Life is a...Moonwalk (Project Proposal)
From EQUIS Lab Wiki
For this project, we plan to modify Life is a Village to create a moon exploration game. The object will be to collect moon rock samples and blue cheese (which will restore health) before the timer (amount of oxygen left) runs out. Different levels may present various challenges such as having to pick up blue cheese at the right points in order to make it back to the ship, moon aliens, jumping too high that you float off into space, etc.
Of course the amount that gets done will depend on what the time permits us to do and the challenges we’ll face. In the following section, we’ll outline the various stages that we’ve planned to ensure that we don’t attempt too much at once.
Contents |
Project Outline
Stage 1 – Terrain
In this first stage of development, we will modify Life is a Village to resemble a moon landscape. This will involve:
- removing trees, houses and other entities
- changing the terrain to a moon-like texture with craters
- changing the skybox to a space background
Stage 2 – Cheese / Rock Samples
Next, we will create entities for the items to collect (blue cheese and rock samples). We may use a 3D model or may just choose to use a billboard. This will involve:
- knowing when the item has been collected (collision detection)
- hiding the object once it has been collected
- accounting for the collected object (increase health, goal reached)
Stage 3 – HUD
At this point, we will need some way of showing the player the amount of oxygen (time) they have left and the objects they have collected. For this we will use a “heads up display” or HUD, which will display this information on screen.?
Stage 4 – First Person
In this stage, we will attempt to create a more realistic moon exploration experience by shifting the view to the first person and getting rid of the robot entity left by Life is a Village. We may choose to put a translucent reflection of a face in the players view like a reflection in a space helmet.
Stage 5 – Physics
The moon has different gravity than Earth (and the village from Life is a Village), so we’ll have to create a game physics engine of some sort to account for this. This will involve:
- lighter footsteps (more like hopping rather than walking)
- jumping (over craters)
- possibly floating into space (and failing) by jumping/”jetpacking” too high
Stage 6 – Levels
In order for our game to be a game, there must be some sort of goal. In this stage we will create some way of implementing levels with different placements of cheese/rock samples and a way of winning these levels. This will involve:
- some way of creating maps (most likely using XML) which contain the locations of any cheese/rock samples in the level
- some sort of tutorial if time permits
Stage 7 – Extras
In this stage, we will use any time remaining (if any) to implement a few extra ideas. These include:
- moon aliens that live in craters and cause damage if touched
- meteor showers (getting hit by one causes damage)
- deep craters as pits (with quicksand or bottomless pits)
- dark side of the moon where you can only see a certain distance (ambient light around the camera)
- cheese/rock sample radar showing you where objects are hidden
