Hey folks! Here is my Ludum Dare submission that I've been beavering away with over the past few days. Find a build below and a bunch o' screenshots. Hope you'll give it a try!
Name of Game: El PresidenteLink into LD theme: You only have one target to eliminate.Link to build of game: https://trello-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/507403e80066f5793d314291/52ae5d898382a1c542009035/24bc5ae41e01d4fded20dd6b78f0082d/El_Presidente_Final.swfLink to Ludum Dare Page:http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=29160Technical Notes:
I would suggest to play the game in as wider screen as possible as it only works when using the full width of the screen, so make sure your browser is maximised when playing!
Objectives:Player 1 - Assassin has to eliminate the president by navigating through the crowds using the arrow keys.
Player 2 - Sniper has to use the provided polaroid to locate and eliminate the assassin before he can reach the president using the mouse to aim and clicking to fire.
Screenshots:
Main splash screen
Instructions page, showing the different players their objectives and interface. Green text represents the sniper, red text represents the assassin.
Another view of the instructions page.
View of gameplay with the crowds added.
Screenshot of sniper checking polaroid to see which target they're looking for.
Inspiration for project:Where's Wally - When searching through a crowd of people in where's wally, there are always the most fantastic set pieces with tremendous amount of scale and variety which visually overwhelms the viewer.
Guess Who - Having a preset selection of features to work from allows the sniper to whittle down their audience for who the assassin is. To add, the assassin himself doesn't know who he is so he too can use this information to identify himself in the crowd without having to walk into open areas.
Ninja Convention - A fantastic flash game where two ninjas have to maneuver through a sea of identical characters to find and eliminate their opponent. I really enjoyed playing this game, specifically for how carefully you have to control your movement through the crowds since what gives you away is inconsistent movement (None of the AI move diagonally, so doing so will show your opponent where you are). I wanted to see how an asymmetric playing field would compare.
Features:Polaroid that develops over time, revealing the features of the assassin:
This was achieved by creating a variable that chooses an animation between 1 and 100 called assassin appearance. Not only was this used for the character's attire but also as a mugshot for the sniper to use to identify his target. A duplicate of the assassin character was scaled up 500% and ensured that the ability to move and collide was removed. This provided a blurry image used as a mugshot (actually a side effect but made it harder to identify using the image). To add to the difficulty, the mugshot on the polaroid takes time for the colours to appear (achieved by slowly increasing the saturation from 0% to 100%, along with a slow increase in opacity, revealing the mugshot.
Modular Character production for the crowds and assassin:
To keep it simple, a basic structure for the faces of the characters was built. Skin colour, clothes, hair colour, nose shape, eye colour, facial hair and facial hair colour were all considered. for different faces alone we had around 3500 different varieties of face. This was way too many for the project, so a selection of random samples were taken from the main sprite sheet and rows of characters were created by stacking the head, body and legs up into columns of 3s (how you would build a snowman). These were all given the instructions to start at a random animation point (e.g. start playing animation at head number 429) and a series of screen captures provided the 100 different individuals in the crowds. Funnily enough, many simple nude character bodies were designed, but the final sprite sheet for body parts featured around 6 to 8 times' worth of nude body duplicates, meaning a lot of the characters in the game appear to be naked or with bizarre tan lines. Regardless, the variation in the crowds was achieved. With more time, going back and adding more variety would allow characters to be less commonly selected, making the job of the assassin a lot more difficult.
Members and RolesAlex Johansson - Art and Programming in Stencylworks
Luigi Renna - Programmer who I formed the idea for the project with and have worked with at the game Jam. Unfortunately, technical restrictions on his laptop prevented him from being able to bring the game into fruition (along with the fact he was using flixel for the first time).
Have fun and if you have any questions, drop a comment below. Thanks!
