JacksSwift Blogs: Platform Game.

Platform Game Update Blog

Customer

This game is like any other platform game, and it differs a lot from an educational game with a platform game is created for people who want to just play a game without educational factors.

The design brief is to create a platform game with no requirements other than the main character being named Max, who must move from level to level killing or avoiding monsters which obstruct the path to the finish or try to kill him. Max collects a score form collecting diamonds and from killing enemies. He must collect a certain items to unlock doors game weapons or armour and progress to the next level.

Target audience for this game is mid-teens and over, the reason for this is because the game will contain violence and will not be suitable for younger audiences. The game will also be fairly difficult so younger audiences will find the game challenging.

Development

Plot:

Set in the height of the Roman Empire, Maximus a well-known war hero, Maximus is set with strict orders from high command to retrieve the Jewels which were stolen from the Emperor of Rome by a clan of barbaric Celts have fled to the north, but still within the empires grasp.

Sprites

Max – Max short for Maximus, an Ancient Roman hero. Maximus will be in roman armour and will be equipped with a wooden shield at first, without a weapon in this stage of progression Maximus will have to sneak past enemies as he cannot kill them at this time, eventually your character will progress until he has a Roman steel sword and a roman shield.

Celtic enemy – the game is set in Europe during the Roman Empire expansion, and Maximus must fight against a Celtic army. The Celts will be wearing leather to cover their groin, but will have bare skin everywhere else this is to achieve a barbaric look. They will be equipped with Clubs and axes.

Animal enemies – there will be two animals which will also serve as enemies, firstly being a bear the bear will be a rare occurrence do to its difficulty to kill, and will be seen in the later levels. The second animal enemy are wolves, these will be seen with Celts or around them as trained attack dogs.

Sounds

Weapons – there are free samples and weaponry audio that can be found on the internet. Sounds such as sword tings.

Damage sounds – Maximus will make sounds when hit and when hitting in exhaustion, there will also be blood sounds and animals whining due to attacks.

Music-

There will be constant music throughout the level, however it will very quiet as to not block out other sounds. I will try to implement a music change when in combat.

Week one – characters In the first week I wanted to get some basic characters made, which I could add more detail to or change in the future. Characters such as enemy Celts were completed in the first week having three different style of enemies with different features such as weapons, hair, build and clothing. Maximus the main character was completed, as well as his different armour sets which would act as an upgrade once collected.

Creating Maximus was fairly easy, as I already had an in-depth view of what I wanted him to look like when I was planning the game. Maximus was heavily inspired on the character Maximus Meridius in the fictional film Gladiator in which an ex-roman soldier is enslaved and is forced into gladiatorial battles. The armour for Maximus was inspired from the movie for its unique black colour, which would have historically been uncommon. I chose the black armour to make Maximus stand out from the standard roman soldier that people commonly depict. I created three variants of Maximus more specifically his armour. The first being the black leather which the player will start with, the other two armour sets will be hidden within the levels. The second armour set which the player can acquire is a steel armour which will give the player more health but will slow down his moving speed, when the player finds a rare armour he will be prompted with a message explaining the benefits and disadvantages of the armour, the player will have a onetime choice whether to pick up the amour or keep your current armour. The third and last hidden armour set is golden armour although this is not historically accurate, and that steel would be a better choice of armour rather than gold I chose to keep the gold armour. The reason for having the gold armour was influenced by many games in which golden items are seen as the most treasured and most powerful. The golden armour unlike the other two armour sets the golden armour gives the player a slightly higher armour rating than steel, but gives the player more speed that steel but not as much speed as the default leather. Maximus is controlled with directional arrows, left and right arrow controlling forward and backwards movement, up arrow being jump and down arrow as (toggle) block. With the spacebar as the attack key and left shift being melee attack.

Maximus has eight animations, four combat animations being standing attack, standing melee, block, and block attack. Standing attack is the primary attack which deals the most damage to enemies the animation (a thrusting jab with the sword) is accurate considering you are fighting alone and not in a formation in which most battles were fought in, Standing melee is more so used to destroy the environment to progress such as a barricade which needs destroying the animation plays Maximus bashing his shield in an upwards stroke. The block animation is played when the player presses down arrow it toggles a crouched animation with the shield protecting Maximus from the side he is facing but leaves him vulnerable from behind, whilst in the block Maximus can still move back and forth but his speed is halved Maximus can also change direction whilst blocked. The last animation is a blocked attack, this animation replicates an accurate roman attack which was used by soldiers especially in formations, the animation shows Maximus in his standard block position however when the spacebar key is pressed Maximus thrusts his sword in the foreground in front of his shield when facing forwards when facing backwards Maximus has his sword in the background with his shield in front showing. The other three animations are movement, featuring a running animation which plays in both directions. The second jumping animation shows Maximus crouch slightly and then lunges in the air with feet up and slightly in front of the direction he’s facing. The falling animation is similar to the jump animation in terms of landing as when Maximus reaches the ground he crouches a bit. The final animation for Maximus is the stunned animation which is only played when in the standing position as the player cannot get stunned whilst blocking, the animation shows Maximus staggering backwards with blood splatter.

Enemies.

The enemy which Maximus faces are Celts, I chose to have Celts as the enemy as they were enemies of the Roman Empire and most people have heard of Celts as opposed to the other enemies of the Roman Empire. There are three different standard Celts which are in the game, the first Celts is poorly armoured and is equipped with just an axe this Celt will attack the quickest so in high quantities this enemy is challenging, the axed Celts are seen throughout the game, but in the first few levels these are the only enemies you encounter. The second tier Celt is more heavily armoured with leather but is still exposed this enemy uses an iron sword which deals a lot more damage, but cannot attack as many times as the Axed Celt. The third and final Celt which Maximus is faced with is a “Brute” Celt these are the most heavily armoured with a leather and iron armour, this enemy can be seen equipped with either a Claymore long sword, or a battle axe, and these weapons do considerable damage to Maximus and with standard armour Maximus can only sustain 2-3 hits before he is killed. There are two bosses featured in the game, but are only seen during the last few levels. The first is an archer who can shoot from a range so Maximus must find a way around or keep his shield up while advancing. The archer has very little to no armour, however the archer is usually surrounded by other Celts. The last and final boss is seen on the final level and is the hardest enemy in the game, he is equipped with full iron armour and a steel claymore long sword, however this enemy is the slowest and can be outran by Maximus easily with standard armour. The boss’s weak spot is his back and with a few hits can be killed, however there is a hidden way to get around him.

Other enemies in the game are animals there are wolves and bears which can be found throughout the game, they are usually found in areas not occupied by the enemy. And can usually be avoided by going over on platforms, however you can choose to kill them which will reward you with gold, the wolves are usually seen in at least packs of three or four they do less damage than the tier one Celt but can kill you in 5-6 hits. The bear is only seen in one level and is not killable and must be avoided.

This is the finished Celt warrior enemy, I did consider making more variations but didn’t have enough time to make them. The enemy was made similarly to the way I created Maximus even using a few body shapes and then re-texturing them.The character has no animations. Animation would have been similar to the Maximus’ animations

Maximus Idle, as well as separated to show how he was drawn in steps.

He was made using Adobe Illustrator using the standard paint brush and different shading’s. The file was saved under the Platform game>Characters>Maximus

Start-up animation, Played when entering a new level (shows unsheathing sword)

Maximus Running animation as seen in game maker

This shows (LEFT) the variables for Maximus. Things such as gravity, move speed, jump speed are listed here. The other image (RIGHT) shows the movement of Maximus, other things such as attacks and jump were planned but could not be implemented due to time restrictions

This is the first level in the game, it is the most simple with hardly any difficulty involved. The reason for the start of the level to start of easy is so it gives the player some time to get how to play the game and get used to the controls, this level is more like a tutorial. It shows the Gems you are tasked to collect and what they look like.

This is the second room where you first encounter the Celts, you have to avoid a Celt warrior and loot the map for gems

The round house is one of the buildings seen in the game which is enter-able, it serves as a place to get gems and other goods it is solid all-around except from the entrance. It is seen in camps in most of the levels.

This is one of the gems which needs to be collected in order to progress to the next level they can be found around the level and inside of buildings. All of the diamonds need to be. The diamonds was made using

There are three trees in the game which are also used as bushes in the level. I place the tree behind the floor and lower it so only the thin branches at the top can be seen then in game it looks like a dead bush, this saved time rather than making an entirely new sprite.