Spring Unity Work- My Stuff So Far.

For our Spring submission for out Games Encounters module we have to make a game and submit it for marking. A straight forward process but by no means an easy one. The game is to involve flying and shooting with a score system and a menu screen. Myself along with the team I am on of three other people, so eloquently named Dancing Queen Studios, decided on a WWI-esqe space shooter with space-borne biplanes, The game's working title I believe is "Biplanes in Space".

I few early ideas scribbled down on Photoshop for the protagonists plane. The idea was the the plane would feature an enclosed cockpit,  a rocket engine and a redundant propeller. As one might already be able to tell this is not a particularly realistic game. 

An early idea for the final plane. Note large over-sized rocket engine. 

The final design for the protagonist's plane. The yellow colour was chosen to stand out from the background of space.

The main enemy plane was designed to be more angular and menacing compared to the protagonist's.

It features a pickelhaub gun turret to further enforce the fact that these people are space Prussians.

Also it is a monoplane which contrasts to the players biplane.  

The bigger, badder enemy plane that sometimes appears is a terrific tank/plane contraption featuring two cannons on a turret complete with Prussian inspired officers cap. The idea is that this foe appears less frequently than the other smaller planes but shoots faster and is harder to kill. However, its larger size makes it easier to hit for the player.

Perhaps the wings should be thicker...

A couple of shots of the untextured Prussian plane I made in Maya 2014.

Unity Level Task

The eve of this projects hand in date is near and I felt it was time to post what new things I have added to my level.

The ruinous nature of the map hopefully encourages the player to explore and have a look around.

The top view of the level showing the start and the end.

Coming out of the starting room you find a sitting sphere, as you walk towards it it floats up and away (with a magical sound effect) towards the large temple at the end of the map.

The pyramid as viewed from close to the base. (Note ominous floating sphere on top. Or at least it's supposed to be ominous...)

The "Key" which the player can pick up. Although admittedly it doesn't open anything it adds some variety to the basic level; allowing the played to pick something up.

The big temple, which serves as the end of the level.

The golden door which leads to the inside of the temple. It slides open with an ancienty sounding stone door sound.

The end of the level inside the temple. The player pressed the square button as seen on the alter in front of the idol illuminating a floating artifact with a "sudden" sounding sound (the best way I can think to describe the sound). Note a familiar sphere from earlier, it seems to have lead the player to the temple.

Hidden in the deep underbellies of this level is its coding. Perhaps by far my least favourite part, but through will and perseverance. Most (if not all) of the code for my level was based on the code from previous class exercises. I'm certain that I would get lost trying to code it any other way... 

That's it. The End. Ta-dah!. Not expecting a BAFTA anytime soon... 

Unity Level Design Homework

Our first piece of homework given to us in our first Games Encounters class was to block in a basic level map in Unity (being thrown into the deep end seems to be this years theme). I will not bother you with boring images of colourless blocks being thrown around here and there but one I had the general layout correct the map looked like this:

I was going for an ancient Egyptian feel.The idea was that the player would be exploring an old and forgotten site of temples and pyramids with some creepy aspects such as the pyramids floating orb, hinting at some kind of ancient magic.

With a splash of colour the map took on this appearance:

I chose a simple sandy palette, naturally, it is after all set in the Egyptian desert. I am very happy with the dark colour of the floating orb as it contrasts nicely with the predominantly sandy theme and it draws the players eye. 

A series of screen shots from a first person perspective:

A view up a the pyramid just outside of where the player starts.

The "Obelisk". 

A poorly lit picture I know, but it is of a gold figure inside the main temple with an alter in front of it. It signifies the end of the level

It was all built very simply, using a plain as the ground, a variety of cuboid shapes for the buildings and pyramid and cylinders for the pillars, with the odd sphere here or there.