EL405: Project 2 Moving On

My proposal for the second, and final, project this semester plans on being somewhat of an ongoing project for me (provided I can get a good grip on what I'm doing). I'm basically adapting my Dodge side-scroller from Games Factory 2 to Flash. I know it's not as wonderfully new and exciting as some projects, but at the same time it's where my heart is.

My original plan was to develop a single level for our early exercises and then develop the game further into a number of levels for the final. Now I must face the music and admit that this shall not happen. It's not because of a lack of ambition, because I've certainly got enough of that to power a tug boat. Rather, it's because I have been unable to remain focused on this grand scheme while working on my McTeag game and various exercises. That, along with the fact that Games Factory 2 is an obtuse, limited piece of software and I have little time to march across campus to a comp. lab to learn how to use it. Plus, I have to think of usability.

GF2 can export to a webpage so that the game can be playable in any browser. However, GF2 is only made for PC's I would need one to edit my game in the future. And, you need a "pro" version of the software to export it to web. All these things mean less and less control of my game after I finish EL405. It would be much more convenient to just learn how to make the game using Flash. It would also be more compatible for the web.

The real issue is actually learning how to make a side-scroller in Flash. Puff and I spent a good while talking about making the game in Flash--it was he who said that it would probably take the same amount of time to make the game in GF2 as it would in Flash, and I am beginning to agree. While I know how to use GF2 somewhat, it's unintuitive interface slows the user down. So while I will have to teach myself new aspects of Flash, once I get up and running I hope I can produce a game faster. Hopefully.

And so my main goal for Project 2 is the following: to create a working menu system for the Dodge game, to re-create the Antarctica level that we made previously, only this time make it actually fun to play, and make some sort of ending screen that would lead to more levels. The main source of help for this project will be the Outside of Society, a Flash tutorial website that is devoted to side-scrolling and "tile-based" games.

I will be using much of the same Dodge artwork for this as I did in GF2. The graphics will look marginally better in Flash because it uses vector images instead of bitmaps. I will, unfortunately, have to create the level from scratch, since it won't have the large library of game items that GF2 came with.