2. Diary
Video Game Background – to start with I had to think about what was going to happen in my demo level so I could plan the rest. I had a few options which were to create
small sections of each street, to have the character run for 20 seconds or for the character to fall down a hole and the game is over. I decided to go for the ‘game over’
idea so I could show how it restarts the game as it is an endless runner game so there aren’t separate levels. Once I had decided this, I knew I had to create 3 streets where
the character died on the 3rd street, so I only needed to design 2.5 streets. I worked out how many frames and then pixels where needed for 1 second of animation then
how many for 20 seconds of animation and worked out how many pixels are need for each street compared to the time. Doing this helped as I know that the page is long
enough for what I am wanting to do with out stretching the whole picture and I can work out how many pixels will be used for each street. Overall, I will have 150 frames
for the background as the last section will be the game over screen. Once I had my page, I decided on a gradient background and then had to think about the scale for the
character compared to the buildings to make it look as realistic as possible. I decided to use 10-20 pixels for my character as I am not sure how many I will need to create it.
Next, I create 2 separate layers for the front buildings and for the back buildings which helped so I could draw over the front buildings, but it wouldn’t show up as the layer
is behind making less problems with creating the look with buildings behind and in front. After the layers were sorted, I used dark grey for the front buildings and light grey
for the back buildings to be able to see the comparison which also makes it more realistic as the light would be different further away from the focus point. I have also
thought for each street I cam change the colours of the buildings and the accent colours to create a strong contrast between the streets. As shown further in my
production log, you can see that I have used a simple design for a more minimal look as I didn’t want to over complicate it and for me to run out of time. I can then control
the colours easier and add the accent colours which stand out more for each street.
3. Video Game – Demo Level
To start with I have experimented with
different numbers of frames for the
background to be able to get the
correct sped for running. This helped
me to decide how long my background
needs to be for my demo game.
I have used the gradient tool to create
ombre designs with different colours. I
thought the purple and orange looked
good as it looks like a low sunset. I also
tried the blue fading into the white
which looks like the sky just before
sunset on a darker night. I decided to
choose the blue background as it is a
more neutral colour compared to
orange and I am using orange for the
neon lights in the first street.
A problem I found with the gradient
tool was that it covered my rectangle
on a different layer, so I had to go to
effects and colour overlay to bring back
the grey I chose to create the road.
Here is the layer with the colour overlay setting.
In the orange background you can see the
rectangle is orange whereas in the blue
background, you can see the rectangle is grey.
Here is a section of my design as I
haven’t done much yet. I have started
to use guides to help create a finished
look with the floors being at the same
height and the doors and handles all
being at the same height.
