Designer of name

Hi, it is I, the Designer of time. Continuing figure out a name for our game even as I write this blog post. (Something with moth in it perhaps.) Finally, the rest of my team have realized the importance of a new name for the game. (There could also be ”light” in the name, as that is one of the base mechanics of the game.) I mean, the name of the game is the first thing the player is going to see. The name, and maybe a picture to it, is a big factor if a person even going to be a player of the game. That picture might even be more important than the name, but I believe that the name is at least equally important. (LightMoth?… no.)

 

 

So, what do you do when you can’t come up with anything good? (Hmm. Save them child moths. No.) If you read my past blog posts you can clearly see that I had this problem for a while. (Moth to the rescue? Ugh.) I thought that I was a good designer, even a great one, but if it is this hard to come up with a decent name. What if I am to no use then. What kind of designer can’t even make a name for a game. Am I really this useless?

 

NO! I must believe in myself. I know that I am one of the greater designer of all. After all, I am THE Designer of time, that was a name chosen to me for a reason and not just a name I came up with. I almost wish I did came up with it, just to know that I am able to come up with great names, but no.

 

(Guide your children home in the middle of the night when you must rely on the little light from the lightberries. That explains the game but is way too long.)

 

The name of the game should be short, interesting and easy to remember. But as you may see, it is not always so easy to do. (Moth. Could name be just ”Moth”?) But we are not the ones that gives up that easy. Our team might not be gifted with this talent, but we shall prevail. We shall conquer this area of name making. And in the end, we will have a name for our game that is not just good or even great. In the end, we will have a name that is fitting for the game.

 

And with that, I, the Designer of time, will end this post to continue to think of a name. (Moth in time?) See you in next Designer of blog post.

Designer of color indication

Hi, it is I, the Designer of time. Back to write about my ideas of a color indication system for our game Echo. (Shit. The game is to be done soon, and we have not come up with any name yet other than the original concept name. I think we should redirect all our focus to come up with something else. I don’t think I can handle this pressure for much longer. I mean, how hard can it be to come up with a decent name. It doesn’t even have to be good, just something of our own, but why can’t we do it? I feel my depression resurface, and I can’t do anything to stop it.)

 

We have been having flowers in the game for a while now, but they do not have any use other than show the player where the moth has been in the level. What I have been doing is to come up with some ideas to make more use of these flowers.

The idea I came up with is to having the different colors of the flowers indicate what there is in the surrounding area, or just what are about to come if you adventure in a certain opening in the branches.

 

The green colored flower indicates a safe area and that there is a lost child nearby

Where the green flowers grow, there often are children somewhere close by and always indicate that the player can take it easy here, because it is a safe area without any enemies to fear. The player can therefore take it easy and take his time to search for the child.

 

The red colored flower indicates that there is enemies nearby and that the player should be wary.

 

When you see a red flower, you should be cautious and not rush through what lies next. This applies especially  when the player are leading any of the moths children.

 

These two flowers were pretty easy to figure out how to use. This is because in our society, green often are connected with good and safety, while red often are seen with danger and bad stuff. The simplest example of this in the real world I could think of is traffic lights. When it shows green it is safe to proceed, and when it is red it is dangerous to do just that. That includes both pedestrians and drivers.

So I wanted to use one more color to use just for the original using of the flowers. With that in mind, I took the blue flower because it felt the most neutral of the colors that we already had.

The blue colored are there to guide the player through the level and show where you have been already.

 

When you see a blue flower that is already lit, you know that you have visited this place before. You should then feel familiar with this place and perhaps remember if there is any red flowers nearby that you might want to avoid.

 

And with that I, the Designer of time, is signing out to continue with my designs.

 

Designer of level system

Hi, it is I, the Designer of time. Taking a break from designing our level to write to you guys.

I have been working on our level for Echo (still not the final name and I hope we can come up with something better soon). It is a work in progress and to perfect it, will most likely be impossible, but the least I can do is to make it as good as I can within our time frame.

There is so much I could talk about the level design. So, I think the blog would benefit if I narrowed it down to one of the many aspects. The thing I narrowed it down to is my level system, that is rather interesting, if I may say so myself.

But before I write about that, I want to tell you why I came up with this elegant but a bit complex idea. It all began when we re-thought how our game should be, and tried to make it doable within the time frame we have been given. One of the programmers and I (we influence the game the most in our group) had different views about how the level layout should be like. He was thinking of a kind of labyrinth when I was thinking of a linear path for the player. When neither of us gave up, I went home and began pop out ideas on how to solve our problem.

 

This is the whole map, but the camera will be zoomed in on the player at all times. So the player will never see the whole map at any certain time.

This confusing mess is what I came up with. This would be the map in its wholeness. For now it looks somewhat like a labyrinth with a lot of intersections. But like it looks now would be impossible for a 2d game to look like. With the paths going over and underneath each other makes it look like a mess. But with my idea the player would not even know that the paths crossed each other as it does. With that said I would like to try to explain how I designed it.

When the player start the game, there is no level but where the player is at the time.

The level only exists where the player is. So, for starters, when the player start the game, the only part of the map is the part as shown in the picture above.

When the player nears the intersection, the adjacent sections appear for the player to see.

As soon as the player enters a certain area right before the section, the adjacent sections will appear as if they were always there.

When the player goes in one of the directions, and the other sections cease to exist.

The player chooses one path, and the others disappear from existence.

The player goes into the next intersection and the adjacent sections appear. 

When the player comes to the next intersection everything repeats and the player must choose a new path.

The player chooses one path and the others disappear.

The player takes the final path to reach the nest, as the other paths disappear once again.

 

 

By doing it like this, the player move through the map without ever knowing the map was crossing itself at several points. Making what was once thought impossible to do in 2d, possible.

As I said before, this is work in progress and not nearly perfect in any way. But still, I think we could use this and make a level with this system.

And with that said. I, the Designer of time, goes back to design. I will see you in the next ”Designer of…” with new amazing designs.

Designer of title menu

Hi. It is I, the designer of time is back again to continue with Echo (not final name) and using my ideas to make it more imersive as ever than any game you’ve seen.

This time I want to write about an idea that are not yet implemented in the game.The idea I have designed is our future title menu.

The camera is static and fixed at the moth nest. The player can roam around inside of the screen with the childs, also roaming around freely. While in this menu the player can try out some of the games mechanics. When the player press the space bar the moth emits a sound that the children answer to. The player can also pick up a lightberry and use by either throw it away or just flying around with it. And when the player finally press the start button, you can hear the sound of a hunter. Then the children panics and fly away at different directions. At the same time as the children flies away the GUI fades away and the game starts.

 

If you make a menu like this you can teach the player so much of the game with little effort. When the player see the light emitting from the berry, he can’t help himself but to move towards the light ( just like a real moth would do). Therefore when getting close enough to the berry the player picks it up and knows that you can pick up berries. As curious as players can be he will probably try some buttons. Most likely he will press the mouse buttons or the space bar, if the player hasn’t tried the space bar before he picked up the berry. If he press the left mouse button he will throw the berry away and learn that you can do that. And if he hasn’t tried the space bar yet and does it now, the moth will emit a sound that the children will respond to. Then the player learn that if the moth emits sound later in the game and hear a child respond, there is a child near by.

Lastly when the player press the start button. He will hear an aggressive sound, the children will scatter and the game starts. The player now knows that he need  to find them and take them home again. Also when the player hear that sound in the game he will know that it is something dangerous and be cautious.

I think that it will truly enhance the immersivness of the game.

 

That is everything for me in this weeks blog post. I will see you in the next ”Designer of…” with new amazing designs.

Designer of sound

Hi, the designer of time is back to tell you guys more about my experience in my new team ”Cyclops”. I am taking a break from designing Echo (not the final name for the game) to write this blog post.

I havn’t  told you guys about Echo yet so this post will be a brief introduction to the game and a detail I have been working on.

In Echo you play as a moth in search for your children that are lost in a maze of branches. The games mechanic is light based as it is played out in the night. You will have to pick up lightberries if you want to see  as you barely see anything without it. Also look out for the enemies that will eat you and your children.

This week i made some background sound by accident.

I was playing around in audacity by recording noise and adding effects to it. Then a friend saw it and wanted to make some as well. So we recorded ourselves making funny sounds. We ended up with about six seconds of usefull recording.

I thought it would be funny to add it in the game as it was. After I implemented it in the game and played around for a bit, I lowered the pitch of the sound. This effect gave the sound, that sounded very goofy, a much more zombie(?) feeling ot it. This was about 0.5 pitch of the original. It may have sounded gruesome but it did not quite fit our game. And that’s when I went a bit crazy and lowered the pitch even more. I lowered it lower than any pitch been lowered before. This time I lowered the pitch to 0.1 and the effects was out of this world. It was gruesomer than ever but also felt like it fitted our game. The new sound make it feel terrifying when you are being chased down by a hunter and trying to protect you children.

Sadly I could not upload the sounds directly to this blog so instead I shared them on my googledrive. I have linked the sounds below and I hope the links work as they should.

Original sound

0,5 pitch

Final product