Creating a 2D game.

2D game designs

In this project we have been given the task of creating a 2D game. We will be using a game engine called construct.We split ourselves into groups, mine consisting of me, chris, musa and jamie. Our group then started to create ideas for what type of game we were going to create. Musa and Chris had a good idea about a game where the main character is in a nightmare and has to escape. Then we came up with a few more suggestions and ended up with our game Hippobuff. The player will play as a hippo in a nightmare that is trying to escape from the evil zookeeper which has trapped and turned all of his animal friends evil. It is up to the player to defeat the evil friends and then help them escape once the spell is broken.

Our group then had a discussion on who was going to create what in the game, we then delegated each member a role within the group. Chris as the designer is the one who is going to be working with the construct engine and creating the actual game itself. Musa, Jamie and I  are all artists and are going to be creating the assets that go into the game. I have been given the role of creating the background design for the levels that we will be playing on. Musa is going to be designing the characters and Jamie is going to be creating the assets and obstacles in the levels that we create. 

As I was given the task of creating the backgrounds I needed to find reference imagery to help me design a level with the nightmare theme. I created a moodboard after spending a while on google choosing images that I could use for the colour scheme.

Gorilla level.

Once I had decided on themes for the levels I was creating I started out creating the background for the gorilla level. I decided to go with the theme of being in a zoo and created an enclosure with a nightmare theme. Firstly I drew a design idea on paper using pencil, I then scanned it on to the computer and put it into photoshop. I put it into photoshop as I felt that this would be the best program to design the level in. I struggled for ideas for the level that we were creating because I didn't entirely know what to include in a gorilla enclosure so I spent a while on google getting reference imagery to make sure that I was doing something along the right lines.

Once I had an idea in my head of what the level was going to look like I started thinking about the nightmare theme and what colour pallet I should use to make it look as much of a nightmare as possible. I decided to go with a dark purple colour and then base every other objects colour from that making everything tinted in a dark colour, making the whole level look more gloomy and scary.

This is the gorilla level that I designed, this is the stage where the main part of the boss battle with take place, as you can see it does resemble an enclosure where gorillas would be kept. I did try my best with the colour scheme to make it as gloomy as possibly and quite dark at the same time. There is the water at the bottom because the player will have to travel along the map across platforms and when they fall off they will land in the water and die. The aim of our game is to defeat the boss by jumping on his head and not touching the floor whilst doing so. This is one of the first versions of the gorilla level that I created. I drew the outlines for this level on paper and then scanned it onto the computer and finished the rest using photoshop.

After importing the lines into photoshop I set about choosing a colour scheme for my level and how I wanted to achieve the gloomy look. To begin I chose the background colour for the sky and went for a dark purple and then chose the rest of my colours based on that to give everything a slight tint and give the whole level the same sort of colour. 

For the main part of the level the player will run across the enclosure which is just a wall with a river and some rocks at the bottom until they face the gorilla boss. This is where the level opens out and the actual gorillas enclosure is shown, I designed the enclosure similarly to the ones that you would see at a zoo. I included a few different objects in the enclosure to make it as 'zoo like' as possible, there is a tyre swing, a couple of climbing trees, a cave for the gorilla to relax on and an open area where the boss of the level will be standing and this is where the player has to defeat them. I drew the actual enclosure where the boss would be standing first and then created the rest of the level from taking a small part that I had already drawn and repeated it whilst editing it to make sure that it wasn't all the same.


Giraffe level.

The next level that I had to create was the Giraffe level. This level was completely different to the gorilla level, instead of travelling through it horizontally the idea of this map is that the player would have to travel up the screen jumping from platform to platform. This meant I had to create a different longer type of map for the player to travel upwards.

I started off by creating the bottom of the giraffe enclosure, I included the stables where the giraffes would be staying as well as a water hole with logs and rocks around it. I felt this made it look a lot more authentic as somewhere where a giraffe would live. I also included details in the background of the level rather than just having it plain and boring. I decided to try draw some scenery to try and make it look less plain and bring it to life a little more. After this I had to draw the sky part of the level, there wasn't that much I could design into the background other than the clouds and the moon as it was so high up in the sky.

Our idea is that the giraffe is the size of the whole level exaggerating how tall they are and that in order to defeat him the player would have to get all the way to the top of the map to fight him face to face.

This is one of the final versions of the giraffe level, as you can see it is a very tall and narrow design, the players aim is to collect enough sun glasses to reach the top where they will face the giant giraffe boss that they have to defeat in order to complete the level. This was a hard level to design as after I had drawn the bottom part for the level I struggled for ideas for detail in the sky.

Portal Room

This was the final design that I had to do for this project. Initially I struggled for ideas as I didn't know what a portal room should look like or what designs I should use for the actual portals. In the end i tried to create each portal and make it look like an actual entrance to a zoo. The room itself is in a dungeon where the player has to defeat the levels in order of the doors from left to right to get across it.

Once the player has completed a level they come back to the portal room and they will find that the next portal will be available for them. Once the player has completed the levels the idea was that they would finally reach the end level where they would be fighting the evil zoo keeper who had all of the animals under a spell.

Overall this project has gone well, Chris and Musa spent a long time using the construct engine creating a level from the backgrounds that I had created for them. We all worked towards a deadline and completed what we wanted to do in the amount of time that we were given for this project.

Third Project! Creating objects in Maya for our game level.

So this project we've been given the task as the artists to draw and create the objects we're going to be implementing them into a game. Firstly though we were put into groups, I have ben who is going to be creating the map and Ameet who is going to do half of the objects in the game and I am doing the rest. We had to decide on what type of game we were going to create and in the end we decided to go with a hospital that you have to escape from so I will be designing a lot of hospital equipment.

Firstly Ameet and I decided what we would draw between us, I chose to design the hospital beds, sheets, curtains, pillows, wheels, heartbeat monitor, pipes, radiators, folders and any other objects that will need to be designed to fit into our level to make it seem more realistic.

Firstly I got started on the Hospital bed, I went on to google and found images of what I though hospital beds looked like. I didn't know what type of hospital bed we would need, whether it was an old style one or a more modern bed. I asked my group and the feedback was that we were making a more modern hospital. This allowed me to go through the images on google and choose which design would be most suitable.

The bed I created has thick plastic boards at the top, bottom and either side and wheels, as it is one of the mobile beds that can be moved to surgery.

 This is the hospital bed from a front on view, as you can see I've added some detail and done the table that comes over the top of it where the patients usually rest their food or drinks and medicine. I found a few images with these sorts of trays in them and they were all from a recent time so I included it in my design.

 This is the hospital bed from a side view, I have put this photo up so the side parts of my bed can be seen better, as you can see there are two handles either side of the bed. This is for porters and nurses to move the bed whilst the patient is still in it as modern beds are all transportable now.

This is a close up of the wheels to my bed, I spent a lot of time creating and rotating cylinders to make the wheels, I started off using just one but it didn't give it the more detailed look that I wanted.

Next I had to create the heartbeat monitor, This proved challenging to find reference so I had to take a lot from different images that have all been added to this mood board that i've created. The heartbeat monitor is quite simple in the design and i started from just making a cube and slowly adding small details to it such as the screen, dials and wires coming out of the side of it. The tubes proved difficult to create as it was something that I had never done before but after a little researching on youtube I found out how to create them though I am struggling to find a clear texture that would suit them so they may have to be opaque.

This is the heartbeat monitor that is going to be put into our game, I havant yet created the wires as I was going to do that once I had decided on a texture for the monitor.

As you can see I've kept the designs simple yet realistic because I dont want to put too much detail in and cause the game to lag.

This is the bedside cabinet that I created for the hospital, This is usually next to the patients bed where their medicine and personal belongings can be stored.

Next up was the radiators for the hospitals, I did just create one radiator and copied the design for it to be placed about the hospital, as radiators are out the way I only made one variation of it to be spread out around the hospital.

 This is the style radiator that i've gone for, it's simple yet effective and the shading should help make it look a lot more realistic than the other flat designs that I chose to ignore.

Next I made all the folders and files that patients would have attatched to the bottom of the bed, the notes that they have for the docotors to look at. As well as this I created the bedside cabinets near the patients bed that usually store medicine.

The next part and the hardest for me, was the hospital curtains, I really struggled with making the curtains but Simon showed me a good trick to get them to the shape that you need, to make them appear as if they're hanging and bunched up, rather than perfectly straight and flat. I do wonder how hard texturing this is going to be because of the shape of the curtain.


To create the wheels on the hospital bed I mainly used two tools, The shape and size tools and used them on cubes and cylinders to get the right shape for the legs on the bed and the size of the wheels on it. The texture that I'm going to be applying will be the backboard and bottom of the bed will be made of plastic and the bottom where the legs are will be made of metal along with the wheels.

 For the radiators they're going to be white and more of an old fashioned style as I can do more creating them than the new flat designs that they have.