Prototype 3 – now with percentage’s (Sort Off)
Ive been working away on version 3 of the prototype, which has all the bits I've mentioned already. There are a few changes in this one compare to version 2.
Firstly, the timer has been added. Its currently red but I'm going to change this soon. Its also in a digital font on my machine, but I'll embed it soon so it looks better.
Secondly, you'll notice the percentage counter. This is a bit of a proof of concept more than anything as it just takes the number of blobs, and adds "0%" to the end to give you a percentage out of a hundred. It also changes colour depending how many blobs are on screen, as I detailed in an earlier post.
Thirdly, but not least, is that every time you load the flash it creates a random number of blobs between 1 and 10. This is in reality to show off the percentage counter working.
Anyway that's enough talking. Go play! There should also be an animation coming soon for none web types showing the random positioned blobs and the percentage counter.
Prototype Animation
Ive put together an animation of my prototype (without the fog, that's coming) for people who don't have web cams. Take a look:
http://serve.discoliam.com/prototype/animation/
That progress review is coming. I started, just didn't finish.
Refined Percentage Display
My rather talented girlfriend surggested an idea for my final design. Giving a bit of colour feedback within the percentage display, so the user can see how there doing in a quick glance.
I liked the idea and decided to persue it further. I immediately thought of Guitar Hero, which has a similar system for telling you how well you are doing.
The bar on the left of each track in the above screenshot shows how well a player is doing. Here they use 3 sections Green if your doing well, yellow if your average and red if your doing really rather poor.
I've plumped for a similer system. Since we're doing it in percentage of Co2 in the atmosphere, it made sense to do 4 colours, one for every 25% section.
- 0 - 25% Green
- 26 - 50% Yellow
- 51 - 75% Orange
- 76% - 100% Red
And here's all 4 colours from the design.
This got me into thinking about how to show the user dieing. As in the game the CO2 will kill you in the end. I think more research is required.
More Final Designs
Since Ive got my timer working (see bellow) I thought I better add the text stuff to my final design. The font is Digital 7, and I think it looks good. Thoughts?
Building my Timer
Today I have been working on building the timer for the game, which counts how long you have been playing. I couldn't find a tutorial that did what I wanted, so I set about building my own. It took shitting ages, must longer than it should. But after a while, I finally got somewhere. The tutorials I used included:
I spent my first hour trying to work out why tutorials I was using weren't working, then I realised that this was because they where in AS2, and I'm in AS3, Idiot. Never mind.
So that's it really. Next I need to add it to the game, and work out how to do the embedding, as it just broke it when I tried to embed the font. Oh well. It will have a nice LCD style one, and be in red.
Prototype No2
Finally got the current final design into the prototype. Same bugs as the last prototype, but now at least it looks the part, and has sheep and cows!
Any feedback in the comments would be awesome.
Cheers.
Final Final Design
Ive added some animals. Going to make an animated version next with them all popping up/walking on. Hopefully have that uploaded in a couple of hours.
Visual Design Update
As you can tell Ive been working on my final design, adding some sources of CO2. Tomorrow I'm going to try and add some cows/sheep to the hills. Hopefully I'll be able to have a go at animating them as well, see if i can get them walking or eating or something. hoping to get these set up in my current prototype by the end of the week, as well as the fog design. Will see how it goes heh.
Ealry Stage Poster
I've printed of some puts and started laying out my poster. Going to spend a few days working out what else needs to go on it before I start sticking things down. To be honest I probably wont get the glue out until Thursday night, to give me as long as possible to finalise my Ideas.
Nearing a Finished Prototype
I think I've come as far as I can with my prototype. Take a look! As you you may be able to tell Ive increased the number of blobs, and they now appear at a random point on the screen. Ive also included the elements of my visual design, including the animated sources of CO2, which pop up from behind the hills at intervals of 3,6 and 9 seconds. In the finished game these would pop up based on historic timings, and they would represent the increase of CO2 coming on the screen.
I think this might be what I have to present to my tutor group on Friday, as I'm just running out of time to work more on that, my poster, and the two other course works I need to finish, which is a real shame, as at the moment its the only element of Uni I'm enjoying. Oh Well. I'm hopping to continue with development over the Christmas break, and get the whole thing working a lot more, maybe including the increasing of C02, and working out when you knock them off the screen. We shall see how that goes.
I'll try and upload my poster before Friday as well, for anyone who wants to see it, and so there is a digital copy for my tutors if they need it. Oh, and for those who dont have flash or a webcam, heres a screenshot of the prototype.
