Creating A Relatively Easy Enemy From A Mechanical/Dynamic/Aesthetic View
Today I will blog a bit about what we are calling The Pufferfish
How did we design a relatively easy enemy?
This is The Pufferfish, it is supposed to be one of the easiest enemies in the game. We wanted to create an original enemy as opposed to what was written in the original concept document.
We chose to do this because we felt that the original design lacked a sense of mechanics, or rather too complicated mechanics. But also we felt that the original didn't match the aesthetic of the game.
These were the first concepts done by the artists:
So why did we choose to scrap the idea of this and improve on a better version?
First of all The Skyslug did not feel as though it would fly first of all, which all of the enemies are supposed to do.
Second of all it felt really clunky to implement an enemy which would fly in a formation and attack the player character by flying around it.
The artists felt that the animation of that would be far too technical for their level at the moment in our production.
So where did we go from there?
So what I had to do in order for us to realize the enemy from there was to write some general User-Stories.I discussed with the graphical artists about different sea animals that convey a more aerodynamic feeling. The result of that was several enemy suggestions.
These are the User-Stories Provided for the Sky Pufferfish:
As a Sky Pufferfish
I will move slowly towards the player.
Because I want to come close enough to explode and damage the player.
As a Sky Pufferfish
I will expand close to the player
Because it scares the player from moving towards me
As a Sky Pufferfish
I will do high damage
Because I am fragile but dangerous up close
The graphic artists then came up with this idea:
And our programmer was able to understand exactly how it would behave once it reaches the player as well.
It's always fun to see concept art and other versions that didn't make the cut, so thanks for showing us that. It's interesting to see how the creature came about and to hear your design decisions during the process. User stories is something that we rarely use in my group, but I can see here how well you were able to communicate the design to the art and code responsible.
ReplyDeleteThe only issue I had when play testing your game during the pre-alpha was that it didn't look like an easy enemy. It looked big and tough, so it tricked my mind when they were shot down so easily. I can see why you prefer it over the skyslug though, because I can't really imagine how it would behave.
You're mentioning enemies that fly in formation and stuff, but I don't know what you're referring to. Is that something from the Aethereal design document? It seems like you're mentioning stuff from the "original" concept several times. If those are referring to the design document, the distinction isn't clear enough.
Anyways, interesting to read about the enemy from a design perspective. Albeit you could have gone a bit more in depth.
Good luck with your game!
Well said Axel. Your post is well structured and fairly easy to follow. One thing I have to note is that it’s pretty hard to understand the whys behind the redesigning of the enemy. Or rather, I could use a longer explanation. You mention that the original design both lacked a sense of mechanics and had too complicated mechanics. How? An explanation or a visualisation of the original design would be great here, some simple drawing perhaps. The only thing I can pick up from your post is that it flies in formations around the player. You also mentioned that it didn’t fit the aesthetic of the game. Again, how? How and why does it not fit with the aesthetic, what is the aesthetic, etc.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, good job. As Kentaro said before me, user stories is something we rarely see in our group so it is nice to see them in action. It is always interesting to see something go from an idea to a fully fledged asset.
I did also find some grammatical errors (“This is originally called The Skyslug” for example), but that’s just me nitpicking.
All in all, good read!