LAURA'S HERSTELTOCHT (2015)
Alfa-College - Exam project
Roles: Leader, documentation, testing, designs, animation
Intro:
After participating in True Tail as a concept artist and doing an internship at Promo Bears I decided to combine my novice experience in designing and animation into one final vertical slice project. A 2D game exam project for my MBO/secondary vocational education, with only 8 weeks to make it from scratch!
With the immense help of programmer Robert-Jon Eckhardt and musician Johnathan Johnson the musician, we were able to make this a reality! Without them, it would have never been possible.
Story:
Laura Kraus is a young scientist- and engineer with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Anything she sets her mind to, she can make with surprising ease.
Her good faith is the source of success but it soon runs out when she's met with the harsh reality of inexperience. After her new teleportation device receives a grand mathematical crash, she realizes it doesn't just teleport small items anymore. A realization that comes too late, as she learns that the entire town, and even its environment, are scattered everywhere!
With a handful of remaining gadgets at her disposal, it's up to Laura to restore the chaos she has caused.
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Additional info:
Rating: E, Safe for all ages
Genre: Maths, Educational
Language: Dutch, English
File Size: 79mb
Systems: Windows, Mac
Engine: Unity
CONCEPT PHASE
Final gameplay
All of the gameplay concepts were made with Adobe Flash and Adobe Photoshop.
Many of these gameplay mechanics relied on the idea of how much is possible to make in only 8 weeks. Cutting corners, in this case, doesn't mean the lowering of quality. By making obstacles for the player to overcome, we had to make sure that there was variation in them.
Here we see the different types of obstacles which also visualize the types of math problems.
A long distance in between = Addition
Taking a step back = Retractions
Going up each step of the ladder = Multiplication
Scrapped idea
Some of the ideas need to be scrapped, as it will be impossible to make, while also focussing on a deadline.
Some of the ideas in the scrapped version of the gameplay remained in the final game:
- The knock-back penalty for when the player gets the wrong multiple times
- The fast-forward option had to be changed to make it less like a boost
Character Design
After making the gameplay concepts, I went on to make the concepts for Laura Kraus. Although I wanted to make her from scratch, she was based on an old design I made and knew I could shorten the character concept phase and move on to development in a faster pace. I could also not afford too much time on concept art due to the deadlines. This worked in its favour.
All character concepts were made while using Adobe Photoshop.
DESIGN PHASE
Environment designs
Due to the schedule of completing the project, I went against standard rules of designing from concept to final design. Instead, I decided to make the final design as soon as I was done with the character concepts. I was making the final environment designs as I was coming up with them. These were all designed in Adobe Flash.
Back then I was focussed on character design and saw environment design as a secondary part.
Nowadays I see environments as one of the most important parts of a game project.
Final animation puppets
During my time at True Tail and other other 2D projects around 2015 we had the main focus on developing 2D animation puppets in Adobe Flash. The puppets were able to both move and talk if necessary.
Due to time ;imits, I had to reduce it to only body movements and expressions. These expressions had to be exeggerated due to the size of Laura and the overall environment.
These animations were later converted to sprite sheets and put into the Unity engine. This is where the final game was developed in.
Final animation sprites
Keeping these two at the same length, I want to portray that the ideas were still very interesting to try out, but one had to make
TESTING PHASE
Test results
As a final phase, we had to make sure that players got their opinions in and we were happy to realize that most essential parts we could change and improve witin the given timeframe. This included the improvement of: animation, movement, and UI changes .
Reading over the questionnaire results, I also found interesting ideas which we couldn't implement due to the final deadline, yet were interesting to keep in mind for future projects:
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Progress bar of the level itself. It might have been possible, but this would also need additional time on making sure it's programmed in and placed in the right spot.
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A multiplayer option. This would require an additional character, plus additional systems to be programmed in.
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Different types of power-ups.
Test Game Build
Final Game Build
END RESULTS
In the end we managed to create a complete vertical slice project and manged to meet all criteria of the project.
It resulted in the final score of 10/10 marks for the entire project
EXTRA PHASE
Scoping and Canceled ideas
Many ideas were planned, yet only a select few could be picked. In the end the entire team was very satisfied with the results.
However, there were ideas that had to be canceled due to scope issues, yet were interesting ideas nonetheless for fun or to keep in mind for future purposes:
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Technology: I received feedback from teachers to make the game an iPad game to give the option of multiple choice. This way it could become more accessible for different players.
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Complexity: Additional levels would have been added with more complex mathematical equations.
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Animation style: Due to the influences of Newgrounds and popular fast paced comedy animation around mid 2015, it was my belief that fast animation would be my main focus. This gave me the idea to add cut-scenes if there was enough time. The fast paced animation woud save time in turn.
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Complete gameplay change: Somewhere around 2021-2022 I came to the realization of typing games relying on a strict pattern, while also giving the player a free choice on where to go. It would have made sense to make Laura's Hersteltocht a typing game, while still maintaining the platform element.
Canceled animation idea
Canceled iPad idea
