Steam Boot Concepts

Some quick concept sketches for the steam boots.

Cutout Reeves

Cut out of my Doctor concept. It may work better in the doc than the full character sheet.

Comparison

Before and after for comparison.

Harland

Quick redo of Harland.

Revised Concept Cover

Better quality cover page for the concept doc.
High res png here: spin cover graphitepaper.png

Hub Room Interactions

Some mock ups using Jonnys hub room and character images. To go into the UI section of the GDD, showing how the hub room interactions appear full screen when in use.

Activating the telephone to save or load the game


Full screen phone.

Some sort of Gramaorgancupboardmachine, letting you change sound and resolution settings.

View pictures on the walls

Picture shown full screen for the player to view.
(Controls image from Khal)

Start Menu Flow Chart v3

Final menu flowchart. Now with the pre game options menu added, plus the change to how notes and photos are displayed in the hub room.

UI Stuff for the GDD

Here's what i've written up on the U.I so far, anyone got any comments? Changes? Corrections?

I also plan to get some mock up images done to go in the document with this section.


U.I.

For added immersion and to avoid breaking away from the game world all options and user interfaces will be integrated into the playable hub. These menu's must then be activated by the player making contact and activating the item with the game.

List of integrated items within hub room:

Pictures on walls

The player will be able to view a pictures hanging on the wall of the hub room, when selected the picture will be shown full screen to allow the player to read/view them.

- Controls Image
Picture showing the game controls

- Credits Image
Picture showing the game credits

Strange Machine

Some sort of mechanical control box or machine located in the hub room, when used by the player the control panel of the device goes full screen allowing the player to adjust SFX & Music sliders and levers for resolution settings.

- Music/SFX Slider
Sliders on the machine that can increase or decrease the SFX and Music within the game

- Set Resolution
Buttons or rotating knobs allowing the player to set a preferred resolution

Telephone

An old style telephone sat on a desk in the hub world, when used the dialling mechanism is shown full screen. From here the buttons allow the player to load a alternative save file or save current progress.

- Save Progress
Dial S, then Dial a number to save current progress

- Load Game
Dial L, then Dial a number to load that save

Journal
A large open book sat on a table top or specific book stand. The book would act as the players journal, displaying any notes or messages found during the game. As more notes are discovered the back story will be revealed. Sections of comics will also appear in the journal as the game progresses and more notes are added.

- Read notes/entries
Allows the player to read the various notes and messages they have collected.

- Read comic
A comic depicting events in the game. Sections are added through game progression and the discovery of hidden notes

Pause Screen

A pause option will be available at all times during play, activated by using the start button or 'P' key. When paused the game screen will be obscured to stop the player having too long to plan how to survive the level. From the pause screen the player will have the option to resume play or quit the game. No other options will be available via the pause screen so as not to distract from the integrated UI detailed above.

Start Menu Flow Chart v2

Revised game flow chart following discussion of the previous version in class. This version has all menu screens integrated into the game world. The start screen has also now gone, with the game launching straight into gameplay. I think I remembered it correctly, let me know if not.

Here's my concept for the Miner Character Harland. It's a bit of a contrast to Jonny's concept but I felt he should be a bit more athletic and agile. Especially if he's going to be jumping and climbing around an assortment of rotating locations. Let me know what you think.

New Logo/Title Concept

Another option for the game logo/title.

Start Menu Flow Chart

Start menu flow chart for the GDD, if anyone has any changes let me know.

Seal Doctor?

A random thought I had while watching Frozen Planet.
Some of the Sea lions had pretty impressive moustache's and they reminded me of the game characters. This is the result....

Music and Video Games

I mentioned to some of the guys last week about a radio 4 show regarding game music, have a listen below.

Bleep Bleep Bloop: Music and Video Games

Mood Boards

Mood boards done a while back now, finally got round to blogging them.

Objects

Environment

Characters

LBP - Spin Doctor test

Test area built in Little Big Planet to play around with rotation.
(There are a couple of bits where he flys, this is where ladders should be)

Mock up vid

A vey basic 3D mock up trying to get a feel for the rotation and how the game will look.

Concept sketches

A collection of various character concepts.

Concept sketches

The dead wife on some sort of mechanical bed.

The mechanical heart, an old concept for the evil doctor.

Steam Backpack concept, trying to add steampunk elements to a normal looking guy.

Miner harness - A device attached to the player to extract adrenaline. Large spikes make it very painful for the wearer.

Mine concept

A work in progress concept of a mine section.

Level designs

The above diagram shows a simple puzzle using the games rotation mechanic. Each step above shows how the player must move to stay alive and escape. The green stuff is a lethal liquid, the red dot is a button which will drain the liquid.

Some more level/room concepts based on Jonny's map layout

Old cover page concepts

Miner concept

Miner - with and without harness

Concept Doc Cover - Concepts

Updated version of the cover page.

Concept Doc Cover - Concepts

Gears/Cogs

Another idea for the game! this time inspired by iPhone game Geared.

Instead of placing cogs and gears on screen as a puzzle game, could the player be inside the gears

running around and traversing between them?

Some quick sketches showing how the player may have to navigate between gears.

The world or stages could be made up of many connecting gears or various sizes. Progression would involve jumping between the gears to move along the level.

Different sized cogs or those with different gear ratio's would rotate at different speed, creating a varied challenge.

Cogs may also feature holes from which the player passes from one cog to another, should the player miss the jump or simply fall through the hole its game over.

Sections where stationary gears have to be activated/turned on to allow progress could also be used to add puzzle elements to game play.

Sketch showing how the rotating cog/gear would effect objects within them.

This world of cogs and gears would seem pretty out of place in a Sci-Fi setting and I feel it falls more into a steampunk style aesthetic, tying into a recent post by Gina.

Now imagine running around this!