End-of-Project Thoughts

First, I want to say that overall my team was a great one in which to work. Our brainstorming sessions were always very productive and exciting, our complex game came together in a very short period of time, and people were typically quite respectful to one another even if there was a difference in opinion. So guys, thank you for a great semester.

I did feel a bit of frustration around the last month or so of the semester as it seemed more and more difficult to be taken seriously by some of my teammates; more often were promises made than kept, and it was disappointing to not see all of mine and other artists' assets find their way into the final game. Problems such as these are not uncommon in group settings, and though I tried to overcome them in new and effective ways I might employ additional methods next semester to better track who has given me commitment and for what tasks, hopefully avoiding this situation in the future.

The game we created is not perfect, but it's functional and was very successful on several fronts. Parts of the game that did not show in the final, such as spells, are almost completely ready to be implemented. The team has tentative plans to finish the game and release it for the Droid and iPhone within the next few months once we managed a few legal issues and discuss potential changes to the current gameplay. I'm excited to see it played and enjoyed by the average smartphone consumer as it varies a great deal from any other mobile RTS on the market today.

The Deadline Approaches...

Everyone on the team has been assigned over the past few weeks certain tasks which need to be completed by our final deadline day. The artists were instructed not to recreate the unit selection loadout screen that the programmers had made because of the intense programming behind it; the programmers do not want to break the game trying to implement new assets. So now we're cleaning up a few pieces already made but not yet added to the game and waiting it out through finals for everything to come together in a single, flowing mobile RTS game.

Opening Splash Screen

Here is the new opening splash screen for our game, complete with buttons linking the player to the tutorial pages. The background was rendered in GIMP, so it can be used as a background for our in-game map as well should that be desired, and the brain was drawn completely free-handed to avoid copyright issues our previous splash screen contained.

Interface Artwork

This post is to be updated with final versions of our interface buttons and icons, as well as opening and closing splash screens. I'm working on unit thumbnails, bridge artwork for the map, and a new opening splash screen. There's also a good chance I'll create the loadout screen and cleanup our buff icons/buttons... Currently, I'm unsure what other artists are doing for the project.

 

These thumbnails are to be used for our unit selection system, whether as icons to be "dragged onto" for selection or as indicators of which are currently highlighted. They've been added to the dropbox under TeamRTS --> UI --> UnitThumbnails.Because blogger adds its own dark box around images uploaded to posts, you'll have to click "edit" as though you were going to make changes to the post or view the actual files in dropbox to see the correct border around these items.

Hayden and Jack drew spell buttons, which I've been relining to give a smoother, cleaner appearance. I'll continue to update those as well as work progresses.

Units: Teddybear, Smileflower

This cute and cuddly beast draws you in with seemingly-vulnerable fluffiness, then stares you down with his over-sized eyes and shocks you into submission.





Unit Details

• Character dimensions: 64 x 80 pixels
• Attack animation: Waves arms up and down as lightning emerges between them.
• Idle animation: Kicks feet gently and his bowtie changes in size.

This smiling sunflower is a super-sane joy to be around. Always upbeat, he's ready to take on the challenge of regaining sanity in the mind, whatever the opposition.





Unit Details

• Character dimensions: 51 x 75 pixels
• Note: Likely to be used as a background asset but can be modified for animation if necessary.

Background Assets

This will be updated over the weekend with assets as they are sketched and transformed into .png files. Right now, I'm assuming that background items will be anywhere from slightly smaller to half the size of our playable characters. Most will be on the larger end, but shrubbery-like or highly horizontal pieces might have the shorter height to them.

Once we have our map completely agreed upon, we should go about setting "themes" so the background artists have more direction. Currently, some assets have a character type appearance, while others will be more vague fillers for the space... The majority of my ideas are sketched out in paper form and will need to be scanned in sometime soon to continue their progression.

1. Dinocheese -- Plate to be redrawn, but I wanted to test the mix of cheese and mold colors.

2. Sign Clown -- One of several sign people that will occasionally mix in with other background items.
3. Sadflower -- Tribal sort of... deathly thing, I don't know.
4. Blendesnake -- You know, a blender. And a snake. All bundled into one.
5. Mysteryshrub -- Can be modified to have different "tops" to the shrub if desired.

Units: StacheMan, Fishlamp, Ball o' Feet

The gentlemanly and reknowned Stacheman is a jolly ol' fellow playable by the sanity team. He emotes himself via movement in his hat and mustache.





Unit Details

• Character dimensions: 58 x 80 pixels
• Attack animation: Hat jumps up and down with sporadic movement of the mustache.
• Idle animation: Twiddles his mustache in short, quick movements while waiting.

The fishlamp could be utilized as a character or background decoration for the mind, symbolizing irrationality and mood. It flickers between "on" and "off" positions.

Unit Details

• Character dimensions: 70 x 80 pixels
• Attack animation: Turns its lamp and eyes "on;" moves lamp back and forth like a bell.
• Idle animation: Turns "off" and perhaps rolls its pupils about occasionally.

This "football", composed of human feet, rolls about and jumps as an insanity unit.

Unit Details

• Character dimensions: 80 x 60 pixels
• Attack animation: Circles back and forth horizontally to indicate aggression.
• Idle animation: Jumps up and down periodically.
• Note: This unit was sketched and sized by Hayden and only relined/recolored by me.

Silhouette Study

Here is a place where I can upload the real-size silhouettes of my characters to ensure that all units have distinct features and shapes, and that they are still readable in their miniature, colorless state. If the characters don't seem interesting as silhouettes, adding complexity cannot overcome the fundamental issues associated with the design. These shadows were drawn relatively quickly; the final forms of the objects will have smooth, clean edges.

Units: Spideburger, 2 + 2 = 5

This character can be utilized either as a playable insanity unit or as a feature in one of our eventual psychosis, including but not limited to "arachnophobia".

Unit Details

• Character dimensions: 80 x 60 pixels
• Attack animation: Lifts legs, opens and closes "mouth" via movement of the top bun over the bottom.
• Idle animation: Lowers top bun and folds legs inward to a resting position.
• Note: Potentially no longer to be used as an optional unit due to complexity of animation, but can still be integrated into background or spell pieces.

The 2 + 2 = 5 girl, currently missing the arms and hand-held pencil and book, moves her arms up and down while 2 + 2 = 5 flashes above her head as a sanity unit.

Unit Details

• Character dimensions: 60 x 68 pixels
• Attack animation: Raises arms with book and pencil up and down quickly.
• Idle animation: 2 + 2 = 5 "writes" itself number by number above her head.
• Note: Unit was left unfinished due to its abandonment as a usable character in the game, per its complex skeletal structure with the addition of arms.

Concept Sketches

Per our meeting on Thursday, October 20th, each week we will have certain artwork due. This will allow us to stay on track for our eventual video game release date. Below are sketches for this week's contributions:

Bubble: Likely to be blown (varying sizes) by the seahorse.

Academic girl: Arm movement with the pencil and book; 2 + 2 = 5 to be displayed above her head.

Dinocheese: Opens and closes its "mouth" as though chewing; idles with "stinky cheese" icons above the plate.

Fish lamp: Eyes and lamp flicker on and off periodically; eyes also roll around, may choose to incorporate bubble here instead.

Fairy flower: Will have petals all around that shift about to either create a fairy that flies, or a butterfly (difficult to envision, storyboards or actual animation to be shown in the future).

Fly: Symmetrical unit whose wings rapidly move up and down, flying the unit around in a set pattern.

Popcorn box: To be used with the "popcorn sheep" if the concept is continued.

Seahorse: Will be placed on the carousel pole and jump around; may be combined with the bubble or other carousel animals.

Spideburger: Moves up and down (opening and shutting its mouth) on the legs; also moves its fangs and/or legs in and outward during other animations. Also symmetrical.

Stache man: Mustache moves up and down; head rolls on the feet and hat falls off; eyebrows also indicate anger or contentment depending on idle/attack status.