scale
The time has come to fix the levels in terms of scale. Earlier we decided the size of everything- the philosopher, the minion, the blocks that the level would be made of, how high the philosopher and minion can jump. the units could be anything really.
the philosopher -- 2 units tall, jumps 3 units high
the minion -- 1.5 units tall, jumps 3.5-4 units high (not tested yet) but he definitely jumps higher than the philosopher
the block -- the basic building structure for any level. 2 units long, .25 unit thick.
so armed with the scale and the idea that all of the levels would be constructed out of the same block, I re modeled the first 2 levels. They look much better, even if the aesthetic has not been implemented yet. The idea for the aesthetic is there, though which is an improvement.
 |
| level 1 with scale, but without aesthetics (keep that in mind) |
 |
| level 2 with rescaled objects |
level 3
has been changed! yay! I
have been turning level 3 over in my mind for quite some time. It did not seem
clear what the player was supposed to do, it was difficult to create a scoring
system for that level. It started to seem like the only redeeming thing about
the level in its current state was that it was true to the trolley car
problem.
 |
| a very quick MS paint doodle of the level |
a few quick announcements about this doodle.
1- I did it very quickly, and it modeled after an actual sketch.
2- the X marks the spot (ha) where the lever will be.
3- the thing in the top right is a trolley car
4- the double triangle in the background in an hourglass, with sand in it
5- the large 'A' and 'B' indicate the platforms
thank you, that is all.
the re-worked level 3
looks like this. This version is less true to the classic example, but it is
clearer what the player should do. I have begun modeling the level, but
the necessary animations are not yet complete. This is what I envision :
- when the level starts a trolley
falls from the sky and squishes platform B (the one with 5 people instead
of 1) and then we show a lever pointing to that platform
- player needs to understand
that the trolley fell there because of the lever pointing that way
- player cant move at the point
- then the level resets and the
hourglass in the background starts counting down
- when the hour glass empties
another trolley will fall to a platform
- the platform depends on the
where the lever is pointing
This seems easier to
work with than the original level 3 idea. It seems easier for the player and
most of it uses mechanics that have already been created for the first 2
levels, but of course if it turns out that it is still complicated I will
consider level 3 take 3.
The main differences
between the new and old versions of level 3:
- in the old version the player walked around a lot - in
the new version the only moving they do is to move the lever (if they so
desire)
- ideally the new version will have a tiny cinematic
beforehand to show the trolley action (mentioned above)
- the new version features an interesting way to show
time counting down , at least I think its interesting
- the new version has the trolley falling out of the sky
rather than running on a track, this is less true to the actual trolley
car problem. but that can be overlooked for the time being (and perhaps
forever)
real life problems
the last thing on my
mind has less to do with the actual game and more about how to get work done in
general. In my workspace there is a cork board dedicated to Kourality and it
has 3 columns- to do, in progress, and done. The board is filled with a bunch
of small cards with tasks written on them. Everytime I am going to do work, I
look at the board and decide what needs to be done. I was operating under the
assumption that the programmer of this program used the cork board as well, but
that did not seem to be working in terms of making progress on the programming
for the game. I am going to work on some ideas to keep the game to do list in
his face, besides printing a list and taping it to his forehead.
