InSanity Artists

Please comment here to communicate with the other artists.



Aubergine, mouth or no mouth?

 

The edits are quite crappy right now, but will get better soon.

Update: Cartoon style. Haven't mastered how to do lighting yet, but this is a start:

File can be found in dropbox under "Eggplant_Line_Art_Coloured.png" along with the original xcf file.

I'll need to get around to finish the mouth on this thing.







Update 2: Mouth's done. I'm well aware of the teeth poking out from the right side.

InSanity vs. Traditional RTS

Please help me list the similarities and differences between InSanity and Traditional RTS games. Marty wanted me to get a basic list. Thank you!

Movement!

This post is to discus the idea of using neurons movement through synapses for inter-brain-area travel.

The following image is the result of a special-needs programmer pretending to be an artist/cobbler depicting some core ideas.




Now that your eyes have stopped shedding tears, I will discuss what is going on here. Each area is defined by borders that are not borders, but are actually the highways of the neural-network. Not all areas can be accessed from this network though, oh no, for that you require a synapses! Synapses that you can use are formed upon infecting an area. (Visually, they are grayed out, so the player knows where passages can be formed, and they change color when they are activated and usable.) This allows your neurons to use these "on ramps" and "off ramps" of the neural-network. "Hold the phone, what are my neurons?" you ask? Well, they are your army, in traversing form. When a unit wants to move to an area, it walks to it's local synapses and mid jump, turns into a neuron that arcs onto the network, speeds down the neural-network to it's designated area, hops off, and begins converting the area straight away.

Army can be supplied as a neuron to the initial area, where they then turn to the personified representation, and await your command. This could create a very fast paced feel with awesome specs of light flying all around the world you are commanding. It also solves some problems we introduced by limiting the amount of units that can exist on any given space at one time.

Below are some snazzy pictures to make up for my crude cobble. And anyone who has a creative and/or artistic sense about them, feel free to sketch or cobble up some better ideas. :D

Synapses and Neurons firing



Possible Neuron ideas

Unity 3D Mapping

Looks like there is a built in terrain tool in Unity, creating a map that looks like a brain should not be that difficult now.

With just six regions, it would be possible to put the starting locations in the frontal lobes and the brain stem.

 

MindMeister Map

September 25th Skype Meeting:

Combat System Overhaul

·         Three Unit Types:

·         Basic Unit : Average

·         Tank Unit : Morphed from two basic units (i.e. combine two basic units).

·         Damage Unit : Morphed from three basic units (i.e. combine three basic units).

                           The idea is to balance your troops to form the ideal defensive or offensive team                                  based on a single unit for simplicity (that way spawning units is simpler). 

·         No rallying point outside of your base.  That way you have to direct your troops for the most efficiency.  Since their is a limit to how many you can have on your base territory, this encourages deployment rather than turtling.

·        King of the Hill Capture System:

·         Units don’t battle directly, but merely combat by trying to obtain control of the area through a slider system.  The more units the player has, the quicker the slider will shift in the player’s favor.  Once the slider has fully reached one side or the other, the losing side is obliterated whilst the winning side takes damage according to how long it took to usurp control.  The winning side then takes control of the territory if it wasn’t already under their control.

·         Units battling against a territory controlled by the enemy take slight radioactive damage due to controlling side’s influence.

·         Possibility: Units aren’t destroyed in real-time (except for radiation damage), but rather damage is calculated based on the time it took for the winning side to conquer.  Then it is subtracted, as a flat value, from the winning side (distributed to tank units first).  If the value exceeds the current unit’s health, it will perish and will move onto the next unit in queue until all the damage has been distributed.  It’s simple to program and prevents the winning side from total invincibility if they just stock up in one area.

Feel free to leave comments.  It is fully possible I missed something in here from the meeting, so speak up if I did.

Meeting with Professionals

Between our last class session and now, I had the opportunity to visit with Joe Bourrie over at the EA Salt Lake studios and discuss our Insanity game concept. We also shared some words about the "light game," in the event that the idea is pursued in the future

General Feedback

• Adding features does not make a game fun. The gameplay must already be fun, and additional features can accentuate why it's enjoyable on top of the base design.
• When deciding how many features to add to a student game, it's best to assume about half your team has the potential to not hold their weight during the creation process. Though a bit harsh, and may not end up being the case, it will mean being prepared instead of falling apart if there are teamwork problems while building.
• Working in threes or fives for game balance is recommended
• Paper-Rock-Scissors: All unit types have a strength and a weakness against another type, creating a circular system of power. Simple to implement, and recommended for student game development.
• W-B-Bl-R-G: The magic system, where when places into a star the two opposites of one unit type are its "enemies" and the two types immediately next to it are its "allies", allowing every type to have strengths or bonuses accordingly. A more complex, but highly effective system.
• To avoid excessive snowballing, additions such as "superpowers" should run on timers instead of being success-based, so as to give the losing team a hope at turning their success around.

Insanity

• Core mechanics are spawning/moving units, dominating areas, and getting bonuses for your work.
• "Territories" refer to small sections within the lobe that require individual capture to eventually become a full lobe domination. "Lobes" refer to large sections of the brain, the capture of which provide bonuses to your team.
• Ask the question, is a movable spawn rally point necessary?
• Try to avoid "Age of Empires" repeats, where you forget or ignore your troops while being distracted by other gameplay, and are then surprised that your army is larger than expected.
• Consider not having a movable point, and setting limits on how many units can be present at the rally area, encouraging players to return to direct the units more often.
• This would also force them to utilize the same control scheme they're told to use across the entire board.
• It was suggested that we avoid actual attack animations between units for simplicity's sake. The option has been discussed to not have real "fighting" happen, but either be more like a numbers game (the more units, the more influence is shared on a territory until it's converted) or perhaps from a distance the "insanity/sanity" of the units are just felt by their sheer presence.
• Using these parameters, the first option would make the units' statistics less valuable, unless we changed their build to be more based around factors such as speed or influence.
• The second option is compatible with our build because units could still suffer "damage" but make animation easier, and possibly more interesting, by having weird things happen individually.
• To some degree, every option will be altered by the number of units present.
• When zoomed at most/best directional size, you should be able to see your territory, all surrounding territories and perhaps at least a tiny portion of territories beyond that.
• The touchscreen offers 854 x 480 pixels in which to allot our map and units.
• Full territories might then occupy about a fifth of the screen, around 100-200 pixels depending on the direction the phone is held, with units occupying 32-50 pixels at their largest dimension. Eight units seems to be the highest number, staggering their positions up and down, to reasonably fill a territory without losing details to a messy horde-like group.
• Instead of being restrained to selecting 1/2, 1/3, all, etc. units, perhaps we should leave that part of the selection tool out of the control scheme entirely. After you choose which kind of units you want to move, you click the territory to where they should travel, they begin walking in a slight line for the duration of time your finger is held down on the map. 
• Using our "teleportation" system, once one, five, six, however many units you wanted to move over have begun their teleportation animation, you would let up your finger to cease control.
• This requires more user attention/micromanaging, which Joe seemed to prefer rather than fear.
• By the same rules, players are also less restricted on choosing how many units they want to transfer to different locations, potentially avoiding frustration if they only want to bring over a specific number.
• The interface would be even more simple with the removal of additional button options.
• Don't let the game's complexity overwhelm the team. With only two months at our disposal, choosing the most fun features, perfecting them, and then adding on with our other ideas is the best strategy.
  

One Thousand Points of Light

• The touch-play concept reminded him of the highly successful Tiny Wings, where just twenty to thirty seconds if trying out the controls results in the player picking up the gameplay and getting a literal "feel" for how to perform well in the game.
• Suggested that if powerups are added, that they might include light-changing effects, such as a bubble that when hit alters the color of light shining through. This would mean strategic planning could result in all of your light streams having the desired bonus, regardless of the original color.
• However, do not be afraid of minimal, clean gameplay. Reference again to the top, where the gameplay itself must be fun, and a lack of fun cannot be "fixed" by masking it under additional features. Simple is good, and if it's the most fun in the pure form, don't be afraid to embrace it.
• Seemed more intrinsic to have the player use two fingers and push outward on the panel to adjust the size/frequency of the broken light streams, instead of moving up and down to adjust that speed.
• Has the potential to be a very easy, exciting and innovative game. Only playing it would tell for sure.

Insanity Sandbox

New assignments:

We are continuing to work on sketches, new ideas, and exploring programming ideas. However, we need to move to Unity to create a super simple sandbox. Making the game fun is essential. Unit movement, deployment and combat with simple shapes will be something for first playable.

- Strong controls
- Cobbling OK
- Spawning Units
- Sending Units to rally
- Assign Rally

Assignments:

Programmers: Start working with movement, shapes, and adding rigid bodies for collision.

Blake: integrate combat into unity
Adam: pathing and movement
James: interface control
Brenden: sandbox, spawning units, set up repository on google code

Artists: sketches, use maya to make simple shapes to import into Unity.

Max: Maya Models, Unity
Jack: Maya Models, sketching
Hayden: Maya Models, gameplay design, crazy ideas
Sky: Maya models, sketching

We will use Unity to test to see if this is FUN!!! Marty said our ideas have to be tested and FUN!!!

Exploding Eggplant Mockup

Exactly as it says on the tin, the gif file is not optimised, so there will be lag on low-end machines.

Brain Chemistry and Insanity.

http://www.heartcom.org/InsanityEpidemic.htm
Short term drugs lead to long term illness, maybe used as a balancing mechanic?

http://www.livescience.com/7835-modern-insanity-crazy.html
Inflammation could alter brain zones and cause interesting effects.

http://www.schizophrenia.com/disease.htm
Loss of grey matter, could be used for changing zones, late in the insane game.

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1690
Sleep Deprivation has some dramatic effects, but I don't have any direct ideas about game mechanics from these.

Still need small interactions for unit combat, but for now researching more for any ideas that could be incorporated into the game.

Here is a Brain lobe and function chart:

Insanity Character Art Style

Here are a number of art styles:

Unit line arts

Just finished a rough drawing of the clown cannon:

Minus the clowns

The idea is to have two clown man the cannon. One will load itself into the cannon, and the other one will fire. Then the cannon operator will load itself into the cannon while another clown spawns from behind the cannon and mans the cannon.

Warning, contains high-explosives

Eggplants, as the neutral units, can be immobile and will self-destruct when an enemy unit moves onto its tile. The blast should be powerful enough to instantly destroy most units that moves in to discourage rushing (and encourage the usage of cheap and disposable scouts to trigger the explosions).

More will come later.

Brainstorms and the environment

I'd liked to ask for the team's opinions on the subject of "brainstorm" that occurs during an Insanity game session. Would it have the appearance of neurons firing:

A lightning storm (no visible lightnings)

Or actual lightnings striking the field?

And there is also the question to whether or not the storm will be on the battlefield or just as a background environmental effect.

Look up long exposure photography, this technique often yields nice results for the surreal background of the game.

Insanity Begins!

Meeting!!!

Skype meeting Sunday at Noon.

Ideas:
- Global effects like brainstorm
- Warcraft 3 mod for rapid prototyping.
-

Assignments:

-Blake: Unity world building
-Sky: Brainstorm unit ideas, maybe sketches
-Hayden: Combat design/brain inter-workings/screenshots
-Jack: sketches for unit design and/or environmental design
-Max: Unity analyses and prototyping assistance
-James: Unity world building
-Brendan: Warcraft 3 mod
-Adam: Play around with Unity

Team Name Ideas!!!Go!

- Insanity
- Evolving RTS
....

Congratulations Team!

Congratulations for the whole team! What a great presentation!

Insanity is the Winner!!!

 

Cobblin' up a fight

Here are two pictures that demonstrates a skirmish in a neutral territory with insanity winning.  I wasn't able to apply the red color that comes with winning the territory, since you have the base materials, perhaps you could simply fill it in Brendan.  Let me know if you need anything else.

Cheers! 

-Adam Durant

Cobble Cobble

Here is progress thus far. Feedback plz!

Sorry bout the posting, but the site will not let me edit.

Insane trooper and SPAM for team Insanity.

Third Iteration Art Design

Unit Types:

Sanity:

- Holding: TV with clips of Documentaries (Max)
- Capturing: Baby animals (Sky)
- Artillery: Pill chucker (Sky)
- Basic: Smiley face guy (Jack)

Insanity:

- Holding: Black pudding, was Tapioca pudding (Jack)
- Capturing: Killer bunny/Spam (Hayden)
- Artillery: Clown Cannon (Max)
- Basic: Alien Smiley (Hayden)

- Egg Bombs
- Eggplant

Pictures:

Clown Cannon:





TV:








Defend Icon