So it's been a while since I updated my blog...
But I don't really know what to say about the work. I managed to get through the tutorial of Gamemaker and am currently coding a small puzzle game as a prototype so I can get to grips with the coding of each level.
...and I'm running out of time.
But hopefully going to get a load of work done overnight (pulling all-nighters...yaaaaay.) and trying to write parts for my dissertation beforehand!
Gah.
Okay, so the game itself hasn't come alive, not even as a prototype...yet. I'm still getting to grips with Gamemaker and its drag/drop and coding GML.
BUT
The concept is alive!!
Cheese and Quackers follows the tale of Quackers, a young duckling separated from its siblings by a freak gust of wind. Cheese is a friendly field mouse, shy around the other ducklings but able to talk to Quackers.
I have a map which consists of three areas: Woodland, City and Park, but you must cross the woods to get to the city and cross the busy city road to get to the park.
So far I've managed to come up with the three areas' tasks to actually get to the puzzles, but coming up with the puzzles (keeping in mind the player is a duckling and therefore unable to fetch and carry) for the levels is the hard part. Each puzzle completion 'finds' a sibling, who follows you through the world map to get to the next level.
Thinking about the woodlands, I've decided on a top-down adventure level to get to the puzzle at the end, but the player has to avoid predatory foxes on the paths to get to the puzzle safely.
Lives are an issue, ideally I'd like to give the player three lives but that doesn't seem right; perhaps every time you 'find' a sibling you earn a life so you don't have to start the whole game over again, you just have to start that area's challenge again,..
Big things being planned.
And I have to pitch this tomorrow.
Christ.
Update on "Cheese and Quackers" idea...
So a mother duck and her ducklings is pretty cute, but why not make the Player character a duckling itself, wandered from the path and has to follow clues to get back to its mother? (with the 'help' of local mouse, Cheese).
If I think about it this way, what does a duckling have to avoid?
> Predatory birds (owl/eagle?)
> Predatory animals (foxes)
> Humans
> Drains (on busy roads)
Perhaps "Cheese" could offer a text-based hint as to where the mother duck was last seen and Quackers has to follow this advice, being only a 'child' character.
Don't talk to strangers...?
Alright, so trying to get notes together to pitch this damn game;
So far it seems the most liked title is World Wide Web(bed feet) rather than Cheese and Quackers, which would mean we wouldn't need Cheese the rat upsetting the game.
Pitching the game, however, is proving tougher than I thought. As soon as I think of an idea for a level another one pops into my head, and as this game is only for three levels the ideas are crowding in too much with too many variables - and I haven't even found a sprite for the duck yet!
Can time just slow down, please? I'm falling behind on dissertation work and other modules!
Really wishing I had superpowers now.
So one quick thing I forgot to add...
I'm trying to think of ideas for a name for my game.
Some possible (very quick) thrown together ideas...
* Quack me up
* World Wide Web(bed feet)
* Cheese and Quackers (need an idea as to WHY cheese - maybe field mice give "they went that way" instructions or deliberately try to make the game harder)
What do you guys think?
Minor Epiphany
So my original concept for my minigame (minimum 3 levels) revolved around the idea of a lost dog trying to find its way back home, avoiding obvious traps such as dog catchers and other dogs.
However, a game from last year, "Nine Lives", also used the concept of a household pet (a cat, hence the name) trying to get home, which would become problematic for plagiarism and other concerns.
So after racking my brains for a while a minor epiphany occurred to me....DUCKS.
Why not a 'scavenger' game based on a mother duck scrambling around a map into different areas, trying to find and collect her lost ducklings?
For instance, a map based on three areas of different environments (ie woodland, busy road, park...etc) with different tasks to accomplish in order to achieve bread (to provide energy etc) to find the ducklings from each area.
The main plan is that once the mother duck has collected one duckling, it then follows her throughout the game. The mother then has to protect her ducklings from falling down drains and crossing the road safely and the like (perhaps once the mother is safely across the road, the player has to get each duckling across in turn?) - this then shows what kind of gamer the player is as obviously fully grown ducks can fly - but then they'd have to risk the lives of their ducklings.
So this is still only a work in progress but I finally have an idea!! Yay!
Totally not panicking....nope.
So for a module in Game Design this year, this blog will serve as a "Developer Diary" as such.
Having never even designed, coded or imagined my own game, i think it would be pretty safe to say I'm worried about this.
Ideas so far have hit walls every time, either for being too complicated or far too simplistic (I have a lot of gamer friends and don't consider myself a 'hardcore' gamer in anything). The amount of time spent with my head on the desk, fighting off a migraine, is starting to become silly. Even trying out ideas on other friends has led to nothing more than a childish concept and a spin-off of Pacman...which is still far too complicated to code.
...and we have to pitch these ideas next week. Standing in front of the class for 6 minutes.. I tend to panic when I have to present.
So to sum up...no panic. Maybe. Possibly.
...Okay yes, I'm panicking.
