GD: Global Game Jam!

Last weekend I had the great privilege of being able to attend the Sarasota location of the Global Game Jam! In downtown Sarasota, over 30 people of all sorts of backgrounds gathered to hang out, meet up, and most of all, make a game in the 48 hours we had from Friday at 7 to Sunday at 7. To put it simply, super fun crunch time!
The theme this year was "we don't see things as they are, we see them as we are," or some iteration thereof. Of course, I had a bunch of solipsistic inspirations at hand, eventually running with an idea based off Plato's Cave: the objects you moved in the room affected the shadows on the wall, therein building you a penumbric bridge from one side of a room to another. Many people had a vast array of other ideas, running the gamut from a QWOP version of someone's first sexual intercourse to an introspective top-down adventure game about a bunny's identity crisis and everything in between. After a reasonable amount of bumping around, I fell into a group of four to work on what would eventually become our game, Para Eidolon.

  

The idea process took us all of Friday night and some of Saturday pinning down exactly what it was we wanted to make with our game. Did we want a 2D side-scroller? A 3D adventure game? One thing we all agreed on was the idea that there were to be more than one character affecting the gameplay: there would be two or more, and each would bring their own unique aspect to the game.

Doodling out some colour key concepts, I stumbled on the visual style of my part of the game, the 2D side-scroller.

 In the end, our eventual concept was this: you existed in the 3D world as a member of the working class, putting in your hours and wiling away your life behind the desk of some humdrum job. But by interacting with objects in your real, 3D world, you affected objects that existed parallel-wise in your mental 2D palace, where you lived out a joyous and fulfilling life among your dreams.

 In more technical terms, there is a 2D and 3D aspect in this game. Physical objects you move about in the 3D world affect the tied objects in the 2D world: for instance, if you moved a box along the Y coordinate, so would the matching pillar, but if you moved it along the X axis the pillar would grow or shrink in size as if affected by forced perspective. Using these tricks and traps, you could solve little puzzles in both worlds to reach your mutual goals.
We had more ideas about how to implement this game mechanic, like knocking over an urn of water to move things out of your path, or pushing open doors with remote objects. Unfortunately, we didn't have the time!
Nor was I able to get any good images of the 3D world, though I can assure you they were also very visually impressive.
An extra bonus was the soundtrack, which was recorded entirely a Capella by myself and another member of my team, Thomas.

 All in all, I had a really good experience! I learned a lot about the iterations of games and how much they can change in ideas until you reach a final product. We didn't end up uploading the game in its entirety to the Global Game Jam site because we thought we might work on it later on and make it a fully fleshed out game. Until then, watch this space!

go, go, Mr Bananaman!

GD: Racing Level Beat Sheet

Ok, so you saw the conceptual parts behind my racing level. But how will it parse? How will it drive? What will a single lap feel like?
Well, here it is broken down.

 Player start!!

 Beginner's boost successfully achieved. Players get access to a narrow, raised ramp that coasts over the walls of the map.

 Beginner's boost not achieved. Players must go around the long way, which includes a raised bank to help with the sharp turn.

 Both paths will reach the bumper minefield! Here the track opens up and there's more versatility in traversing this part of the map.

 Each player vies for supremacy by finding the fastest path through this area!

 If they unlock Pinball Wizard, they'll see the ramp raise before they exit the bumper minefield and get SICK AIR, YO.

 Otherwise they have to deal with the flappers. There will be a stretch of empty space where otherwise the Pinball Wizard ramp would be.

 Past the flappers is another sharp turn, augmented by a bank up the wall. Littered along this part of the course are small piles of quarters that scatter when hit. These can slow your speed, but sure are fun to hit! This is the darker part of the course, as you're passing into the mechanical part of the machine. Everything is dimly lit, and maybe a bit more dangerous.

 Last are a new addition: lever pistols. These are what connect the outside 'player of the pinball machine' to the flappers, so every time the flappers move these pistons also go. Traversing them is a challenge, as they are unpredictable and may get your car caught in between the larger bit and the wall.

 Once you've braved that part of the course, the second lap is yours!

GD: Racing Level Research, Go!

For Game Design this semester, our project is to design and create an arcade-style racing game level! How exciting!
So, of course, research compiling every cool car chase scene ever is entirely necessary. I decided to stick with a classic, the motorcycle scene from Buster Keaton's Sherlock, Jr.

What's most important about this scene is, above all, the impeccable timing of everything. The train's narrow miss, the converging lorries, the tilt of the scaffolding just as it collapses. Physical comedy at its finest, folks!
So how can we translate this into a playable racing game? Pretty easily, I reckon. Especially since the theme of our Game Design class is Pinball, which is all about timing. Bringing these into a racing game should be super easy!
So the concept statement of the level should be Timing, timing, timing.
And the obstacles should reflect this!

The first obstacle is pretty obvious, relying on one of the main defining features of a pinball machine: the flippers. The course would narrow and create a bottleneck leading towards the gap between the two flippers, causing the racers to vie for position to fit through. If they don't make it, they'll get set back by the flippers themselves, whose flipping will be probably set to a Delay with a Random Float assigned to them so they're not so easily read.

Another important part about pinball is ensuring you get a good headstart with a well-timed boost. The Beginner's Boost will supply this with a dynamically rising and lowering jump with emissive bars to indicate its angle. If you time your jump so it coincides with a full-powered Beginner's Boost, you can gain access to a bonus track that will probably a short cut around the course.

And finally the Pièce de résistance, Pinball Wizard. Whilst pinball is about timing, it's also about racking up combo points and about the conditional aspects of the board. So Pinball Wizard is about conditionals: if you hit this bumper, that bumper, and that one over there, you'll unlock a huge jump to propel you over an otherwise obstacle-laden part of the course and give you a boost.

The name of this trick is referring to the general theme of the course, inspired by The Who.

The Pinball Wizard's got such a supple wrist~
And The Who does have its own themed pinball machine!

To have a British rock-themed pinball machine would be cool, huh? The colour scheme is pretty easy: blue, red, and white for the Union Jack, and yellow for an accent tone.

Finally, the racetrack itself would look something a bit like this: