I'm transferring this from the Insanity Jam forum to here because I couldn't finish it for the jam, but I really want to finish making this game. :D The following is what I generated for the game and my ideas so far:Random Game Idea: A collect-a-thon game where you provide for the most peaceful frozen florists.
Random Game Seed: 49641324255
Title:
Idea: This is going to be a 3D PlayStation-era-styled collect-a-thon game where you play as Petalina, the flower petal girl, who must jump, float, spin, and dash through gloomy, metal-plated Machine Land to collect the mystical Sun Orbs to melt the magic Florists out of their icy prisons and bring light, color, and peace to the people of Machine Land!
Story: The people of Machine Land lived in peace under their flowery rulers, the Florists. Everything was bright and beautiful, and there were flowers and beautiful trees everywhere. But one day, Machino, a machine man who wants nothing but to dominate the world with machines, attacked the peaceful civilization. With his machines, he captured the Florists and trapped them in ice, and he brought smoke and darkness to the world, covering nature and color with metal and machines.
Every day, the people prayed for salvation until one day, Petalina arrived. Petalina must use her skills to recover the hidden Sun Orbs, melt the florists, and get Machino out!
Additional Ideas: Because this is a collect-a-thon, you'll also have to collect flower petals to restore your health, seeds to plant a garden that rewards you with new skills, and some other area-specific items like bolts and gears to solve puzzles and get past obstacles.
ToolsI'm using Unity3D for my game engine, Blender for modeling and texture painting, and GIMP for fine-tuning the textures I paint. All the texture painting in Blender is being done using the Zero Brush plugin (part of the
Sensei Format for Blender, if you're interested).
World DesignMachine Land consists of a hub with doors to each of the levels you play in. Each of the levels will have collectible items strewn throughout, and the hub itself will also have its own hidden areas and collectibles as well. As you collect the Sun Orbs and free the Florists, I want the world to change slightly: more light, more nature (plants and dirt and stuff), and more color in the general area of the Florist you free. I'll have to see what I can do, but I imagine I'll have to make multiple models of the world to show that very well.
WorkflowI'm going to start by making the graphics because that will definitely take me the longest time to complete. I'll start by modeling Petalina, painting and animating her as I go. Once I get her basic animations finished, I'll start building the world, making the central hub first and then building the areas in whatever order I feel like at the time. I'll model the non-static pieces of the areas as I finish them. Once I have a few areas done, I'll have to texture and paint those, too. I'll move on to the robots next, and then the Florists, working on animation as I go. It'll definitely take me a long time, but the style I have in my head should be pretty quick to implement.
Once I've finished with graphics, I'll piece the world together in Unity and work on coding all of Petalina's actions, focusing on her powerups at the same time that I am building her basic movements so I don't have to hack up my code later just to include it. I'm planning on just modifying Unity's example 3rd person camera code.
Player ExperienceI'm hoping to eventually have the camera be as manageable as possible, unlike many PSX 3D 3rd-person platformers. I'd like the camera to behave like a physicial object, not passing through walls and to be switchable from a follow mode to a free mode that the player can swivel around and move in relation to where the camera is facing. It'll be hard to prevent passing through walls, but I can at least manage the other ones since I've done them both before.
I'm going to try to take a Mario approach to jumping, where your jump height depends on how long you hold the jump button. I've never been good at that, but dag nabbit, I've got to learn sometime!
The player will be able to play with either keyboard controls, keyboard + mouse, or a controller, and I'll try to include as many options in the options menu as time allows, but that's not going to be a priority for the jam time period.
I'm thinking (default) controls will be like this:
Keyboard Only:- WASD (or arrows) to move (player can choose)
- Arrows (or WASD) to move the camera in Free Camera Mode (player can choose, and can also choose to invert X and/or Y)
- J (or Z) for Jump
- K (or X) to Dash
- Different keys and conditions for powerups (to be added later)
Keyboard + Mouse:- WASD to move
- Mouse to move camera in Free Camera Mode (player can choose to invert X and/or Y)
- Space for Jump
- Shift to Dash
- Different keys and conditions for powerups (to be added later)
Xbox Controller- Left Stick to move
- Right Stick in Free Camera Mode (player can choose to invert X and/or Y)
- A for Jump
- X to Dash
- Different buttons and conditions for powerups (to be added later)
Because I'm using Unity, the player will be able to configure custom controls in the launcher if they want as well. I'm going to try my hand at making an in-game key customizer as well, but we'll have to see how that goes.