Dirt sprites, UI and menu background.

This week I’ve been working on some dirt sprites, the UI and the main menu background.

The dirt sprites are very simple transparent layers with some dirt and mud added. The game will then just lay that over the sprites when you get muddy to illustrate that you actually are. I just used some preset brushes in Photoshop to make the dirt, nothing fancy, only took about one hour to make all the sprites. I made three different dirt levels in three different layers and then I just saved the individual dirt layers separately.

Then I began work on the main menu background, and that of course took much longer than expected. Most of the time spent on it so far have just been designing the scene, moving the house around. Adding a tree, removing it again, trying different horizons, remaking it again and again until I found something I liked. This is what it looks like so far. Very much not finished, but the basics of it is there now. I will add much more detail to it, and make it look like a proper kindergarten instead of just a house. I am pleased with the overall look of it, and i think it will look real sharp when its done. But then I had to pause work on it in order to work on more urgent things like the UI, which I started next.

I tried to make it simple and in a fitting style. At the bottom is the big parent timer that shows you when the next kid will be picked up by his or her parents. Above that is the heat indicator for the sponge rifle, if you manage to get that bar full (it shows full in the mockup below) the gun will jam and get a cooldown. Above that is the dirt bar that indicates your own dirt level,  it goes up when kids throw dirt at you and if you get that one full you loose. And all that is placed on a yellow background hud that is in style of the sponge rifle, again nothing fancy. The big red PARENTS! text is not final, we have not decided if we are going to have that or maybe just a red flashing light or something similar when the time on the next kid is about to run out.

Overall this has been a pretty productive week and that’s all I have for now, have a good one.