Building The Level In Maya

I decided That it would be a nice idea to model the level on Maya and then I can write a conclusion between the two which could be an interesting piece of resource, and one which I could learn from. I found the modeling side of the level fairly straightforward through using Maya, there was a few tricky objects to build such as the skull and the snakes head, which I used way to many polygons however I wasn't planning on being able to play the game at this point so thought I could get away with it. Because I had designed my level to go in tunnels I found that really tricky for example the volcano bit, however with it been in 2d I didn't have to be as accurate as from the view of the player you shouldn't be able to see it that much. What I did find a absolute nightmare was aligning things up for example the platforms together and what not, overall I enjoyed modeling the environment and it did look really good. When it comes to texturing this is an area in which i'm not the strongest and is something I need to improve my skills on.I really struggled, because I had gone for a kind of outline self shaded approach it was really tricky. I thought I could get away with just texturing the front size with it been a 2d game, which unfortunalty I'm not sure in which to find that view on either Maya or Unity so it would be nice to view the game in that mode, as from the perspective mode you can tell that some of the texturing looks dodgy. I also wasn't keen on some of the textures and they got pixalated, some are really nice but some are horrible. I learned that for the style of game I did I should have imported the textures straight from illustrator, but because I was using my laptop which I have CS3, it wasn't working well with the CS5 college has so I guess been more prepared should benefit me for future. Overall I do really like the texturing, it does look good and im happy with the appeal of the level, I especially like the caves, it reminds me of Little Big Planet which is always a good thing. It was a shame I did not have more time to put this into unity and really play with it and experiment with particles however this project did serve as a good experiment test, the next test is I would like to creat a game in which you can play which is something i'm looking at for my final project, so overall i am happy.

Flash Camera Views

Unfortunatly Blogger wont allow me to upload videos, Anyway I did a quick test using Flash, of the camera angle in which I plan to use for my video game, Im very happy with the result and I plan to have the camera stick in part 1 of the level, I think the level is to a suitable distance as it allows the player plenty of space to see approaching obstacles and enemies, but is not too far away that you cant even see your character.

For the second test which is for the second part of the level Similar I had the camera stick however towards the ending I plan on having the camera fall down as the player jumps down, as I want to give that efect of falling from a great height and I plan on having the camera fixed towards the center of the screen following the character in the center.

Flash Animation

I was going to Animate the Parts of the Levels which were going to be animated in Flash however I didn't get time to complete this action before the deadline, however I plan on uploading a video over Xmas. I have decided that on the level the parts which will be animated are the suns on the combayer belt which will rotate round continuously as well as the lift which will carry on its circuit during the play. Also the spikes in the middle will be animated to pop up and down and different sequences offering an extra challenge to wards the player and Finally I plan on animating the clouds at the end of the level to just move from side to side. Like I said I hope on get demonstating the animation of level soon.

Final Concept

Concept And Game Info

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Level Maps

Heres just a quick Level Layout I did for my gaming environment using resources and Concept Art I have previously played with.

Statues

Buildings and Architecture

Here I just came up with some quick sketches for the shape of buildings and architecture within the level, I believe I came up with a few decent designs which can be taken further, apart from that not really much else to report.

Folliage

As I am going for a kind of jungle setting I thought it would be a good idea for coming up with some designs for some possible foliage / trees. To be honest there was'nt that great research I could find on this subject so I just got some images together and decided to just scribble some designs down very quickly, yes I drew some terrible designs but I believe I did come up with a couple of good ones, and I choss one I really liked towards the bottom, which I played around a little bit and was happy with the design.

Game Mazes

I was really for the idea of including a maze within my level, and after a discussion with the tutor he told me to look into a different variety of mazes, my idea of a maze is getting from point A to point B, getting through obstacles, and a route which can lead in a different variety of ways to reach your goal. But the further you look into it allot of games are mazes, Games for example Fable and Skyrim, you start of at point A but how you get to Point B is your own path, with plenty of twists and turns. On the other hand Pacman, that's based in a maze however you cant escape, but theres a challenge and a mission, so is completing that is the eqivillent of escaping the maze. Anyway I don't want to get too much into this but its defiantly an interesting subject which could be explored into deeper meaning.

Heres, a quick sketch I did of a Maze, To behonest thinking about it has put me off including a maze, however I quite like the design, especially the idea of a turntable which connects paths, also I have to think about the camera angle for the maze like do you go for over the top view similar to the marble game I uploaded a picture of or side, do you go for side view and so on.

Finalized Character

During a mini crit, I was given the advice to think about a character, not necessarily to go into too much detail, but this would help me with my level, as it would show me how the character would interact within the level which does make sense. So I thought it would be a good idea to let Ifraz who was focusing his project on concept art to come up with a few designs which I have mentioned before but these are the designs he came up with. The 3 below were my favorite designs out of the bunch in which he drew, however after examining the characters into more detail I grow to really like the third character down, which is the kind of turtle like character in the shell. Reasons why I chose this is firstly I thought the other two character's whilst I liked them were too humanoid for my liking, and I mentioned in my brief that a humoid is not what I wanted, as I wanted something silly and fun to play, taking influence from characters such as Sonic and Crash Bandicoot. I really liked the use of the shell aswell which can be used for great effect, My idea is that every time he changes weapon he goes in his shell and picks a new weapon and so on. For my environment I just want for this level anyway your stand ate jump and run similar to Mario game inwhich to defeat the enemies on the level you have to jump onto them. Thinking further into the franchise I would plan on including different abilities such as roll which would be good with the shell and other abilities but for now that will do. I'm also giving the character a pretty good jump as my level requires alot of jumping s o its something I have to consider and he's also quite pacy.

More Concept Ideas

Just a few more ideas I have come up with. I have decided that I am going to use the Volcano with the skulls as when asking for peoples opinions on that element of the level alot suggested they like it, I am also planning on including a boulder within the tunnel, for the character to jump over similar to donkey kong vs mario. I also am heading towards the idea of including some form of snake as they were pretty popular during the mayan times, i'm not sure as to there relevance but there was plenty of statues of them. I'm probably heading towards includind them as some kind of statue, maybe something that blows fire, that could be quite interesting. As you can tell I took one of the examples of art from the previous page and created a level, which I quite like, it could maybe do with a few touch ups but the overal design im happy with and plan on developing further, apart from that not much else to report but I do believe i'm heading down the right line.

Mayan Art And Tatoos

I thought It would be good to look at some Mayan Art, What I really like about the art is the shapes and the pattern, and how when I look at a pacific piece of art, my mind starts to think about the story behind the art, each piece to me demonstrates a exciting story. I really like the example of art second down, Ive taken huge influence from this piece into designing an idea for the level. I also like the way I could take any of these pieces of work and create a level similar to the picture. I also noticed how alot of these pieces of work have been carved into the architecture of the buildings, maybe that's something I could take influence from when designing buildings and architecture for my level. I also noticed they was some really nice mayan influenced tatoos, for example The Rock ( Dwayne Johnson ) which I have posted a picture. Has a really nice silhouette style tattoo, which has made me think about having a silhouette level and its another thing to experiment with. Just shows you how researching something such as The Rocks Tattoo can give you great research towards your video game, just shows you no research is useless.

Port Adventura ( Mayan Themed Land )

I remember visiting a Theme Park called Port Adventura which is situated in Salou, Spain. I have visited this marvelous theme park twice so this counts as 1st class research. However I have lost some of the photos from my visit so these are all images I found on the internet. They have a whole area of the theme park which Is themed to the ancient Mexican civilization. And has plenty of spectacular theming which can influence my work. What I remember very well was a attraction called Temple Del Fuego which was a Indianan Jones influenced attraction inside some Fire temple, which was brilliant but also acquired some great scenery as you can see from a image below, It has given me the idea to experiment with the idea of a kind of like fire temple on the game level, and could work well with the volcano element of the level. I think it would look great next to Mayan architecture.