2nd post – Preparing for the Alpha presentation
|
This week our team will have the Alpha presentation, which is the major milestone in our “Shoot em up” project. During the presentation we will need to present a chosen concept and explain how we interpreted it. We will also have to present 3 things we are satisfied with the project, and 3 things that we had problems with. While preparing for this presentation, it was easy to come up with problems we were facing when working with the Alpha features. The major issue we had, was settling the art style and the perspective. At the beginning, artists were experimenting with the art and trying to find the right colours and mood which fits the mysterious game aesthetics. They showed us some cool ideas which were looking really great and fitting aesthetics perfectly. However, it was not really a top down view, which was supposed to be according to the concept document. Then we tried to make it a true top down game, but then it was not really looking good. More over it was quite difficult for artists to draw it, and at the end it looked boring. Obstacles looked too simple, just like a shape, instead of the actual obstacle like a tree or a rock. We needed to do something and to come up with a solution. We had a long design meeting and tried to figure out how to make things work, and art to look nice. Finally, we found one answer to our problem and it was a 45 degree perspective angle. In this case it will still be a top down game, but with a bit lower camera angle.
This looked great and easier for artists to draw, however it led to another problem which was the movement. If the avatar, the boat, stayed a top down view then it would have looked awkward. So we decided to do 8 direction movement, the boat would have 8 directions and it would change the angle as it moves.
We were satisfied with our changes and solutions. The art style with a 45 degree perspective angle was looking good and fitted aesthetics. We were completed with the Alpha features and ready for the presentation. However, there are still many things to prepare and work on for the Beta section.  |
