level scale and level 3

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.