Battling system

With the completion of the ARG project, im back to workin on my independent project from last semester. Since last semester's failure, ive been workin on improving my concept art project. So here are some of the screen shots as to what ive done lately.

(incomplete)

As you can see from the picture above, i've been workin on creating pixel art.
So ive decided to mix two medias together for the concept art book. Traditional digital painting for the looks & feel of the environment and characters in the book and pixel art for the in game's look & feel. Now that the looks & feel of the game has been drastically changed, the game will no longer be set for Xbox 360, rather, it'll be set for the old-school gaming consoles, such as Gameboy, NES, Playstation, or NDS.

The scene im creating above is one of the battle scenes within the game. The battling system which i had not mentioned in the previous work submission incorporates the Active Time Battle (ATB) system*; characters will have certain strengths and weakness depending on their types (ex, magicians will be prone to having better magical power than the New Generations, and the New Generations will be prone to have better speed than the Humans). Characters will fight in a Conditional Turn Based System (CTB)*, depending on their agility and the user will have to navigate through windows to command its character to 'Attack', 'Magic', 'Item', or 'Escape'*. In each battle, there can be up to 3 players for the user to control, these players can be switched in the Menu page, but up to 6 enemies can appear in one battle. When a battle finishes, if the player's side wins, the characters of the game will be rewarded with experience points, thus contributes to the leveling up of the characters, giving it a better strength, speed, and attacking skills. If unfortunately, the user loses in the game, a gameover scene comes up and the user will have to either restart the game or continue playing from last saved.

*CTB is a turn-based system which does not operate in rounds. That is, the order of the turns does not guarantee that each participant in a battle will have an equal number of turns. Characters with higher speed will be able to take more turns than slower characters, thus making speed much more important than in other turn-based battle systems.

*in certain situations, such as facing the boss, characters are not allowed to choose the Escape mode. Rather, in replacement, a Wait mode is available.

*"Active Time Battle (ATB) shares many attributes with the former system, but adds the dimension of timing-based strategy for commands. In it, an ATB gauge tracks when characters are going to act. When the gauge is full, they are able to perform an action. In later games and/or remakes, some actions then have an additional wait time, such as casting spells or using special abilities. After the action is executed, the ATB gauge is depleted and must recharge. The rate which the gauge recharges will typically correlate to the Speed stat of the character. " source


Art References:

The above picture was created through some of the old Final Fantasy series.

Final update on self brief

In the end, i've decided to stick with the "growth" idea for the motion graphic. ive made 5 student samples for it to add a bit of character to the idea instead of the original where one represents all. The students samples were Me, Twinsen, Venus, Helen and Julianne.

Heres the growth process of mine.

In the beginning everyone starts off the same, but eventually, people will get their own characteristics, learn different things and have different strengths and weaknesses. But in the end, we all experience the same sorta stuffs, that is falling down, facing failure, standing back up, and never wanting to give up.




Since the discussion with Troy, ive decided to take out the imacs from the projection area, and moved it into the 3D model instead. That way, there wont be a lot going on at the same time in one area.

Heres the new floor plan and 3d model





Some photos i took while building my model.







unfortunately, i forgot to take a final photo of the finished model =.=""""" so i cant show where the imac is located now....but basically its located within the 3D letters. The reason being is because this way, it'll give a bit more privacy to viewers who are viewin individual students work, and the viewer wont be disturbed by everything else thats going on in the exhibition space.

DIYs i found!!

Basically, for my idea, its pretty much the same as the instructable below, except for his DIY, the lights are changed manually by him, while i wanted mine to change automatically according to the sound playing at the back. But i guess im gona need an electrical engineer to do that part.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Interactive-Ambient-Light/



Ive asked around, and my friends tell me that im goan need to setup some hardware stuff on the comp for it, and for them its gona take abt a month........yikes.
They mentioned that the programs used are LabView and Matlab (Matlab is a program where you can write scripts to do maths or control parts of your computer). They recommended me to look for Science or engineering students since these students mustve used these programs before. WEll...if we ever go through with my idea, i'll look into finding helpers from differnet faculty.

Anyway, for the walls in the exhibition, i wanted a glass/transparant rectangular LED lite wall right? yeh...well, ive found an instructable that is sorta doing what i was looking for...except her work was done using cardbox.



http://www.instructables.com/id/RGB_LED_Mood_lighting/


If the pricing is too expensive for the first idea, then maybe we can try this one instead. Still works the same, but a little less light for the environment.



http://www.instructables.com/id/Light-Bar-Ambient-Lighting/



And as for the platforms that students will used to display their work, im thinkin of using large blocks of clear acrylics cut into different shapes. Then we'll place lighted LED at the bottom to shine through it.







But yea, i still haev yet to find out how a color changing lamp works.



I wanted to use an idea similar to this for some parts of the wall or for the floor. FOr hte walls, i wanted to place color changeable lgihts (circular) so that when people touch it, it'll change color, creating interactivity in the environment. As for hte floor, i want the colors of the light to change hwen someone steps on it...i guess that has sth to do with pressure sensing. The difference between the video and my idea is that the lamp in the video changes colors itself aswell once it is turned on. I dont want that....i want the lights of the installation to change only when it is touched.

LED lighting

Some companies i found online that offers LED Lighting. Still need to figure out how to incorporate LED lighting to go with the music in the background...some sort of sound sensor i suppose. Also the thing about wanting to have the light change color when someone applies force on its surface.....still need to look into it.

http://www.ledlighting.com.au/
unfortunately, that company is in NSW.
http://www.smartlite.com.au/
and that one is in goldcoast =.="

http://www.glowproductions.com/
I think thats more for fun stuff....

The only one in VIC is this one : http://www.coolon.com.au

Ive looked into their product catalog, depending on the price, i might switch the fluorescent idea to using LED flexible neon instead.

Acme Thin & Light Pack - Portable DMX LED Lighting System


If we have money, itll be cool to do this too


ps: found this reli cool LED RGB color controller setup
http://www.instructables.com/id/RGB-Color-Controllable-High-Power-LED-Room-%2b-Spot-/

Brief 3 - Concept

For this brief, i've come up with the idea of using LED lights to create a light installation. My idea is to have rows of vertically laid out fluorescent light along the walls of the entrance corridor, LED in rectangular/square shaped glass/transparent plastic on the 3 walls inside the exhibition, leaving one absolutely blank for projection of students work (loops), and circular LED shapes on the floor playing abstract patterns.



LED in glass facade building


That is sorta like my idea of having glass or transparent plastic on the walls inside the exhibition, but the problem with this is the cost for the installment. I reckon it might be a bit out of our budget, but we'll see.


LED Floor



For this, i was thinkin of creating something that allows interactivity between the user and the interface. Ex, for this, i was hoping to achieve something like when the user steps ontop of one of these LED circular shapes on the floor, the color of the whole abstract pattern changes. But i think for this i'll need to lookup for some kind of sensor (weight or heat sensoring i guess).

LED corridor option 1 (circular shapes)



LED corridor option 2 (horizontal light tubes)



For the entrance corridor, i am hoping to create something that sorta lures or invites the guest into the room, so the lights will gradually change going "towards" the inside of the corridor, leading into the room.
There are two options, either one will work, but i reckon its best to use the fluorescent lights, so that it makes a variety.


Other light installations ive looked upon







For sound of this project, im thinkin of something minimal. I dont want anything too loud, cause not everyone lieks loud music, but atleast i know people wont be upset about ambient, or minimalistic sounds.

Concept Art Drawings

Some of the drawings ive done over the easter break.



Aterno Pescara, the protagonist and main character of the game. He was the King of the New Generations Realm until he was put on a spell by the Dark Magicians which turned him back into a 17year old kid.



Adria Pescara, the anatagonist of the game. He is the younger brother of Aterno. He and queen had an affair and the queen gave birth to Dark. Adria took over the kingdom when Aterno was pronounced dead towards public (but he was actually put on a spell).



Some concept art of the guardians of the New Generations.



Concept art of the spirit tree





Just some drafts of the hair style of characters.

-----------------

So basically, for this game, the characters will have their realistic images displayed for the openings, endings and the movies in between, but during battles and ingame movement, the characters will be in a cartoonish-look.

influence from Fantasia Sago series

Self-Brief - Concept Art

After much thought about the story behind the concept art, i've came to a conclusion of using the idea that im about to present. But first, let me go through with some of my previous ideas, inspiration, and research.

Idea 1 - Story based in a small town in Italy.

How this idea came about was that one day while i was reading hte newspaper online, i came upon an article about the earthquake in Italy. Some cities name came up, such as L'Aquila and Pescara. I found the name quite interesting, mainly because i cant read Italian XD lol. BUt yeah, it caught my attention, so ive decided to look it up on wikipedia.
Then i found out that all the rivers near there all end up at the Adriatic Sea, so i had this idea of having a family with a Big Brother (named, Adria) and 12 younger brothers (the 12 smaller river that leads to the Adriatic Sea) - Soca/Isanzo, Centina, Reno, Po, Adige, Brenta, Piave, Zrmarja, Drin, and Neretva.
This is gona be a game based on this family, a feud. The protagonist however, is not Adria, rather, it is a young boy, named "Aterno". He is the son of Reno and has a younger sister, Emilia (theyre both smaller rivers of Reno actually). Adria is the big antagonist of the game =P

So with this, the style of the characters will be like the Final Fantasy XII

example of character styles are as follows:




Idea 2 - Atlantis

Atlantis has always been a topic i like to explore upon. Mainly because it was a myth that many researchers tried to prove it to be true. While i was thinking about my second idea, i remember what Troy said about choosing something you want to do...so then i thought to myself, since i wanted to research about Atlantis so much in the past few years, why not take this opportunity to do so?

So then i started my research, looked up on monash's libary resource, found nothing =.=""" then went to amazon and found this Atlantic Encyclopedia book. Unfortunately, both borders and dymocks dont have em, and if i was to order them, they wont get here till Mid May =.=""" that ruled out my idea.

Ofcourse, i did look into other websites about Atlantis, but they werent really helpful.

Idea 3 - Summarizes both Idea 1 and 2 and some other influence.

Well, this idea came up after i went to watch the movie "17 Again". The movie was about a middle-aged man regretting about his decision of gettin married with his gf when he got her pregnant back when he was 17. SO then he had a chance to relive his life as a 17yr old again and ultimately, he faces the decision to choose again between teh girl and his life.

Taking from Idea 1, the names of the river will be incorporated into this idea, and as for idea 2, the development of technologies in teh Atlantis city will be taken into account.

So finally, the official idea ive decided to use for my concept art background is this:

Set 10million years in the future, the old earth has died and a new earth is created. The world is divided into four kingdoms - New Generations, Magicians, Monsters and the humans. The New Generations (NGs) are the new humans with supernatural powers. Their history dates back to 10million years ago when the first artificial created human being was introduced. Since then, they have rapidly developed themselves and have gained reputations and respect among humans. Their rule above all four kingdom was recognized since their creation of the new earth. The Magicians comes down to two categorize - Light and Dark. The Light magicians deals with the healing side of magics while the Dark magicians deals with the damaging side of magics. Among the four kingdoms, they are the most neutral and are respected as the second highest. The Monsters however, are not satisfied with their position as the third among the four kingdoms. They have in the past years had many battles towards the NGs and have been suspected of allying with the dark magicians to go against the NG Kingdom. It is noted that the Monsters have great ambition of conquering the four lands and become the strongest kingdom in the new world. Among the four kingdoms, the humans are the weakest. Humans, once were the creater of both the New Generations and the Monsters have now made themselves slaves of these two Kingdoms. Though they have their parts of the New World, but this has happened all because the NGs respected them and thus, willingly to spare some land and protection for them.

The story revolves around the King's family of the New Generation Kingdom. The King, Aterno and his Queen (to be named) has three children - Light (eldest son), ToBeNamed (middle daughter), and Dark (youngest son). The King is loved by his Kingdom and family, but a sudden illness strikes and he was pronounced dead towards public. His brother, Adria, takes over the throne and took the Queen as his wife. Everyone thought the King had died but the real story behind isnt like this. The King did not catch a severe sickness, rather, he was put on a spell by the Dark Magicians. Adria allied with the Dark Magicians inorder to overthrow the Kingdom and took it as his. The King was transformed into a 17year old and when he tried to approach his queen about this, the queen denied him and forced him out of the kingdom. After much dismay, the King was able to reach his children. Unfortunately, among the three, only two believed his story. The King then sets off a journey with two of his children as a 17yr old to find allies across kingdoms to prepare for war to regain his kingdom in the land of the New Generations. Besides the battle between Aterno and Adria, the battles among the kingdoms persists. In the end, the King and Aterno both dies and the Kingdom of New Generation is passed towards Light. Dark, on the other hand, finds out that he wasnt the son of Aterno, rather, was a bastard son of Adria and the queen. A dark secret between the Queen and Adria was revealed and Dark goes all crazy and runs off out of the country into the land of Magicians...coming back someday to take the kingdom off the hands of Light like his father did.

Some background stuff about the New Earth.

New Earth : powered by mechanics developed by the NGs. Everything on it are artifically created, whether its oxygen, water, or trees. The only natural thing in this earth is the Thousand Years Tree (to be renamed). It was teh only living resource taken from the old earth. This tree however, is the main source of energy to power this Earth. Therefore, many from various kingdoms tries to take it away from the land of the NGs.


Inspirations


Movies
- Wall.E
- 17 Again

Games
- Final Fantasy Series
- Kingdom Hearts
- Ark of Napishtim
- Dynasty Warriors (KOEI)
- Fantasia Sago (UJ)
- ZWEI2 (falcom)

Character designs

- Tetsuya Nomura's artworks
- Yoshitaka Amano's artworks
- Fantasia Sago
- Dynasty Warriors
- ZWEI2


Animes

- Final Fantasy VII Advent Children
- D.N.Angel
- Gundam Seed Series
- Inuyasha
- Naruto
- Hunter x Hunter

Books & etc

- Atlantis
- Italy cities and rivers
- Atlantis Encyclopedia
- Atlantis: Insights from a lost civilization
- Edgar Caye on Atlantis
- Aztec Pyramids