Extended Practice Designing and Developing the Assets in my Environment (Egypt)

I then moved onto looking at how each of the different assets that feature in my game are going to look. As the assets are going to feature throughout the level I thought it was important to first design them so that when created they all match up with the correct colours and the same consistent design throughout.  I wanted to look at a couple of designs for the main assets like the levers and doors to get them looking exactly how I wanted but for the smaller assets like the torches and beetles I simply looked at existing ones and designed one final design.

I started by looking at the design of the Beetles that would be apart of the level, they are not going to be a main feature, but will be more atmospheric, adding life to the environment and also movement in areas as otherwise the design will be fairly static. I wanted to go with a basic design, as I would probably only be seeing the body and not the legs or head in detail, one because they would be far away, and two because of the cartoony design of the game.

I decided in the end to go with this bright blue colour as it stands out against the gold that is everywhere in the environment and it reminds me of the gold and blue head-dresses that the pharaoh's would wear. 

I then looked at designing the torches and this was a tricky one as I wasn't sure what kind of torch we would end up going with in the end. It was definitely a toss up between one being on a wall mount or a brassier style sitting on the floor, and in the end I've decided that a mixture of the two might be good. When looking at the style of the torches I went with the traditional stick with the cloth around the top and it would then be set on fire, something that is featured in many games along with action films.

For the brassier I decided to look at The Mummy (1999) for inspiration and the way that they place them is usually at the bottom of staircases or in larger rooms, which is were they will mainly feature in my level.

I then wanted to have a quick look at the kind of cobwebs that could be featured in the level. As the tombs that the character is going into are very old they would normally be filled with cobwebs from being there for thousands of years. This to me didn't seem very aesthetically pleasing and wouldn't be a main feature in a children's game that we were trying to keep lighthearted and colourful so I looked more into ones featuring in the corners of building next to pillars and decided this was definitely the best way forward. It adds movement to the corner, with the addition of a few spiders running through it, and also adds a whiter colour into the palette, catching the players eye away from the gold and yellow.

  
I then moved into looking at the door design and what they would look like in the level. I again wanted to keep with the gold-yellow colours for the walls but the door itself I knew I wanted it to be a different colour. I wanted to use the different colour on the door to make it stand out in the environment so decided to go with the traditional blue colour, that is featured on the scarab beetle as well. The bold blue marks the door as different telling the player that it can be interacted with.

The final design that I decided to go with was the one in the middle at the bottom, it incorporates the gold design around the edge, which in the end will feature the stone pattern and will maybe include hieroglyphics on them as well, but for now there is also a section of gold around the edge of the door itself as well. Then I have an area of blue in the middle to break up the colours, this is then matched aesthetically with a blue door that will slide upwards to open when the corresponding lever is pulled. 

I then wanted to design the lever that will activate the doors located around the lever. again I wanted to ensure that they stood out from the rest of level and where obvious to the player so that they could see them easily. I first looked at a number of different lever designs that could be used but settled on the one that sits on the floor as it can easily be pushed to activate it. I then looked at the overall design to it, and settled in the end on the pyramid design so that it links with the rest of the environment.

I then wanted to look at how I could make it more noticeable in the level and looked at adding in the same blue from the door in and it really works and will stand out against the rest of the environment. I really like this final design and feel that it will stand out well against the rest of the environment and still fit in with the designs so far.

   
I then moved onto looking at the type of blocks that I was going to design. I wanted to keep it traditional to the actual building of the pyramids and keep it designed either with limestone or granite for the texture. Having said this the pyramids where mainly made from white limestone and red granite, colours that aren't necessarily known commonly with the building of them, and we know the colour scheme to be mainly yellow-gold. I did want to keep this idea and so decided to go for the white limestone look but due to the colour of the sun and the torches that would be projected onto the stone, it would make it appear golden yellow, keeping that traditional appearance.

I then looked at the design for the traps that are going to be in my level. The main feature will be the basic platforming, much like in the Crash Bandicoot games and so I decided that one main feature will be holes in the floor so that the character has to navigate around then or jump over them to advance. I then thought about what could be at the bottom and decided that I would have a mixture and some would be water, some just darkness but others would have spikes much like the first design below creating an interesting variety.

I then decided that the spikes could also be used throughout the level, going up and down constantly, so that the character has to jump over them when they are not up, instead down. I then wanted to design 2 more that would feature alongside them and decide firstly upon falling platforms, a major feature in most platforming games, and decided that I wanted to include a design on that was related to hieroglyphics. I choose to go with the owl as it looked nice on the slab and worked well in the colour that I picked which matched the colour of red limestone.

Secondly I created a arrow trap design, that used the same hieroglyphic design on it but this time the snake, again making them look similar and work well together. Then I designed how the arrow was going to come out, either one or up to 5 arrows will come out at a time and this will be when the pressure plate is stood on, a way to get around this is using the power up so that the character runs quicker, being able to quickly run through the spikes and avoid being hurt.

Lastly I looked at designing the hieroglyphics themselves and this was fairly simple to do as I pretty much took the existing ones and simply made them look more cartoony and added some bright colours to them. In the final designs on the walls these may be dulled down slightly to make them look older, but the fun and bright colours make them look more appealing and make them stand out more. I then had a quick look at how they would look if I were going to put them on a wall and so laid them out underneath each other in columns to test the look and I think they look great and can't wait to see them in the final level.