Overall
Main CharactersMixxy the Witch
I already defined looks of her more or less in the previous assignments. Despite that I still attempted to change her looks slightly, as in making her hair shorter and giving her a high waist dress or a belt. On the sketch I had some more ideas concerning her tights and shoes and I chose the one on the right left (seen on the right side). I also thought more about the necklace which should represent the stones in the HUD allowing the use of magic. As I made her first sprite I decided that it would be better (and easier) to give her very wide shorts instead of a skirt.
http://cdn.notonthehighstreet.com/system/product_images/images/001/404/320/original_patent-girls-shoes-yolaine.jpg
I used these two pictures as a reference: the pose and the shoes, because I couldn't draw them properly from memory.
Potty the Potoo
[for concept art sketch look above]
Since he is a potoo, I was using references from multiple photos on Google depicting the great potoo bird. It's hard to draw him flying, because most of the photos I have seen showed these birds standing and imitating branches.
The bird should automatically follow the player in order to be in a specific range. It should find a branch or other comfortable place to sit.
The bird should automatically follow the player in order to be in a specific range. It should find a branch or other comfortable place to sit.
There are some notes on how I imagine the simple skill trees would look like. They would be for both attacks and spells as well as terms of the movement (eg. tripple jump). There are also notes as for what the bird would do.
NPCs (discontinued as for FMP part)
I thought of four shopkeepers: merchant, herbalist, librarian and the inn keeper. I'm not sure I will put all of them in the timely manner, and if so, I will try to at least put the single merchant.
For all the shopkeepers, except the innkeeper, I want to make a separate window depicting them, their stock (which should ideally be click-able, so you click on a sprite and pay) and at the bottom, speech and any other choices really. The inkeeper should be like any other in-world NPC, so he (or her) will have a game sprite and the textbox icon.
After drawing the concept art for the shopkeepers (herbalist especially) I had an idea about implementing very simple dating-sim like interaction but only with merchants. Basically talking to them and depending on how much they like the player their stock may be cheaper or more expensive.
For all the shopkeepers, except the innkeeper, I want to make a separate window depicting them, their stock (which should ideally be click-able, so you click on a sprite and pay) and at the bottom, speech and any other choices really. The inkeeper should be like any other in-world NPC, so he (or her) will have a game sprite and the textbox icon.
After drawing the concept art for the shopkeepers (herbalist especially) I had an idea about implementing very simple dating-sim like interaction but only with merchants. Basically talking to them and depending on how much they like the player their stock may be cheaper or more expensive.
Villagers (discontinued)
These will be just some random witches trotting around the village with short amounts of text, so the village isn't empty. If I will have time I may make them saying more or reacting to the player fighting or monsters attacking, or even giving quests, but for now they are just dummies. Also I won't make the monsters to appear in the village, or not just casually at least.
Also some of them may trot, some, for example an old person, may sit on a rocking chair and some may be seen doing something. Right now I will just make them doing the one thing, since they don't have an important role and they don't need the AI at this stage.
Fairies
Fairies are going to be scattered around the game, most of them will be imprisoned of hiding. If the player helps them, or interacts with them, then depending on their colour they will give different small rewards or boosts to the player. Red ones will heal the player, blue will recover some mana and yellow will recover some stamina. Other colours will give other bonuses, that I will determine later on.
Grand Fairy and Grand Witch (discontinued)
(Grand Fairy's avatar can be seen in the pitch power point presentation).
These are supposed to be the 'leaders' of people of their kind.
Also some of them may trot, some, for example an old person, may sit on a rocking chair and some may be seen doing something. Right now I will just make them doing the one thing, since they don't have an important role and they don't need the AI at this stage.
Fairies
Fairies are going to be scattered around the game, most of them will be imprisoned of hiding. If the player helps them, or interacts with them, then depending on their colour they will give different small rewards or boosts to the player. Red ones will heal the player, blue will recover some mana and yellow will recover some stamina. Other colours will give other bonuses, that I will determine later on.
Grand Fairy and Grand Witch (discontinued)
(Grand Fairy's avatar can be seen in the pitch power point presentation).
These are supposed to be the 'leaders' of people of their kind.
Enemies
Basic Enemies
The game in this state has slimes wandering around. They are calm and wander or rest freely until the player gets close-by and then they charge and attack. Animation for them was incredibly easy to make.
Neutral/Docile Equivalents
Blue slimes are pretty much the same as the red slimes with the difference that they don't perform chasing and attacking states. They are fully docile but they still can be hurt and killed.
As I will continue on the game in the future I will intend to add hens or bunnies or even butterflies and other creatures among whose will be the evil ones such as cockatrice, jackalope, etc.
Unicorns
There is a sprite for an unicorn. Red slimes are a replacement for them in case I won't animate the unicorns in time since unicorn animations will be much more complicated than stetching of a slime sprite.
Bosses
There's an old avatar of the first boss, Camellias (avatars of the 4 other unicorns can be seen in a pitch power point presentation). He uses physical magic type. He'll charge on the player and send earthquakes. He'll also have some flower attack but I'm not yet sure what.
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There's a comparison of the player character, the enemies and the ground.
Environments
Tileset
That's the edited version of the tileset I had before. The ground is broaden and the colours are from my palette. I added the transition from bricks to grass tiles and tried to do something with water.
As I was creating the maps for 3 levels I found that I have to add few more tiles for the tileset to work. Even though it's just tiles and none of the other things (because of lack of time) it doesn't look as plain as I thought it would be. The first background I had to divide in parts when applying to the game, since it was too large so the engine blurred it otherwise.
Lastly I created a gradient of two colours from my palette in order to create a basic sky for the background.
Interface Elements
Main Menu
I made a very simple and temporary main menu layout, since I'm more focused on the mechanics than on the other things. I reused the old Unicorn Slayer name that I had from a large font in Microsoft Word but made it smaller and plainer. The font used for the menu underneath is one from the Game Maker ones with anti-aliasing off and low quality (which makes it pixellated).
I also recoloured old interface elements I made few years ago. The first one is used as borders around each menu tab while the second is used instead of a title in tabs different than the main menu, on it there is a name of each tab.
HUD
On the sketch there can be seen my attempts to fit the main HUD piece as well as the boss life gauge (alongside the portrait) as well as the speech box with which I'll use the avatars. There was also an idea of using a corner of the screen to show the quick use slots for some potions and others. Most of that won't appear in the FMP version.
I created a gem icon and placed it underneath the main interface element and next to it a continuously changing number referring to the amount of gems gathered.
Inventory (discontinued)
Narrative/Story and Other Interaction Elements
(discontinued as for FMP part)
Comic Strip Cutscenes (discontinued)
Storyflow (discontinued as in not shown in the game)
Beginning (discontinued)
It's an important spring celebration occurring and Mixxy was given a task of delivering Conciliation Seeds (seeds of peace basically) to the event. She's flying on the broom over the forest and decides to practice some aerobatics despite being told to be careful. She hasn't noticed the flock of birds and collides with them. Seeds fall out, and because they were fragile, they are now destroyed upon the fall. She herself falls through branches as well losing consciousness.
She wakes up and remembers what she done and tries to look for seeds just to see they are of no use. Her broom is broken in half as well. Potoo scolds her on what she did. They become quiet when feeling an unfamiliar evil aura around them and the sound of hooves. Unicorns approach them. They get ready to imprison her (just like many others), but the leading one, Camellias, recognises her as the one who helped them 'see' the truth (and thus become evil). He underlines what a failure in the delivery and planting seeds caused and tells her he won't do her any harm this time, although he won't be as grateful next time they meet.
After they are gone, Mixxy tells potoo that they have to do something about it and save everyone. Potty tells her that there should be spare seeds in the Grand Witch's house, although the journey will be long. The gameplay starts.
Tutorial (discontinued)
The player will follow a short tutorial told by both Mixxy and Potty talking about the most basic stuff as they follow the path to the nearest village.
Middle (discontinued)
Middle part is mostly without the set story. Basically the player can walk to the village, forest and few other locations either communicating with NPCs or killing monsters.
End(?) (discontinued)
Fight with Camellias.
Since the game isn't really finished in doesn't have a narrative shown other than some mentions in the About section. The boss fought is Camellias but I don't think it that knowledge does much at this point.
After they are gone, Mixxy tells potoo that they have to do something about it and save everyone. Potty tells her that there should be spare seeds in the Grand Witch's house, although the journey will be long. The gameplay starts.
Tutorial (discontinued)
The player will follow a short tutorial told by both Mixxy and Potty talking about the most basic stuff as they follow the path to the nearest village.
Middle (discontinued)
Middle part is mostly without the set story. Basically the player can walk to the village, forest and few other locations either communicating with NPCs or killing monsters.
End(?) (discontinued)
Fight with Camellias.
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Since the game isn't really finished in doesn't have a narrative shown other than some mentions in the About section. The boss fought is Camellias but I don't think it that knowledge does much at this point.
Dialogues (discontinued)
Other
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Some references I need to look at or something
http://www.spellsofmagic.com/spells.html
http://therealkatie.net/blog/2012/feb/27/pygame-monsters-and-walls/
http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/1106/diy_rpg_make_your_own_rpg_with_.php
http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/creative/game-design/how-to-build-a-game-in-a-week-from-scratch-with-no-budget-r2259
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=3142.0
http://www.wildbunny.co.uk/blog/2011/12/20/how-to-make-a-2d-platform-game-part-3-ladders-and-ai/
http://devmag.org.za/2011/01/18/11-tips-for-making-a-fun-platformer/
http://devmag.org.za/2012/07/19/13-more-tips-for-making-a-fun-platformer/
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=33557.0