Journal Part 1

As soon as we started the project I spent a while thinking about which theme should run through my game, at the time we were discussing and thinking about each other's favourite platformers. Mine was Spelunky (Mossmouth 2008), so I thought about how the game handled it’s theme. The game has a general Temple theme that is consistent throughout, the enemies range from mummies to snakes and ultimately to a living Olmec head as the final boss. What I enjoyed was that Spelunky has this core theme yet each new area has a different spin on this, e.g. Caves - Jungle - Ice. This created variety in enemy types and visuals, something important in the Roguelike genre as it is played over and over again. I don’t plan on making a Roguelike due to the focus on a single, thoughtfully designed level as opposed to procedural generation. But what I want to borrow from Spelunky is the Temple theme, because the variety in it’s visual design shows the themes versatility.

I also thought about how all of these areas exist in a single temple, as you progress you feel like you have travelled deeper and deeper into it because of the change enemy and environment design. I want my game to convey the same sense of progression, as you get further into it I want the visual design to get more interesting.

So starting off I produced sprites that convey the temple theme but with my own take, I want to translate the unsettling but cute traits I had been developing previously in last unit’s work. Bricks in the wall have simple, emotionless faces and the main character has a literal stone cold stare. Vines show that this place has laid dormant for a long time, the player may feel like he/she is discovering something.

I thought that having the main character be a stone head would make for more interesting movement, the character would roll rather than walk, would feel heavier and have more momentum. Maybe I can also implement a dash in the future, this could be the head's primary way of dealing damage, or maybe the way to get across a large gap?