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[RageKit]

A KIND OF MENU :

Graphic update : 7 March 2013


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Hi everyone
I'm a french student, currently studying in switzerland at HEAD geneva, and i'm making a game for school.

It's a 2D top down coop stealth (yeah buzzwords!) game, with roguelike elements called Blueprint.

It is made to be played on a gamepad, and currently developed for ouya.

The 2 players are on the same screen, in a topdown view, and can only see what their character is seeing. ie : there's a vision cone in front of them that shows the world elements : guards, traps, etc.
But they are not aware of what outside this vision cone so they'll have to work together :
when one is lockpicking, the other have to watch for the guards, if one is captured, the other have to save him ...etc

I want each level to be in 2 parts :
1st : they have to fetch an object, protected by security systems and guards/traps. They work together.
2nd : they have to get out, but only one can win so they have to double cross their friend in order to win.

Each level will be randomly generated, and upon death or capture, a new level will be generated. Players will have to be familiar with game elements, and not learn level by heart, in order to win.

The game will be set in a 60s/secret agent feel, and i'm currently working on Art direction, which must be finalized for Wednesday.

- I have made a small tech demo to show of the cone of vision will work :
Art not final AT ALL, sorry for the in computer shot, it was for school assignment



As you can see : what's not seen by player will be represented as a blueprint, and the "world", what is seen by the player, is what is in red/pink.

- Here's a work on palette selection and style for the "real world" :
(link, because it's a pretty big image and it has to be seen in 100%, not scaled)

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/nr7t4oe5d71lt1s/testedetest.png

I still hesitate between example 1 and 4 on the right, i need to dig further. And there's still work to do on the palette.

- And here is a view of what the map part will look like :



(in the new version, colors are lighter, but i need to choose them in correlation with the world palette, so no screen yet).

Well, that's about it. I have some sketch and Game documents on paper, i need to make a small level scenario for wednesday to show what's happening in the game in a typical playthrough (and finish the art direction as said earlier), so i'll be posting more soon !

[barley]

The blueprint looks great.

That's a very narrow cone of vision though. I can imagine it ending up feeling like you're walking around in the dark with a torch, and that can be a kind of constricting feeling. It's a very bright shade of pink, but I don't know how it's going to work without seeing what it looks like when the player sees guards and stuff.

Very cool!

[Lepus]

This sounds like a really interesting concept, although I agree that the vision cone could do with being a little larger. I understand that the narrow field of view promotes cooperation and teamwork, but it also seems quite restrictive.

Love the art style though. As art direction I really like the vector graphics, I think they fit with the blueprint style and would suit a 60s Spy movie-eqsue design.

[Impmaster]

Heh. Seems cool. Just one thing. If you make it so that the field of view is the only thing that the people will be able to see, then people will be spinning around ridiculously in order to see more.

I like the art and the concept.

[RageKit]

Hi everyone ! Thanks for your kind remarks !

I've worked more on the art direction, here's a mockup of what the game will look like :



HIGH DEF (well, game resolution) :

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/7os97japfvbmg91/finalpeutetrelowdef.png

And here's some zoomed props :


 

I don't think it will change more, maybe i'll change the "real world" palette a bit, to have more of a 60s look and feel (like sepia/olive), but that's it.
Time's running out ! I have to make a playable prototype for the 22nd.

Barley/Lepus : I've expanded the FOV as you advised. It'll be round 70° or 90° i think, somewhat like in the mockup.
Impmaster : I think i'll try to add a "lag" when the player turn over, to prevent this kind of behavior, it'll need to be refine by testing.

I have a whole load of gamedesign reference : I really like the fact that you can only carry 1 object in spelunky (it might also have been inspired by the classic atari game Adventure), and that's a thing that might promote coop a lot (like in goof troops) for special objet like, lockpicks, camera glue, or gun.

By the way : there will be gun, but they will have a HUGE inconveniences, you won't begin with one, but you will be able to steal one from some guards, but when you shoot, the noise will alert all nearby guards.
1 hit = Death. So it won't really be a good idea to use guns, but you can if you want.

Well, now, i'm going to implement all this. To the coding machine !

[barley]

That looks fantastic.

I like that you're discouraging players from using their gun, while having it there so that they can use it if they need to. Gunpoint does something similar and it gives a lot of weight to shooting people.

[RageKit]

Thanks a lot !
I'm at home now, and i'm completely depressed to see that color are TOTALLY differents on my monitor. I might increase contrast a bit between "real world" and background, for lisbility.

[Lepus]

Love the graphics for the 'real world' view, very smooth and interesting. Great colour scheme, would be interested to see it superimposed on the blueprint environment, too. Maybe an animated .gif 

[Raycast]

I love the aesthetic. I'm looking forward to this.