The game

Terraria

Terraria is a survival style side scroller. The aim of the game is to mine for minerals to upgrade things like weapons to fight a plethora of enemies and bosses. There isn’t much of a story as it is a survival game. However the main aim is to kill all of the bosses and get to end game items.

It’s visual style is pixel art, specifically 16-bit. The challenge is defeating all of the increasingly harder bosses as the game progresses and being able to survive the increasingly harder normal enemies which you come across just wondering around.

There are multiple mechanics such as the building and mining mechanics. You can build many houses in different ways and you can mine for minerals and materials to build houses and make different blocks for housing. With these houses you build, NPCs can move in and sell you items such as potions or new weapons.

It’s USP is a 2D survival game, there isn’t a lot of 2D survival games to the extent of this game.

Risk Of Rain

Risk of rain is an action shooter platform game created by Chucklefish. The aim is to escape a strange planet you have crash landed on by finding teleporters located in random areas each time through 10 levels, increasing in difficulty each level.

This visual style is pixel art, 8-bit. The challenge of this game is to complete the game without dying as if you die, you have to restart the entire game. As the game progresses, it gets increasingly harder, this includes boss fights too. The mechanics are firing guns and that there is an economy to buy new weapons and items. You can also unlock characters by completing objectives in game such as killing the final boss.

The USP is that it is a hardcore game that increases in difficulty every 5 minutes as you go through the 10 levels and once you die, you have to restart the entire game from the beginning.

Megaman

Megaman is a platform shooter created by Capcom originally on the NES. The aim is to defeat the evil scientist Dr. Wiley, by defeating the robots he has created which are the bosses of the levels.

The art style for Mega-Man is 8-bit pixel art. The challenge of this game is that you have to defeat the level in a certain amount of lives before you have to restart it. There is checkpoints however so you don’t just go right back to the start of the level if you die. The mechanics are the shooting mechanic of your hand cannon and the ability to gain the bosses powers when you defeat them. The lives system is also a good mechanic.

The USP for this game would be that it’s one of the first action shooter platformers, for the NES, and that now it is retro which is another reason to buy the game.

Concept ideas

TundrafiedAfter you witness your team captured, you’re left with nothing to defend yourself but the cleats on your feet to fight off the army of Yetis and their leader, Mr. White to save the world and your team!

SynopsisYou wake up in your research facility to an explosion and see your research team in shackles being taken away by a squad of yetis and a giant snowman. As they leave, you tail them to a secret cave system not mapped by anyone, ever. You swear to save your team from the horrors they might be experiencing.

You learn that the snowman is called Mr. White and is actually an alien species called the Klorocks who plans on taking over the planet with mind control devices to harvest every material the Earth has and then moving on to the next planet. You try to stop Mr. White and his evil plans and save your team, the world and the universe.

MechanicsTo kill the yetis, you jump on their heads with your cleats. You can also get power-ups such as a hair dryer to melt ice and enemies. You’re able to wall jump by jumping from wall to wall. You can also pick up objects such as hidden treasure dotted around the map.

CharacterThe main protagonist is a researcher in full snow gear, goggles, thick blue parka with the hood up and thick snow boots with cleats on them. His name is David Peralta, a very timid person overcoming his fears to save his friends and the world.

Chernobyl

After the Reactor explosion, the environment became irradiated and every living thing either died or

mutated. After hunting for more survivors living in the horrors of irradiated Chernobyl, your EVAC

helicopter becomes under attack from the mutated animals and crashes into a building. You’re the only

survivor. You need to fight your way out of the city and to safety. The only thing standing in your way is

the mutated animals and a notorious gang out for your blood.

Plot

Your evacuation helicopter crashes and you are the only survivor, you radio for another evacuation team

to rescue you, however it’s becoming night, which is when the mutated animals like to hunt. There is a

military team waiting on the outskirts of the city which you have to try and reach.

The explosion attracts both the animals and the notorious gang, Tide. Tide are blood thirsty, cold

blooded killers who spare nobody. You have a limited amount of ammo to escape the crash site. As you get

closer to the military zone, the leader of the gang, Pod sends out more of his goons to try and stop you and

the military personel waiting for you.

Mechanics

There will be shooting mechanics, with different guns to pick up and use against the different enemies you

will encounter. There will also be power-ups such as unlimited ammo for a certain amount of seconds or a

max ammo power-up. There will also be a healing mechanic, you can find medpacks dotted in the map you

will have to climb to get to heal yourself.

Character

You are a military captain named Dimitri Sokalov. Since you go into the irradiated city a lot, you have your

own yellow Hazmat suit with a blacked out visor. You are armed with a Klashnikov assault rifle. Fearless

and determined in any situation.

Eruption

After discovering an active volcano near your camp on Mars, you venture out on your own to do some research. You slip and fall into throat of the active volcano and realise you’re not alone.

PlotYou discover an active volcano near your camp on Mars, you venture out to analyse the volcano but slip and fall into the throat of the volcano. Since the gravity is lower on Mars, you don’t break any bones or hurt yourself too bad. You discover that you are not alone in that volcano, as a species of alien lives down there, confirming life on Mars. You capture a small one in a heat proof jar as these creatures are lava. This angers the species of alien, causing them to hunt you down and free the alien you captured. You have to escape the volcano and get the specimen back to the research lab.

MechanicsClimbing mechanic, you have the ability to scale walls with your climbing axe. You climbing axe can also work as a weapon against the aliens, so you have the ability to attack by swinging the axe.

CharacterYou are lieutenant Deborah Marshall, you are also the science officer of the life on mars project, which is a camp of scientists and military officers. You have a habit of doing rather than thinking, which is why you’re in the throat of a volcano trying to escape. You wear an orange and black astronaut space suit as you are outside of the eco dome at camp.

Concept art moodboard

Thick snow gear such as parkas, thick gloves and cleats to grip to the ice. The ice climbers have big mallets as weapons. Bright coloured clothing to stand out. This character is very exaggerated such as little body and a big head.

White parka with fur around the hood. White camouflage to blend in with the snow. Night vision goggles to see in the night. A ballistic vest. His weapon is some sort of silenced rifle. This character is very realistic and based off someone in real life. The colour pallette is mainly different shades of white and plain.

Looks like a skin tight thermal vest, with a fleece lined neck area to keep neck warm. A ballistic vest.There is a neck tube covering half her face and a beanie to keep the head warm. She is holding a pistol. This character is a realistic depiction of someone. The colour pallette is very plain with just being black and grey with a little bit of red.

White armour to blend in with the snow. Goggles covering eyes to keep snow out and having full visibility. A neck tube covering the face up to the the goggles and a big helmet.

This character is very sci-fi and although looks to be based off real life, the clothing is very futuristic. The colours used is mainly just white with littles bits of brighter colours on the vest. He does hold a blaster which is also futuristic.

This concept art has a lot of brighter colours. The colour palettes range from red to purple. The 3 pictures are similar, however, the only differences are the footwear and parka colour. These are realistic depictions of people in modern day. In the middle image, they appear to be holding some sort of ice pick.

This is a realistic depiction of a character, apart from the alien he and the person behind him is riding. The colour palette is a kind of contrast with the bright white background but Han’s brown jacket. He isn’t holding anything but is gesturing.

This is quite a colourful piece with the different coloured coats and pants. The colours stand out on the mountain background which is just white and grey.

Instead of weapons, they have snowboards and skis on their backs.

The clothing is all dark, with a little bit of colour on the assault rifle and lights on his wrist and chest. It’s a realistic depiction of a person and has an assault rifle and backpack on his back.

This is an exaggerated piece, a big body and small head, it could show that the clothing is very thick to keep her warm in the harsh cold. It is also very colourful with different shades of blue. She is also holding a sci fi type gun with a tube going into a canister on her back,

This is a very bland coloured piece which is mainly just white. It is realistic though. His gun looks like a futuristic gun based off a modern day one. His clothing makes him blend into the snow and other white surroundings.

Character Designs

Character silhouettes

Silhouettes with white lines.

Characters with colour

3 point turnaround

Final Piece

Concept sheet

Level blockout.

Digitally coloured map.

Concept art evaluation

Overall, I’m quite happy with how my concept sheet turned out and how my progression through making it looked. I learned a lot in this unit when making the concept art such as kind of figuring out how to make creases in the clothing, or at least outline the creases to show that that they are creases. I also learned the basics of shading on things like the metal of the ice pick in my final design and concept sheet. My skills with a graphics tablet also improved and I felt like my movement with the strokes felt a lot more fluent as I went through this unit.

However, there was a few things I wasn’t proud about, such as my pencil drawings. I’m not a very confident traditional drawer, so when making these I didn’t like how a few of them looked so I had to start again until eventually I got the ones I was okay with, I’m still not very happy with how they look but they look okay.

When making the 3 point turn around, this was when I kind of clicked with some of the techniques. The front wasn’t great but I practiced and used some secondary resources to help me with the side and back to 3 point turn around. I didn’t really use any shading here, just solid colours.

My concept sheet was where I was most proud in this unit. I am very happy with how it turned out and in my eyes, I think it looks somewhat professional. I put a lot of effort into how I wanted it to look and I managed to do that. I downloaded a snow brush preset for the background and I feel like that made the information and art on the page stand out more and make it more unique. If I were to do it again I would’ve liked to put more of my artwork on there but I just wasn’t proud of my other work to put it on there and make it look less professional.

❖ Stationary assets ➢ Platform

■ Two textures, one for the ice on top of the platform and icy rock on the underneath.■ Ice texture is going to be a cyan colour, rock texture is going to be a midnight blue.

● Model◆ Flat top with stalactites off the bottom of the platform.

➢ Stalactite■ One rocky type texture, with 4 colours, dark and light grey for the rocks and light and dark blue for

the ice. ● Just a stalactite model with ice on it.

➢ Stalagmite■ The same as the stalactite apart from flipped.

● Model◆ Flipped version of the stalactite.

❖ Animated assets➢ Platform

■ Same textures and colours as the stationary one● Model

◆ The same but with cracks in the platform to show they will break.➢ Stalactites

■ Exactly the same colours● Model

◆ Has cracks in them to show that they will fall when walked under.

Walk cycle

Run cycle

Jump cycle

Idle breathing

Edited sprite sheets

Video showing the different sprite sheets.

https://vimeo.com/268061707

Spritesheet evaluation

When making the spritesheets, I struggled at first as I didn’t really know where to start or how they

should look, but after some trial and error of a lot of the body parts, it did eventually come together and I’m fairly happy with the results. I’m not very happy with my idle sprite, though. I wish I put more time and effort into that one instead of my walk, run and jump sheet. It just looks rushed and not very well made. If I were to make it again I would add more movement, such as swaying or shivering as well as the breathing.

My jump sheet was fairly easy to make as most of what it is, is just repeated and was happy with how it looked in game, apart from how this sheet repeats in mid air but I didn’t know how to fix that; so if I were to make this again I’d figure that out in unity.

My run and walk sprites were quite tedious to make and I had a lot of problems making those. Mainly trying to make it look right was the hard part, with how the legs moved or arms, a lot of the time it just didn’t look right to me, so I feel like I wasted a lot of time trying to get those to look right, and even now

they don’t look really right. I am however happy that they somewhat resemble running and walking.

This is the test world, The background image follows the sprite so it doesn’t stretch across the entire level and lower the quality. There are coins you can collect which add up to a total. The white rectangles are essentially ladders which you can climb and the blue platforms are ice you slide on. If you fall off the map or touch the white cubes, you’ll get sent back to the start. I am going to work on a life system so if you die enough times you’ll have to restart the entire level. The platform in the top right moves left to right.

UI for the test level.

A barebones version of the score system. The code for it is on the right.

This is the platform moving script.

The moveMe Code

All this code makes the sprite move and jump.

This code is for what happens when the animationOn bool is true. This allows the spritesheets to actually work.

This code is for the keybinds. It uses the arrow keys to move.

These are the bindings for the jump and climb buttons.

These are for triggers. The first allows you to climb ladders. The second is what happens when you come into contact with an enemy/spike. The plat code is for breakable platforms, when you enter the collider, the platform breaks. The last allows you to collect coins dotted around the map.

When your rigidbody collides with a solid object, it won’t allow you to jump. The ladder code makes it so everything goes back to normal when you exit the ladder trigger.

This code is for moving platforms. Once it gets halfway through the counter, it changes direction.

This is to control the buttons on the game over screen. The retry void resets the whole game once clicked. The quit void quits the game.

Climbing mechanic and breakable platform mechanic

The climbing mechanic has been used to imitate a wall jump style mechanic but easier. The code is what makes it work.

This mechanic is for breakable platforms. When the player jumps on the platform s/he triggers the destroytime float which is how long the platform stay unity it gets destroyed. When the player enters the collider, it triggers the IF statement.

This is an instructions prompt for the controls for the game. The prompt triggers when you enter the prompt collider. It disappears once you leave the collider on either side.

This is a prompt on how to climb the wall. It tells you what buttons to press. The prompt triggers when you enter the collider at the bottom of the wall.

Code to trigger the prompt.

Mechanics evaluation

The climbing mechanic does what is intended but it is very buggy. When climbing the “ladder” I can’t have any downward momentum otherwise the character won’t climb the ladder. Also the speed of climbing up the ladder depends on how fast your upwards momentum is, which is also very buggy and annoying. I do wish I could’ve fixed these bugs but they weren’t necessary to fix as it did somewhat work. I only really had the ladders in one place to imitate a wall jump style thing, so if I were to do things better, I would’ve made the actual wall jump script and have it as what was intended; but the ladders did work just fine.

The breakable platforms works great, I was really happy with the outcome of these. When the player enters the collider of the platform, it gets destroyed not long after which is what I wanted to happen, however if I were to do it again I’d like to figure out how to include an animation to it to show it breaking instead of it just disappearing into nothing. I also would make them respawn after you lose a life because in places you need the platforms to get across but they’re obviously not there until you lose all of your lives and have to restart the game.

I also included a pickup system, so far you can only pick up coins dotted around the map to add to a score system. It works fine with no known bugs. However, I would’ve liked to include more such as power-ups dotted around the map or maybe extra lives you can pick up that are hidden or hard to reach.