Monday's Final Run Cycle

OK! After some discussion with the game designers, we have decided that Monday's previous rough dimensions of 100 X 100 pixels was too big for an 800x100 screen resolution, so I've revamped her for a more fluid stride and changed her dimensions down to 60x60. We lost some detail, but gained a lot in screen space, so it was worth the cut. She now looks like this:

A version with no arms, has been made as well, so that we can attach the "slingshot" arms for her ranged weapon separately. I will be working to create her jump, idle and damage flinch moves over the next few days. Should be easy now that Monday's base character has been defined. A few enemies and a BOSS in the works too! I will update with more pics soon!

It Begins!

So after the first few meetings with the team, it seems like we've nailed down the core concepts of our game. We're still working on a title. I like "Dementia" or "Cracked". Our character Monday is abandoned by her parents and haunted by her teddy bear until her madness leads her to destroy a toystore. When cops find her she is near catatonic and no guardians come to claim her, so she is institutionalized into a mental hospital for disturbed young girls. In her head, Monday fights to regain her sanity and her memories by fighting through a twisted toystore.  Her bear is the ultimate boss, and her backpack serves as her repressed memories. For the whole game, Monday doesn't talk, only her back pack, who she realizes in the end is an incarnation of herself.

I really like the story, and I love the creepy feel of the toystore. We picked a couple toys for each style of enemy listed in the textbook, and I am starting the walk/run cycles for them so as to keep up with the workload. It looks like roughly, I need to do 3 characters a week to make as many as we want, plus the bosses and the cutscenes. Jill and Michael are helping with environments and Shaun may be able to do animation for the enemies as well, though he hopes to focus on interface.  I think we may have taken on a bigger project than we can finish in 2-ish months, but I figure, "what the heck, it's my last year anyways. I my as well make something great while I have the chance."

I've uploaded a few enemy designs I have been working on for the characters to show my progress. The bear patrollers will chase you if they see you, and the teeth can work for patrolling, chasing and lining pits. The monkey is mean to be a shooter. He will throw banana bullets. I've also got some initial concept art done for the main character and toystore layout. We've also decided that mirrors will act as checkpoints in the level. Every time Monday walks by one, it will shatter and save the game progress.

We have a 7 level tower concept for the game on the go right now. The levels we have chosen are:
OPENING SCENE: Monday is rocking back and forth in a ruined toystore with nothing but a bear and a broken mirror to hint at the cause. The police come, indicated by blue and red lights, and we close up on Monday's blank face. When we zoom out again, she is in a hospital bed and doctors are shaking their heads. When they leave, we pan out on Monday's bed and focus on the bear and the broken mirror on the floor nearby. This is the start screen. You pick start with a syringe and when you do the bears eyes glow read and Monday screams. This results in a fade to black that fades in on young Monday in the toystore, which is the in-game environment.

THE STORE: boxes, sale signs, registers, display stacks, baby dolls, dummies, stuffed animals
THE CARNIVAL: sock monkeys, evil clowns, flame hoops, alkazeltzer bottles, mallets, wind-up cars chattering teeth. The boss of this world will be a "siamese-twin" ragdoll stitched together with long ropey legs. The lead in to this battle will be a freakshow theme, with posters on the wall.
THE WESTERN LEVEL: this level is meant to break up the platforming with a shooter style game. You are on a runaway train being attacked by bandits. You will have to shoot grappling hooks before bandits can board the train.
THE MEDIEVIL LEVEL: This level has bear knights, torture champer stlye traps, crumbling platforms, drawbridges, lego princesesses, and a dragon boss with fireballs who scorches the land black leading up to his battle.
THE BARBIE LEVEL: the PINK level, with evil poofy dogs, cute kittens that explode into claws and fur when you're close and Barbies that puke glitter at you. At the end of this level you get to a "Malibu" barbie type pool, where you fight a giant octopus. When you beat him, you can hop on the Barbie speedboat into the pool and enter the:
PIRATE LEVEL: The pirate level is like the train level, where you fight pirates trying to board your ship and shooting cannons from their pirate ship. Once you've fought through the onslaught, you get off on a dark twisted land.
THE WAR TOYS and THE SECRET LABORATORY: At the very top of the toystore, past all the other toys, you fight the deadly war toys and the assembled mutants being pumped out from the evil lab. There will be ray guns, frankenstien bears, mechs to fight, maybe even a mech suit to get in to. This level needs to be bad ass because it's the end. We're thinking maybe bomber planes, army men, gi joe soldiers. All sorts of mayhem. The final boss before the bear is a giant tank with a baby doll attached to the top of it.

THE END: You fight a giant spide bear that represents Monday's madness over her parents abandoning her in a toystore with nothing but a bear. We learn she has been alone for 7 years with the bear absorbing all of her sadness. She finally finds her voice, cures the black streak in her hair that represents the taint in her mind, and remembers who she is and why she is really in the hospital.

In the final scene she leaves the hospital standing tall and we see she has left the bear behind.