Week 5

This week I’m going to analyze the construction of the game space and the various iterations that lead to what is hopefully the final product for the beta. The biggest obstacle with the design is the faked perspective. Since the game is actually a strictly top down viewed scenario, the walls of the buildings should just be a vertical ledge! However that would convey much less information about the surrounding than if I bend the local laws of physics for a bit of a fish eye lens effect, thus showing the walls on both sides. That’s the thing about working in a cartoonish style, that you have a lot of room for free expression.

I have been thinking a lot about how drawing is about communicating the essence of something recognizable to the viewer, rather than describing every little perfected detail of it.  The first iterations that I made of the game space were far too simple, they did not contain enough information for the viewer/player to buy the setting as a whole.

The thing is that I first realized this during the play testing, I was bored of looking at the level after five seconds. I then realized that I had been sloppy and not thorough enough to make an acceptable design.

When choosing the color setting for the game space, I had in mind that I wanted to keep the spectrum of different colors within the boundaries of what would give a harmonious impression. In other words, I chose a few colors and stuck with them, so to not to make the image messy. I also wanted to make sure that the colors I picked would work well with the colors of the player and enemies. For example I made the asphalt darker so that the player character would stand out more.

Since the game is an auto-scroller the image of the game space will be pasted on top of itself in a loop as the game progresses, so I’m going to make as many variations as I can for the final presentation. So far I have two variations. I have not decided yet how much they should vary in color scheme, but there should definitely be some new colors!

I’m thinking about whether or not I should add more detail or texture to the street itself, I’m just Worried that it will distract the player’s vision when the screen fills up with enemies and power up’s.  I think that I will focus my time on creating more versions to switch between.  

The first iteration:

The second iteration plus additional variation: