Cross Disciplinary Project – Served Cold
In the past few weeks I have been part of a studio 3 games project, they are making a a mobile game called Served Cold. The game consists of moving you character (an ice cube) through environmental puzzles so he can successfully reach the glass of coke. Things that I had to learn in this project was how to create simple characters and animations, so that they are easy to read on a small screen. I also had to learn how to deliver the animations and assets to the game student, including how to create a sprite sheet. Finally I did this project with another animation student and we had to work together to keep the look consistent.
CHARACTERS
My major task was to create the protagonist for the game, the little ice cube, my design was mostly informed by the design Che did for her character, as we wanted them to look similar, we used the same sized brushes, values, we both used gradients in some places and even used the exact same eyes. This process was back and forth and with simple characters it was important to keep an eye on every element as any mistakes could be easily noticeable. An example of our process was I decided my ice cube should have highlights on the top left, so Che added highlight to the top left of her character.
For the animation (if you can call it that) I simply had to add the expressions the game students asked for, which included sleeping, an open mouth and an extra happy face. I was expecting to have to draw extra frames, but the game students assured it was enough, and it turns out they look great in game. The only expression that has an extra frame is the sleeping one, with one having the mouth open and the other one has the mouth closed, to make him look like he is snoring.
TILE-SETS AND OBSTACLES
My second task was to create the environment, this could be done by creating a series of tile sets. For the wall we had to create 3 separate textures that would line up perfectly when tiled together, Che designed these, and I added the appropriate variations for my season summer and winter. The game is divided into season, which represent a new section of the game. This also had to be done for the floor, as there where more of these tiles, I had to create more variations or other wise it would look to plain and repeating.
There are also other obstacle in the game that allow for new mechanics and challenges, I had to create a movable block (a cake) and an animated arrow to indicate that if the player goes over it they are pushed the direction it points. These wehere easy to make, for the arrow I made a simple image and made a multiply layer that had an animated light moving past it, done in after effects.
WHAT COULD I IMPROVE ON?
In retrospect I think this is probably my best engagement with the game students I have ever had, this was in hand because the workload was minimum and easy to iterate on. Another are of success was how well me and Che lined up our art styles and what we where doing, constantly helping each other and giving feedback. The biggest part I think I could improve on is in helping implement assets in game, as sometimes the assets don’t look as good in game as you would expect, this includes adding extra effects and correct placing of items.
Here are some gifs of the game in action.
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