Concepts: Items and Fodder

The last bits of concept art I wanted in place before I started further development were any key items/power-ups and some cannon fodder enemies that would reside in Russi's world. 

Below the cut I will show the concepts for each of these things and explain what their functionality will be/what role they will play in the game.

Russi: Creating Movement Mechanics

To begin Semester 3, I have returned to the game design document I started working on last semester. I was able to fill in a lot of the blank spaces that were present beforehand, such as antagonist motives, the reason Russi is gathering the core collectables and art of the new characters. One thing that was a little basic was the controls/movement mechanics for Russi. 

At this point I decided (with a little advice) to check out the Super Smash Bros. video games and to think of a move-set for Russi in the same vein as this series. 

Super Smash Bros. is a platformer-fighting game primarily featuring Nintendo-owned characters. If you look at the controller and say "A and B are the attack buttons, X and Y are your jump buttons, Z is your grab and the control stick moves your character" the game seems quite simple (which, in it's most basic form, it is), but there is a surprising level of depth for competitive play - not including techniques such as shielding and rolling, there are about 20 different attacks/moves for each character that are a combination of the above buttons. 

Using the move-set above, I checked out the list on my game design document again and made some adjustments, giving Russi a plethora of abilities. Naturally I can't incorporate all of the above into a platform game since I want it to be very user friendly and too many moves could quickly become detrimental for a more casual audience. 

Semester 2: Body of Work

Today is the deadline for Semester 2, I have added my body of work below: my updated Learning Agreement, my Design Research 2 Essay and my Practical Work. 

Mock Promotional Poster

As a method of showcasing the characters I have designed this semester, and as practice for semester 3 (where I want to look into promotion some more) I created a mock promotional poster. This is my final piece for semester 2. 

Finalising The Antagonist Design

Following my last post about designing my antagonist character, I looked at the designs I had and played about with a few of them. The goal with my antagonist was to make a design that seems friendly at first, but implies something much more villainous. 

Learning Agreement Update & Wrapping Up Semester 2

As Semester 2 is drawing to a close and I have spoken with the tutors about the progress I've made this semester, I decided to reflect on my Learning Agreement. I have stuck fairly closely to what I proposed initially but I did make some minor alterations to the document based on feedback I have received. 

MA Games Design: Student Feedback

A week or so ago in class, we had a group discussion regarding immediate and long-term changes to the course. Within this talk, a couple of us talked about the way in which some of the other design courses are given feedback. We liked the idea of pinning work to the walls of our room so that people could leave sticky notes with advice, critique, compliments or any feedback we wanted on our work.