Team 5: Adam! - Alpha report

Overview

A lot has changed since our last report. While the time between the physical prototype and the interim report was spent mainly with technical challenges while implementing the framework for our game, we spent the time between the interim report and this alpha report mainly on content generation and additional gameplay features. Since the changes we made became more subtle and detailed, it would make no sense to show the incremental weekly status as we did for the last report. Instead, we will highlight individual aspects of the game on which we worked and explain those in more depth.

On a side note, our game now also has a real name! Since we really started to love our main character, we decided to give our game the name "Adam!".

Game changes

Sound and music

We had a hard time searching for some fitting music and sound effects and we are still not done yet. A limiting factor was that we had to find music and sounds which we can use freely for our project. We finally found freesound.org for sound effects and jamendo.com for some decent background music. All the most important actions create some audible feedback now.

Charging fireballs

In the previous version, you'd just hit A to throw a fireball into the direction adam was currently facing. In order to give the player more control over the projectile, fireballs now need to be charged to add momentum to them when they're released. While holding the A button, the fireball is charged and remains in Adams hand. Since this slows down the firing a bit, Adam doesn't have cooldown time on throwing fireballs anymore in return.

Health bars and life indicators

As can be seen on the other screenshots, both Adam and his friends and Frosty now have their own health bars - we completely removed the hitpoint number text display we had in the previous version. We also added a life indicator area in the shape of small Adams that also die if you lose a life.

Shielding

In the previous version, only Frosty had a shield and it looked rather static. We completely revamped the shield and now it looks more wobbly and also the shape reacts to a hit. Another new feature is that shields actually reflect the player's projectiles, so beware of friendly fire when Frosty's shield suddenly comes back up and reflects your fireball into the wrong direction...

Furthermore, Adam and his colleagues now also have a shield (just press X) so they aren't completely defenseless to Frosty's attacks anymore. However, the shield doesn't last very long and has a small cooldown time, so use it wisely.

Win/Lose conditions

While it was possible before to either reduce Frosty's hitpoints to zero or lose all of your hitpoints, nothing happened in such a situation. The most recent version allows you to actually win or lose the game and features nice splash screens displaying your achievement or your failure.

Level selector

In the previous version, there was no actual selection mechanism but just two buttons - one for the test level and one for the Frozen Pool level implemented so far. We now added a level selector to the main game menu that lists all the available levels. It is now also possible to start a level with any number from 2 to 4 players. Every level features a thumbnail so players can visually identify them. While the gameplay is the same as the Frozen Pool level, the new "Frozen Shells" features a new map to play on which more water.

Improved Ice Path

While the ice path in the interim version looked rather crooked, we improved the algorithm to make it carve out a nicer and less bumpy path so characters don't get stuck when trying to reach frosty's shield.

Improved particle effects

While we were using particle effects before to display Frosty's ice beam and the fireballs thrown by Adam and his buddies, we now added further effects to increase the visual quality of the game. Fireballs now explode when hitting something, Frosty's snowballs now release snow flakes and the new Sand Land boss Sandy is able to release an expanding flame wave when burrowing up from the ground.

Bazooka

Realizing that Adam and his friends are quick in evading his thrown snowballs, Frosty decided to take drastic measures and now makes use of his hidden stash of weaponry. Equipped with his snowball bazooka, he can now shoot the players which improved speed and precision.

Exploding penguins

The evil Frosty has become even more vile and gruesome: He now tries to lure the players into a death trap by releasing small cute penguins that follow them around. But beware: If Adam and his buddies stay near them, they will explode and damage them severly. Since they're quite small, they are also difficult to hit with melee so the safe bet is to RUN...

Sand Land

Eventually, we also started working on a new level besides the Frozen Pool level on which our attention was completely centered so far. The new level, Sand Land, features a brand new and equally evil boss: Sandy. While Frosty is a freezingly cold blooded guy, Sandy has a pretty hot temper and uses to spit fire not only metaphorically. Unlike him she doesn't stay in his spot but is able to more around the map by burrowing underground and following the players until she bursts out again, releasing a deadly flame wave from the sand pit out of which she emerges. Since Sandy always moves to the mean position of the players, she will quickly kill them if they don't spread out cleverly. Although this new level isn't as polished yet as the frozen pool level, it is already playable and shows the flexibility of our game framework in terms of introducing new gameplay aspects.

Progress Assessment

As it stands now, we have completed the functional minimum, the low target and the desired target. We will continue working on the Sand Land and improve the game-play with the results of the starting play-testing phase.

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