We are proud to present the first level for the prototype of Stress Busters. I have not figured out how to upload it here, and it really only works for mac, so here is a trailer instead.
Hooray PGF.
Characters dialed
We have finally got what we want for the characters. I think they look great.
The Protagonist has the nice touch of a beer belly. And of course our boss is nothing but a big head and patterned after our own executive producer.
Bullet in the brain
So we wanted to have our character constantly losing life as he advances. This would look like a stress meter depleting his life. Because PGF is a bit limited in its ability to do something like this we relied on the smarts of our engineers. Felix and Kamron and Brandon helped find a solution. We had placed a bullet in the head of our protagonist and it followed him and affecting him every so often.
This is what makes our team great. We can rock out crazy ideas to solve the problem. We certainly dont plan on releasing this on PGF, but if our boys can solve problems with something as basic as PGF, they are ready for the big time.
Level plan
We are going to focus on the office level. We wanted it to feel like a dilbert-esque comic style. Anyone can pick up the sunday comics and see a certain style. We are going for that overall.
What is his name?
I know it is so menial but we dont really have a name for the protagonist. It makes for an interesting struggle. Do you do something catchy name that is related to his point in existence, or do you do something simple like “Mario” and then it becomes a character that can be used in any situation and any type of game?
He will probably be nameless, but he looks good in color am I right?
The first one is the Protagonist, and the other are the stressed baddies, and the baddies after they have been subdued.
One Week In
This prototype is due in 4 weeks from when we were assigned. One week has gone and we all feel that a lot has been done. The design, and specs are taken care of which is exciting to create. Now comes the leg work which might prove more daunting; we will see.
We have some great pics of our character, and the bad guys so far.
Felix is working hard on a little feature we are trying to enable. We want the health of the protagonist to constantly be decreasing. That way it will appear to be a stress bar that is constantly increasing instead of health decreasing. Since this is not a feature in the PGF engine, we are using our mad hacking skills.
Felix has it almost done by putting a bullet in the protagonists brain and follows him as he runs. This way he is constantly getting “shot”. Maybe he will have little feeling left and become a James Bond super villain. Until then he will manage stress with a lead pipe.
Concept Character Art
Dave rocked out some concept art that has not been inked yet, but looks great. We are trying to work smarter and not harder here, so he created swappable body parts. The vector graphics will look sick when he has that done.
Stress Busters (working title)
So our team comprises of a pretty rockstar crew starting out. We are fortunate to have two Artists, and two engineers and little ol’ me.
We decided to work off of the theme of stress, and stress management.
Our game revolves around a shooting platformer with our protagonist getting through various places that cause stress.
We are proto-typing this game on Power Game Factory and though it is simple and restricted, we are taking advantage of what we got. We are able to focus on awesome bosses, and awesome weapons.
As a preview, some of the weapons are the
- Pacifier Pistol
- Sedative Shotgun
- Keg Grenade
- Guitar Rifle
- Red Bull Rocket Launcher
- Coffee Spill
- and who can beat a good old Lead Pipe
