Entry #9: Alpha Testing & Level 5

Welcome back to my 2D Game design blog, today i will be talking about Level 5 of our game and also the in class Alpha testing we did a few days ago, originally our Alpha testing was suppose to be on week 8 but was pushed back for unknown reasons to us but it gave us a chance to finish up a few things. We only showed the testers Level 1 of our game as we didn't want to spoil to much in till we had fully completed the game, also the fact that other levels still had a few bugs in them and we hadn't implemented sound into Level 2 yet.
Overall we got pretty good scores, I'm the programmers of the group so that day i had a few hours to prepare everything and get our PC & game set up for testing and then it was pretty much up to the producer(Oscar) to explain the story line(as we had no cut-scenes in the game at the moment) before they got started and then listen to their feedback and also to keep the alpha testing sheets. I'm not sure exactly what scores we got but I think we averaged about 7/10. We got a few complaints about Level 1, many people found the level a bit hard to traverse, we ended up adding another staircase to one section to make it easy to get up and removed a lot of crates so you're not having to constantly jump over them. All i can say is it was a really enjoyable day but i was still nervous as being the programmer if they find any glitches/bugs it would of been my fault.

Level 5:
Level 5 is almost complete, we've had a few problems with this level, first off we wanted to have rotating platforms which you will have to time your jumps to get over but the coding became to time consuming just because how little i know about the citrus engine at this moment in time, we got it half working and ended up scraping it because we had other things to do. Another problem was getting the end boss(CEO of Uranus Bars) to be invincible, this was pretty tricky but I ended up talking to another programmer from a different group who was having the same problem and after about an hour or so we both managed to figure it out together which was pretty fun.

Here are some Assets and Background for Level 5.

Elevator for Level 5

Large Platform for Level 5

Background - Level 5

See you next time!

Entry #8: Level 4

Hello again, we're nearing the final weeks of this project so we are hard at work trying to get everything done and make sure all levels are playable and bug free, Level 1 is fully finished and has it's music completed so we're happy about that, Level 2 underwent a redesign after we found the first layout to be unplayable, the second layout fits much better with the background and is really great fun to play, we are working out a few bugs but other than that it's pretty much complete.

Level 4 was really fun to do, we knew that this level was going to be different from the others, in the story line Sticky(The character you play as) finds a Uranus bar on the floor, hes just ran pretty far in the previous level so he's pretty hungry and eats it, turns out it's gone off and makes him trip out. He wakes up in a weird world(or so he thinks) and makes his way up a giant tree, when he gets to the top he falls over a pirate ships wheel which turns out to be the steering wheel for the spaceship he's still on and ends up crashing it.

All the assets where redesigned for this level, making the elevators look like clouds and the platforms look like mushrooms.

Here are some pictures of the assets as well as the background for the level.

Platform for Level 4

Elevator for Level 4

Level 4 - Background

We will be starting work on level 5 this week so look forward to that in the next blog post. Thanks for reading.

Entry #7: Level 3

Welcome back, we will be talking about the 3rd level of our game, with level 1 and 2 pretty much complete apart from a few bugs and adding in the music once I've properly finished them, It's time to move on to the 3rd level.

Originally we was planning this level to be a timed level, in which there would be a giant laser(deployed by the CEO of Uranus Bars) chasing you down the level in order to try and kill you, we can face first into a big problem, learning to code that kind of mechanics would take far to much time up then we actually have to finish this game, we have to make the game within 10 Weeks so this wouldn't be possible, especially for a new programmer like me. We ended up scarping the idea, but since we already had the level layout designed (which was just a simple run right and down, run left and down layout) and time was running out we manage to convert it into a speed jumping level, laser on the floor which you have to constantly jump over as you're moving forward in the level. It wasn't the level we was hoping for but we're still pretty proud of it.

Here is the background to level 3:

Level 3 - Background

The white areas indicate where the platforms of the level will be, that's all for this entry so see you next time.

Entry #6: Music

Hello, this entry will be about the music and sound effects of our game.

Originally another member of the the team was in charge of the music (Jed) but as a group we decided that i should take full responsibility of the Sound for our game, this was mainly due to me being better at producing music than the others.

Unfortunately I have not found a way to import music into Blogspot and therefore I am unable to show you any samples I have been creating for our game. I do however have some more art work to show you which i will now post below.

Coin

End Level Door

Medium Sized Platform

Small Sized Platofrm

We also have come up with the design and background for level 2, I don't hold a copy of the layout of the level as i wasn't the one who had to design it but i do hold a copy of the background of the level which will be posted below.

Level 2 - Background

Another artwork heavy blog so i hope you're enjoying the pictures. See you next time.