON support or Atom
CPU: OpenGL ES 2.0 or later.
WebGL: Any recent desktop version of Firefox, Chrome, Edge or Safari.
Windows Phone: 8.1 or later.
Windows Store Apps: 8.1 or later.
Thanks to the accessible nature of Unity it is very easy to port this game for several other platforms such as Mobile, PS4, Xbox One, Windows Phone etc. This may be something I will look into in the future.
Mock-Ups:
Main Level
Main Menu
End of Game Menu
2D Art & Animation:
Terrain: The Environment consists of varying platforms, from forestry style platforms, to moving and floating platforms and finally dark and red hell-like platforms
Game Play Elements: Player and enemy animations (sprites or models), game play structures and interactive objects, weapons, power-ups, etc. Don’t forget damage states.
Special Effects: Blood splatter when the character dies. I wanted this game to be a little bit dark just like the game “Inside".
Marketing and Cover Art: I designed a Photoshop image that will act as the cover art for this game.
Sound and Music
Overall Goals: I wanted the sound included in this game to feel dark, mysterious and otherworldly. I wanted to make the player feel a constant state of unease while playing this game. I want to build up to the first encounter with an enemy. A classic example of this is the game “Inside”. There is quite a build up before you come across any enemy in the game. The first big encounter with an enemy is a mermaid like girl that chases you while you are underwater. I remember playing this for the first time and it absolutely scared me. This is something I hope to achieve with this opening level and build up to a terrifying scene later on in the game.
Sound FX:
Game Play Elements: Pick-up and drop jingle
Music:
Uileann Pipes VictorySfx: If you are successful in completing the puzzle
Uileann Pipes Fail: A fail sound plays if you do not get the uilleann pipes in the right order
Overall Game Music:
This piece of music plays over the game level. The overall goal for this piece of music is for the player to feel like they have been transported to another world.