codemonkey
Shared on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 10:37For those that don't know, didn't read my other entry, or have absolutely no interest in my ramblings (probably more than less) I'm planning on developing a flash RPG style casual game. Some folks ask me to keep a little dev blog on what I've done and where it's going.
My first preparations have been complete, I've read up about how to use Adobe FLEX and why Adobe Flash CS3 was a bit more than what I needed. In order to make a game that's going to be any fun I need a bit of talent outside of my development skill in the form of art. Although I'm an "old school" artist using pencils, coal and other mediums... I don't know jack about how to make it 'digital' and look good. That's where my partner in crime comes in: Darth Cestual!
Darth has proven himself as a cool fantasy artist and is a 2old2play member to boot, seemed like a good guy to assist me in the project. Now, I must get him the asset sizes and descriptions for what I want. All I know, with his skills my little casual game should look pretty damn sweet.
Some ramblings which I'll be writing in a formal design document (yes, I'm that picky):
Game Theme : Comic
I wanted to try something a bit different and light-hearted so the games graphics will be "comic book style" which should work well for the medium. The art won't be truly animated like a hardcore video game where you actually have characters moving and swinging weapons (for examples checkout Final Fantasy II and go into battle and watch the characters swing). The motions of swinging into the air and having a creature take damage across the screen adds little to the drama considering their not actually side by side battling "mortal kombat" style.
The interface will have two frames, one for the monster and one for the character you play. These will be white bordered (comic style remember) frames with a drawing in each. As the monster and/or player take damage they will move through three unique views of damage much like Final Fantasy Mystic Quest on the SNES, 100% health you'll see their standard artwork, then at 50% health you'll see a 'damaged' version of their artwork and at 25% health you'll see a 'very damaged' version of their artwork and death will simply fade out the artwork to red or some other Adobe Flash event.
Current decision's must be made on Flash game size, I want to keep it as small as possible without losing too much detail. Mainly keeping it at a realistic size means it would easily be embedded into websites while also working with the "lowest common denominator" browser which is 800x600 (really 1024x768 but the game has to account for browser real estate, toolbars, scrollbars, etc.)
Comic Storyline
The game will be set with 8 stages of battles, between each stage there will be a cut-scene to break up the action, this will be a comic style approach to telling the story much like a comic book would tell a story, short but simple. I don't want to detract from the game itself so the story may be one or two "pages" of comics (with a next button to get to the next page or a skip button for the impatient).
This could be an animated storytelling but I a) Don't know how to do animation b) Don't have any software to create animation and c) don't want to over complicate an easy project.
Up Next...
In order to design the game states or 'view stacks' as they seem to be called in Flash, I've got to sit down and draw out all the unique user interface screens so I can mock them up and get the correct dimensions for Darth to start work.
The ones i know I need now:
Welcome Screen
Start New Game button, Credits Button, Donate Button, etc
Character Select
Select one of the three available RPG-style characters and outfit with items
Merchant/Store
In between certain stages and at the start of the game, let the character purchase their starting equipment or mid-story equipment with money they've collected.
Difficulty Selection
Screen to display the three levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, EXTREME
Game UI
User interface for the game which allows characters to battle
Map Screen
A Screen to show the players progression through the 8-stages of the adventure
Credits
Roll the credits for all contributors, Beta Testers, QA folks, An Audio guy (or I'll use freely licensed sounds and music), etc.
I'm going to draw out the screens on paper to get an idea before mockup in Flash.
Okay, enough for now.
My first preparations have been complete, I've read up about how to use Adobe FLEX and why Adobe Flash CS3 was a bit more than what I needed. In order to make a game that's going to be any fun I need a bit of talent outside of my development skill in the form of art. Although I'm an "old school" artist using pencils, coal and other mediums... I don't know jack about how to make it 'digital' and look good. That's where my partner in crime comes in: Darth Cestual!
Darth has proven himself as a cool fantasy artist and is a 2old2play member to boot, seemed like a good guy to assist me in the project. Now, I must get him the asset sizes and descriptions for what I want. All I know, with his skills my little casual game should look pretty damn sweet.
Some ramblings which I'll be writing in a formal design document (yes, I'm that picky):
Game Theme : Comic
I wanted to try something a bit different and light-hearted so the games graphics will be "comic book style" which should work well for the medium. The art won't be truly animated like a hardcore video game where you actually have characters moving and swinging weapons (for examples checkout Final Fantasy II and go into battle and watch the characters swing). The motions of swinging into the air and having a creature take damage across the screen adds little to the drama considering their not actually side by side battling "mortal kombat" style.
The interface will have two frames, one for the monster and one for the character you play. These will be white bordered (comic style remember) frames with a drawing in each. As the monster and/or player take damage they will move through three unique views of damage much like Final Fantasy Mystic Quest on the SNES, 100% health you'll see their standard artwork, then at 50% health you'll see a 'damaged' version of their artwork and at 25% health you'll see a 'very damaged' version of their artwork and death will simply fade out the artwork to red or some other Adobe Flash event.
Current decision's must be made on Flash game size, I want to keep it as small as possible without losing too much detail. Mainly keeping it at a realistic size means it would easily be embedded into websites while also working with the "lowest common denominator" browser which is 800x600 (really 1024x768 but the game has to account for browser real estate, toolbars, scrollbars, etc.)
Comic Storyline
The game will be set with 8 stages of battles, between each stage there will be a cut-scene to break up the action, this will be a comic style approach to telling the story much like a comic book would tell a story, short but simple. I don't want to detract from the game itself so the story may be one or two "pages" of comics (with a next button to get to the next page or a skip button for the impatient).
This could be an animated storytelling but I a) Don't know how to do animation b) Don't have any software to create animation and c) don't want to over complicate an easy project.
Up Next...
In order to design the game states or 'view stacks' as they seem to be called in Flash, I've got to sit down and draw out all the unique user interface screens so I can mock them up and get the correct dimensions for Darth to start work.
The ones i know I need now:
Welcome Screen
Start New Game button, Credits Button, Donate Button, etc
Character Select
Select one of the three available RPG-style characters and outfit with items
Merchant/Store
In between certain stages and at the start of the game, let the character purchase their starting equipment or mid-story equipment with money they've collected.
Difficulty Selection
Screen to display the three levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, EXTREME
Game UI
User interface for the game which allows characters to battle
Map Screen
A Screen to show the players progression through the 8-stages of the adventure
Credits
Roll the credits for all contributors, Beta Testers, QA folks, An Audio guy (or I'll use freely licensed sounds and music), etc.
I'm going to draw out the screens on paper to get an idea before mockup in Flash.
Okay, enough for now.
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Comments
Submitted by Caduceus on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 11:13
Submitted by codemonkey on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 11:17