Boss Battle Research

For my boss inspiration, I looked to the game Metal Slug 5. Most of the bosses have the same tropes, but the boss I looked at the most was the tank shown in the video at 3:56.  This boss is fairly stationary, but has different types of bullets- bullets that are slow and fly straight forward, bullets that fly around chaotically, and bullets that actually follow the player.  This is paired with the ability to call in other enemies to distraught and damage the player.  

For my boss, I want to have a military theme, (the military attacking the monsters that have been attacking the city) So I think a large tank that summons other smaller, weaker tanks/ground units while the actual tank itself is fairly stationary might be interesting. These units could also spawn more ammo and health as needed. Hopefully, I want to have the tank lose parts off of it as it receives damage.

Battle Arena Idea

The idea for my battle arena is a big band jazz club! I'm excited to use inspirations from the late 1930s-1960s for the theme of the level and I'm drawing inspiration from the popular jazz song "Sing Sing Sing" 

Spinout 2017 Trailer

Here's the trailer I made for the 2017 sophomore Spinout game!

Arcade Racing Game Trailer

For my racing trailer analysis I choose to look at SEGA Rally Online Arcade. 

While it doesn't have an especially interesting name, SEGA Rally Online Arcade has a pretty fun trailer.  First off I really like the choice of music. The well recognizable William Tell's Overture allows the audience to already know where the big points of interest will be in the trailer as it goes along to the music. Also the audience already knowing the music piece allows them to focus more on visuals.

The visuals in this trailer are all centered around the cars. In just about every shot, there is a car in the middle or close to the middle of the frame, giving the audience a clear focus for the short shots. Most of these shots also continue the direction of action from one shot into another allowing for smoother transitions between shots. 

Just for example, these two shots near the beginning of the trailer have a nice transition of action from one to another because the first ends with the action going in a direction that the next shot picks up on making a smooth transition. Also, most shots that have weird or new angles, usually only have one car in view, making it easier for the audience to focus. 

I only ever found one shot jarring, and that was because this shot (as shown above) didn't really have a clear focus until you saw the tunnel, and by then it was too late to appreciate it.  I figure they were trying to get a feeling of speed using the diagonals in the car and by being so close to it, but it ends up being too blurry without a clear focus. 

Overall I think the tone of the trailer is fun and much more inviting than other more "macho" racing game trailers with loud music. Tone is important to an audience and with this being an online racing game, this trailer promises a good time for everyone.  It shows just a regular racing game without a ton of gimmicks, but thats ok -- it's just a game for your friends to have some quick fun.

Steam Particle

Here's my final Steam particle shown in the video above. These Steam particles I made for my level in the mining caves where they burst from the pipes and obscure the players view. Particles for me are a tad difficult, but I think I accomplished some pretty cool things for this project.  First off, I created my own subUVs:

 

This was the first time I had ever attempted to draw anything for something like this, and I was fairly pleased with the results. Although, I did take me a few tries with the second smaller set to get a result I liked - the first attempt for example had shapes that were too recognizable on an individual level, so it was really easy to see when certain particles repeated.  Here's the full final particle system: 

I ended up using both sets of subUVs along with a GPU emitter for the small water droplets that fall from the source of the steam. With the water droplets, I had to exaggerate their size because of how dark the mine caves are in my level where they are placed along with how fast the player is going, its hard to pick up on the smaller water droplets. 

On both subUVs I also put a damping node in their material so that when the cars pass through the smoke or when it hits the ground it fades slightly at the edges so the transition isn't so harsh.

I also made a very simple steam for my train using the same subUVs in a slightly different way!

Particle Effect Research

Pressurized Steam 

I plan to make a particle effect that mimics the steam above for both my barrel (when the whistle blows to have steam come out of the whistle) and for my racing level for the pipes within the mines. 

This steam will blow out of a single point and grow larger as its life goes on.  For the emitters, I know I'll first need some sort of subUV set like the one down below:

I've been having a hard time finding a steam subUV thats free use that looks like the shape and effect I'm trying to make, so if I don't find one I'll have to make one myself.

I also plan to have another emitter make the cone of more dense steam in the middle, also having that effect be pure white and less transparent than the subUV emitter to give it a nice look of intense steam with some falloff.
And for the last emitter I want to have some denser water droplets that are too condensed to be steam and fall around the base of the effect. This gives the particle system the effect of steam pressure caused by heated water rather than just pressurized gas. I also want to add some sort of sound when the steam is in effect, as I want it to be triggered in my level by players driving through certain parts of the mines.

Heres my progress so far:

As I mentioned earlier, I've been having a hard time finding subUVs for the particle system so for now i've been working on base animations. Truthfully, I'm new to particles and it isn't coming very easy to me, but I do like the base effect of what I'm getting here just with the most basic material.  I'm still messing with the size by life module to make the sprites smaller when they are born but becoming larger over their life. Eventually, I think I will have to make my own subUVs, but I think its good practice and hopefully will help me get the effect I want.

Particles certainly are a learning experience...

Explosive Barrel Final

Here's my final for the explosive barrel project! I'm very please with how it came out, since its fairly similar with how I originally imaged it.  I also added some different noises such as the wood breaking noise and the train whistle!

Here's my code: