Regardin speedy power ups
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The first designs for power ups for the game Mole Munch were done to get a feel for how we wanted them to look, before writing in stone exactly what they were going to do. I knew that I was limited to 32×32 pixels and that power ups had to be viewed strait from above. I also knew that they were going to be bugs, and that in the game they were to be found under ground. At first I drew a few bugs almost at random, before realising that they were somewhat pointy and that none of them looked tasty. So i did some research looking for the tastiest looking bug I could find, and I settled on the dung beetle. It has a smooth shimmering shell, short legs and a round body making it look sort of tasty and not too intimidating. I decided to let all the power ups be dung beetles in different colours simply because when ignoring the name they looked so much tastier than the other bugs.
The bugs were supposed to have an idle animation to attract the players attention, and group member Tony suggested they could have a beam of light passing over them. I took his advice, and also added a flash of light at the end. Depending on how it looks when implemented the power up bugs may need a cooldown between the flashes in case they make the underground of levels look like a disco. This red bug was supposed to give additional speed.
Shortly after this we did however during a group discussion decide that if possible the bugs should indicate the effect of eating them. Drawing a flash on the red bug, signalling it would give higher speed, ended up not looking good. At least partially because of the limit to 32×32 pixels. I started looking at pictures of fire, specifically pictures of fire on cars. Because fire on cars make them look fast. I changed the colour of the red bug to hot rod red to make it look more like a fast car, and I drew fire on it inspired of old american cars. After this I once again did it´s idle animation. This time to attract extra attention to it I let the ending of the animation be the fire flashing multiple times instead of the entire bug flashing once.
It may look less tasty but it sure looks faster :).
Regarding comments on my latest blog post; the additional vegetables are apples, eggplants and strawberry plants. All chosen because of being easily identifiable when seen from above.
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