level concept

colour concept of a level, using similar art style and colour scheme as the assets will be textured as (not the back ground, just the parts the character will interact with) the background is just for show and to give a little context the the concept)

level designs

an idea for the first section of our level in very basic format, showing a few of the puzzles and obstacles.

Basic Logo Designs

quick look at a logo under the assumption on 'trollbrige' which would be the name of the main char:

Looking at mario

this shows:
Decrease in level size.
Increase in obstacles and obstacle difficulty.
A general decrease in enemies.
A change in Goals in each level.

names

We are trying to think of a few good names to call our game ready for our pitch so imma write down what we have here and then put it to a vote.

• Trollop (not sure about this the dual meaning i feel is unsuitable)
• The amazing adventures of my man Trollson
• Trolls, Wenches and other necessities
• My man Trollson
• Troll Bridge

 Will update with more as we think of it

How puzzling

Ive drawn up how the puzzle in the below video works. All it involves is pushing a crate through one track onto the other allowing you to jump over it to get over a gap.

Next is an idea for a platforming section where what happens on one side of the track is reversed on the other.

Eureka!

After much toil and trouble and a month of crying into my keyboards ive got the major track swap feature all done and dusted in Uscript. please ntoe everything texture meshes and models are placeholders inside udk none are my own assets.

Things to bugfix:

1. the first person gun is still rendering
2. i want the turn around to be registered by the mouse
3. the scripted teleport is currently too short
4. i dont want it to fire into the background (probably linked to dual gun and rotation bug)

But otherwise Huzzah it works :D

Through the doors

We though more on the changing track mechanic and we thought of having some sort of animation play like a quick 5 second cutscene. Here are some quick sketches of our ideas. For our pitch we will probably have a leica reel of our chosen idea ready. Personal favourite so far is the suck through the door one as i feel using ragdoll physics it could be quite amusing.

I Broke it

I realise exactly where ive gone wrong, ive broken the character during import yet still got it working ingame. It looks hilarious mind you.

Heres what it actually looks like , its all fixed now and a video should be uploaded when my net decides to behave itself.

Character concepts -4

Colour Concepts

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Character 3 concept

Updated level idea

Scaleform

Ive been researching how to create menus and huds in UDK and the best way of doing this is with the integrated flash scaleform system. The video above is one part in a series of tutorials created by scaleformimpress to teach how to do this.

Character 2 - (FnS)

start of a level idea

I had a quick brainwave for a level with a tower canyon and cliffs. So ive started of a drawing of what it may look like from one side of the track.

Attacking

Also added is our very simple attacking system we are hoping to have some sort of club the ogre holds so ive coded in this basic system using the already ingame sword as a placeholder. My next task is to create simple block placeholders to show we can swap in and out the models.

Grapple Fixing

Ive done a bit of grapple bug fixing and tweaks, firstly ive added a default shot fired like a tracer to see where you fire as at the moment we have no crosshair. Im going to swap this out with whatever our grapple fires at a later date, most likely a length of rope with a hook object on the end.  Ive also fixed the problem in which the character could fly off in random directions, now he is constrained to the sidescrolling plane.

Character 1 (FnS)

Character concepts + silhouette

The pictures here are a cross between research pictures that have been edited to get the basic shapes of characters, and characters i have designed from the top of my head. getting shapes and size variation was quite important as it impacts the level design and the overall feel of the game and character movement.

Weapons - Shadow Edition

Heres a selection of basic weapon styles we want to try out for our character in the hope of finding something that suits. We wanted to stick to brute force bashing weapons really so we have opted for large clubs and maces.

Grapple Ideas part 1

Here are some first basic ideas for what the grapple hook should actually look like. I personally like the tree trunk grapple cannon idea, but i want to get a few more ideas down first.

Ui idea

Heres 4 quick ideas for the ingame UI, i really want to work with the equiped item icons swapping back and forth. So im going to do some research into it and draw up some more ideas featuring it.

Botanical Gardens References

On Wednesday we embraced the terrible weather and pouring rain to get these reference images. We are hoping to get a forest/woodland level and these plant images are perfect research material. Also luckily for us they had a fungi exhibition so expect giant fantasy mushrooms!

Here are some images we felt could possibly be used as textures or at least the basis for textures.

model of flying enemy

Pre Z-Brush wasp enemy. I am thinking i need to enlarge the head to keep in with the style of the game.

Looking at enemies

brief look at enemies, I'm pretty keen to have some flying sort of creature. i have been looking at wasps and fly's, and done a couple of minute sketches on these to get a few ideas.

MID update on Character Model

This is the model so far, i will be putting it into Z-Brush and finishing it off. So far i have made the character rather plump, given a more hunched back for when we rig and he is bending over slightly, shorter more cartoony legs and longer arms, as well as enlarging the head slightly.

Update for character model

I'm currently using a 'skeleton' as a base mesh. This is allowing me to get some basic anatomy correct, even though i will be modeling an ogre, I'm assuming the bone structure would be somewhat similar to a humans. After the base model i will add in the feature needed to finish the character, for example the hunch, large stomach and general cartoony design.

Coding the sidescroll

Ive got the sidescrolling mechanic down in code pretty well. my next job is to sort out the switching track mechanic. Plus the grappeling hook works perfectly in the side view!

Grapples

Ive spend quite a bit of time this past week researching how to get a grapple mechanic into the game, to give platforming a bit more fun. I finally managed to crack it today and its all working and coded nicely, the only problem ive got at the moment is it doesnt show a beam or any indicator of where your link to the platform is.

I may upload the code at a later date if anyone requests it.

simple test level

Here's a few screenshots from a simple mock-up level, note that the textures and models are not my own and are purely place holder. I feel this will be adequate enough for a simple run around.

Here are some really nice videos detailing the levels in trine 2 they are pretty interesting and i feel this is the amount of detail we are hoping to aim for in our level.

The EDEN PROJECT

I am thinking of driving / getting a train or coach to the Eden Project to get some first hand research on tropical plants and trees for my level. if anyone else wishes to go, feel free to get in contact with me and we can look at a suitable time to go..

students: - £ 15.50 (on the door)
              - £ 14.00 (booked online)
Adults  :  - £ 22.00 (on the door)
              - £ 20.00 (booked online)

http://www.edenproject.com/

Plants for the level

Add caption

Heres a completed coloured drawing only a basic one of an idea for the main character as shown earlier. I think get a few more designs down and we should choose from there!

character design I am working on at the moment, only base colored.

Just another wip version of the troll main character. Using some of the references below i wanted to make him more natural with wood armour and mask.

quick concept of the main character (troll / ogre). looking into cosmetics for the character such as chains belts and so forth. update soon.

Inspiring a character

At the moment we keep changing our mind about our main character every 30 seconds, hell we cant even decide what species we want him to be, troll, goblin, or human. I feel that if we can pin a character that will help us establish the environment he lives in what his weapons would be and what the story could be like.
So following the goblin/troll theme ive set up a few images for inspiration and reference in the hope we can pull something out of it as a basis for this character.

I personally really like the larger creatures especially as they have melted into the forest and merged themselves with nature over the years.

Again i personally would love to see plate armour but made out of wood and bark held together with leathers and belts with maybe a mask covering his face.

Notable references
Deviantart.com
Lord of the rings - J.r.r Tolkien
Marvel Comics
Spiral Knights - Sega