ZOE Begone! News

I was really happy with the new visual style I had developed over the previous few months of development, but what I had done up to this point was really just conceptual stuff and nothing that would really function properly as a game, so I had to start thinking about the kind of things I wanted to be in the game and how I would represent them in this new style.



First off, I simplified the design of the buttons that line the bottom of the screen to give them a bit more energy, and gave them some functionality so they spawn particles when they're popped which get sucked in by the player, refilling their energy or health bar depending on the colour, and also emit a laser type thing that will take out enemies.

At this point I was still interested in trying to implement the Zoetrope frames, but was starting to be a bit more open to just abandoning that altogether if I felt it wasn't working. I also changed the background colour so I could play around with the enemy colours a bit more.



I wanted to implement a simple multiplier system as well (the multiplier bar increases with every enemy kill and when full ticks up the multiplier, or ticks it down if you take too long and the bar empties), so I had a look at some other Norman McLaren films to get some ideas for how it might look, and ended up going with this design based on the visual representation of the sound track on a piece of film...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmSzc8mBJCM&feature=emb_title



I'm still not 100% convinced on this design, but it's been there ever since so I'll probably end up sticking with it!

So most of the basic elements of the game were in place now and I was pretty happy with how it was looking, but the placeholder enemies felt like they were sucking some of the energy out of it, so the next period of development was focused on coming up with a few enemy types while trying to maintain the visual language I'd established...

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hello! I thought I'd start posting a few dev logs going back to the very first experiments and ideas that eventually lead to the ZOE you see before you now!

The very first thing I did that's related to ZOE was this little platformer, jetpacking prototype which was the result of a youtube tutorial series I was following.



It was just a project to learn and get into programming, so it was never really going anywhere as a game. I knew I wanted to make a shoot 'em up, but I was struggling to come up with an idea to put my own spin on it, so I started looking into my old animation work and thought there might be something in this Zoetrope technique I was playing around with a few years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p93FaJ91gcs&feature=emb_title
I was imagining the player somehow activating the frames of the animation and having it play out as a background during a boss fight or something. I adapted the code and reworked the sprites from the tutorial project, and came up with this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WIg9OvFB9E&feature=emb_title
I think there was something interesting there, but the feel and theme and context of it all was a complete mess, I was just making it up as I went, so I took some time to try and develop the visuals and context for the mechanics a bit.



Hux the green alien made a comeback for a bit, and I cooked up some silly idea in my head that he was trying to stop an invasion of his planet or something by activating a defence system that happened to work very much like a Zoetrope. Which in turn led me to just stick in some frames of an actual Zoetrope I'd made, to see how it might look... (the dots in the image are from the video below it).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfjBmLzMvgk&feature=emb_title
It was getting better, but still felt wrong and a bit forced to me. That frame from the Zoetrope animation was what eventually helped me make some sort of weird link in my head to think about the 1930's era drawn-on-film experimental animations of people like Len Lye and Norman McLaren.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgJ-yOhpYIM&feature=emb_title
This got me excited! So I decided to use Boogie Doodle as a visual reference and started working properly on what would become ZOE (hopefully the name makes some sense now as well!).

This is the very first gif I made while I was trying to mimic the visual style of the Norman McLaren film, and the very first bit of gameplay I recorded with some basic enemies and the Zoetrope frame idea still intact.



[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Next up I'll talk a bit about how I developed the visuals to work as a game.

Cheers for now!
Graeme

We're happy to announce that the new ZOE demo is now available to download!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Updates from previous versions include -

- New power ups!
- Power up shop
- Dash and Pound charge mechanics
- Apples!
- Bananas!
- New music!
- Loads of game feel things and bug fixes!

We really hope you enjoy the demo and please keep an eye out for updates as we progress towards the full release.

Cheers!
Graeme

Hi everyone!

We just wanted to let you know that we're working hard on a new demo for our Steam debut of ZOE!

We're implementing an all new power up system where you'll be able to permanently upgrade your weapon, swap it for a temporary energy consuming powered up gun, choose a shield, increase your movement speed, or just grab some bonus points!

Grab apples from downed enemies, and spend them wisely in the shop.



We'll also be redesigning the demo level to work with this new system, as well as adding lots of other smaller improvements to the look, feel and sound of the game. We can't wait to get it finished and to hear what you think!

Thanks,
Graeme