Tutorial design

For my tutorial I want it to be both quick and interesting, I've always hated those tutorial that force you to wait through certain talks or making you read everything on a single screen or level. Hopefully my tutorial should allow the user to easily jump through it if they know the game or can easily work out what to do while still showing them stuff they need to remember for the game later on.

Main design:

I hope this level shows the basics of the game as it forces the player to first walk, use the jump and then double jump, and displays how wall jumping can be used in a very simple way.

The final block of this area should hopefully show how the level can be changed to force the player to react, I want it to display the forced moving camera as well as let the player meet an enemy for the first time, this is shown by the change in background colour, this will hopefully explain to the player that different rooms will have different camera focuses.

As well as how the level is designed i hope to add small pieces of information that the player can see, but without it getting in the way. The way i think to do this would be to have the information on the outside of the room, this means  that the player isn't forced to read it and also doesn't get in the way as much as, say, spawning blocks of text in front of the player explaining what to do. This text will include things that may not be as obvious to the player, such as something about how the enemy AI works, but only shown somewhere that the player would get to by tricking the AI in the first place.

Animation designs

I would like to say here and now that i am not a good artist and really wish i could do these better. My first animation aims were to make the basic animations needed for the main character, this includes: walking; running; sliding and jumping.

 First attempt walk:

This is my very first attempt at a walking stick man and honestly looks like a dancer, but the main action in my game is to be running this is much less important luckily, i am planning on redesigning this, but after 3 more failed attempts i have left it for now.

My run animation:

While not as good as i would like, it is acceptable in game and much better than the walking animation. This uses 7 slides to go through the usual movements, it looks fine in game and moves between walking and run animation moderately fluidly.

Wall Sliding:

Wall sliding is something that I always wanted to add to my game, I feel it allows more flexible design in levels and at same time allows the player a much more interesting game play as they can now attempt to use walls to their advantage.

This animation works just as i would hope it to, but the animation for the opposite way does not, the collision detection seems to believe it is permanently swapping from being on the wall to off of it, changing animations permanently. So far this has not changed with any editing of the collision box and i have yet to fix it completely, though i have reduced how often it happens.

General Game choices and plans

The game will be designed around the main character being the last standing stickman from his army and as such is forced to run through the only way to get back to his people, which unfortunately means meeting his enemies and having to fight them while hurrying through the levels.

With this first design i'm hoping to be able to make a game that is a side scrolling platformer that uses both player following camera as well as forcing the player to play fast as the camera moves on a set path, forcing the player to fight as well as not getting caught at the edge of the screen. My main idea for the game mechanics is to allow the player basic fighting moves, punches kicks and jump or crouch versions of both, but the enemies will have all the same moves and instead of applying a health bar to the player I want to follow more of a indirect theme to fights, as their soldiers should out number you and be stronger, while I do want the main player to be able to fight the men, I also want the main focus of the player to be on beating the soldiers without too many unneeded direct encounters.