Daniel, Graphics Artist here.
First of all, I'm sorry for lack of updates on the game. It is just we have had both some big, but also some minor changes to the game, so we thought (atleast I thought) we could save it all to the last. Well, not all to the last, just some big changes we have done. So we can explain it better.
First of all, the map has gone through some big changes in a short time. And I mean some BIG changes.
First of all, we replaced the dev textures with the real textures. It is always better to do it as fast as possible unless your map isn't completely done yet. In one way developer textures helped us to count how big the player is compared to the map etc. It also greatly helped us on counting how big the map is and if we should do it bigger or smaller. But in an other way, the developer textures wasn't even done in the first place when we first implented them into the game. We just had no big updates what should be what until we decided on having orange as solid and blue as non-solid.
So in other words, developer-textures are good during the early phrase of the game, but once you're done with the alpha-testing and want to move on with the game, you have to replace the textures. It is now complete.
Another thing we did was to make the map larger while also making it more fun. We discovered early in the game, the map had some serious bugs and it would often crash once you fell into a hole. Not to mention there were a place in the map the player could fall in, only to be stuck there forever. In other words, some serious problems we had to fix.
What we did was first to make the map bigger. During the resizement of the map, I caught an idea. What if we also made some minor design in the map layout. Now this is something I wouldn't reccommened to do unless you've good communication with your developer-group or if the map has some serious map-issues. Anyways, we removed the gap the player could be stuck in, we made a few jumps trickier while adding several more jumps. We also made the "buildings" higher or in other words, the level higher. We made it about 50% bigger in width and about 40% bigger in height. Not entirely sure, but it was a big difference it did. We also added some decoration into the map. A few lamps hanging from the ceiling, a couple pipes against the walls and also an empty room, just for decoration.
An other thing we did was to create a clear route to tell the player where to go. It may have had a clear one before, but because we did some major map overhaul, we also had to think on how to easiest explain to the player where to go. It may seem silly thinking on such a thing when you're developing a small platformer game, but imagine if you're making several levels with different routes. It is always better to think ahead and perpare for the worst than getting the results at the worst moment.
After we made some major map-overhaul to the game, Olle, the other graphics artist made some nice looking death and jumping sprites to the player. Before when the player jumped, it was just using an idle sprite. It may sound okay it was okay, but we wanted it to be more than okay. We wanted the player to look good. Therefore Olle made a jumping animation we implented.
Olle created a jumping spritesheet that will play everytime the player is jumping and is in the air. He did it by first opening up the idle sprite. Then he brainstormed until he was satisifed with the result.
One thing you should keep in mind when you're making player sprites to the player, is to make the animations quick to respond. You don't what the player to wait until the player does something. Lets say you're making a jumping animation to the player. Then you shouldn't do like it is perparing to jump before jumping. You should instead lay more focus on when the player is landing. There you can add details to the animation. Same goes to an animation that plays when the player takes damage. You don't want it to have a "delay" before playing.
It is a misstake you don't want to do because it can quickly change the gameplay to be more boring or frustrating... in a bad way.
Half way through now... pew.
Well, let us continue now.
While our map was more or less done and our player have our animations, we still missed one thing. A menu. A menu that will both play and quit the game. A menu that will appear when you pause the game, when you start the program and when you die in the game. You cannot play a game without a menu. You just cannot because without a menu, there is no way of playing the game nor pausing nor exit the game. One way to work around it would be to start the game when you start the program. That means not having something that pauses the game when you open the program. It may be good during early development of the game, but when you're getting near the deadline, you want a way to play and exit the game. Not having one may make you a novice. Well, not make. More likely it shows clearly you're a novice.
First of all we had to make the buttons the menu will use. Once it was done, we programmed so we could see the buttons. Afterward we gave them a function or in other words, made so you could select one and another of the buttons. Both with the controller and with the keyboard. After that was done, we added so you could select and press the button to do something. What we wanted to do was to make so it played the game. But we would've had more time, we could've also made a button for settings and for help. Many developers tend to have many buttons on the menuscreen because it is there the game first starts. Buttons like settings, help, donate (mostly seen in flash games) and also a credit page.
Anyways, after our menu was done, the game was finally ready to be called... believe it or not, finished. After several months and with blood, sweat and tears... the game was finally done. And yes, the game is now finished. If we were a big devgroup, we would probally already release it to a market or something. But because it was our school project, we don't have the allowence to sell the game. And if we were an indle devgroup, we would probally do the same as the big devgroups would do. Launch it to a market and sell it out to the public.
Some last words I have to say before I leave you all, it has been a wonderful trip and a new experience developing my first big game. Also for loyal fans who may have followed us to the end. Thanks.
One thing left, even if you're a graphics artist but have some knowledge in programming, don't be afraid to help the programmers.
Daniel, Graphics Artist.
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