Updating the Chameleon

I spent the time since my last post creating new sprites and editing old ones on piskel. It may seem that I am spending too much time on the visuals and not enough on the programming, but I am still keeping up on both and the visuals are a huge part of the game. One of the first animations I did for my main character, the Chameleon, has been completely revamped to make him seem more alive. In addition, I have created a new animation of the Chameleon slicing with a plasma sword, which I have decided to make his primary attack. For his secondary attack, he can shoot small bullets that are weaker than the sword, but have the advantage of being able to attack from a distance. Like Mega Man, the Chameleon will also be able to obtain the abilities of his defeated enemies to fight other villains or find secret areas, which will contain power-ups or other collectables. The Chameleon's real name is Leon Ryder (Cheesy, I know) and will be playable outside of his costume for the tutorial level. I have included many of the new Chameleon/Leon Ryder sprites below:

Chameleon Idle

Chameleon Slashing

Chameleon Shooting

Leon Ryder

The Candy Man Can

Recently, I have been thinking about what some of the other stages and villains should be and I have decided upon a candy theme. Taking place in an abandoned sweets factory, the player will have to fight rogue gum ball machines, platform on goodies, such as cake and ice cream, and avoid falling into molten chocolate flowing below. As for the boss himself, I have created a design that I am very proud of. I'm trying to decide to whether to call him The Candy Man or Gumshoe, a pun on the slang term for detective. The first of the animations I have included below is the introduction animation that will play right before the battle starts. His attacks will include shooting small gum ball bullets, lobbing giant wads of gum, and slashing with either a candy cane or a lollipop sword. I had originally planned to complete Treble-Maker's stage first for use as a playable demo, but now I think I will use this new candy-themed one, as I have a much wider range of ideas for it.

Treble-Maker's Stage

I have recently been working very hard in Unity to create my first stage. I decided to work on the music themed level I had in mind first, as I had the most good ideas for it. This level will eventually be the lair of the Treble-Maker, who will attack using a sword resembling a conductor's baton and music note projectiles. As you can see in the image I included below, I have been able to apply the characters and textures I created in Piskel to Unity. I have also been able to create a rough playable Chameleon with basic programming that I will add on to later. I have yet to animate the Chameleon within Unity, but that is next on my to-do-list. To help with my coding and basic use of Unity, I have been watching GamesPlusJames' videos on Youtube. They are incredibly helpful and I recommend them to anyone else trying to make their first video game. Next week, I hope to have a video of me playing as much of the level as I can.

GamesPlusJames' Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/gamesplusjames

Treble-Maker's Stage in Unity

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":