Project 2 self reflection (with bibliography)

This project, like the last presented me with new challenges such as how to make simple game mechanics work on software (and what restrictions/ complications arise from this) in addition to  the idea of actually thinking about the playability of the game.

My initial idea was simple (or so I thought) to have a simple inventory of two items that would then be automatically combined to create a new world whereby the protagonist would have hooked down a key and been able to solve the true puzzle at the heart of the investigation. I had also wanted some kind of trust element where the player could speak to Aurora and gain her trust, eventually changing the outcome. Combinational explosion very quickly ruled out the trust elements and it was only until the last week whereby I realised that I had underestimated the time and effort required creating this scenario in iWeb. This ended up meaning that I was forced to cut out the ability to pick up the broom or pirate hook, and also meant that I had to remove the entire first puzzle due to time constraints. This irritated me to no end but demonstrated that while iWeb can function as a basic working point and click, it cannot achieve anything like what is required for my original Zork Concept to work.

Of course I cannot place the blame entirely down to iWeb, and perhaps if I had managed time better I would have had time to explore Stencyl like I had planned to in order to see if I could get it to work with the idea. Another route I could have taken would have been to start with stencil, but unlike iWeb, for which I had decided (foolishly) would easily and simply mock up the complete scenario early on, Stencyl was very much an unknown quality meaning I had no guarantees that there would be a successful final result. This was a risk that ultimately I wasn’t willing to take.

Nevertheless the experiences from this highlighted to me just how satisfying it is to create a game that works and has in some ways made me more determined to learn more sophisticated software like Stencyl, flash or, if I ever acquire a Mac, Journey maker and Game Salad. With two projects already lined up over the weeks ahead before the next unit I don’t know how much time I’ll get to work with these game engines in my spare time which is really unfortunate. Hopefully the next unit will involve them somehow (if not then I will have to find a way to incorporate them into my project).

From the view of art style and progression of my digital colouring, due to the little design/ colouring work that has to be done outside of asset creation – I didn’t really feel I progressed too much during this project in particular. However one thing I found interesting was generating the cutscene images – for which I got really enthusiastic about and coloured the first in a few hours at the end of a tiring day and the other in a few hours the next. Both of these images would have taken my a few days a couple of months back – so I think that this was the digital colouring from the interactive narrative segment carrying across into that work.

More work could have gone on the shadowing of the face - which I felt didn't match the quality of the rest of the image

I did think out of the cutscenes, the face of aurora in the final scene wasn’t quite as good as how I would have liked it to be. The lighting and face didn’t seem to make the quality of the rest of the painting. The same could be said about the hair, which did not have a natural flow to it. This might be because of the change of styles from realism to Japanese influence and it means that I still have some work before I can strike the perfect balance between the two that I am aiming for.  Nevertheless I still feel I am growing as a digital artist so I will keep working to find that balance.

This project did not really have a strict bibliography although I referenced several inspiration games in my dialogue and design:

Ace Attorney Series (Capcom, 2001 - Present)

Hotel Dusk (Cing, 2005)

9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors (Aksys Games, 2009)

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Capcom, 2010)

In addition to this I formed the puzzle in my game using a puzzle sourced from here as a starting point:

Santa's Raindeer puzzle. Available from:

http://www.brainbashers.com/showpuzzles.asp?puzzle=ZKRG

<Accessed Tuesday 31st January>

Cutscenes

My demo has almost been finished now, and to add emphasis on two points of the story (in particular the character Aurora) I decided to make two standalone images that acted as a cutscene that would slowly pan upwards.

Original Sketch

Finished image

The first would be from when the player first meets her. For this image I focused on getting the effect of the light on her coat and body perfect. I also made sure to cut off the image at the face to carry the theme of lack of trust for the players character.

Original Sektch

Finished image

The second ‘cutscene’ would be the final part of the narrative and would come after Aurora acrobatically leaps across the room to let down the ladder. At this point, she’d turn around and reveal the information that she is an acrobat – acting as a sign that she trusts the player more. Also for the first time the player will see her eyes and face fully for a second before she closes her eyes. I exaggerated the below lighting from the hanging bulb quite heavily on the background more so for a stylistic charm more than an accurate representation.

Changes to Protagonist sprite (and Aurora Sprite construction)

Returning to my sprites made last term, I realised they didn’t necessarily integrate into the background as much as I would have liked so I had to make a few changes – mainly making the line art bolder and the colouring simpler. This is the difference between the two:

Original



Updated



In addition to the changes made on my protagonist's sprite, I began to design Aurora’s sprite from a sketch:

Original Sketch

iWeb Page Flowchart

Script

Detective Dwnaholf: “You okay in there kid…”

Protagonist: Yeah I’m fine, it’s just a little dark that’s all.

*Step* CRACK  “shiiiii-“

(Pans down – Chapter Name:_________)

“…Ow!”

*looks around*

“  … “

“Well that was lucky”

“…where am I?”

“Dwanholf you there”

“… Static huh? Guess I’m on my own from now then. No surprise there”

Guess I’d better get started

TUTORIAL: Objects you can select are highlighted with a colour and a Tag – by clicking them you can interact with them.

Room 1:

Interaction options:

The Bed: “Well it’s not entirely the most comfortable bed in the world, but I am certain that it is more comfortable that that sharp pointy looking wreckage anyway.

The Sign: “Mind the Step huh? …I’ll keep that in mind”

The Door: “A door that isn’t locked? Sweet.”

Room 2:

*step*step* “huh?”

Pans to Aurora:  “You took your sweet time.”

Protagonist: “Who are you?”

Aurora: “Surely you must know the rules of the game by now”

Protagonist: “You’re my Warden right?”

Aurora: “Yup” (In German: I guess you’re not as stupid as you look)

Options:

  Where are we?

              “Well, I would put a guess at some old prison or warehouse basement”

               “Oh how do you know that?”

                “Its…very Basement’y’”

                “Your investigation has clearly been detailed.”

                “Fine, well how would you describe this place then Mr Ace Detective?”

                              “…Touché”

                               “How would I know? I only just got here!”

                                  “Exactly! That just makes me the expert on this place so shush”

                                    “Fine. Basementy it is”

                               “….Basement’y’ also.”

                               “Told you so. My Spider Sense is top notch”

                               (Spider Sense is for detecting danger…not for investigating. Spidey would not be                                            impressed.)

                                       

             Any ideas to how we get out of here?

             Well there is what I assume is the exit…

              *Pans up to the big door with a Z*

             P: Ah how are we going to get up there?

             *walks up to it and jumps*

             “I can’t reach.”

              “I could have told you that.” (Idiot)

             “Hey maybe one of these times this Zork guy will slip up and we won’t have to solve some kind of ludicrous puzzle”

               “Well they kidnapped 10 people, built elaborate puzzles and took us all to a remote location. The chance of whomever this is screwing up something so small …Unlikely. (In German: Although looking at you, maybe you could have)”

Protagonist: Right well now I know what we have to do … Could I at least have a name to call you while we investigate this place.

Aurora: “You can call me Aurora – everyone does.”

Protagonist: “Nice Name.”

Aurora: “Ah well it’s my stage name?”

Protagonist: “Stage name?”

Aurora: “ …Anyway ‘stud’…”

(Oh the oI’ subject change, guess she’s not going to tell me anything.)

Aurora: “I don’t NEED to investigate. I can get us there.”

Protagonist: “Oh, care to share?”

Aurora: “Oh you’ll see… but there is a problem.”

*tugs on chain* (close up of chain on her arm)

Aurora: “I’m kind of tied up here.”

Protagonist: “Ah” (guess that explains her ‘basementy’ evaluation)

“Guess first order on the agenda is getting the key to the lock to get you out then”

“Yeah looks like it. Have fun. “

 Investigation START!

Room 2:

Door: …There’s nothing really back there aside from junk.

Shelving: “Okay what do we have here…empty cardboard boxes, a dubious looking vase, illegible paperwork.” Hey a Magic 8 ball… ‘will we get out of here?’ …Looks unlikely ….Ouch! Hey Aurora any burning questions that you need answering?

Aurora: “Will you ever grow up?”

Protagonist: “…Ask again later”

Ladder: 

Protagonist: “…”

Aurora: “Are you contemplating jumping for it AGAIN?”

Protagonist: “Uhhhh, nope just admiring the paint work.”

(I’m sure with another jump I could get it again!)

Aurora: “No you couldn’t”

!

(I swear that woman is a witch!)

Door:           

Protagonist: “I’m sure this is where we’ve got to get to – what with the big Z and all. Just how to get up there …that’s the problem.”

Aurora: “What about finding the key to my lock?”

Protagonist: “Oh yeah….that too.”

Broom (without hook)

“It’s a broom. Excellent”

“You missed a Spot”

“I’m not cleaning!”

Jacket:

“It’s a rather dirty looking Jacket”

“Check the pockets”

“…”

“Found anything useful?”

“Unless we can build some kind of pocket lint structure, nope not a sausage”

Safe: 

Protagonist: “Oh a safe. I wonder what is inside.”

*Four beeps*

Aurora: “Oh do you know the code?”

Protagonist: “No. I was testing how many numbers you can input. It was four.”

“Interesting.  I guess you aren’t as much of a fool as I thought you were.”

(I don’t have a singular clue how to open this yet – or whether I need to open it. I’ll come back to you later.)

Workbench

Workbench shelf:

Protagonist: “Hmmm looks like some old books. Let’s have a look at some of these…

“400 different ways to put up a shelf”

“The History of the Screw: Extreme Edition”

“Theodore Phillius Wordsworth: The Life, the love and the Parties”

…seriously what is up with these books?!”

“I daren’t ask how you could put up a shelf 400 different ways”

“I know – I only know one way?”

“Oh?”

“Badly…DIY is not my forte”

“Ah, I had to do a lot of the DIY where I used to work…”

“Oh, where did you used to work?”

“Down, mind your own damn business lane in the DIY store there”

(Hey, I was only trying to be friendly)

Bench left side:

Petrol and a box of dead cigarettes, something highly flammable next to something you light…that’s just asking for trouble.

Bench Right side:

An empty bottle, a dead lamp and some tape

It’s a shame the bottles empty…

I’m pretty sure alcohol isn’t the answer to our problems

No… it’s a bottle of grape juice if you look closely. Gotta love me some grape juice especially with a good bowl of borscht…

(Hmmm while nothing here seems useful, that tape might come in handy later on)

---TAPE OBTAINED---

Workbench:

This workbench looks as if it has seen its fair share of battles over the years. Even the drawers have been forced into place and can’t be opened.

Boxes:

Two boxes covered in a sheet. Nothing to see here.

Large box

It seems to be nailed shut – and really heavy. Guess that’s a big ol’ nope on the items of interest front.

Room 2:

“Wow…I didn’t expect this kind of room”

“What does it look like?”

“…not Basementy!”

“Then I’m not interested!”

“heh…”

Bookshelf:

“Bookshelves …it’d take forever to look though this stuff. I’ll take a gander at one though …hmmm what does this say here…The Wonderful World of Goats…yeah its official – whoever lived here has a weird collection of books”

Cake:

Time has not aged this cake well…I feel ill just looking at it.

Party Hats:

*Pans up close* There are four party hats here each labelled with a name: Mike, Lynne, Nick and Kay…  (Click to leave view)

“Hey I haven’t heard from you in a while…what are you doing?!”

“I’m inspecting some Party Hats!”

“What why?!”

“You Can’t Have a Party without Party Hats!”

“….”

“That shut her up.”

Candle:

“On closer inspection this candle is actually a lamp…in the shape of a candle. People buy the strangest things.”

                                                       

Key: Well hello there freedom. How am I going to get to you?

Chair: You’ve seen better days my friend.

(It still looks sturdy enough to sit or stand on)

Plant: This plant looks completely devoid of life.

Decorations: Some cards are lined up on the mantelpiece. Most of the writing inside has long since worn away.

Fireplace: Looks the fire hasn’t been lit for a while. There seems to be nothing in the Soot…

        Look Closer

           Nope nothing…aw now my gloves are covered in soot

        Ignore

             Yup there is going be nothing important down there except the promise of getting messy for no reason.

Presents:

Ohh I wonder what’s in these

…

…

… Oh sweet! It’s a pirates Hook hand, I’m keeping this in a safe place!

PIRATES HOOK HAND OBTAINED

If you have examined the Key:

Chair: If I place this upright…

Aha! I can now stand on it!

*Jumps* I still can’t reach

(If only I had some kind of long object with a hook to pry it down)

If you have examined the chair:

Broom:  It’s a broom. Excellent!

-Obtained Broom-

Aurora: You’ve still missed a spot.

Protagonist: Do you want me to get this key or not!

Aurora: No need to get tetchy Mr Janitor!

Protagonist: I’m a doctor so that’s Dr Jan Itor to you

Aurora: Oh you’re a doctor?

Protagonist: …

(Two can play the not saying anything game)

(If you have the broom, the tape and the hook hand in your inventory)

Right, now if I was correct *pans to black*

DONE

Nearly there…nearly there

*The key falls down when it hits the ground it turns into a ball.

Protagonist: AHHH NOOOOOO!

Aurora: What happened?!

Protagonist: Nothing!

(This Key…it was made of doughy material…)

*A piece of paper falls and hits the protagonist on the head*

Oh what is this?

-Insert Puzzle here-

Protagonist: Hmmm… some of these names sound familiar. Anyway I still have some tape so I’m going to stick this here for now

*Paper stuck onto wall*

Party Hats: “…I just noticed. I can’t pick these four party hats up.”

Safe: I’ve got a hunch…

*Cuts to safe screen*

9714

Screen 1

Button 9: Screen 1-B

All other buttons: Screen 2-B

Screen 1-B

Button 7: Screen 1-C

All other buttons: Screen 2 –C

Screen 2-B

All Buttons: Screen 2 – C

Screen 1-C:

Button 1: Screen 1-D

All other buttons: Screen 2-D

Screen 2-C:

All buttons: Screen 2-D

Screen 1-D:

Button 4: Screen Success!

All other buttons: Screen Fail!

Screen 2-D: All buttons lead to Screen Fail!

Screen Fail:

Flashes red: “Guess it is back to the drawing board for me…”

Screen Success:

 *Beep*

 *Safe Swings open*

Protagonist: Yes! It’s open!

Aurora: What is inside?

Protagonist: “An actual key”

Cuts to the protagonist unlocking the cuffs

Aurora: Ahhhh

*stretchs*

Aurora: It’s nice to finally be free – thanks! *trust gained*

Protagonist: No problem – Party Hats and Pirate hooks are all in a day’s work for me.

Aurora: I suppose you want to know how to get up there…well I guess it’s time to work my magic. Wait here a sec.

*Cuts to animation of Aurora Jumping across the boxes and swinging across, landing on the other side*

Protagonist: Whoooah!

Aurora: Aurora wasn’t just some kind of stripper name y’know. It’s what I was known as in some Acrobat circles…          

STAGE CLEAR!

Backgrounds

(There are a few alterations and variations I will have to create of these backgrounds depending on the gameplay but they will follow the basic structure of this:)



Room 1



Room 2

Room 3

Designing a Puzzle

For my demo there needed to be some kind of brain teaser puzzle to test the player and yield important information so that they can move on. My idea is to have a four digit code that unlocks a safe containing a key for the Acrobat. To get this 4 digit code, the player must solve a Brainteaser.
I had a few ideas about what kind of puzzle I wanted for this and after looking at a few sites for a basic puzzle to build from I found this puzzle:


Santa always leaves plans for his elves to determine the order in which the reindeer will pull his sleigh. This year, for the European leg of his journey, his elves are working to the following schedule, that will form a single line of nine reindeer:

Comet behind Rudolph, Prancer and Cupid. Blitzen behind Cupid and in front of Donder, Vixen and Dancer. Cupid in front of Comet, Blitzen and Vixen. Donder behind Vixen, Dasher and Prancer. Rudolph behind Prancer and in front of Donder, Dancer and Dasher. Vixen in front of Dancer and Comet. Dancer behind Donder, Rudolph and Blitzen. Prancer in front of Cupid, Donder and Blitzen. Dasher behind Prancer and in front of Vixen, Dancer and Blitzen. Donder behind Comet and Cupid. Cupid in front of Rudolph and Dancer. Vixen behind Rudolph, Prancer and Dasher.

Hint: Poor old Dancer was last.

Answer:
Prancer
 Cupid
  Rudolph
   Dasher
    Blitzen
     Vixen
      Comet
       Donder
        Dancer

(http://www.brainbashers.com/showpuzzles.asp?puzzle=ZKRG )

Now this puzzle works quite well as the basic problem the player must solve but it needs some extra layer to make it generate the code for the safe. The way I thought that they could be generated would be that the whole process of making a line from the elements would be to designate a number from 1 – 9 (i.e.: First person in the line = 1, second person = 2, etc.)

After this the player could find 4 labelled Party hats with just the names of the people on them. Only by allocating the numbers gotten from the previous puzzle can they then input these numbers into the safe, unlocking the door. This is the updated puzzle using the ’Santa’s Reindeer ‘ template:

 

“We lined up all of the party members and gave them numbers from 1 to 9 in the order that they were lined up, with the first person getting a 1, and the last person in line receiving the number 9. This was for the festivities ahead although I can’t remember the exact numbers that were allocated to each person so if the numbers are lost, here is what I can remember about how they were lined up before the numbers were allotted:

Kay was behind Nick and in front of Dick, Mike and Wendy.

Wendy was behind Ema and in front of Miles, Dick and Mike.

Ema was in front of Lynne, Wendy and Dick.

Miles was behind Dick, Kay and Nick.

Larry was behind Nick and in front of Miles, Mike and Kay.

Dick was in front of Mike and Lynne.

Lynne was behind Larry, Nick and Ema

Mike behind Miles, Larry and Wendy.

Nick in front of Ema, Miles and Wendy.

Miles was behind Lynne and Ema.

Ema was in front of Larry and Mike.

Finally Dick was behind Larry, Nick and Kay.

Hope this Helps!

-          Number Zero

(Solution)

(Nick) 1

(Ema) 2
(Larry) 3
(Kay) 4
(Wendy) 5
(Dick) 6
(Lynne) 7
(Miles) 8
(Mike) 9

In addition to this puzzle I think one more would be necessary, but the nature of this puzzle has given me ideas about how the environment could look so I shall make concepts for the environment/ assets next as the next puzzle will no doubt arise from the assets (as it will be a different kind of puzzle).

Note: As a personal touch, the puzzle references three of my inspiration games – Phoenix Wright, Ghost Trick and 9 Hours, 9 Doors, 9 Persons. The sign off at the end of the page ‘number Zero’ is referencing the antagonist of 999 who refers to himself as Zero – while of course acting as a statement that whoever wrote this was numbered like the other members as Zero. The names of the people in the puzzle are all character names from Ghost Trick and the Ace Attorney series. If someone has played either of these games they might notice the references but otherwise it simply is a functional puzzle.

Scenario and Character Concepts

 

Scenario:

This was something I had actually come up with whilst in a lecture, sketching between notes:

- The player character stumbles across a room that they cannot get up to the only exit. They then discover an Acrobat locked up in a room/ the room. The acrobat is the Warden and can climb up to the area to let the player up, but the player must first find 2 keys in order to do so. The player can recover these keys by completing two puzzles:

- One involves combining two items to retrieve it in some way

- The other involves retrieving a code to unlock a drawer.

Once the keys have been found, the acrobat jumps up and lets the player down.

During this the player can converse and gain trust with the acrobat. If I have time I would love for this to affect the outcome in some way.

Character design:

Acrobat Sketch one:

This was the basis for the other two sketches I had done. I had tried to keep her design quite contempory and modern. Out of the three I do like her design best however it has far too many independent things that would be very difficult and time consuming to animate.

This design was more reflective of a prison uniform, and I drew it with animating in mind (keeping as simple as possible). I also toyed with the idea of an eye patch but for an acrobat it would be very much illogical.

This is the design I chose – it retains the basic ideas of the first design but simplifies them – leaving the jacket, hair and scarf as the only possible issues – but any of those can be simplified for the animating process.

In addition to the sketches, I decided to fully colour and line art the character – in addition to making sprites. There are a few kinks to work out with the layers but these poses were quickly generated in around half an hour using the rotate tool in Sai on different layers. Hopefully with the greater control from After-effects animating will be as easy. If so that would alleviate early animating fears immensely.

Project 2: A foolproof Gambit (I hope!)

With my interactive Narrative almost finished, I decided to work on the second project today: creating an interactive demo of my game concept from the previous unit. Many people are choosing to continue and refine their interactive narratives instead of this, but I’ve chosen to create a short demo because my concept was both something I am passionate about, in addition the After effects / iWeb tutorials that I have had hint at ways I could definitely create something that would work.

Now for this project I would have roughly 4 weeks to complete it. The first week I have set myself a number of tasks to complete that will mean that I will have the correct tools and structure to push on for the final weeks:

- Creating a Scenario

-Creating character sprites (fortunately from BA4 I have the protagonist sprites already available – in addition to a full turnabout which will make building the ‘in game’ sprites easy for that character. Although this said, I would – if I have time- like to make improvements)

- Generating 1 or two puzzles for the player to complete in the scenario to progress

- Creating the Environment (which will be built around A: The Scenario and B: The Puzzles)

-Scripting any and all dialogue

- Blocking out progression of Scenario (i.e.: when dialogue happens, items in room, how the narrative might be set out in iWeb)

Possible problems I have identified ahead are:

The animating process: Due to the nature of the basic sprites and after effects, I have a feeling that through moving layers of a Photoshop file I could quite quickly and easily animate sections of gameplay – HOWEVER if this is a time consuming process I would have to consider changing all the animation to ‘stills’ to drastically decrease the amount of extra work I have to do. I would not like to have to do this but the most important thing will be completing this project. It is because of these worries I have put aside 3 weeks for the production and post-production stages

Time-keeping: I have been ambitious in trying to take on this project, so I need to make sure that I don’t give myself too much work to do in the time period and keep a firm balance between using all the time allotted to the maximum but also not pushing that too far. Because of this I have several ‘options’ available to me to cut down on production time at the expense of certain elements.

Puzzles: My plan was to have two puzzles maximum. Should I push the limits too far, I’ll reduce this to only 1 puzzle that will only require the player to work it out and not pick up anything.

Animations: I would like to ideally animate some – if not all of the possible areas I can. Obviously though, if this is too time consuming I will systematically cut some of the animations (turning them into stills of key frames).

This demo will have a few minor alterations to the original design document. It won’t be split screen to represent the DS, nor will it be entirely interactive to the degree I would like (there will be 1 or at a push 2 interactions the player can make with elements in the background – eliminating the action wheel). Due to the constraints of an iWeb set up for interactive narratives, the inventory will also be gone. While the demo will have many constraints given the iWeb basis – it should demonstrate the gameplay flow, in addition to the trust system.