Storyboard and early game screens

Below: Storyboard, draft 2, for the mobile game for MOKET (Storyboard subject to change).

Left: Screen captures of the game as it would look when played on a phone. Note, these are the actual screens from the phone. So far, so good.

Preperation for meeting next week

Monday 3rd November, 12.30-1.15pm

Room: JS4-99

At: Jewry Street building fourth floor room 99,

City campus (Aldgate/Tower hill tube)

Requirements for Publish Postmeeting:
All work done so far, including -

• flash prototypes: Previous flash game made to be played on the computer wil be shown. Other prototypes are being created to implement and test out phone-keypad controls.
  
• storyboards: not completed.
  
• analysis of target users: Primary/secondary school kids, 6-14 year olds.
  
• testing plans: The prototypes will be tested by the target user group as well as the developers of Moket, in order to receive initial feedback. The Nokia N73 phone, or an equivalent, will be used by a selection of young gamers of various ages to play the game. This will allow me to receive feedback from them on display and control issues, so I can make amendments to the game, before being tested again or published as a final game.
• designs and development work: Character sketches and character styles research.

Week 8 - real client brief, for use in project

Okay, I finally got a REAL client for my project and a simple brief from them, with the option of adding more to it as it goes on.

The company is Moket (moket.com) and they deal with mobile games using Flash Lite.



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Catchin' Some Z's

Game Summary

"Catch Some Z's" is the game of a cat asleep on a tall bench, emitting a shower of sleeping Z's from her slumber. You are a mouse, catching the “Z’s” as they fall while trying not to wake the cat .



Controls

The game would use simple left and right controls to move the mouse and his 'Z-catching device' around the bottom half of the screen.




Game Play

• The game is played by catching the falling Z's. The speed the Z's will fall at will depend on their colour code (e.g. Blue Z's - Slow. Yellow Z's - Medium. Red Z's – Fast. Could have various point values associated with colours).
  

• The game will progress through starting with the easy catching of Z's to finally a frantic hard pace of falling Z's. This could be broken up into a number of levels.

• The game will be lost when a number of Z's (3) hit the ground and wake the cat up.

• You can also trip over things that might appear on the ground for a short time, and this would also wake the cat up.

• The level of achievement will be measured by the level reached or the number of Z's caught or by points per different coloured Z.

I know this is a rough brief but I wasn’t sure what you were expecting. Feel free to add elements to the game if you can think of something cool (let me know first).



Cheers.


Dale.


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Yeah, so there you have it: a brief! Yes I know it's brief but, hey.

Multimedia Project weekly research - quick recap.

Week 1 - Flash website Project

• Considered creating Flash website for my project, so I looked at various sites for ideas and inspirations.
• Look at various potential clients for my Flash website project.
• Looked through a Flash-related magazine and Computer Arts mag for ideas and research.

Week 2 - Mobile applications and games

• Read through Computer Arts magazine and tried out the tutorial for creating a animated ring tone for mobile phones.
• Converted movie clip to 3gp format for phones.

Week 3 to 6 - Flash game idea

• Used Kirupa.com for a quick start on games development in Flash.
• Used example platform game from Kirupa.com to understand the Action Script codes.
• Implemented different features and fixed bugs in the above game such as going onto the next level, carry on the points and health onto the next level, and resetting the game so when character loses all health, it starts again from correct position.

A small report has been written on the above test game and its bugs, fixes, problems, solutions, etc.

Multimedia Project - Week 3

Since last weeks post, I've been testing out other things that can be done in Flash and I may scrap the idea of making a Flash Website, and instead concentrate on making a Flash game instead. The reason for the change is because making a Flash game would be more worthwhile to me, as it gives me the chance to incorporate some of my own ideas, interests and style into it.

Let me explain:

Making a Flash game will allow me to have -

• freedom of content: 3D models, music, etc
• animations: for characters, cutscenes, etc
• my own graphical style: added to backgrounds, may also influence the games' look
• ActionScripting: explore more advance features and test new functions.

Those are just some ideas that have influenced my decision. Maybe more features will come in the future.

Before commiting myself to this project, I'm going to have to think of how I'll achieve them. My plan is to test out some ActionScripting in my own time for a game engine and get some basic features and functions working.

So far, I've managed to get the score and health features of a test game working, and make the game jump to the next screen when a certain amount of points have been achieved. This particular function actually took quite a while to fix - even using tutorials from the web haven't been helpful -so I've been consistently going through lots of trial and error in the actual game code but I've finally managed to get it working.

My next task is to carry on the score and the health onto the next level. At the time of writing this, I'm still tweaking the game code to do this but still getting problems. Hopefully I can find some help from the net on how to do this... My aim is to get some basic things such as this working before starting my project, or else I'll be left with an incomplete or a game with bugs!

Ok, second week of the project. I still haven't got a concrete idea of what project I want to do.

I went to the evening lecture to discuss with Fiona and Simon for help on thinking up a suitable project.

I've been thinking about doing something in Flash; a website or game maybe, or something else unique and interactive in Flash.

I've thought about creating a site but it's going to be quite hard to get some clients which I'll be happy to create a site for. I shouldn't be picky with a client for my website, but hey.

I was checking out some sites to help me with my project and came across these Flash brilliant sites that have inspired me. Check out these links!

http://www.zelda.com/gcn/

http://www.animal-crossing.com/wildworld/

My other idea was to create a game in Flash; a platform game using ActionScript codes to control the character movements, enemy movements, score keeping and other general stuff.

I also do graphic design on the side, so maybe I could also bring in some unique styles into the game.

Other ideas for a game genre is casual games; games which can be played by anyone - something really unique and exiting to play, perhaps. We'll see.

To build on this idea, maybe I could create Flash game designed for mobile phones? I have a tutorial from a Computer Arts magazine (issue 141) which shows you how to make your own animation in Flash and download to your phone, which can then be set up to play everytime your phone rings.

I'm thinking about attempting this tutorial, hopefully in the next few days, to understand about Flash lite development a bit more. One thing I am interested in doing is creating some kind of content for mobile phones, so i'll definitely be looking at some ways of incorporating this idea into my project.

Lastly, before I go off to something unimportant, I'll note down two good tips I heard at the meeting with Fiona and Simon:

1) Research some companies that you're interested in and look at what they're looking for, in terms of skills and portfolio, and do something that will meet their requirements.

2) Get a real design brief from a client and try making something based on what they want!

Both of the above ideas sound REALLY good. Anyways, that's it from me!

First week of the Multimedia Project

The first week was an introduction to the course and a discussion of what project you want to do for your portfolio.

Right now, I don't have any specific idea for my project. I thought that I could do an animation in Flash for my project, but the tutor told me to reconsider the idea as an animation can easily be done by anyone. She said if Flash is used, maybe consider including some advance ActionScript in the Flash project.
I agree with her suggestion; an animation IS too simple. I probably can't do something along the lines of graphic design, such as advertisement and/or product design because that doesn't fit into the whole Multimedia context.

My spidey-sense is tingling; maybe I could do a Flash website for a client with ActionScripting included in it. Or make a platform game or interactive game using Flash or Director. Or an interactive application that can be run from a CD or DVD player? I'll speak to the tutor more about these ideas.

Ok, thats it for today, will keep updating each week.