Design Process: Project Voyage (Day 2)

Oo, birdi--oh shit, a fish! I CAN EAT! Or I won't, whatever. 

DESIGN PROCESS: This is where I will be choosing a project and discussing it's design decisions over a period of time. Expect frequent updates.

So, it's Day 2 of progress on Voyage and I'm excited to say that the image in my head is getting just a bit more complicated (this is good). Yesterday, I wasn't quite sure how I wanted the game to look; I only had the concept for the "feels", you know? Well, now I'm getting a little closer to a vision of a playable game; and something that would allow me to keep the style of my concept art (maybe). Also, I have a musical concept here from Jacques Yeates. He says, "Imagine sailing to this." (He also says "It's very early concept music." :P)

But enough about that (the vision) for now; let's take a look at the concept image from up at the top of the screen. I was thinking about gameplay briefly and wondering whether or not I should include any kinds of spoken text. I discussed it with Jacques and we determined that dialogue might take away from the "feels" and detract from the game's purpose/our desire for players to just enjoy the world! I figure that talking with words is too "society" anyways, and our little 40-year-old friend is trying to escape from that, so we don't really need any of that. 

Note: We think it's important to keep the character goals, as well as the gameplay goals, in mind  when deciding on the "rules" of game world!  

What I did decide on, though was keeping these "!" and "?" things from the concept art. I used something like this in City Across the Sky (poorly), but I think that implementing them from the beginning, instead of later in the process, will make them feel more integrated into the overall experience. These symbols would include more than just "!" and "?", but maybe include things like hand-drawn emotes, animated effects, etc. I was thinking that some forms of communication could occur with these things popping up or fading away and the rest of it would be more passive. I'd like to keep the game relatively HUD (heads-up-display) -free (as far as persistent HUDs go) as well, but we'll see how long that dream lasts.

The way the camera works has been established in my head as well. I'm thinking of a little bit of Castle Crashers at a potentially more severe angle (to show off more of the horizon) and with more vertical scrolling. I'm also thinking that a little bit of 2.5D action will make the world feels like it has some depth to it. Castle Crashers never really gave the player any sense of depth as they moved towards and away from the camera, though I'm not sure that it'll be necessary to have lots of depth with this game. 

I was thinking of using techniques like pseudo contra-zooming to add some depth, but it might be more disorientating than anything, so I'm not sure yet. I still plan to have player controlled zooming active, but it may, or may not, be necessary with the goals I have in mind. ANYWAY. I have a movement concept art.

Arrows represent movement. Obviously.

Getting back to the vision, this concept is the closest one I have to the playing field depicted in my head. Right now, the player is standing on land. While the player stands on land, their vertical (z-plane) movement is dramatically limited (represented by the small and concentrated nature of the land arrows). However, get a boat and while at sea, your movement is limited significantly less. This is my clever way of metaphorically exploring the idea of "open seas". 

Note: While the player only has their raft, their paths of oceanic travel will be limited as well, but not as much as on land (probably). "How limited?" I haven't planned anywhere near that far yet! ;D  

This would also remove the conceptual issue we were having where if it was 2D (x and y planes only [and ala most two dimensional platforming games]), then the player would have to disembark on literally every island in their mostly linear path. A 3D transition may have fixed that, but I like the style a lot, and 2.5D might let me keep it! Yay! If I could get this to work correctly, you might be able to travel to the islands in the waaaaay distance. The ones that you've (probably not) been wondering about this whole (2 days) time. I'm not sure how this would work coding-wise, but I'm sure I can figure something out (or just use 3D?)! ;D   ...D;

That concludes today's Design Process.

Dolphin Squadron: Update

Yes. We understand that PETA may be an issue.
But we also doubt it because we're noobs.

Yeah, just a mock-up for Dolphin Squadron. In MOTHERFUCKING SPACE. How you get there will forever remain a mystery, but it'll happen somehow. Haha. Obviously, Brook (artist) didn't really try too hard on the bg in this mock-up--or maybe he just couldn't figure out space. Regardless, I'll probably use particles or parallaxes anyway, so it doesn't matter too much!

Also, high-tech PETA will definitely be a mid-boss (our description of mini-bosses). We will probably also have other classics such as...

• Aliens
• Cthulu
• Megladon
• Magikarp (probably not)

Expect Greatness.

Ryan Huggins~