The Red Planet: Complete

 The Red Planet is an exciting puzzle game which takes place on the planet Mars.  Take control of Arnold the Astronaut and his spherical space rover as you explore the rocky, desolate and mysterious planet of Mars.  In some levels you will use the space rover and in other levels you will use the Astronaut to wander the land, collecting extremely rare cubes of Uraythium.  This exotic element has been found to be the cure to all diseases and illnesses. Collect all the cubes in all the levels to save the world!     The Goal: solve each puzzle in order to move to the next level and get back to Earth.

Instructions:
Arrows to move
R to restart level
Space bar to jump (on some levels)
L to jump between levels

Level 1:  The Crater Zone

Level 2:  The Valley

Level 3:  The Atmosphere 

Level 4:  The Mountain Zone

Level 5:  The Dark Side

Kongregate Link:
http://www.kongregate.com/games/raybendolph/the-red-planet

The Red Planet: Week 5 Updates

     The Red Planet is becoming an ACTUAL GAME! This week was an all out overhaul of creativity.  I found the terrain tool and fell in love.  It turned my okay levels into interactive and visually pleasing worlds.  Terrain tool allowed me to put the player right onto the red planet Mars.  And in each level the terrain can be accessed in the gameplay.  Also to help the player out, I added a new GUI to help explain the obkective of each level and how to play.

     In addition, I added a great tracklist to the game.  What everyone else in class forgot was the audio aspect of the game.  They all focused on the visuals.  But, to be fully immersed in a game, audio or music is necessary!  And the songs included in each level put you right into the space exploring and battle mentality.  From level one the music is so intense it adds the extra flare to the level that makes The Red Planet a legitimate web game.

UPDATED Level 1 with new GUI, Terrain, and Music

UPDATED Level 2 with new GUI, Terrain, and Music

UPDATED Level 3 with new GUI and Music

UPDATED Level 4 with new GUI, Terrain, and Music

UPDATED Level 5 with new GUI, Terrain, and Music

NEW End of Game Screen, GUI, Terrain, and Music

The Red Planet: Week 4 Updates

     The Red Planet is really taking shape in the fourth week of course work.  I have enhanced the visuals of most levels by adding a skybox.  The skybox is very usual in providing the illusion the player is in the 3D world and in my case the vast area of space. these galactic skyboxes really help the setting of the game.

     

     Also, I added a fifth and final level in which the player uses the astronaut again to explore the 3D level made with TidyTileMaker. But, watch your step because one misstep could send our hurdling through space!  The player will use the astronaut to pickup the cubes as in the previous levels in attempt to finally beat the game.

UPDATED Level 1 with a skybox

UPDATED Level 2 with a skybox

Level 3

UPDATED Level 4 with a skybox

Improved Player jump to reach higher blocks

NEW Level 5 with a skybox

The Red Planet: 2D/3D Side Scroller Week 3:

     This massive level was initially intended to be my level two but it wound up being so big that now it will probably end up as the final level to beat the game.  The level will force the player to use all the skills and problem solving abilities they learned in the beginning levels in order to beat this one.  This final level contains steep climbs and drops, stairs, booby traps, paths to no where and will require a lot of patience.

Tidy Tile Mapper Side Scroller: Week 2

     I want to add music to my levels to really give the game authenticity but thats not extremely important. This week, I started work on my second level.  This level is quite massive.  It is five times bigger than the last level and will require the player to have patience and skill.  I would like to add a skybox to the scene to give the game a more 3D effect even though its technically a 2D side scroller.  I also added some more block textures to bring more visuals to the game as well.

     This level will be played with the toon characters that we received this week in class.  They are a little more functional than the ball and have a jump feature that allows the player to reach tighter areas of each level.  Additionally, the pack included an astronaut and an alien which will complete the Mars/Space theme of my game.

Tidy Tile Mapper Game Concept: Week 1

     I want to use the Tidy Tile Mapper feature on Unity to make a Mario style side scroller.  I can use the varying block textures to build infinitely different landscapes and levels.  The varying block textures can also build upon different levels.  I'm going to make a space themed game and use the blocks to represent the surface of the planet Mars.  My  inspiration comes from games like Angry Birds Space and Star Wars Battlefront.  The player will be a ball that bounces through difficult maze like obstacles on its way to the end of each level.  The bounciness of the ball will mimic the lack of gravity in space and on Mars.  Even the ball will have space like features to it including a trail and a halo.  I also took inspiration from these pictures and illustrations of Mars.

     This is my first level that I had to break down a little in order to allow the ball to bounce more naturally. Notice the background image which i mirrored  to create a massive play area.  The ball is easily found by its halo and trail.  If the player bounces out of the area they will hit the trigger at the bottom to stop them from falling forever and restart the level.  

Final Touches

I really think these final touches take my game far away from the original RPG game and any game that other students have made.  I renamed the game to TAKEN, after the movie franchise. The plot basically revolves around you trying to find your brother after he has been TAKEN by a group of man eating stone monsters.

I have added more trees and people in the town so it feels a bit busier and not creepily quiet.  Talking to people is half of the fun too since they all say different things.  Some stuff is funny,

some stuff is creepy,

and other stuff is useful.

I also decided that the game was too easy if the wand if the most powerful weapon because the magic can go through textures and hurt multiple enemies with one shot.  So I decided to make the Bow stronger so that player must now choose if they want to use the bow which is the strongest but slow, and doesn't go through textures.  Or do they want to use the wand which is weaker but is fast and goes through textures.  I feel like this adds personal touches to the game and makes it replayable.

The next Level I added is a Boss level.  In this dark and shady level. The player has to defeat the Green Monster in order to open the chest and continue to the next level.  Only thing is every time you hit the monster, green blobs spawn and get in the way.

The next level takes the player down a mountainside where he is attacked by another hoard of blobs.  But these blobs are faster and move like bats making them even harder to destroy.  I liked using the bat script on the blobs since it would surprise first time players that out of nowhere blobs can start moving fast and targeting them instead of just moving on there own.

The Last level takes place on the beach and boardwalk.  This is where your brother is! But you gotta find him and making that job harder than it needs to be is crazy fast and powerful stone monsters that follow your every move.  Once you make it to the beach, gotta find which building will actually take you to your brother!  I added this level to give the game a different setting.  All the other levels had grass and trees in the terrain and this level visually just stands out because of the sand and water color.  Definitely one of my favorite levels! And hopefully you found the key in town because without the key you cant open the door to your brother and you will have to go back and find it!!

Lastly, what makes my game stand out from everyone else is the MUSIC.  It makes the battle scenes more intense and the town not as annoying. The music is a great addition to the game and TAKEN the Game Soundtrack features music of all genres including:

Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO
Hold On, Were Coming Home - Drake
Bangarang - Skrillex
Thrift Shop - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
This Is How We Do It - Montell Jordan
Time - Hans Zimmer
Mombasa - Hans Zimmer
Dream Is Collapsing - Hans Zimmer