The Artists Challenge: Designing a Side-Scroller Game

 

This scene from one level of a side scroller game will be put into a program in a later semester. It will be very fun to see this fully implemented.

The Game Premise

This game is about the challenges of being an artist. 


 

After roughing out ideas for three different levels, this is the environment that was further developed for this assignment. It is based around the fear and doubt that an artist has to constantly work through and conquer.

 

 

 

 

The key to conquering those fears is to keep producing art, so that is how the artist overcomes the challenges. She throws paint at blank canvases and creatures.
 



When she paints an inactive canvas, it is activated, and can then be used to overcome obstacles by riding on it as it moves or to duck under or behind it as she encounters obstacles. 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The villain of the game is an art critic, who throws thick black globs of criticism at the artist.










The Obstacles


The Anxiety Claw Hand

The Energy Leech

The Inner Critic Troll


The Procrastination Leg Trap









The Background

There are five layers: The sky, the background, the mid-ground, the foreground (where the character moves), and the overlay (any objects the character moves behind). These layers are different widths, because as the character moves through the screen each layer will move at a different speed. This is to simulate real life, where objects that are closer will appear to move more. I included some clouds in the layers that move to give them a more oppressive feel.

The background is in muted colours. As the Artist moves through the scene she will paint it brighter colours with her paint-balls.

Here are all of the layers and objects together:



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