pinball escape
Game Description:
Pinball Escape is a reaction based physics game that channels classic arcade pinball. The art style invokes a feeling of classic sci-fi fitted to a classic pinball table. The game levels are small spaces filled with bouncy objects such as angular slingshots and round bumpers. The ball is drawn by gravity to the bottom of the level, much as classic pinball. Unlike classic pinball, the ball cannot escape the level and the player interacts with the ball by drawing trampolines across the play space rather than flicking flippers.
Pinball Escape is a reaction based physics game that channels classic arcade pinball. The art style invokes a feeling of classic sci-fi fitted to a classic pinball table. The game levels are small spaces filled with bouncy objects such as angular slingshots and round bumpers. The ball is drawn by gravity to the bottom of the level, much as classic pinball. Unlike classic pinball, the ball cannot escape the level and the player interacts with the ball by drawing trampolines across the play space rather than flicking flippers.
game trailer:
Development Info
Role: Artist
Engine: Unity 2017.1.0p4
Genre: 2D android reaction based physics game
Team Size: 4 developers (only artist)
Period: Oct 2017 – Dec 2017
Responsibilities
Role: Artist
Engine: Unity 2017.1.0p4
Genre: 2D android reaction based physics game
Team Size: 4 developers (only artist)
Period: Oct 2017 – Dec 2017
Responsibilities
- Concepted theme and environment of the game.
- Define color scheme to achieve conveyance.
- Created sprite for art assets in Adobe Photoshop and integrated with levels in Unity.
- Created background in Adobe Photoshop, animated in Unity and integrated with levels.
- Created tutorial animation in Adobe After Effects and exported as PNG sequence to integrate with tutorial level in Unity.
- Designed art for UI and integrated it into the game.
- Designed game icon, game logo, and team logo.
- Created marketing materials such as flyer, poster, feature graphic, and DVD case.
- Helped with bugtesting and analyzing playtesting feedbacks.
Project contribution:
Art style
This is an example screenshot of a level in the game. The game features a space and sci-fi inspired environment. The concept was developed for high conveyance and are inspired from simple shapes with high detail. I used a simple art style in which every object in the game have simple shape and shading. Shapes such as circle, square, and right triangle are easy for the players to project the direction of the ball when it hit the objects. By using simple shading and bright tone for interactable objects on a dark background, players can easily differentiate each of the objects on the screen. Every art asset was created in Adobe Photoshop and imported as sprite in Unity.
Animation
The first level of the game contains two tutorial animations which were created in Adobe Photoshop and animated in Adobe After Effects. They were exported as PNG sequence from Adobe After Effects and integrated in with the level in Unity. At first the tutorial animations did not have texts, but I learnt from playtesting feedbacks that the players understand better when some texts were displayed.
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The animation of the splash screen was completed in Unity. Animation parameters of position, rotation, and size transform are applied to each of the objects. Furthermore, a highlight effect was added via sprite swap.
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UI
Pause screen triggers when the player’s interaction with the pause button (located top right of screen). The pause menu is made of a Restart, Level Select, Menu, and Exit button, in that order. Warm colors were used, such as orange, yellow, and red. The color choice was based on achieving a distinct look for the pause menu that was different from the objects in game.
Post-mortems:
What went well
What went wrong
What I learned
- The art came together great at the end and achieved a shippable quality.
- My art creation speed increased a lot after I found a right theme.
What went wrong
- I did not speak and contribute much in the team discussion at the start. I want to think through and be certain before speaking out but that was too slow.
- I was very slow at coming up with the overall look of the game because a lack of experience.
What I learned
- There is nothing wrong with saying bad idea and something I say in the discussion does not have to be perfect. Game development is about brainstorming where everyone says whatever they think, and bad idea can trigger better idea. Everyone will help build up each other ideas.
- Coming up with a mood and theme for the game is a time-consuming process especially for a lack of experience developer like me. I think the only way to speed the process up is to use a wide range of art references and consult with people to get more idea.
- I learn that I should check the platform constraints and test my art with the actual platform early.
- Although GDD is out of date very fast, it's still important to update it regularly.