boss camera move

For our game design boss, I think I want to try to incorporate a small pan like this.

Trailer

Boss Analysis

For my game design class, I had to analyze a boss battle, so I chose to analyze Gohma from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's first dungeon, The Deku Tree.

The battle takes place in an empty room with four pillars.  The battle doesn't start until Link, the main character, looks at the ceiling.  Once Link looks at the ceiling the boss music begins to play and Gohma is introduced.  To defeat her you have to shoot her eye with your slingshot, then she'll become vulnerable and then you slash her eye multiple times.

The main game mechanic in the battle is using the slingshot you acquired earlier to shoot Gohma in the eye, and then to slash at her exposed eye.

The slingshot only goes with the dungeons theme of you acquired it so you have to use it.

The reward for defeating Gohma is the Great Deku Tree dies, you get another heart container, and you get a kokiri emerald.

Game Mechanics

For my game design class now we have to think of a game mechanic/game and then create it within UE4.

1.  Two forms of shooting to reach multiple levels of platforms, retro style arcade get to the next stage.
2.  Dungeon crawler where the player must kill hordes of enemies while running.
3.  The player must escape the room, all they have is a grappling hook.
4.  The player is on rails, they must reach the end of the level without dying once.
5.  The player can roll to pick up speed, but while rolling enemies deal double damage.
6.  Player must cast spells against hordes of enemies.
7.  Player uses lightning to attack, must charge by running, building friction, or other means.
8.  Collect colors, each time a color is collected the world changes drastically, and all things turn that color.
9.  The player only has a pickaxe, they must dig to kill enemies and escape or they'll run out of air.
10.  The player is falling constantly, and must break up debris with their gun in-order to land softer.

FPS Multiplayer Map

For my game design class I have to create a level for a first person shooter game.  My level is going to be set in an urban college.  There will be two teams, which spawn in their own buildings.  One team are the teachers, the other team are the students.

Here is the top down view of the map, it's simple but it has lots of chances to dive for cover.  I wanted the map to not be about walking around a corner and spotting the enemy and a shoot out to start.  I want the players to both have a chance to have little mini skirmishes that can turn into huge team battles because of all the cover available.  The center of the map is designed for the huge team battles.  The rest of the map is designed for intrusive combat.

This is an isometric view of the map, the two buildings are the spawn.

Halo 3 Guardian Multiplayer Map Analysis

Guardian, in Halo 3, is a versatile multi-player map that has many ways to get to various locations.  It's a small map and the many pathways adds to the fast pace excitement.

This is my recreation of Guardian, the yellow dots are weapon locations.  The weapons are tightly condensed and spread all over the place, this ensures a fast paced game where the weapons will be able to respawn fast enough to keep up with player death.

 

Here is a video of a MLG match on Guardian.

 

Sidescroller platform map design

In my map, I designed it to slowly ween the player into the core mechanics of the game, which is just adventure based, and very block dependent instead of enemy based.

Conflict:  Try to escape the dungeon of your own mind.
Twist:  Blocks are not as they seem at first.
Where:  Inside your mind, you had a comma so it's very blank and empty at first.
Time:  Unknown
Architecture:  Blocks
What happened before:  Your mind was peaceful, full of adventure and color.
How did the player get here:  They are in a comma, it will be revealed over time.

Map Breakdown of Super Mario World, Level 1-1

Here is a playthrough of Super Mario World, world 1-1 followed by a map analysis of the level.

When the player first starts the level, once they walk a small distance, they see a fruit, which they cant do anything with and a red koopa shell.  If the player just walks into the shell, it will be propelled forward.  If the player was running, they pick up the shell and have an opportunity to gain a one up by throwing it at the line of koopas on the above cliff.  If the player is not experienced yet, the player does not have to face the enemies yet, the player can just walk right by to the next screen.

The player is first presented with three blocks, one being invisible, both blocks have coins, and the invisible one cant be hit until later unlocked, which will then provide a mushroom.  Now that the player most likely has figured out how to jump, another platform is introduced to show the world has multiple tiers.  The next two items have a coin and a yoshi in them respectively.  The yoshi allows the player to eat fruit as long as the player is running.  There is a few coins floating in the air, one is a dragon coin, by placing the dragon coin in this fashion to make the players want to grab it, collecting five of these reward the player with a one up.  The player will eventually come up to a koopa shell with a little koopa crawling towards it, if the player runs to the shell they are able to kick it into the koopas face, killing it.  If the koopa gets to the shell first, the koopa puts the shell back on, showing the players that koopas can regain their armor.

Another shell-less koopa is on this screen, hopefully showing the player the other outcome of the situation that they haven't seen yet.  If the player hits the shell, the shell will ricochet off the wall, showing the player it's a projectile to watch out for also.  At the top of the hill is a football Chuck, who will chase the player, showing the player that not all enemies will die easily.  

If the player decides to run away from Chuck, and jump off the hill, they're rewarded with a dragon coin.  There is a tip block telling the player that if they die, they will start the level from the gate.  The player has a chance at getting another yoshi incase they lost theirs, or died, if they managed to keep their yoshi alive, they're rewarded with a one up, which lets the players know that yoshi is important, keep him and good things will happen.  Further down the path patches of the hill will move and a monty mole will pop out while the player is nearby.  These enemies are fast by slide along the ground, the player learns that they can out maneuver enemies even if they cant out run them.

The player sees two new blocks, one will crumble momentarily, the other will sprout a vine, rewarding the player with coins and a dragon coin for their effort.  Once the player jumps down, they will reach their final dragon coin, gaining a one up.  There is a pit that kills the player if they fall into it, this teachers the player that you cant always just run off the cliffs without jumping.  There is a odd colored pipe, which allows the player to go down into a cave and have a chance at a one up.  The player must run into a block and then jump and throw the block to get the one up, this teaches the player that they can not only throw blocks, but they can throw them upwards as well.

The final screen of the level, there is one new enimy, the pirana plant.  This enemy rises and lowers into the warp pipe, this shows the player be careful of some pipes or they might die.  Up top there are a bunch of blocks, and a pow button that once hit, makes all coins into platforms.  Since the player knows that hitting those blocks makes them disappear temporarily, they hit it and then can safely run above the football Chuck and to the finish line.