Week #2.11

This week I did a lot more coding than I usually do.  I put an elevator object for the Mountain Level.  To do this I need to find out the offset for the ground of the image which took awhile.  Also, I fixed the buoyancy zone so the objects in the water are easier to jump on.

 For the end of the level I changed the end point so it is still the checkpoint picture, but has fireworks going on around it.  It took me awhile to figure this out because there cannot be two animators in one class.  So I had to make a new fireworks object that the end point creates.

 The biggest thing I did was to redo the first level (the tutorial level) so it is longer and a little more tricky.  The first new puzzle I did was to introduce shadow monsters (shown below).  The other one used towers (shown in the picture above).

Week #2.10

This week was again a lot of organizing and communication.  The best thing I did was make it clear to the artists what we need by Thursday in order to make the levels.

We first found out that we need all textures in the game in order to compress them for the Xbox.  Here is the e-mail I sent to the artists:

Hey everyone!

So we found out that we need to have the dimensions of the textures be multiples of 4.  We didn't know this before but it makes it easier to compress the textures for the Xbox.  As of now you won't have to redo the textures, but that may change.  Just from now on make them multiples of 4.  If you have any questions please e-mail me back.

Thanks,

-- 
Sarah Ripley

I then worked with Cristine on the color palette for the new houses.  You can see what they originally were to what they went to:

Finally, I worked with Alice to come up with the needed art for the Palace level and what dimensions they need to be.  Alice got it done really fast and it looks great!  Here is some of what she did:

I also came up with the wording for the scrolls in the tutorial level:

1) Use the left analog stick to move left and right

2) Press to A to jump

3) This is a checkpoint.  The most recent checkpoint is where you will spawn.

4) Push objects by running into them.  Hold down Y near an object and use the left joystick to pull.

5)  While in a light press X to enter the Shadow Realm

6) Use your shadow mode to get past guards

Week #2.9

This week I wrote out what the artists need to make for the village and mountain levels.  Cristine was put in charge of the village level and Alice was put in charge of the mountain level.  Here is the e-mail I sent to Cristine describing art (because the village level didn't need much):

small bridge = 1024 (width) height doesn't matter

tree = 1024 (width) 1024 (height)

big bridge = 2048 (width) height doesn't matter

blossom = 100 (width) height no more than 420

wasp = width doesn't matter, height nor more than 420

For Alice I drew up what we needed and wrote out a description.  Here are the drawings:

I also worked with Taylor to get all art we can into the game.  Here is a small light I put in:

I also put in the fishing pole.  This was hard to do because the points of the collision box had to be put in by hand.

Week #2.8

This week was getting ready for the play test and then planning what needs to be changed after the play test.  One of the most important things I did was create the survey for the play test.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGdDMkVSbXYtU0QzQlNoNlVlUTllVnc6MQ#gid=0

I then worked with Russell to figure out why the shadow boar was drawing in physical mode.  It turns out that the boar's shadow was being drawn and so we just needed to override the drawShadow() method in the shadowboar class.

I also put in the art for the checkpoint and made it turn green when it was activated (temporary).  Here is a picture:

I also made sure who would be at the playtest, got as much art from the artists as possible, and just helped people in general.  At the playtest I took notes and pictures.
Here are some pictures from the playtest:

Week #2.7

This week I mostly just worked on getting the art incorporated in the game.  The first things I did was implement the firefly and floating lantern as shown below: 

This took a little bit because I had to incorporate the light circle with the light image.  I realized after awhile I was having problems because there was white space around the light circle.  I also forgot to mention that last week I work with Taylor on the buoyant zones and made the boat classes.

Week #2.6

This week was mostly about making design decisions.  The biggest decision we made was to have toon shading on the art instead of gradients.  There was a great back and forth with this and it was crazy.  Here is an example that Leif made that helped me make the decision:

We also made various decisions about the level.  Here are the notes from our meeting:

10 min levels?
- optimizing in code
- Taylor will build level to determine limits
- sleep things that aren’t on screen

Texture switching based on level
making real world objects transparent/disappear when in shadow mode
Garrett working on making level look like paper

Farm level - tutorial
- Drew needs to make background loopable

Village
- cherry blossom

Mountain
- cave

city
- random peoples houses

Palace
- vertical level

SAME SIZE!!!!
Pushing object
backgrounds
circular light
directional light
platform indicator
shadow monsters/ guards

Week #2.5

This week I was full force designer.  My main thing I did this week was take a level that Leif drew and organize it into art that the programmers could use.  Here are the drawings I did to show my ideas:

Here's what I requested from the artists:

Things that need to be made for level:

*These are the things that are most important to be made for the level on Tuesday*

1. Towers – (bottom of second page) For the towers I specified how tall each level of the tower needs to be (it's an approximation you can make slightly higher if need be. NOTE: not drawn to scale). I had to change that puzzle a bit because I'm not sure if we can do everything on Leif's drawing. So look at the art and let me know if you have any questions. Also, if we can have the middle part of the first tower be more faded (indicating you can jump across to platforms on other side). Then on the second tower have the middle part stand out indicating that player can't walk through.
2. Tall grass – background indicating what shadow is cast on
3. ground block – (used throughout level) for player to walk on the top of (whatever makes sense)

4. special water block – (first page of drawing) water where player needs to use fishing pole to jump across. Needs to be at least 550 pixels across so player can't just jump across. I will include example of water I found that might be cool.

5. Regular water block – (top right corner of first page) blocks we can use to show the flowing of the river

6. fishing pole – (first page of drawing right before the water) at least 250 pixels width-wise

7. Water wheel and flat building – (first page) stand alone water wheel with 250 pixels between each paddle. Building with flat roof.
8. Boat – (second page) big boat that guard walks on.

These items are in order of importance. So if you feel like you don't have enough time please get as much of the top items done before Monday night.