My name is Anelise (AJ) Mize, and I am an undergraduate student at the Ringling College of Art and Design going for my Bachelors in Game Art while also minoring in Visual Development. I have an Associates in Fine Arts already. I am a Game Design student interested in pursuing a Video Game Cinematic Artist career in the game industry!
Location: Inside a robot manufacturing plant/factory
Story: The robots have turned against you and the other plant employees! It's up to you, a simple janitor, to use your super-powered vacuum device to regain control of the factory.
Design ideas:
Caution/Safety Tape:
Basically metal/steel/chrome everything:
Trap doors in areas where robots/pieces would come up or go in to (?)
For my boss battle, I'm taking inspiration from Gemesaur from LOZ: Link Between Worlds.
Gemesaur is a boss that uses darkness to its advantage when it reaches the last stage of battle. The creatures in my dungeon/adventure game are also made from darkness, as they're supposed to represent nightmares.
The boss itself doesn't really appear to match the design of the level until it's in complete darkness, when its eyes are glowing yellow and it's surrounded by a protective wall of dark energy. My boss is already dark like the other enemies in my level, and it itself has glowing yellow eyes, so it should fit right in.
Gemesaur has a protective mask to cover the weak spot on its head. My boss won't have it on its head, but rather on its tail, and will become vulnerable when the player turns on all the lights, temporarily blinding/stunning it until it shuts the lights off again. The player won't be able to reach the tail without using the lights.
It shouldn't be too hard to make the lights turn off and on again in unreal. Simply using an array to reference all the lights in the boss's room should give me the result I want.
Adding a veil of dark energy to protect the boss would just be a particle effect and a trigger to signal there to be no collision when the boss reaches a certain amount of HP, and the only way to turn off that effect would be to turn on the lights via a button located in the room
TECHNICAL PLAN:
Stage 1: Boss is in its first stage; weak to hits by player so long as player turns on lights. Player will be signaled to this hint by the boss turning the lights off at the beginning of the game with a roar, similar to how Genesaur's roar in the battle puts them out in the video above.
Stage 2: Boss will shut off the lights and a protective wall of dark energy will form around its entire body instead of just the head like Genesaur. The boss will pick up speed and player must evade and press button again to turn on lights. When lights are turned back on, boss will lose its protective energy shield and become temporarily stunned, giving the player a small window to attack its tail
Stage 3: Boss will shut off lights once more, gain energy shield and dash around again, but this time only some of the lights will turn on and player must time it right to catch enemy in light areas to stun it properly. If player manages to do this and hits the tail enough times, the boss will be defeated
Visual feedback that player is hitting boss: boss will flash red, then back to black, and do this every time the player hits it. If player is not able to hurt it, it will not flash red.
Audio feedback: There will be noises that indicate player is hitting enemy that parallels the color change. If player is not hurting enemy, I'm thinking of putting a deep, distorted and creepy laugh to tell the player that their attempts aren't working.
Boss's Attack: The boss itself is going to rush the player, and if the player tries to get close to its tail, I'm going to have the boss spin around and hurt the player when its tail comes in to contact with them. If I can figure out how to get the Pawn Sensing component to work, I'll replace the rushing with the boss swiping its claws at the player instead, and leave the rushing for when its dashing around in stages 2/3.
Displaying Health/Stage changes: In the beginning I want the boss to have glowing yellow eyes. In stage two, the eyes will flash red before going back just before the dark energy shield goes up and it runs around. In stage three, the eyes will turn completely red and flash back and forth to try and tell the player it's ready to be killed.
For my battle arena I had the idea to use a cuckoo clock design:
The visual style I'd like to emulate, or take inspiration from, is Kingdom Hearts. I felt the style of art from the series would best fit my map's layout and idea.
For my color palette, I wanted to go with a similar one to KH II's, so I picked a muted prismatic palette with brighter versions for the pickups/focal points
Theme:
Cuckoo clock (obviously)
Location: On/in a cuckoo clock
Time of Day: Middle/afternoon
VISUAL TRADEMARK(S):
-Giant cuckoo clock
-moving pawns
-giant bird will pop out
-shape of map
STORYBOARDS:
Some questions the audience might be thinking about as they play the level would be:
Where am I?
Is this a giant cuckoo clock?
Can I go through those doors?
Will a bird or something like it pop out eventually?
Can I go inside the clock?
Can I reach the upper balcony?
7 sentence story:
Intro: Begin level on lower balcony with pickups in the center. Mainly Player vs. Player
Rising conflict: Pawns will emerge from the doors that players cannot enter. Player vs. Player and Player vs. Environment (moving hazards)
--pawns will eventually move hammers, providing another form of moving hazards
Climax: Bird will shoot out from large double doors on lower half after a few minutes of play, and is an unavoidable hazard if close enough to it.
So after many weeks of working, I finished my race track level. Recently, we just got to filming it, and below you can see the trailer I made for my level:
I really enjoyed working on this assignment. Everything from set dressing to lighting was fun to do and a really helpful lesson in a lot of different things!
I looked at several race trailers for this analysis, and compared them to one another before I decided to analyze this one:
This trailer has many things that I think it does well. One being the use of establishing shots to tell the player where and when they will be racing. I looked at about seven race game trailers, some of which were in a list of the best race game(s) or race game trailer(s) of (insert year), and almost all of them did not have establishing shots. Granted, since it's a racing game, it's more about the player vs. player aspect, but it's good to know where in the world you are when you're playing a game of any kind. I'm a story-driven gamer, so I'm more interested in my single-player experience (how everything looks, the story, level of detail) rather than my multiplayer experience.
Second, the introduction of USPS is clear or intriguing. Below is a list of what and why they are used effectively in this trailer:
In the trailer there is mention of dramatic weather, but before the text even tells us that, it shows us with a shot of the sky going from daylight with minimal clouds to dark and gloomy rain clouds. Funnily enough, the lyrics of the song also mirror this, if you listen to them. This is important because it gives a fresh look/experience to each level you play, and probably won't be the same each time you do. It is possible the dramatic weather adds to the difficulty of gameplay as well.
The trailer shows usenvironmentinteractivity. Basically, in the context of a racing game, the player can run into something in the environment; and in the trailer's case, it's a fence and a stack of wooden platforms...each of which are subsequently destroyed during the process. This tells the player that the track is not necessarily closed to them. They can go almost anywhere so long as it's programmed in.
Player vs. Player & Player vs. Environment. Obviously, as a racing game, it's already going to be player vs. player, but sometimes it's exciting and refreshing to have the environment also trying to challenge the player in new or different ways. Inclement weather is a nice start, but there's a hint in the trailer that other things, like planes crashing or coming close to the track, could help bring about new obstacles/challenges the player(s) must overcome/face.
There are over 200 cars. 200! I don't think I've ever played a racing game with that many cars in it, or seen/heard of one before having that many. The trailer even explicitly tells us this through text. This is a very big selling point for a racing game because the main focus is the cars you're racing. You have the chance to not only play whatever (to some minimal limitations) car you want, but you can customize it to your desired look as well. You want a hot pink and black Mclaren P1? You could probably do that in this game. Eat your heart out, car/race addicts.
Attention to detail. I don't think I can stress how important this is in a game. The more you think about how something works or looks in real life and you implement it into your game, the more you bring that world to life for the player(s) in it. Although it might not mean anything in the long run, the cars' windshield wipers actually move up and down when there's inclement weather. Granted, most racing games probably have that in them today, but showing that in the trailer shows that they put time and thought into this game.
(This one's tough to see, but it's the fire that spits out of the car's exhaust pipes -- some actually do this in real life -- and yes, it's on purpose.)
And these are just from looking at it from the game design perspective. If we look at film language, the trailer does a good job at a few other things I'd like to mention:
Cutting on Action -- this trailer almost always keeps the player's view in the center of the screen, or really close to it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, especially in a racing game, because your focus is almost entirely on the center of the screen to begin with when you're playing it. I would also say it works for the trailer because what else would we be looking at other than the awesomely modeled cars (and the world they're in)? There's literally a car in almost every shot of this trailer so they can emphasize just how many different cars they have.
Medium to Close Up shots-- I've already mentioned it above, but I'll say it again. The focus of a racing game, at least in my opinion, has always been about the cars. The level is important, because it's where you're going to be racing, but I would have to say the focus is more about the cars than the levels. This trailer shows us as many medium to close-up shots so we can look at these cars and get excited for the chance to race them.
Establishing Shots -- I already said it, but this was one of the better race trailers I looked at simply because it gives us establishing shots of the game itself. Personally, I don't like FPS or Racing games solely because a lot of them are only about that particular concept -- shooting or racing, with minimal to no story (that or story is obviously secondary). I'm a story driven gamer; I like narrative, and even if this game is only about racing, I would still want to play it because of the beautiful shots of the level.
It's like taking a chocolate cake, and then putting another chocolate cake on top of that one. Now you have more cake and more chocolate. Basically, you have more to look at, enjoy, and experience while playing the game if they put the same amount of effort and love into the level that they did the cars you're racing. It's important!
Below is a video showcasing the 2 particles I decided to do for my racing level (you also get a glimpse at the level itself!)
More set dressing of the level itself needs to be done, and the particles probably need to be tweaked some more before they're really polished and done, but this is what I have so far:
For our racing level, we need to make a particle, either for our exploding barrel or our level in general.
Since I've already made a particle for my level, I figured I would make one for my barrel:
I posted this picture for my exploding barrel; as you can see, the last phase of my barrel (when it explodes) has sharp needle/thorn-like objects shooting out from it.
Since we are required to have 3 emitters, I'm planning on creating a spark(s) emitter (GPU Sprite Emitter), a smoke/fire trail (ribbon emitter) to follow them as they shoot out, and debris to represent the pieces of the barrel that are left over after it explodes.
Research:
I already listed the types of emitters I think or know I will need to use to make this particle, but below I've gone a bit more in depth:
1.) Sparks/embers: These can be created with a GPU Sprite. These differ from a regular particle with no TypeData node, as they will continue to 'run,' even when the player's FOV has passed it and it is out of sight/frame.
The sparks won't be like firework sparks, where it shoots out quickly with a bunch in one area. I plan on having them spread out, possibly with an Orbit node, so it feels more like embers as it burns.
The embers themselves won't be too far/wide in length/width...they'll probably look like little pieces of rice in the end; perhaps a bit smaller than that, even. I'll use the Initial Size node to adjust these characteristics
The embers colors will be naturally tinted, so orangish-red/yellow/red, similar to that from a fire. This should be adjustable with a Color over Life node.
Quantity/Spawn rate won't be too high; like I said, I don't want them to be like sparks from a firework, but embers from a real fire.
2.) Smoke/Fire Trail: These will be connected to the projectiles that shoot out from the barrel after it explodes. It is mainly to provide a visual cue that something is shooting out from the barrel, but it is also an added visual interest to the barrel even after it has exploded.
The fire trail itself will be similar to a fireworks', but naturally tinted (yellow/orange/red colors, possibly even a little blue/white). I definitely want it to feel like the projectiles are being launched, and not like they're pieces of debris just arcing out and down after the barrel has exploded. Chances are I could use a beam or ribbon emitter to get this done.
The length of the trail won't be long, maybe just medium in length. I want the player to be able to see the trail and recognize where it's going.
3.) Debris/explosion/burst: This one is more of a combination of the burst particle option when making particle systems, and another particle itself (probably the explosion particle). I'm not sure which emitter to use with this one just yet, but I should be able to figure it out once I have the first two emitters done.
Definitely want a pronounced 'burst' visual to show that the barrel has exploded; I'll probably need to make a smoke particle to go along with this, or just an explosion particle.
The burst will be fiery--what's an explosion without fire?
Below is a video of my exploding barrel, with concept sketches and blueprint included!
CONCEPT:
BLUEPRINT:
VIDEO:
I wish I could have figured out how to get the spikes to fly out--I will hopefully figure that out on my own time so when I add it to my race track level it causes more than just explosion damage! It probably has something to do with a thruster attached to the mesh, but until I can figure that out the barrel only explodes.
For my Race Track level I wanted to go for something gritty and slightly futuristic. The time of day is going to be evening/dusk, and the terrain will be mainly flat paved roads/metal pathways. The game(s) I'm using as my inspiration are Jak II, III, and Jak X Combat Racing:
The below image(s) are just references to a future city I found on Google that was closest to my idea:
COLOR SCHEME:
Since I wanted to go for something gritty and futuristic, I figured muted colors would be best, with hints of bright vibrant colors throughout the level to tell the player where to go or where to divert their attention to:
BACKGROUND/LEVEL COLORS:
ITEMS/BOOST PAD, ETC., COLORS:
TRACK DESIGN/STORYBOARDS:
Below is an image of my track design. It begins at the top:
And finally, these are the storyboards for the major events or introductions to certain items/mechanics in the game:
