Thursday, October 30, 2014

Boss Battle Analysis

Xigbar's Boss Fight
Quickest I've ever beat him? Two hours after 20 tries...

http://s280.photobucket.com/user/L_wins13/media/Xigbar.jpg.html

Fight Introduction

Sora is getting attacked by heartless.

He looks up and sees his friends fighting.

Suddenly, bullets things shoot from the balcony above and kill all the surrounding heartless.

Xigbar reveals himself to Sora, accuses him of causing them trouble, and then insults him by saying he doesn’t look like half the hero the others were.



This confuses Sora because he is really dumb… thus the fight begins.


Mechanics of the Player


Sora, and his two party members, Donald Duck and Goofy, have a variety of mechanics at their disposal to fight. Some of these are dependent on what you leveled up, what items/ magic you have acquired or bought, and so on.

In addition to basics like moving, dodging, running, blocking, Sora has the ability to do magic and fight.

Magic ranges from elemental attacks to healing

Items restore Health and MP

And fighting is done via the button mash tactic where a simple slash can turn into areal combos.

Sora also has the ability to lock on, aiding in the button mashing, but it becomes problematic when trying to run from foes.

And lastly is the reaction button, or Triangle, which is most successful when button mashed. It allows you to do enemy specific evasion/attack, as well as team attacks. My favorite is the firework one with Donald.

AI Attacks and Stages of the Battle

The fight begins with Xigbar on the balcony above Sora. Sora has no way to get to Xigbar at this stage. The scene is viewed from Xigbar's point of view as he shoots down at you. You have the option of running to avoid the bullets of timing a reaction (hitting triangle) to hit them back at Xigbar. 



After a certain amount of time, or if you get the bullets to bounce back and hit him enough, he teleports down to the main stage. Here he has a variety of attacks he does. 

Most importantly, he has power over space thus teleports randomly through the level, and is most always hanging upside down from a portal (but there are other poses).

Xigbar's beginning attacks

  • Basic shoot that shoots five or six bullets
  • He has a fanned shot that has a wide hit range
  • Can teleport over you and shoot down


Once you have gotten his health down he gains other abilities and can teleport you to different stages. 

Some of the new abilities for the main stage are:

  • Creating portals on either side of you that he can shoot into to hit you
  • A cannon like bullet that does significant damage that follows you, that you must hit back at him with the reaction button.

Stages he can teleport you to



The first is a simple stage that simply makes it harder to get to him and hit him due to the hole in the floor. This is one of the first teleport he uses, it comes before he gains his new abilities on the main stage. It is easy because he uses only basic attacks here.

The second comes after the new attacks are gained in the main stage. It is a long narrow platform. He is positioned at the end and you at the other. He shoots and teleports on one side and you have to hit back the bullets or doge them (but thats hard due to the size of the space)

And lastly, he can teleport you to a tiny stage that is simply a square. Here he does a variety of shoots, as well as the one move which can always be anticipated to come after he says "Let's see how well you can dance"  Those are the words of death because this move will kill you unless you are super skilled. He will create portals all around you and shoot through them somehow all at the same time. meaning you get hit nonstop. I have yet to find a way to dodge it. The only solution I have found to survive is to go in with full health and prey, or to save your valor form transformations to trigger when begins. They temporarily put up a shield so even if he hits you, if your are mid transform it won't hurt you. 



The Reward


You gain abilities, and can level up (depends on your own progression)

You move the story along

Kill Xigbar (some will argue that this isn't a reward)



You reunite with Riku... and Kairi. 





Monday, October 6, 2014

Mr. Tinkles: The Yowl for Freedom!

Mr. Tinkles: The Yowl for Freedom
A Game by Stephanie Creeley

             “Mr. Tinkles: The Yowl for Freedom” is a comedic game dealing with the serious topic of animal testing. It is set in a lab in a restricted wooded area just outside your home city. You are a cat named Mr. Tinkles, donated to the lab from the SPCA after your owner, Mr. Jenkins, was put into a nursing home.
            After invasive testing you realize you have gained strange powers. You use these powers to escape to get back to Mr. Jenkins but the dangers of the lab, staff, and mutated escaped experiments stand in your way. Will you ever see your home again?
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General flow of the Game

Level One: Escape the Test!
·      You must escape the test maze set up by the scientists.

Level Two: The Window to Freedom
·      Get past lab security and escape though the window

Level Three: The Wastelands
·      Navigate the forest, it is full of mutated lab rats, and animals sick from the labs waste.
Level Four: City Slicker
·      Navigate to your old home. Obstacles include stray dogs, large rats, cars, and thugs.

You make it home

Level Five: Finding your Way
·      Navigate to the nursing home

Level Six: Reunion
·      Sneak past nursing home security to get to Mr. Jenkins room!

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 The level I will be making for class is Level One, which will be a tutorial level.

It begins in the labs experiment maze used to test your powers. It then expands into the halls as you break out. You level through the window.

In the labs you will come across robotic mice, exploding barrels, and puzzles. Outside you must evade capture, and quickly get out the window. Its summer out, about midday.

The labs is typical sterile white.

Main environmental land marks are the large signs marking lab wings, and test rooms.




I looked up some animal test labs for reference... and then almost cried... so here are some normal labs
I will keep the imagery basic, and if I can stomach it, put that aspect in for the social commentary reasons...



Here are a few obstacle ideas



Robots


Here are a few living obstacles...

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I would like the lighting to look like these for the testing area




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A small squishy cat is what I thought for the character model. (That one is not mine)

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Level Block Out







Thursday, October 2, 2014

Wine Cellar Modular Kit

Beauty Shots



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Contact Sheets



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Video Capture





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Additional Shots







Process of Modular Kit: Elven Wine Cellar

Modular Kit

I set out to design a modular kit in the style of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" series.
The goal was to make a kit that could make two different constructs. 
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Above are all the reference I first gathered. This was for my first construct. I wanted to to a Banquet Hall with a win cellar that branches off. 







I love the look of the Tolkien wine cellar. I like the contrast of the wood and worn materials, against the pristine, and large environments of the rest of the castle. Furthermore I love the yellow light and dark shadows. The whole environment has a very appealing sense of light, and this is something I want the capture in my environment.

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Color Scheme-- Style













I am aiming for a blue/orange color scheme. With all hand painted textures. I don't want to go as far as the image directly above, I will keep the painted-in lighting to a minimum. As mentioned earlier the lighting will be high contrast, with large dark shadows.

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Additional Reference




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Possible Props
















Props I want to include--

Crystal Light, Barrels (Big and Small), Wine Bottles, Table/chairs, Crates (empty and full)

Textures I want to have--

Hay, Dirt, Rock, Wood, Glass
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Process




Start of Cellar


Start of Banquet Hall
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I was advised to scale my scope down from the two very different construct to just two different constructs of a cellar.

Admittedly over scoping has been my downfall for almost every project I have taken on. For once I took their advice and deleted of all my grey box for the banquet hall. Instead I would focus on the details of my cellar.

Cellar Grey Box




Again I was told to down scope my assignment from the seven room construct to a two room construct (we only had three weeks on the assignment).

After a lot of pain, I did just that, leaving the large room, the hall and the small room. The room off the hall was deleted, the open doors were sealed off, and the room the the far right was deleted...
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Texturing

My Wood and Rock were hand painted

My Rock wall Displacement and Normal were made in Z-brush




Rock Wall Normal and Displacement map made in Z-brush


Dirt Normal and Dirt/Rock Diffuse made in Photoshop and Crazy Bump



Hay Diffuse and Mix Map made in Photoshop



Wood Diffuse and Wood Normal made in Photoshop and Crazy Bump




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Glass Bottle


My glass bottle material was made in reference to the UE4 examples.
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3-Texture Blend Vertex paint with Mix Maps