Greetings once again! Yes, the name of our project game
has been changed from “Day of the Piñata” as the original concept called it to “Night
of the Piñata”. The reason was that the only level we are going to be able to
finish for the game will be at night. It is logic like that!
This week, aside from putting together sprite sheets and text
documents, I have been working on a confetti effect for our game. We decided,
that confetti will be used to indicate special events and effects in our game.
For example, when the score meter reach the point when a power up will spawn
confetti will pop around it. As well as when the piñata shrink or grow. Even
when the piñata shoot candy there will be a small confetti burst by its head.
It will simply be there to give feed-back to the player.
I worked on the most general confetti burst, using flash
once again. As I did before I animate high-resolute photoshop images in flash.
For this I used motion tween which make is ridiculously fast to animate. But
that do not mean its easy. My first try looked like this:
I was not happy with the result at all. I wanted a burst of confetti. It turned out to be something more of a tornado of confetti. The pieces swish around as if they were thrown by several different wind directions. The reason for this was that I curved every line they followed, and didn’t have a solid plan for their movement what so ever. So I decided to start again. This is how it turned.
I was not happy with the result at all. I wanted a burst of confetti. It turned out to be something more of a tornado of confetti. The pieces swish around as if they were thrown by several different wind directions. The reason for this was that I curved every line they followed, and didn’t have a solid plan for their movement what so ever. So I decided to start again. This is how it turned.
It will be moving slightly faster in the game. This time
I focused on the confetti pieces, thinking about where they should end up if
they all start somewhat at the same point and then was forced away from each
other all at once. They ought to move in a straight line from the same point,
creating a circle around the center. This made the confetti much less messy,
but I am afraid it got too uneasy and too coordinated. I am thinking about redo
this effect, one more time. But as it seem now with our schedule I will leave
it as it is for now. It is not of the highest priority as this time. That is
why I will leave it at this stage.
Beta here we come!
Hello!
ReplyDeleteOh my god that name change! I like it and it makes perfect sense, very logical in regards to when and in what setting the game takes place.
But you forgot to put “living” in there, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
This confetti effect thing makes sense as well from many perspectives. If pinjatas bleed I guess they would bleed confetti and confetti is also a sign of good things happening, like fireworks made from paper, so it is good that this shows all the things that you named. I know that there is little time left for this project but in a perfect world there would be different kinds of confettibursts to show the different things that can happen. When the pinjata is hit for example, it would be red to symbolise “blood”. Right? I bet that this was the original thought but the time to implement it is to short. Time is the greatest enemy is it not?
Of these two bursts that you have made I like different elements from them both. I like the flurry and randomness of the first one and I like that there is a epicenter in the second one. It makes sense for an explosion to have an epicenter but since it is confetti, ie paper, the individual pieces should flutter around more just like they do in the first one.
I look forward to playing the finished game.
Take care