Paper Prototype BOSS World 1

The Boss of World 1: The Catterpilar. Design and prototype of the game took somewhere around 7 hours, from concept to finished prototype. Took a few iterations to get to the final prototype, mainly due to simplifying the ai for the boss. To defeat the boss, you need to use the grow/shrink mechanic in a different way.

Audio Development Tilium

As promised here are the audio clips for Tilium. Erik Dost, our audio composer and sound designer made all of these. I'll start off with the melody. It was in my head for a while and figured out that it could be used for Tilium. I sang the melody to Erik. The general idea of the melody is that it should be a recurring theme during the game. It can be played slow for moody moments, and fast for adventurous moments. This melody will be played on a music box as well and we are creating it live at the moment.



And this is what Erik made of my squeaky voice, using only one hand cause was under the knife a few days before.



To give you a better feel of the audio of the game, this is what Erik made as a "moodboard" for the intro of the game. Please note that Erik hasn't seen anything from the game up until this point and had to rely on what we told him. Great Job! Skip to about 30 seconds where the music starts if you like, the first 30 are environmental sound from the city.




Erik also made the finale for the game, but I haven't got the time to make a movieclip for it. You can watch the prototype and skip to the train part to hear it.

First prototype Tilium

This Tuesday we finished the prototype after a 13 hour session to finish it regarding the requirements. This prototype was build in vife weeks.

Paper Prototypes World 1

Luckily this game is ideal for paper prototyping. We had created some first levels of world 1 with it and had some great fun doing so! Everyone in the team got the idea straight away and didn't need any explanation beforehand, and we all had some good ideas and even created a what-the-fuck-mechanic! The wtf mechanic is not used to complete the level, but if the player finds out how it works he will be rewarded with a yummyberry! I'll give you a hint. In this level, the top half of the screen is above ground. The lower half is underground. The yummyberry is inside an icecube/flower.

First look Leon 3d

Jeffry made his final adjustments on the character and these are the results of it.

Itteration towards final model

The final model doesn't differ much from the first one. The model itself was spot on, only details have been adjusted towards some feedback.

• eyebrows less detailed because when zoomed they look gray
• Skin tone is lighter, nose a bit reddish
• Shine removed from skin
• Hair less detailed

Character concept art and development

The artist of the game, Twan van Dooren, first tackled the design of our main character Leon. The design of the character was challenging because he had to be recognizable in game where he is really small on screen, as well as in a close up animation of a video. This is what he first came up with and what the final product is, and whatwe as a team all agreed upon as a great main character. All the props for this go out to Twan! Well done!

And so Twan created the final concept art of Leon which Jeffrey will be modelling. This is the final result;

The younger version of Leon is still in development but these are the first sketches. The younger version will be used in the game as his duplicate. The young Leon was the happy little boy when he lived in the village before he went off to the city.

Moodboards

The visual style of Tilium could best be compared with a game like Braid. It plays like a 2d game but will combine 2d and 3d art with much of the game's assets being painted. Here are some moodboards we created to get a better feeling of how the game should look and feel.

 

Technical Issues

Aparently youtube doesn't like just mp3 files, so I need to make videos with the track underneath in order them to post. So I will be busy with this so expect the next update this weekend.

First Game Music & Audio

Our music composer/audio designer for Tilium is Erik Dost. He's a second year student as well at the USAT and he joined us in this project as an experiment. Erik has never made music and sounds for games before and he eagerly wants to experience how this is done.

When we had to come up with the concept presentation, Erik made a song which was his first attempt to capture the feeling of the world of Tilium. Using classical instruments only, he silenced us when we first heared it. Pretty amazing if you have never seen anything from the game before and only knew from what we told him.



After hearing this we decided that the game music will only use classical instruments because it was so convincingly adding that extra layer to the game.

Melody

I came up with a melody one day and I asked Erik if he could make it. The melody will be the in the main theme song and recurs throughout the game when something important happenes, such as a change of mood or a final battle. The melody can be played very slowly so that it sounds sad, and very fast so that it sounds energetic. He asked me how it sounds and so I sang it to him. He then made this first attempt to create the melody on a piano.


And he made a longer version as well.



I loved what he did with the piano, but I didn't know if this melody will work if it's played faster because the orriginal is slightly different and has other tones. But to be honoust it sounds better then the orriginal, so we need to compare them.

The game features a music box and I came across an old fashion music box melody maker in a shop in Amsterdam where you can make your own melody by punching holes in a card. We haven't had the time to do this yet because I don't know how to read music notes and make the melody, and our meeting last Friday was to short to do it.

Core Mechanics

Design Constraints

Because the game is a casual game, the main criteria I had for each of these mechanics is that they should be very easy to learn and stand on their own as a challange. But their appliance comes in many different ways where lateral thinking comes around the corner. The player is challenged en encouraged to discover it's little secrets and so fort building a mental model of how they work inside the game world.

Combining mechanics is challenging and because we only have nine weeks to make the full game, they have to be simple in order to minimize the balancing of them when they are combined. We already made a level with a combination and even with these simple mechanics it can get really challenging. Right now these mechanics will all be present in the game, but maybe one of them will be removed due to complexity and deadlines or design quality.

Tile mechanic

The first core mechanic of the game is the sliding tiles. Each tile contains a piece of platform that the player will use in different ways to accomplish a level. The player switches from screen mode (zoomed out, where he can move the tiles but not move the player or use mechanics) to field mode (zoomed in, he can move the character around and use the other mechanics).

Grow mechanic

The grow mechanic can grow objects by moving them right or shrink them by moving them left.

Reflect mechanic

With the reflect mechanic, you reflect an object from one position of the screen to the other.

Duplicate mechanic

Although I don't have a movie of this mechanic, it works quite simple as well. The player can duplicate himself (younger version). When it is turned on, the player can only move around the duplicated version of himself. Time is stopped when the mechanic is triggered and the duplicated Leon can move around, trigger/grab things and move things around. Playtesting needs to point out if this mechanic needs to be constrained because it offers so much freedom and can therefore break the game.

Concept Tilium

Core Concept

Tilium is a 2,5d puzzle platform adventure game where you play as Leon who travels back to his hometown, and finds it deserted and decayed. Through the use of mechanics like growing, mirroring and duplicating you need to solve mind boggling puzzles and bosses, and make your hometown the way it used to be.

The game offers the player with numerous challenges on the platform part of the game, by using a sliding puzzle mechanic where the player can move parts of the platform like a sliding puzzle. By combining the puzzles that need to be solved using the mechanics that the player has and the platform challenges, Tilium will bring a new and fresh game to add to it's genre.

Next to the game mechanics, the player will also be offered a beautiful artstyle and progressive storyline that are designed alongside the game to make the world of Tilium alive and coherent with the game itself.
And on top of this all, the game has it's own music composer/sound designer to add that extra layer to the game that will make you remember it long after you've played it.

The Initial idea

The concept of Tilium first started when I played the game continuity. It features a sliding puzzle mechanic which appealed to me from the start. It's really felt fresh and intuitive, yet simple to learn and master. The goal of the game is to use this mechanic in order to move your character through the tile platforms, get the key and then unlock to door to complete the level.

Soon after the game looses it's appeal to me because the simplicity of the mechanic combined with the puzzle aspect of the platforms and tiles itself becomes a mix and match protocol. I found myself repeating the same thing over and over again and that was putting the next tile that fits to this tile, and walk into it. The realization of this was that what actually happened in the tiles itself (jumping and running) was obsolete to the game. The only challenge that opposed to the player was puzzling the tiles, not the platform challenge that was opposed to the character of the game. So this lead to the idea that what happened inside these tiles should be a challenge for the player as well, but it also had to be in combination with the sliding puzzle mechanic so that the platform and puzzle challenge of the game become one.

So in a nutshell, the only thing I used from continuity game is the sliding puzzle mechanic, . The reason for me saying this is because some people asked us this question after we first pitched the game;

"So is Tilium going to be continuity game only with added features?"

No. The game will play completely different because the player will have three core mechanics to his skill-set, other then running, jumping and the sliding puzzle mechanic. They are Grow, Mirror and Duplicating himself. These will be explained later on, but they are used to solve puzzles that are inside the tiles themselves and even puzzles that can only be solved by using different tiles, using the sliding mechanic as well to accomplish this.
At first look the game will look allot like continuity because of the sliding tiles, but other then that there will be no resemblance.

Have I lost you yet? Well if you can't picture the sliding puzzle mechanic, than I would suggest that you play continuity game for just one minute max to get the idea. The other mechanics will be explained in another post so that this thread doesn't become a endless piece of text, plus it will have movies to make them clear.

Friday Update

Ok the big update will be friday. I have to translate everything into sound English but I'm getting there. Tomorrow I have a meeting with the audio designer and after this meeting I will start posting all the latest bits. And to keep you coming back, I came up with a melody that will be played on the music box in the game. Erik already made some samples of it on his computer, but even better, tomorrow we are going to play and make the tune live with a mechanical music box I found today in a weird shop! Can't wait to get started with it, punching holes in the cards and making the tune alive! Just like the real thing.

And if you read the storyline, you can probably guess what the contest is going to be about. But I will have it all by you tomorrow, so keep an eye out!

Storyline Tilium Part 1

Storyline Tilium

The main character of Tilium is Leon, a pensioned older man at the age of 60. He worked hard his entire life and is sitting out his retirement in a huge apartment in the big, dirty city. He has been alone his entire life, because he pursued money and status rather then pursuing happiness.

He has slowly started realizing this after he retired and "enjoyed" his welth, with no one to share it with. This realization took his thoughts back to why he took the decisions to pursue money and leave his hometown. And while he thought things over he realises that he left behind what was truly dear to him; his friends and family, and the town he used to love so much. Back then he was truly happy.

He remembers he got a postcard from a lady friend 15 years ago. It contained a picture of his brother, himself, the lady friend and two other friends from when he left. On the back there was a message from her;


Dear Leon,


It has been such a long time since we last seen you. I hope all is going well for you and that things worked out for you as they planned. All is well here in (village name).
Kevin is always up to the usual stuff, inventing some crazy air-thingy. He calles it "the castle in the sky". I hope he will finish it soon because he's been building it for well over two years now, and he can't stop talking about it!
Anyway, I want you to know that we really miss you here and that we hope you will come by anytime soon to say hello and stay for a while.


Greetings,
(lady friend)

He sighs and slaps himself in the face, because back then when he got the card he didn't want to go back, because he felt that going back was like taking a step back in quality of the life he was living at that moment.

The card was stored in a music box he kept in his closet, and he pulled out the music box and opened it to hear it play. (theme song of the game is introduced). This really gets him thinking.

He feels utterly ashamed about the thoughts of life he had back then, and decides that he is going to redeem himself by going back to his hometown after all.
A single moment later he is packed and ready to go. He leaves his apartment and heads to the train station, where the only train departing to (unknown village) leaves today. And here will be no other for a long while…

World 0: The city

Arriving at the train station he hears the train’s horn and rushes to the platform. The train already started moving and he runs as fast as he can! But he realizes the suitcase he’s got with him slows him down too much. Without hesitation he throws all his cloths and suits away and runs like the wind! He runs and jumps just like when he was young, and just in time to make the final jump on board of the train.

“ On board of the train, he looks back at his suitcase with all the suits on the floor… He smiles…”

The arrival (world 1: Hillside)

Arriving at his hometown, Leon sees the tree at the top of the hill. Behind it is the village. He walks up to the tree and his face just keeps on growing because he knows his friends and family are behind that hill. He sniffs up the fresh air that he used to do. The air smells like summer and fresh flowers, and looking around him you can see the track that leads to the tree. Flowers grow next to it, and you can hear the early birds sing. Looking at the tree, you can see the sun rising up from behind it.
Leon keeps on walking up and when he reaches the top of the hill and stands next to the tree. He sees his hometown…

The smile on his face turns into shock when he looks over the village. It looks decayed and deserted. Crops are dead, his house which lies at the foot of the hill has holes in the roof, and ravens are flying all around fighting over the few things that are left to eat.

He simply can’t believe what he is seeing. His once beautiful town turned into a ruin. He asks himself “what can I do?!”. He sits down in front of the tree leaning against it and tries to recover from what he just saw. He keeps on thinking over and over what he can do, because this place is the only thing good that he has left in his life. He came back to make commence and now he can’t. He anxiously says; “But I must do something!?!”
Leon looks up to the beautiful blue sky and the sun that is shining on him. And looking even further up he sees the leaves of the tree and its colorful leaves. “This can’t be the end of my town?!” he says to himself. “If this tree is still growing, and the sun is still shining through the sky, there must be life here! I can make this town whole again! I know how to make things grow (one of three mechanics of the game). And I know how to build a house so I can make this place like it used to be. I must…

Leon stands up and starts walking downhill towards his home, towards rebuilding his town to what it used to be.

(to be continued…)

Major Update this Thursday!

Hello everyone!

Sorry we haven't updated regularly but we wanted to get some quality on here so the next big update is about to be launched here. The update will containt he following;

- Concept Tilium A-Z
- Story and scenario Tilium
- Concept art Tilium
- Concept art character
- First look 3d model character
- Level design of Intro
- Stop motion movies of paper prototyping we did
- Game Music

PLUS!
A contest! We are not sure about a name for a certain someone so stay tuned because you can contribute to this game to!

Greetings,
Bliepjes 2.0