Workflow document

Amy Brockbank

Workflow

Here is my first sprite in progress, this is what will eventually become the player character. here; I have tried to develop the look of the spaceship. I will need to add something the player will use to shoot from to add to the look of the game.

1BTEC Level 3 Games Design

Amy Brockbank

Here is my final player sprite, I completely changed the shape of the spaceship from the last screenshot, so the girl in the ship is kept inside a dome, but kept the design of the girl in the ship. I changed the design of her uniform and changed the colour of her hair band to make the difference between her hair and the hair band more distinct I also added a single pixel to the top of her ear to make her look more unusual. I also added a gun to the ship to make firing weapons look like they are actually coming from somewhere.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I edited the properties of the player sprite. The main thing I did was editing the collision detection settings of the sprite, so the player can collide with objects such as bullets, terrain and other features I may choose to add onto the game. I set the collision mask to ‘diamond’, as this is what fit the sprite best, due to the triangular top of the sprite. I also set the origin point of the sprite to the centre to make the sprite easier to deal with when coding other assets to add to it.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I typed the code to move the sprite around the game. I set the game around a basic ‘WASD’ control scheme, so ‘W’ moves the sprite up, ‘A’ moves the sprite left, ‘S’ moves the sprite down, and ‘D’ moves the sprite right.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I created a room for my game to take place in. This is where everything is put together to create the level, such as backgrounds and sprites.

Here, I tested the gameplay of the game to see if the movement works. It does! I will have to set some boundaries so the player isn’t able to move off screen.


Amy Brockbank

Here I coded limits for the player character, so the player doesn’t accidently move off screen. I used if statements here so the player character cannot go to a certain point without the game stopping it.

Here, I tested the limits for the game. They work! Now, the player character cannot move past the edge of the screen, in the screenshot, that is as far as the player character is able to move.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I created the background for the game. In my background, I am aiming to keep the colour scheme purple and red to make the atmosphere look like a hostile alien planet.

Here, I added the background to the game, and adjusted the horizontal scrolling to make the background scroll continuously to give the illusion of moving along a scene.


Amy Brockbank

Although, I had some difficulty getting the background to scroll the first time, I soon discovered that the background had to be a continuous loop, so no clouds could be cut off at the edge of the screen if they weren’t completed on the other side.

I then edited the background by taking away clouds that were cut off by the edge of the screen, which made the scrolling effect look far nicer.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I created a second layer for the background. I made the clouds slightly darker and smaller so they blend into the background better so a greater look of depth is created.

Here, I added the second layer to the first level, and made the horizontal scrolling slightly faster than the first layer to make movement appear more realistic.


Amy Brockbank

Here is my background in action. I intended for the smaller clouds to be underneath the larger clouds, so I will have to fix this.

I edited layer one, and made the clouds smaller. I also edited the colours so the level looks completely purple, rather than red and purple so the level doesn’t look odd.


Amy Brockbank

On the second layer, I added larger clouds, as well as a city backdrop.

Here is my background in the game. I think the colours match better, and the repositioning of the clouds look far better. I also exchanged the city for mountain terrain, which I think looks far better.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I created a sprite for the thrusters of the ship. I will add this to the player sprite using particle effects, to look like flares from the bottom of the ship

Here I have edited the properties of the sprite. Here, I have set the origin point to the middle, so the sprite is easier to code with.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I have coded the particle effects, and what I want them to do. I have set the thrusters of the sprite come out of the bottom of the ship. If this doesn’t work, I will have to edit the code or the player sprite.

As I thought, this was coded incorrectly. The particle effects have the desired effect, but they are facing the wrong way, they are shooting from the top of the sprite, instead of the bottom. I will experiment further with the code to get the particle effects to face the correct way.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I changed the position of the effects on the y axis to a positive, rather than a negative, number. This will start the effects at the bottom of the sprite, rather than the top.

The particles are positioned correctly, but still shoot upwards. I will need to mess with the gravity code so they fall down.


Amy Brockbank

Changed some part_type_gravity code from 90 to 180.

Here, I’m close to getting it right. I just need to change the angle of the particle effects again to 270 to bring the particles down.


Amy Brockbank

Changed the part_type_gravity code from 180 to 270.

The particles finally face downwards, after some experimentation, and look quite nice coupled with the drawn on fire.


Amy Brockbank

Here is my laser sprite, which will be used with the player sprite.

Here, I edited the properties of the sprite, to make sure the sprite collides with enemies correctly. I changed the shape of the collision mask to rectangle, which fit the sprite perfectly. I also changed what part of the sprite the collision mask connects to, so only enemies who get directly hit get damaged.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I added an hspeed variable, which changes how fast the laser travels across the screen.

Here, I created code so that bullets that leave the level get destroyed, so they don’t build up as the game goes on. If I didn’t create this code, the game would start to lag over time and then eventually crash.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I added a shoot command to the player object, which makes the laser fire when the enter key is pressed.

The last piece of code came back with an error. I will have to identify the problem.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I identified the problem. I forgot to add brackets to the laser destruction code; I will have to remember to end each process when I’m done with them.

Now, the game works again and compiles successfully. The player sprite can now shoot lasers.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I created an enemy sprite. To experiment with different programs to see which program is easiest to create sprites with. I created this sprite using Paint originally, although, I found it easier to add in sprites using Game Maker itself, as it is easier to make the background transparent.

Here, I created the animation for my enemy sprite. I made the eyes of the sprite glow from pink to dark red, which looks quite nice when put together, however, I’m not entirely sure about the overall flying mutated sheep design, and may change it at the end of the project.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I edited the properties of the sprite. I edited the collision mask so the sprite can get hit. I also changed the shape of the mask to a diamond, so the sprite doesn’t act weirdly, and centred the origin.

Here, I created the code that will spawn the enemies on screen. This code will create three sprites on the screen at once, in a triangle formation.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I created the code that will set off the alarm. This will make sure that enemies constantly respawn, and don’t just spawn once and never again.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I added the system to the room. Putting this in the room will add everything in the room that isn’t visible; such as spawn alarms.

Here, I edited the speed of the enemies and the speed of the animation.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I added the code to make the enemy sprite destroy itself when it has left the room. Much like the laser, if enemies build up off screen, the game will eventually start to lag, and then crash.

Here, I tested my game, and the enemies spawn fine, they don’t cause damage yet, but they spawn correctly.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I added sound to the laser, so now the laser should make a noise when it is fired.

Here, I tested the game, and the sound works every time a laser is fired, and sounds quite nice.


Amy Brockbank

Here is my explosion sprite. It is animated. I did this in Paint again due to computer access constraints, so I may edit it later to make it look better and more circular.


Amy Brockbank

Here is my code for the particle effect for the enemy explosion, it is quite similar to the particle effect system used on the ship.

Here, I wrote the code to destroy the particles; this code destroys the particles so they don’t stay on screen too long, so enemy explosions don’t last ages.


Amy Brockbank

This code sets the alarm, so the particles get destroyed after a certain amount of time.

Here, I added a sound to the explosion, so the overall game sounds better, rather than just missing sound effects.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I linked the sound using code, so the sound should now play in game.

Here, I created a collision between the laser and the enemy, so lasers can now hit enemies and destroy them.


Amy Brockbank

I tested the game, and the explosion works, it destroys the enemy. The sprite for the particle effect doesn’t look as bad as I originally thought it was going to, so I’ve decided not to edit it, for now at least.

Here, I used an instance destroy command to destroy the bullet, so the laser doesn’t continue once it has hit an enemy


Amy Brockbank

Here, I tested the game again; the bullet now disappears when an enemy has been hit.

Here, I decided to change how fast the enemy animation plays out as I thought it was going too fast, so the glow in the enemy’s eyes wasn’t very visible.


Amy Brockbank

The glow on their eyes is now more noticeable and looks better, in my opinion.

Here is my enemy projectile sprite, because of computer access constraints again, I originally created this sprite in Paint, and so I will have to take away the white background.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I Edited the collision mask of the sprite, so when the player collides with the bullet, it can take damage.

Here, I created code to move projectiles towards the player, so the enemy’s projectiles will now home in on the player.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I used an instance destroy command to destroy the projectiles when they come into contact with the player.

Here, I added a command that destroys the projectile when it leaves the room, so the game doesn’t crash or lag.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I created code to create the bullets that the enemies will use.

Here, I forgot to add the zap2 sound, the game crashed. If the game expects a certain asset to be there, and it isn’t, the game will crash.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I added the sound to the library, so the game shouldn’t crash.

I tested the game again; enemy projectiles now work now that I’ve added sound.


Amy Brockbank

This piece of code creates the shield, or health, for the player, so the player isn’t destroyed straightaway when a bullet hits the sprite.

Here is the code that draws the rectangle for the shield, so health is now visualised in the game. I chose to have the bar in two colours, blue and aqua.


Amy Brockbank

Here is the game with the shield bar now added. The two colours have an interesting effect on the bar.

Here, I created the code that will cause damage to the player when hit by reducing the shield bar.


Amy Brockbank

Here is damage in the game, when the player sprite is hit by enemy bullets, the bar decreases

Here is the sprite I will use when my player sprite gets destroyed, it has two frames, the other is similar except the outside is pink, and the inside is blue.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I wrote the code to create a particle effect explosion for when the player is destroyed.

Here, I tested the explosion. It looks quite nice.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I created the code to prevent bullets lingering on screen after player is dead.

I tested my game again, they now disappear when the player is destroyed.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I created a font. I chose Prestige Elite Std for the font in game.


Amy Brockbank

Here I created a score system. The score should count up every time the player hits an enemy with a laser now.


Amy Brockbank

The score now counts up when an enemy is hit; the score displays itself in the font I created earlier.


Amy Brockbank


Amy Brockbank

Here, I created a second enemy for the game. This time, only one enemy should appear on the screen at once, and move in a random direction. The time in which the enemy spawns is also randomised, meaning the second enemy could appear at any time.


Amy Brockbank

Here is my second enemy sprite. It is a recoloured version of my player sprite, only designed to look more sinister, the ship is completely grey, and the flames are red rather than blue. The eyes are red, too, and her skin is green with wild blonde hair. The flames on this sprite animate, to replace the particle effect that the player sprite uses.

This is my new updated enemy sprite, which replaces the mutant flying sheep. The eyes on this sprite change colour. I think this sprite looks better, as the other looked a bit too odd.


Amy Brockbank

Here, I created a title screen. I kept to the same colour palette as the rest of the game here. I also drew the planet that the game is set on. I also used the same font here that I use for the score in game. If I were to expand the game, I could change the planet to correspond with how far the player is in the game, each time they start the game up.

Here, I created a game over screen. Again, with this game over screen, I kept the colour scheme fairly similar, using only different shades of blue, purple, red and pink. I also drew out the main


Amy Brockbank

character from the player sprite, defeated, as I wanted to feature her more within the game. I also keep the font consistent with the title screen.


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Workflow document