Sunday, 22 September 2013

September Summery (Pitch)

Summery

The game I planned to make was going to be an endless-runner similar to "Temple-Run" and "Jetpack-Joyride".
The camera will be positioned behind the controllable-character looking forwards and at a slight downward angle.
Technically speaking the character will remain static, whilst the 3D environment will scroll backward. Once the environment is a certain distance behind the character will repositioned, randomly (to an extent), further up front.
The character's personal movement controls will exist solely within a 2D plain.

Theme


I wanted to gather opinions and decide before the end of this week, as I hope to talk to tutors and such, learning to better program a runner would be a good move to make whilst I am in a moment of indecision.

In short opinions were as follows...




The Mechanics


  • Game-modes; Iron-Lady (Insta-death), Hard (less lives), Normal, Piece of Cake (lower enemy count).
  • Gunplay: As an endless runner it lends itself naturally to many arcade-style side-scrolling shooting games, for instance Galaxian, this will help in setting this game apart from "Temple-Run" like games.
  • Pick-ups: There will be points for score, and perhaps the addition of dinosaurs and/or headgear.
  • Power-ups: There will be shields and other advantageous items littering the track.
  • Hazards: There will be many enemy structures and units sent to halt your advance.

The Teams

Whilst I half-enjoyed the responsibility of leading a team last year, the results that we got were unsatisfactory.

As the team's leader I think much of the blame can be levelled at me for the following reasons...
  • I allowed for too much laxity and should have been more generous with the work-loads without worrying about over-burdening individuals.
  • I worried too much about directing criticism at what work that was produced.
  • As a team we all worked from home far too often, this resulted in communication issues.
  • Also whilst in theory more work can be done from home, in practice people (myself included) slack.
I have decided to pursue my work solo. This is not set in stone, but is currently the most effective method I can think of in order to produce, at the very least, a structurally sound framework for my game.
I might be interested in recruiting a little later down the line but we'll see.