Bitmap Game
Description
For this project, we had to design and code a bitmap game that tells an aspect of our own story.
Design Process
This idea came to me pretty naturally, as we all have been in quarantine for eight months now. I started to notice that as time went on I didn't really leave my room all day, I would just feel exhausted all the time and completely uninspired. Once it became safe to leave my apartment again, I would go on a walk for an hour or two to clear my head and it would help tremendously. For this game, I wanted to basically imitate my walk. The game starts in an apartment, similar to my own, with the player on the bottom lefthand corner where you will see the titled of the game 'I Should go on a Walk' along with the instructions underneath. The player moves through the apartment, avoiding various obstacles like furniture, to get the the top right-hand corner to get to level two. Level two is a basic one-way street in New York. There's a street vendor on the top left and crowds of people (the green dots) as well as trash (the brown dots) and rats (the grey ellipses). I decided to make the game and night because I (finally) figured out how to adjust the opacity and I wanted to take advantage of that. I think it also adds a certain charm to the whole thing - walking through the city at night in the Fall always feels special. The player once again needs to get to the top right corner to proceed to the next level, but be wary of the taxi cabs! If you get hit, you get bumped back down to the bottom. Again, the player needs to maneuver around a few barriers in order to get to where it needs to go. The next level is an imitation of the park I often walk to facing the East River into Manhattan. Once the player is there it can rest on the bench and relax.
Reflection
I enjoyed making this project, I really like the overall look of it. I think it more or less captures the feeling of Fall in the city which is just what I was going for. I had initially put a life counter and was planning on having things like getting hit by the taxi or walking over a rat effect your health, but I thought that kind of inhibited the vibe of the whole game so I got rid of that aspect. The whole thing is supposed to feel very meditative and relaxing and I think I was able to accomplish that.I think most of the barriers I set up work well, some of them are a bit wonky. The ones that bother me the most are the walls around the room. The player can go through them when entering the bedroom (which is not what I want) but cannot escape the room without going through the doorway (which is what I want.) The other little issue I had was with the cabs, I had intended on having 3 or so cabs running through the street but I could never seem to get them to not overlap one another on a consistent enough basis for me to feel comfortable with submitting it as the final work. Overall, I've never designed, or really even considered designing, a game so this was a fun and interesting experience. (Sometimes the music doesn't work if playing this on glitch, use p5 for full effect.)