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@kickflipperdevelopment-blog-blog
KickFlipper 1.0 is live!
The beta version of KickFlipper has now been released and can be played for free at kickflipper.co.uk
Development will continue on KickFlipper and there will hopefully be an android or IOS release in near future.
Please email me if you notice any bugs or have any queries at [email protected]
Despite experimenting with creating my own sounds, the majority of KickFlipper sound has come from www.freesound.org . It has a huge array of different sounds and music, most of which is free for commercial use. (great for games developers!). Here is the music for my third level. I am currently in the process of editing and perfecting all my sounds.
3 levels complete!
I have now made 3 levels, a screenshot of each can be seen below. Each level increases in difficulty and is meant to set a different ambiance. The first level is supposed to be relatively easy and have a happy upbeat feel about it. The second is slightly harder and darker and is meant to simulate skateboarding at night, and the third level involves skating on rooftops and is meant to feel like a summer evening.
Progress Update
I have made a gui! I need certain information like score and time and the most recent trick that has been performed to be displayed back to the user. This is done like you can see above. The font is jokewood, taken from truefont.com.
http://opengameart.org/
I would just like to take the opportunity to credit this website and the artists that put their work on here for free. All the models I’ve used have come from here.
Progress Update
After successfully creating my animation system I have been creating another 2 levels. I want each level to have a different feel and ambiance about it. The first thing I did was make prefabs of all the game objects and mechanics used to make the first level, this way they can be reused with relative ease. I have also found some more skateboarding models that I think would fit perfectly with KickFlipper.
My animation system
Above you can see the buttons that appear on the users screen if they die, or if they finish a level. I have no created my animation system, so if the player dies the buttons saying “game over!” slide onto the screen, and if they finish a level the buttons displaying your time slide onto the screen. I have to be honest I am rather pleased with this effect, I think it looks neat and it can be used again in different projects.
Unity Learning
I have decided I need to get to grips with the unity animation system, mainly so I can co-ordinate the buttons flying on and off the screen. For that reason I am going to spend some time studying the docs and improving my skills instead of working on the project !
Progress Update
Above you can see my gameOver script. This script checks the collision object to see if it is a boost or the end level light. If it is neither of these things it enters the game over state and makes the player jump towards the screen. The last two lines of code that refer to “menu”, don’t actually do anything yet but when I have made my menu they will call a group of buttons to appear whenever the player dies.
KickFlipper Progress Update
Above is a screenshot of my whole first level. Hopefully you can see that some significant progress has been made on KickFlipper since my last post. I have applied materials to all the platforms, made some boosts and an end level light. (the green light at the end of the level you should JUST be able to see above) I have also added some rails AND made the grinding particle system which you can see below:
I also bought a small set builder from the Unity asset store. The main reason for this was the models that came with it, there were some skate ramps and a halfpipe as well as some other ramps. However being 3D , they’re not actually any use. However the buildings and fences and lamp posts all make the environment seem more believable and immersive, as well as not breaking the arcade feel I want the player to experience. The next thing I will do is script the behaviors for the boost and the end level light.
KickFlipper Progress Update
This is the next stage of prototyping. The camera angle is different, and an early version of the in game trick system has been developed. The camera angle has been tested to see if it improves gameplay at all, but I think I will stick with the more conventional side on view, not being able to see the whole track infront of you makes the game much harder and exciting to play.
Project Management
After my final year project supervisor informing me about the project management tool KanbanFlow, I’ve decided to use it instead of Assembla for the duration of this project.
KanbanFlow includes a timer based on the Pomodoro time management Technique, which involves breaking work down into 25 minute sprints, with short breaks in-between. After 4 of these sprints, you take a longer break. The Kanbanflow website states “by keeping your focus and not making mental context switches, you get more work done in less time.” Using it briefly, it does seem to help me increase productivity. I am focusing on one specific tasks instead of flitting between many.
KickFlipper Game Design Document (GDD)
I have now written a full Game Design Document for KickFlipper, some sections I will update as more progress is made but it can be seen here.
KickFlipper - Progress Update
Due to my workload on other modules, I haven't been able to allocate as much time to my project as I would of liked recently and this is why I haven't made a post in a while. However, I have now made some progress with KickFlipper, I have done some level design, and I have almost developed the movement system to a point I am happy with. Below is a screenshot:
Screenshot of KickFlipper in development, this is its current state Up till this point, I've been doing my own project management simply using Notepad and writing task lists, and working from my requirements document. However, this has been hampering productivity and as the project gets larger and more complex , so do the tasks that need to be done. It is because of this that I have started using the project management tool Assembla, which is very similar to the more popular Pivotal Tracker and serves the same purpose. I feel pretty confident that this is going to increase my productivity. A screenshot of my (for now slightly empty) Assembla start page is below:
Note the stream on the right. Once I have added more tasks and things, and properly integrated my Assembla account and KickFlipper together I will post a link to my Assembla page.
Project Initiation Document (PID)
Click here to view the KickFlipper (PID)
This is my PID, it documents all the key information on my project, including my project plan and method of approach. You can read it by clicking the title above.
On a side note, i've recently been playing the game OlliOlli that I mentioned in my PID. It was released in August on the PSN store and has received positive reviews. It is definitely a different game to the one I intend to create which is great, but there are some innovative elements of the game I think I could learn from. The one life gameplay is really addictive and has kept my friend and I playing for far too long, this is something i've always intended on including in KickFlipper, and I aim to create the same addictive effect. Also the sound design in the game is nicely done with various different tracks dictating the games atmosphere excellently. The sound effects for all of the skateboards movements are realistic as well, but they don't sound out of place in a 2D cartoon environment or overpower the backing track , something I was concerned about after I received some feedback on my own backing track and skateboard sounds i made for my sound design module.
You can watch a trailer for OlliOlli
here
.
KickFlipper - Development Blog
This is the first dev post for my final year project, KickFlipper. It is a 2D momentum based skateboarding game that I will be developing from now until April using the Unity3D Game Engine, and I shall be using this blog to document my progress. I won't go into too much detail about the design of my project in this post as I will be posting my PID (Project Initiation Document) in my next post, this outlines my game concept and what I hope to achieve by undertaking this project. At this point in time I've made a very basic prototype, I've been trying to get a skateboard moving around inside a game environment in the way I want it to, this has not proved to be too difficult, but simulating realistic skateboard like and momentum based movement has been quite fiddly. I'm happy with the movement of my skateboard at the moment but I will be making more adjustments!