The Chameleon

This past week I have been working on additional animations for the main character I designed all the way back in September. I need my character to be versatile and able to do many things, so I have made animations for him running, shooting, jumping, climbing and even rolling. I have also given him an animation for when he takes damage and I will make one for when he is defeated. While these are all useful from a gameplay aspect, I also want additional animations that give my character more personality. This might include a victory pose, a talking animation, or a celebration animation. While none of these are absolutely necessary, they help breathe life into my character and their world and help make the game more appealing and charming overall. I hope to have these personality-revealing animations for most of the characters, including villains, so that every one of them feels alive and I can show that without having to explicitly explain it for each and every character

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Designing Enemies

This week, I did not have very much time to work in Unity, so I could not transfer my images from Piskel to Unity and I could not program my character just yet, but I did work on the designs of several enemies. I created two enemies for a weather themed level I have been thinking about. One is a cloud that will shoot lightning and the other is a raindrop enemy that will shoot water projectiles (Which I have included an image of below). I have also been brainstorming different ideas for levels and their gimmicks. By gimmicks, I mean anything that makes that level unique from a gameplay aspect and an aesthetic aspect. One idea I had was a music themed level where giant horns shoot out air that will allow the player to float up to areas they could not have reached before. These horns may also be used as hazards as they could shoot air downwards and push the player into spikes below it. I was thinking there could be giant drums as well that, when struck, will bounce the player higher.

Experimenting with Unity

     This week I continued to work in Piskel. I created a couple additional minor enemies in animation. I also created some sample projectiles that the main characters and enemies might use. This week I also created my account for Unity. I began experimenting a little bit with Unity and its features. I was able to use some of the free assets that are provided, for example, apply physics to a certain object and move characters around. I learned how to use colliders, which is what makes characters, enemies, and even the walls and floors, solid. Unity 5 provides a pre-built character, complete with animations and programming, so I experimented with this feature. Hopefully, by next week, I will be able to import the animations I have in Piskel to Unity, I can really begin working on the game itself. I aim to program my main character by next week.

Further Work in Piskel

This week, I continued to work on different characters and animations in Piskel. I want the whole game to be about Superheroes and Villains and for it to have the feel of a comic book. I created several more animations for my previously created character, simply called "Chameleon" for now.  These new animations include running, shooting, and jumping. In addition, I created my first Super-Villain,"Invisi-Bill", who will be one of the eight main bosses of the game.  His superpower is the ability to turn invisible (hence the pun) and I will design the boss fight around that. Like in MegaMan I want the player to get an ability from each of the bosses they defeat, so that they can use one villain's power to exploit the weakness of another. I hope to design the rest of my villains with puns in mind as well to give the game a lighthearted feel. Hopefully, I will have another villain to show next week.

Here is a sample animation of "Invisi-Bill":