Friday 30 January 2015

Game 2 - Some beginner phaseball levels

Finally got this game to be semi-playable these are the first five levels I envision:

Level 1 - Simple target shoot
Level 2 - a bit more complex
Level 3 - Colour Training
Level 4 - More on Colour
Level 5 - Colour changing balls

Pretty obviously I need a loading screen and some kind of inter-level interface

Monday 26 January 2015

Game 3 - Deadly Dungeon Dash

For this game I was part of a team doing the global game jam; we had decided before hand to aim at producing a table top game.

By the end of a first meeting on friday night the team had a pretty solid plan for a endless runner type board game.We made a prototype board and cards and by Saturday lunchtime met to have a first play through of the rules. Exact rules and the dynamics of the board and especially endgame seemed a little weak but the general dynamics seemed fun and engaging.Some discussion and a serious pivot around the end game conditions ensued leading us to a new playable verson to test on Sunday morning.

Two complete play throughs on Sunday (for five and three players) with a new refined set of rules - less dynamics and a more balanced board - went much better with clear win outcomes and fun had by all. The general length and play style seemed to match our original goals of designing a fun (potentially drunken) game which would be played out in less than an hour.

The remainder of the day was spent setting up graphic resources and designing rules and wording; hard work that led to an mostly complete set - a new game designed in under 72 hours.

I'll publish the original design documents, the first version photo grpahs and my on going craft project to make a pretty set over the next few weeks.

Tuesday 20 January 2015

Game 2 - Everything except a game

My latest release of the level editor with pretty steampunk graphics and a control system.

Now I've just got to do actual level design for this entity and put together some kind of structure to hold the levels and level sets.

Editor available here: http://elementalsystems.github.io/PhaseBall/levdesign3/

Saturday 10 January 2015

Game 2 - Looking Prettier

Been working with some steam punk graphics from this deviant to see if I can't get quite a clean metallic steampunk look. Am happy so far but has some way to go.

My latest designer which includes control to aim and fire the plasma ball has the new graphics too: http://elementalsystems.github.io/PhaseBall/levdesign2/

Other new features: colour physics; targets can be placed and drawn.

Sunday 4 January 2015

Game 2 - Level Designer

I figured that level design is going to be a big part of this project so I wanted to get an easy way to express levels as json strings very early on.

So the first version level designer is just a big text box and a live interpretation of the JSON expressed in the box. So you can live edit the JSON and change the features of the level.

The physics and collision model is working well and looks natural (although doesn't do color-physics yet).

All this currently works here http://elementalsystems.github.io/PhaseBall/levdesign1/  (you need to press the start! button once)

Friday 2 January 2015

Game 2 - A Plan

For my next incarnation in HTML5 I am planning a simple 2d physics like game where the aim is to hit some targets with as few shots as possible with bouncy plasma balls.
I'm keen to do something which will work well on a smartphone screen - so I want to keep it simple and keep the control out of the play area.

Features:
  • Square playing surface - fire from a corner therefore 90 degrees of rotation only
  • Control speed of the plasma shot - useful because of moving surfaces and the color shifting
  • Color shifting - red barriers only interact with red plasma, also blue, (white is the all plasma color and interacts with everything)
  • Plasma balls have colour (or a colour change sequence after launch) which is indicated by the ammunition type
Look
  • Got some steam punk ideas for the  controls and board framing
  • Lots of blur and motion trail on the playing surface

Impediments
  • Level design - going to be time consuming and will require extra tools
  • Steam punk - too hard for my design skills (commons?)