High Res Imagery

Image One:



Image Two:



Image Three:



Requirements for hand in also include 3 high res images that present our projects. For my 3 I decided to do something a bit better than just taking screen shots of frames. Instead I took certain frames from the project and compiled them together to create 3 interesting images that depict a part of the narrative in my story. I have arranged them sort of in the style of a comic book which fits well with my aesthetic and overall project. The 3 sections of narrative I decided to show are taken 1 from the start, 1 from the middle and 1 from the end. So that I don't go and ruin the story, I have ensured that all the imagery used contains no spoiler but rather offers a sense of mystery and intrigue. I'd like to think the viewer would ask "What is going on here?" to which they can read/watch the story to find out.

Couple more Posters

I wanted to do something a little different so with this one I thought it could be nice to show the contrast of the two sides, happiness and anger. I originally had it with full body shots included of Franklin but I thought this looked to busy so I simplified it to just his head which looks heaps better. Then to add a little something extra I have used a psychology pattern in the background. One of those things where they ask you what do you see. Reasoning for that is because the story revolves around Franklin's mind and dealing with his problems of emotion.




This one I quite like as well. Its a contrast of the two worlds in the story, his dark and light side. On the light side is where he meets his inner conscience and comes to deal with his anger. Then he falls to the lower level to where he comes face to face with his inner monster. This is a depiction of that.

The Book Part 1

The Book Part 2

Video Progress and a New Idea

It's been a very busy weekend but the video is now at a stage where I'm pretty happy with it. I may do some more editing on it later but it's going good. I have shown it to some of my peers at uni and they are liking it to. My biggest challenge was sorting out the timing of the video but it seems I have got it pretty well down as everyone who has watched has said the pace is really good so that's a huge relief.

Aaaand to other news, a new idea. I have decided to go ahead with the making of a book to go along with the video. So I'll have a physical edited for book version, then the same story but animated as my video. All my art is vectorized so it shouldn't be too hard to do, I will start on that now and hopefully be done by midday tomorrow so that I can go get it printed with plenty of time to spare. See how it goes.

First Poster

A very quick post to show my poster, I think it looks pretty cool and the reception its got from friends on Facebook has been pretty favorable to which is all good news!

Rough Cut, Check!

Today has been crazy intense. I have been working on the rough cut of the video. This has been quite the mission for a number of reasons. Obviously all my cinematic sequences were separate in the game so getting these together into 1 timeline hasn't been easy. The main reason for this is because these sequences were there own movie clips which I was adding to the stage. So by simply copying and pasting these frames into 1 timeline, I don't get what I want because the location on the stage doesn't match. So I've had to work around this which I managed to do for most of it but there are a few areas where I've had to reanimate etc but that's OK, it's all part of the job.

So to sum up the day I am now at the stage of a rough cut which is very good news. Over the weekend I will edit this and start thinking of some ideas for my images and poster, the other requirements for hand in.

Decision

OK so the meet with Doug went pretty good. My project is now a video, so the narrative I created for the game will play out from start to finish in what I am hoping will be about 5 mins max, though I am aiming for about 4-4 1/2. I need this amount of time due to the complexity of the story. There's a lot to get across, especially in the back story of where Franklin has come from. I need to allow some time here so that viewers can get a connection to the character.

The artwork/animation is coming along nicely for this which is good. I have been hard at work updating each of my frames as the line work was a bit shoddy previous. As a game this wouldn't have been noticeable but now that the art is the project, its at the fore front so it has to be as good as I can possibly get it.

Update before Doug

So I thought I would post up a quick update before I see Doug this morning. Basically I've been working really hard at the list I posted earlier, pretty much everything on that list has now been done which is awesome. The butterfly scene was the only one not done as I don't have an editable butterfly and don't want to waste time drawing a new one. I would rather use the time to work on other stuff, animating the butterfly isn't very important in comparison to all the many other things I need to do. Other than that though, its gone quite well. I am particularly happy with the inner monster's demise scene. Looks pretty cool now that it has been animated, well, everything looks better that's been animated but this scene in particular, bit of a favourite I think...My meet with Doug is in just under an hour, I hope to God it goes well or else I am in for a nightmare of a week, though its going to be tough regardless I suppose. But to know I am on the right track will at least give me peace of mind. Stay tuned!

New Artwork

Just a quick post to show some of the new artwork that I have been working on this weekend. Most of it here besides the pic of the inner monster with a hole through are for the new memory sequences which I have been developing. As mentioned in a previous post, I wasn't happy with the way Franklin worked through his anger and the negative energy bit needed work as well. Enjoy!

Upgrade List - What I need

Memory Sequences:

Memory 1

Positive Image - Sheep

Greyed out Franklin

Memory 2

Negative Image

Greyed out Franklin

Positive Image – A young hurt Franklin, skateboard accident

Memory 3

Negative Image – Coloured Lucas, shows he made the team over Franklin

Greyed out Franklin

Positive Image – Shaking hands with Lucas. Franklin should have been happy for him.

Other: Demon (negative emotion), Scale size of Franklin in Final Sequence

Animation: SC - Start Cinematic, FC - Final Cinematic, ES - Ending Sequence

Franklin with Butterfly? – SC (dependent on whether I still have an editable butterfly)

Scenes of Franklin repeatedly bullied – SC

Franklins emotions stir out of control - SC

Inner Monster's Negative Energy - FC

Franklins Hand – FC

Clouds of Inner Monster running away – FC

Inner Monster Lunging – ES

Franklins Positive Strike on Inner Monster / Inner Monster reaction – ES

The Inner Monster's Demise - ES

Goodbye Game, What now?

OK so talking with Doug today its been decided that the game play aspect of my project is to be scrapped. Instead, I will spend the next week focusing on what was selling my game, the artwork. I will upgrade this and turn that into my final project.

With this being quite the drastic shift, I've had a lot of thinking to do today. My plan of attack is somewhat as follows.

With the artwork I currently have:

1) Backstory - This explains Franklin's character, where he's come from to what has happened to him with the release of his inner monster and his current location, being stuck within his own mind having lost control over his physical self to his inner monster. My plan here is just to refine the artwork and perhaps think about animating a few more parts of it. Currently I just have the frame describing his growing up animated, and then some few frames during the scene of him within his mind are stitched together, these are animated in that they fade in and out from each other.

2) Final Cinematic Sequence - This is split up into two parts. It shows Franklin confronting his inner monster. He is filled with confidence and feeling very positive, the inner monster has lost. In part 1 the monster realizes his defeat and makes a run. In part 2 after Franklin catches him in the bonus level, he is defeated by Franklin and Franklin returns to the real world. With this I plan to upgrade the artwork as not all frames are as good as each other, and ill likely animate a few to keep it in line with the style of the backstory.

3) Memory Sequences - These are the sequences that played out after each level was won. They show Franklin identifying the cause of his anger which in turn releases the negative energy which Franklin is to cleanse to move onto the next level.

This was the area I spent a lot of time thinking about today. What was brought up in the talk was that the negative energy part needed work. I myself, was also never really happy with how Franklin went about cleansing the negative energy. This part which is of great importance to the game, played out rather quick and with not much thought. To solve both these things, I came up with this:

After identifying the cause of his anger, Franklin then looks at the bigger picture - This picture being the one highlighting the negative cause of his anger.

For the first memory it is him being teased by the bullies at school for not being allowed to watch the TV show. For the second, his parents denying him a skateboard deeming it too dangerous sport and for the third, him being isolated, feeling resentment towards his friend for being accepted into the school soccer team over him.

Frame zooms in, Franklin breaks down the picture, looking at his negative feelings and then contrasting them with the positive side which he can now see, being older, that much the wiser.

Memory 1:

Positive

- His peers were sheep. People were following other people, liking the show only because they did.

- Stripping away the nostalgia, the show appears quite different. It's not that great. His parents knew this, viewing it from their own experience, objectively and unfiltered. The show was no good for him.

Negative

- He was the only one in the whole school not allowed to watch it. He was teased by his peers.

- It was not too violent! It's awesome, Captain Awesome! His parents were being unfair!

Memory 2:

Positive

- His parents were just being protective as parents do. If anything, it just shows they cared.

- Nowadays it would be fine, but back then being so young, he could have been hurt.

Negative

- "You think you know what's good for me? I know!"

- "It's not too dangerous!"

Memory 3:

Positive

- A true friend would have been happy for the other, at the end of the day the better man won.

- Franklin was at fault, being incredibly unsportsmanlike.

Negative

- He didn't even want the position on the team, not like Franklin did!

- "What a rip off! He always gets everything!"

In terms of artwork for this I would have 3 scenes for each. 1 to show the negative, which is those frames I have already. Then 2 more each to show the positive.

Memory 1 - 1 scene shows his peers turning into sheep, hopping about. 1 scene focussed on the TV show, average show.

Memory 2 - 1 scene about being protective, 1 to show what could have happened. He could have been hurt, being so young.

Memory 3 - 1 scene of him congratulating his friend Lucas, 1 depicting his being unsportsmanlike.

Once Franklin has then looked to the positive side to the situation, a Dark Franklin of the Franklin depicted in the negative picture, i.e Age 5, 7 and 10, will be released from the picture, exposed. Franklin's positivity/confidence will see it cleansed (it will fade out). I decided to use "Negative Emotion" as the fuel that created the inner monster rather than "Negative Energy", I think emotion makes it easier to understand and it allows me to use monster characters to depict it, which is more in style of everything else rather than floating orbs as I've got it currently. An alternative to this is to just have Dark Anger monsters released rather than dark Franklin's. You could consider these "minions" of sorts to the inner monster.

So that's what I'm looking at for artwork. But the problem I still don't know how to get round is showing the gameplay/levels with this no longer being a game. Gameplay was the part where I failed in making the game so I don't know how to move forward with this, if I even look at this part. Or do I concentrate only on the parts above. Then I'm still a bit lost as to how to present this. With the stuff above being sequences, I guess a video would be one way? Or as a series of animatic like sequences? Or then to keep it in the style of how the backstory is now where players or now readers, read it like a book, going through it at their own pace and clicking the button to move to the next frame.

Coding coding coding...

Over the past few days I have been sorting out the bugs in both the code of my game engine and the character art/animation. Art wise I have changed the head on Franklin in his up and down positions so that his face and eyes are in line with the perspective he is facing. This was one of the things highlighted to me by one of the guys in our gaming group in class. He wondered why it looked like Franklin was looking at the player when in these positions which was a good call. Another thing I have changed with the art is the white anger ghosts which I will put the new art into the game tomorrow. Basically the problem with the old is that it wasn't working with how the hit box works in game. To help me explain this I have drawn this quick little diagram:

Basically if you hit the ghost in the area highlighted you would die, yet clearly the space hatched in should allow you to live because that is empty space beneath the ghost and just before the tail. With some intense coding well beyond my capability I could probably fix it so that the hit box was defined around the outline of the ghost character but since this is by no means an option I have simply revised the artwork of the ghost and brought his tail up to go behind him so that he fits better within the hit box.

Game engine wise I have been sorting out the problems to what has shown itself to be a problem after putting the game to rigorous use, mixing different game mechanics together and hitting things in different modes and at different places within each level etc. I have also gone about setting up the new game mechanic with the inner monster. At the moment the trigger points are being represented as Dark Franklin's but these will just be circles later that are transparent so that you have no idea when they are coming. Passing over these trigger points then brings up a green box with an angry face on it, a placeholder for some inner monster character art. Then hitting into this green box then causes Franklin to change states and play out an animation, this will be Franklin being tormented by the inner monster but at the moment its just him in a pink box moving up and down. And to finish, the game controls are swapped as planned so up is down, down is up etc. Obviously I can't have this play out for the remainder of the level as I wish to have about 4 or so of these trigger points in each level so I have it controlled by a timer like I do the ghost mode and pacman mode (now dubbed vulnerability mode for copyright reasons!).

Final Cinematic Artwork

So being at home Wednesday with the house to myself, I figured it would be a good time to start drawing up the imagery for the Final Cinematic. Leave it too late and I won't have an ending to my game! I did a very rough storyboard based off of what I had written the final cinematic out earlier and then got to work on drawing those frames up. Did a few extra touches today and I now have essentially all frames completed, I will just have to do a few variant frames of some of the ones already done here showing different emotions being expressed on the characters faces. That said, this is how they are looking:

Progress Check Response

The biggest concern that came out of the progress check was the apparent disconnect between the cinematic story and actual game play. Within the story you hear about the dark inner monster character that takes over Franklin but after this, he disappears from the game until the end. In order to fix this problem and get the character which essentially is Franklin's anger more involved with the game I have come up with a way to implement him into the game play itself. Franklin is on a mission to cleanse the negative energy within himself so that he may weaken and ultimately defeat the inner monster and take back control of himself. Therefore I see it only fitting that the inner monster becomes an obstacle in game. I am going to remove the Dark Franklin obstacle from the game, already I didn't see this fitting so it makes sense to swap it out in favour for the inner monster character. Then to get the inner monster in game and really affecting Franklin I plan to take the array in my game engine code currently used to place Dark Franklin obstacles, and use it to lay trigger points throughout the levels. When players then guide Franklin over these triggers, the inner monster character will then show himself a certain distance just ahead of Franklin. If players then hit the inner monster, Franklin's avatar will change to him doing battle with the inner monster as it begins to torment him. While this is going on, with Franklin out of it, going crazy and with all the confusion as his mind is overthrown, I then plan to take this through to the players controls by changing them up. Up will become Down, Down will become Up, Left will become Right and Right will become left. Ultimately this should fix my problem as it will most certainly increase the relationship between the inner monster character, Franklin and really highlight and capture the idea of Franklin being at war with his anger.

Final Backgrounds

So background design has turned out to be a real mission for me. After doing a whole bunch of different tests and experiments with different techniques I wound up developing my backgrounds in the style of the latest technique I posted only after going down this route I found myself making backgrounds which ended up being far too detailed and when put in game, they would become too distracting especially because they scroll along so fast and it became hard to keep an eye on Franklin who is the character you are supposed to be controlling. I also found myself getting a bit of motion sickness which is the worst thing I could be doing. So I decided to simplify my backgrounds to a lesser detail and I am much happier with the results of this.

Another change I made was to do with colour. Originally I planned on using different colours throughout but then I found myself wondering how this really represented the anger going on in Franklin's mind as ultimately that is the setting to the levels. So then I went about basing each backgrounds colour to that of the memory Franklin is working towards identifying, it being the cause of his anger. As with the memory artwork, each one sort of had its own colour. The first being a yellowy orange, the second red, and the third green. Only after doing this and testing the game out with some people, confusion became apparent. They couldn't see how green or the yellowy orange colour related to the anger and what not. What they did like though very much was the red. They could relate to this level and could understand what was going on. For this reason I then decided that if it works, don't fix it, implement it! So all three of my final backgrounds are a combination of black and to mix it up just a little, shades of red rather than just the one solid red colour.

Plan for Progress Check

Title Screen Image - A 2D side scroller adventure game.

Title: Acts of Anger

Chosen Topic: Extended Consciousness

Chosen Research: Children and Play. The censorship surrounding this.

Findings: Parents are being too restrictive and this is limiting children's learning, growth, potential.

Narrative:

- Include screens of the art frames of Franklin being taken over, inside his mind talking to his conscience.

Three Acts: Explain. Each deal with a different memory. All of which had a certain impact on Franklin.

Act 1: School -> Memory: "Captain Awesome". Here Franklin was teased by his school peers. He was unable to watch the TV program because his parents found it too violent.

Act 2: Parents -> Memory: "Skateboard". Franklin loved watching people skate and wanted to get in on it himself. His parents wouldn't allow it telling him it is too dangerous.

Act 3: Social -> "Soccer". Franklin tries out for school soccer team, misses out to his mate Lucas.

Each deal with anger resulting from the likes of sadness, isolation, rejection.

Gameplay: Explain and include screenshots.

Progression results in what?

- Speed increase

- More obstacles

- New kind of obstacles

- Special abilities gained

Abilities:

- Speed control: From level 1

- Ghost Mode: Level 2 +

- Vulnerability: Level 2 +

What's Next?

- Obstacle Placement

- Sound

- Tweaks and Bug fixes

2 weeks

---------------------------------

- Documentation

2 weeks

Title/Control Screen and Act Screens

It has been ages since I did the first title screen image for the game and now with the development of the game and Franklin I thought it was about time I revised this and made a finished title screen. Not only that but I also needed to finish the control screen as previous it showed absolutely no controls, and on top of that, I also needed the Act screens which play just before each level as a sort of introduction as to what the level is to do with. They also allow for players to get ready to play rather than having the level begin right away.

Without further or do, here are the screens. Enjoy!

Title Screens and Control Screen:

I actually made 2 new title screens based off 2 ideas I had. Couldn't decide in my head which one to go for so I thought I'd make both and then decide. My choice is the bottom one.

Act Screens:

More Artwork

So it's been a while since my last post so thought I had better post something up here. Over this weekend I have been working more on my engine and going hard with some more artwork. This time to do with the cleanse movies which are those that play out at the end of each level. After collecting all puzzle piece pickups in each level one of these movies will play out. The mental image of 1 of 3 memories will play out and Franklin will be then able to identify his reasoning for his anger and work through it to cleanse the negative energy that will become exposed with him identifying the cause of his anger. After Act 1: School, Franklin is reminded of "Captain Awesome". A TV program from his younger childhood days. He was the only one at school who hadn't seen it as he was not allowed to watch it at home as his parents found it too violent. For this reason, he was teased by his peers. After Act 2: Parents, Franklin is reminded of a specific brand of skateboard he wanted. He loved watching people skate and really wanted to learn how to skate himself and get in on the action, only his parents wouldn't allow it, telling him it is too dangerous. Finally, after Act 3: Social, Franklin is reminded of his primary school soccer team tryouts. He missed out to his mate Lucas who only tried out for the hell of it. Franklin didn't find this fair, he really wanted the placement not like Lucas.

Each of these memories had its own impact on Franklin leading to his feelings of anger resulting from his isolation among his peers, rejection, sadness, resentment.

Here is the artwork for these short cinematic sequences:

Franklin - Playable Character Art

Just a quick post to show the new character art for Franklin in game. 6 different positions for different controls. Up, Down, Left, Right, Idle and Ghost mode.

More Background Test BUT a Different Technique :D

Yep....More Background Tests

Playing with Background Imagery...

Some more tests of trying different techniques in creating background imagery for the levels to my game.

Interesting.

Nothing special.

Different technique. The mind is a network. Cellular channels?

Really quite like this one. Love the colours and style.

Playing with Background Imagery...

Just some tests of trying different techniques in creating background imagery for the levels to my game. Theme is "The Mind" obviously, this being the setting where Franklin is trapped.

Too light.

Interesting...

Quite like this one.

Average.

Thoughts on Added Gameplay Element

Talked to both Keaton and David about my ideas with this. Feedback was pretty positive. The general consensus is number 3, the Pacman style is the favourite idea. All 3 of us agree with that.

Feedback From Keaton:

• I think picking one and doing it well could go a long way.
• I also think that if you slimed and simplified them down, they could all be included and then you get meta game emerging between the various choices of powerups, their costs and rewards/etc which adds a mega level of depth, but could easily distract.
• Arguably it could only be pulled off if you spent a good chunk of time .. making them work together harmoniously .. dumb it out to non context and ask yourself do they all simply allow him to go in a straight line? Which your first 3 more or less fit into that category, therefore I don’t think they work differently
• The 3rd could be interesting; I would argue it could be a pickup in difficult levels, therefore controlling its use, or perhaps a reward for achieving a particular milestone, the one mulligan per 5 levels or w/e.

David was in agreement to that perhaps more than one should be used. I think I will implement the Pacman style first and then if time, I will add in another. Ghost mode could be interesting.

Addition to Gameplay

I need that extra element to my game to really differentiate it from the other games of its kind out there. At the moment its pretty much obstacle avoidance and thats the end. To shake things up I've been thinking of giving Franklin a special ability once reaching level 2. As he progresses through the game, he gets stronger as he is cleansing the negative energy within and weakening the inner monster who has control over him. With this addition of strength, it makes sense that he is capable of doing something more to help him win the fight. So what I propose is that as he gets stronger (from level 2 up), he obtains a new ability that may be used in game play.

Ideas:

1) Franklin can go "ghost" and pass through obstacles without dying.

2) Franklin can put up a shield which repels obstacles preventing him from dying and the player returning to the start of the level.

3) Pacman styles. Special power which makes obstacles vulnerable for a brief period. In this state when Franklin hits them, they die instead of him.

4) Special Power - Obstacle Reset.

Perfect for a sticky situation. Franklin can reset obstacles so their positions are re-mapped in the level allowing him to proceed without death. Could be a gamble though if the obstacles were to re-spawn in front of Franklin's path, he would still die. Could be the name of the power? "The Gamble"? :P

Limited use:

Level 2 - Once/Twice? Level 3 - Twice/Three times?

Options for use:

- Only lasts as long as a key is pressed.

- Lasts as long as a set time.

Art Progress

Franklin Sketches - For playable character

These are some sketches I've done of Franklin in different poses. These are to be used for the playable character, so when the different keys (up,down,left,right) are pressed, one of these poses will be called. I plan to draw up the proper vector artwork of these poses tonight.

Storyboard: Beginning Cinematic

As promised.

Final Cinematic - Extra?

Thought about an alternate way to end the game. Rather than have the whole cinematic play out all at once, at the point after the inner monster lunges at Franklin and Franklin easily overpowers him, I could have the monster get totally desperate for his survival and do a runner in Franklin's mind. This would then create a final level in which the player would act as Franklin once more and have to avoid all obstacles to catch the inner monster. Then the last part to the cinematic would play out, Franklin would overpower him, dark room changes to white, Franklin wakes up in the real world etc etc. Only problem with this though is time. I'm already pushed for time so making one more level could be a recipe for disaster. So for now, I will leave this as OPTION ONLY. If there is time, I'll go ahead with it, if not, the cinematic will play out as planned previous, no interruptions. Right, back to work!

Final Cinematic

This is roughly how the final cinematic will play out.

- Franklin enters a new place of entry in his mind. It is surrounded in darkness.

- The inner monster takes physical form before Franklin. He's lost his hold over Franklin.

- "You think this is over? THIS MIND, THIS BODY, belongs to me now! monster screams.

- "Ha!" Franklin laughs. "Sorry but I'm not afraid of you anymore. And the anger that created you, I'm totally over it".

- "Now now, lets be honest. Your parents, they stopped you from doing what it is you so desired to do. They kept you from that TV show, they kept you from skateboarding".

-"Yeah they did, but they were just being protective. Point is, at least they cared for me. How can I ask for more than that of them?".

-Inner monster starts to weaken, he panics. "What about your friend! He stole your place on the soccer field, it should have been you on that school team, not him!"

- "What can I say? Lucas has some mad skills. End of the day, the best man won. To get angry about it like I did was poor form. Besides, nothing stopping me from trying out again for the college team!"

-"BUT... First things first, I gotta get back to reality so it's time for you to move along, you've got no place here anymore".

-"You can't get rid of me!" monster lunges at Franklin.

- But filled with positivity and confidence, Franklin easily overpowers him. "See ya!" Franklin whispers.

- Inner monster is no more, the dark room turns to white.

- Franklin wakes up, back in the real world. The school bell rings.

- Smiling, having found peace in himself, Franklin walks to class.

Beginning Cinematic - Prior to gameplay start

I hadn't really had this bit written yet so figured I had better get on with that as I will need to be making this cinematic later this week/start of next week and have it completed by next week, preferably mid week.

This is how it goes, I will storyboard this up shortly and post that up to.

- Franklin wakes up in his mind.
- Confused, he looks around. "Where am I?"
- Moving about, "Hello!!! Anybody?!?!", he shouts.
- A transparent figure begins to appear. Franklin stands mezmorized. "....Wha...What's going on!?"...
- The figure materializes. It's.......him?
- "Stay calm Franklin, I am your inner conscience. You want to know where you are, your within your own mind".
- Franklin looks at conscience concerned..."What?!" "Allow me to explain", replies conscience.

-"You have been taken over by your inner monster, a dastardly being created out of the negative energy within you".
- "This negative energy comes from the anger you have felt throughout your years. Instead of dealing with your anger, you suppressed it and now those feelings have spawned the monster who has taken control over your physical self".
- "Fear not though, as I know how you can regain control. You must travel through your mind and cleanse the negative energy that fuels this monster".
- "To expose the negative energy you must identify the reasoning behind your anger you have felt. You must revisit specific memories of your past, each of which had an impact on you". Franklin stares blankly...
- "Good luck Franklin, Go now before all is lost!". A portal is opened beneath him, Franklin falls through.

Plan of Attack

Made a few lists of what I need, what I need to do, when to do it.

Game Make-Up:

- My logo video
- Main menu
- Start Game
- Controls
- Back to main menu
- Back Story Cinematic
- Beginning Cinematic (prior to game play)
- Act 1 Screen
- Level 1
- Cleanse Cinematic
- Act 2 Screen
- Level 2
- Cleanse Cinematic
- Act 3 Screen
- Level 3
- Cleanse Cinematic
- Final Cinematic

Timetable: (Rough)

I will aim to complete the game by October 12th, giving me 3 weeks after this date to produce the documentation and to fix any bugs/add any extra material to the game. This gives me 5 weeks from today, 7th September.

Week 1 - Finish Game Engine, Back Story Cinematic, Artwork.
Week 2 - Beginning Cinematic, Artwork.
Week 3 - Level Design, More artwork if required.
Week 4 - Cleanse movies, Final Cinematic.
Week 5 - Put together.


Artwork Required:

- Menu Screen -> Monsters/Negative Energy?
- Control Screen
- Back Story Cinematic - Approx 15 frames.
- Beginning Cinematic - Approx 12 Frames.
- Act 1 Screen -> Franklin 5 yrs.
- Act 2 Screen -> Franklin 7 yrs.
- Act 3 Screen -> Franklin 10 yrs.
- Levels:
* Lvl 1 Pickups
* Lvl 2 Pickups
* Lvl 3 Pickups
* Lvl 1 Background
* Lvl 2 Background
* Lvl 3 Background
* Lvl 1 Obstacles
* Lvl 2 Obstacles
* Lvl 3 Obstacles
* Franklin Animations (For key movements up, down, left, right)

- Cleanse Movies (Includes: Mental Images, Negative Energy, Positive Energy, Memory Stills)
* Lvl 1
* Lvl 2
* Lvl 3

- Final Cinematic - Yet to be determined. Am thinking of a way to simplify this to avoid running out of time.

Change to Back Story Storyboard

Had a good chat with Byron today about this first cinematic scene. He gave me some good advice on what to add, some good ideas for transitions between some frames, and also a lot on camera placement/line of action. With his advice on this, I changed the angles on the last few frames to keep the continuity of the cinematic and have it all comply to the line of action that I had created within the first half. So here is the last few frames, redrawn.

Storyboarding

Back Story Cinematic:

Game Engine

So over the past few days I have been developing the game engine for Acts of Anger. As coding isn't a strong point of mine, I went to the web to find myself something to build off. I couldn't find anything really suitable and most things that were close were coded in actionscript 2. What I did find though was some basic coding that called a background image from the flash library and had it scroll on the stage. It was coded in AS2 but I was able to update it to AS3 relatively easy. Now I had to get a character loaded also and controllable by the player. This was easy enough from my experience in 2D game design. I added the character script I used back in that course and added the extra necessary coding to what I had already with the scrolling background.

After that I added some boundaries to the stage as previously my character could go off screen, leaving it like this would mean having a pretty big cheat in the game. You could just float of screen until the pickups came along to grab. Once this was done I then had to add pickups and obstacles to the engine. I didn't have much luck but with some help from a class mate I was able to include these things in the game. While they do work, the code for pickups isn't the greatest. Thankfully though I have got in touch with Ben Jack and he's going to help me set these things right in the game. He coded up a platformer engine with pickups/obstacles recently, with him being this years tutor for 2D game design. So while I now have a complete engine, by the end of this next week I hope to have a complete engine, well written/stable, and that I can easily link my levels together.

Without further or do though, here is how the engine is running in its current state:

http://bluespark.fileave.com/angerengine7.swf

What's included:

Background scrolls, you have a controllable character with animations playing with different keys hit, boundaries on the stage, pickups - stars. collect 3 and the 2nd level starts though this has nothing built into it yet, obstacles - red circles. hit these and you return to the start of the level.

Change to Gameplay

- Franklin. Travelling through his mind. Each level is themed around the age he was of the memory he is trying to identify, this being the cause of the negative energy (anger) that fuels the monster that has control over his physical self. Franklin may move in all directions.

- You as the player must control Franklin and successfully navigate him through each level without getting hit by obstacles, and you must also collect each of the 3 puzzle pieces specific to each level. Together these puzzle pieces form the mental picture of the memory (past experience) that Franklin needs to remember so that he can understand where his anger came from. In identifying the cause of his anger, the negative energy (perhaps in the form of a monster) will appear before him to cleanse. Franklin may then move on to the next level. Once all 3 levels are completed, there is no negative energy left within him and so the monster controlling his physical self will lose its power and control over him, returning things to normal.

- The obstacles that Franklin must avoid will be a mix of objects related to the age he was when the memory he is trying to identify occured, and monsters formed from the negative energy within him.

Narrative Update

Back Story Cinematic:

- House. White picket fence. You see Franklin (young), a happy go lucky kid.

- Franklin grows up seeing life through "rose glasses". Only every exposed to the sunny side of life.

- Starts school. His experiences here (his first exposure to the real world) lead him to having feelings he doesn't recognize. Away from home - anxiousness, teasing - sadness, anger.

- Franklin is now 13. Beginning college, he's looking forward to fresh start.

- He is soon repeatedly picked on by a school jock.

- Franklin gets pushed in the corridor and this makes him click. Enough is enough!

- In a rage, Franklin hits the jock back, right to the face.

- Immediately afterward, there is a look of shock on his face, what has he done? Regardless, he has a quick sneer.

- Franklin runs from the scene.

- His emotions stir, his anger boils, RAGE!

- Franklin's inner monster is unleashed, it soon consumes him.

- Franklin is gone, the monster has control.

Fade to black.

Beginning Scene: (Prior to game start)

- Franklin (good) wakes up. He is within his own mind. White all around.

- Confused. Where am I? he thinks.

- A figure appears before him, himself? It is his inner conscious.

- Franklin learns what has happened. His physical self has been taken over by his inner monster created from the negative energy within him. This negative energy was created out of all the anger he felt from certain experiences growing up. He suppressed it rather than dealing with it as he didn't know how to handle it.

- This negative energy fuels his inner monster controlling him. If Franklin can cleanse this negative energy, he can get back control of himself.

- To locate the negative energy, he must identify the reason for his anger that created it.

GAME START

- Players must go through the different levels (acts) and find the 3 puzzle pieces within each level. This will create the mental image Franklin needs to identify his source of anger, and therefore the source of the negative energy within him. Three acts total, each dealing with a different experience in Franklin's life.

Act Titles:

Act One - "Pre-school"

Act Two - "Parents"

Act Three - "Friends"

Experiences that create the negative energy within Franklin:

Beginning of game: Age 13

Status – Franklin has just begun college, looking forward to a fresh start on things. He is soon repeatedly picked on by a school jock. Later he trips Franklin in the corridor, enough is enough! Having been bullied enough at his last school, Franklin goes into a rage. Getting up he then hits the jock and storms out to the playground. Memories of his past bullying flood his mind and his anger builds; his inner monster soon consumes him.

Level One: Age 5

Verbal Conflict – Teased at school for having not seen then popular cartoon “Captain Awesome”, a super-hero TV series. Franklin’s parents didn’t want him exposed to violence as depicted with Captain Awesome fighting the bad guys. Franklin’s anger comes from not liking the other children teasing him and his parents for not letting him watch the show.

Memory Picture: Captain Awesome programme title screen.

Level Two: Age 7

Feud – For his 7^th Birthday, Franklin wanted a skateboard. Franklin liked watching kids skate in the playground. He was amazed at the cool looking tricks they could do and he wanted to learn. He wasn’t allowed though, his parents found skateboarding too dangerous. All Franklin could do was sit on the sidelines and watch in awe, leading him to resent his parents.

Memory Picture: Presents including a skateboard with a ribbon on it.

Level Three: Age 10

Relationship – Franklin wants to try out for the soccer team and asks for support from one of his friends. He gets him to try out with him only the end result is his friend gets picked for the team and he doesn’t. Franklin feels ripped off and some resentment towards his friend. He didn’t even want to try out and yet he’s the one that got picked. “He always gets everything!”...

Memory Picture: Franklin in soccer uniform.

What happens next? Final Cinematic - Draft.

In completing these 3 levels, Franklin’s inner monster controlling him will appear for him to face. Now knowing how to deal with his anger, Franklin wastes no time in sorting it out. Dodging the monsters attacks, Franklin breaks through the monster being filled with only positive energy. Surroundings fade to white, the monsters world falls apart. Franklin wakes up on the school playground. The bell rings and feeling good about himself and life, Franklin walks to class.

Quotes of Relevance

“When you are angry, and you suffer, please go
back and inspect very deeply the content, the nature
of your perceptions. If you are capable of removing
the wrong perception, peace and happiness will
be restored in you, and you will be able to
love the other person again.”

The same can be said about life. Many times we get angry because we are too quick to act/judge and don't see things for what they really are. I found some funny examples of this in a series of ads for a mortgage company, you can catch them all in a compilation video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8Keo97K9cs

“Anger has roots in nonanger elements. It
has roots in the way we live our daily life. If we
take good care of everything in us, without
discrimination, we prevent our negative energies
from dominating. We reduce the strength
of our negative seeds so that they
won’t overwhelm us.”

In my game, Franklin hasn't dealt with his anger and therefore his negative energy has escalated to the point where he can no longer keep it suppressed. He's therefore been overwhelmed by it in the form of his inner monster.

Quotes from:

http://www.ineedmotivation.com/blog/2008/07/10-verses-to-tame-anger-by-thich-nhat-hanh/

And from the Bible to:

"Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions." Proverbs 10:12