NOTE: For an optimum viewing experience, please click on the images to view.
Digital Work: Instructional help menu window:
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When playing the game, the further the player progresses into the level, the more difficult the game becomes. The higher the honey pot gets filled, the quicker the shooter begins to fire, ranging from the shooter firing every three seconds at the start of the game, then shortening down to one second at level three and four.
This means that there are high chances of a build-up of pellets on the display. If the pellets build-up higher than the honeycomb shooter or hits the borders of the hive, the player loses the game.
Also, another way that the player can lose the game is if the comb of honey has been emptied, but the player has failed to fill the honey pot. An example of how this problem could arise is if the player makes the honey spill on the floor rather than position the comb so that the honey lands into the honey pot.
After completing level four, players will be greeted with this window popup. This window congratulates them on winning the game, and offers them to go back to the main menu screen where they can play the game again or try a different, harder mode.
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Digital Work: Pause and Options Menus
Today I managed to develop the Pause Window and the Options Window of the app on Adobe Photoshop.
I've kept the designs fairly simple, in order to allow any user to understand how to use the app, no matter what age they are.
I have used bright colouring and a bubble-style font, and used a yellow and orange gradient ontop of the text in order to remind the player of the game's main theme - bees and honey. Progress into the app so far seems to be steady and consistent, luckily this week I can focus on the project even more as we have Independent Study Week.
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Digital work: Game Window Development
By using Maya and Adobe Photoshop, I have managed to create the display screen for when the player is playing the game. I rendered Bumblee, the hive, the honey pot and it's surroundings in Maya and then added the hexagonal honeycombs, the gigantic comb, the honey-o-meter and the pause/mute buttons with Photoshop.
I decided that bright colouring would be key in this app, so I stuck with bright colours and added gradients to the buttons, honey-o-meter and the honey for aesthetic purposes.
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Digital work: Start Menu Development
After completing the models in Maya, I rendered the scene and opened the file into Photoshop to add the mountains, sky and the character as a separate layer and to add titles in the options box. My next plans is to begin compiling together models needed for the display the player sees when playing the app.
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Digital work: 3-D
Despite taking a while to create a new blog, I have good reasoning for my absence. Recently, I have been concentrating on creating the digital 3-D models for my game, the Archant project and writing up my 1000 word report for project 3.
After deciding to take a 3-D approach, I have been trying to learn how to use Maya, through use of the books in the library, tutorials on YouTube, along with trial-and-error too.
A particularly interesting book I took out for a loan from the University library was a character modelling book written by digital artists: Jan-Bart Van Beek, Cesar Dacol Jr and Giovanni Nakpil. Reading about their digital art form history truly inspired me to learn more about 3-D modelling and texturing.
I have finally finished modelling parts of my game, and I have made a collage below of the models that I have made during these past couple of weeks. My next plans are to compile the models into a scene that I can use for a menu screen for the app, I'm planning to add effects using Adobe Photoshop.
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Traditional work: Concept drawings
Now that I have created an app idea, I have decided to draw some concept work for possible props in the game. Below are some drawings of shapes for possible bee hives, which will act as the setting of the game. I also sketched out some ideas for ways in which the bee can shoot at the honeycomb crust - from weapons such as slingshots, to larger machniery such as cannons. I decided that these weapons may be too realistic, considering the storyline is based around a honeybee, so I opted for basic-style 'pointer' shooters, which are easy to recognise and simple to create.
Below are some quick sketches of possible shapes the main character could have for a body, head and it's wings. After researching similar games on the market, I discovered that the most common designs for bees in games were a simple sphere body and sphere head. I feel that this shape could work well as a design because it will allow the consumer to instantly recognise the character.
