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

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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

Turning Kismet to Uscript - Starting the procedure

This is the first attempt very roughly at implementing our camera system into UDK using script.

This creates a set of cameras all accessable from 1 line of code (an all in one camera), this sort of works at the moment. This is a heavily modified version of UDK's own all in one camera, which allowed the player to call a function in the console or via kismet that would swap the camera to topdown thirdperson etc. My version swaps the camera between the sidescroll views. My UDN_Pawn script early prototype

Reference
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CameraTechnicalGuide.html#Example%20All-In-One%20Camera

Kismet Camera

Our main idea is to be able to change the cameras point of view in the 2.5d perspective. to be able to go into the background almost. Providing 2 levels of sidescrolling that are able to interact with each other. The best way to describe this is that when you see houses in the background of a usual sidescroller you normally cant interact with them, they are just scenery. In our sidescroller by pressing the interact button you are able to bring your character into the house onto the second "plane". It sounds pretty odd and awkward but the video below should give a rough draft of what we want to achieve.

Bear in mind this is a rough version created via kismet. The end feature will be done in Uscript using camera classes.

Quick goblin ideas

Our initial character idea is some sort of goblin or small creature, so ive drawn a few quick ideas.

 

I really like the idea of a goblin explorer so im going to research more into that side of what he would wear. Im not really a fan of goblins though so with ive tried to steer myself away from the generic squat green creatures and i ended up with what you see below, which for an initial draft i really like.

 

As with any explorer ive gone for an arctic expedition theme as represented by the big furs and the snow boots. Due to my fondness of goblins ive also hidden his face to make him indistinguishable. We had the idea of some sort of grappeling hook mechanic, so ive incorporated that aswell and turned it into a harpoon gun using rope attached to the bolt. If we do go with this UDK allows for alternate firing modes. Grappeling and attacking harpoon?

Initial Game Component Concept

The general premise for the FMP game is a '2.5D' side-scroller where we will be showcasing 2 full (and completed to the best f our ability) levels, including characters, collectibles, assets, and working mechanics.

Art style:
After some thought we decided on a slightly more cartoony art style as it will bring out the fantasy element we are intending to portray as well as making the experience more fun and enjoyable that sinister and slow like other style would add.

Characters:
The main character will be the only playable character, however there will be enemies of some form. We initially wanted the Main protagonist to be a small character of some form to go through caves and have a more 'fun' feel to the combat and movement around the levels. Our current considerations are:
- Goblin
- Wizard
- Troll
- Pirate

Level Themes:
Although its quite early to be thinking about themes for levels we have done it as a bit of forethought for research purposes. our current ideas:
- Forest / amazon architecture / rain-forest
- Mountains / cave / crags
- Factory / clockwork / stream based
- VERY fantasy inspired area (giant mushrooms etc)

Collectibles / breakables:
The collectibles would need to be slightly relevant to the character we chose however there are items that could work for multiple characters. Current ideas:
-'Coins' or something similar as the main collectibles throughout the levels.
- Health / mana / energy restoration ( potions or similar )
- Extra Life
- Upgrade to Armour / weapon ( extra defense / damage )

Mechanics:
Our aim is to progress side-scrollers from being a one way path to be more interesting and have multiple ways of maneuvering yourself through the level.
- 2 parallel 'tracks' for the level which can be switched between at specific intervals
- hook or grapple mechanic
- slide downhill and harder to run up hill
- *considering adding combat mechanics*