Sebastian Calvo & Camille Girard
The Game
A top-down RPG single player game.
The Story:
In a post-apocalyptic world Glasbot is the only remaining robot of its kind. It served as a greenhouse robot, its job to plant and maintain nature. Now the world is dead, without any nature to be found and its job is more important than ever. There are mysterious monsters around the world that threaten Glasbot as it tries to replant the Earth and bring life back.
The Concept:
Create a game where the player acts as Glasbot controlled through the keyboard. The player should collect seeds from bags scattered across the map and plant the various seeds for points on dirt tiles. There are monsters across the world which will give points to the player when they attack them with the hoe and will damage them if the monster gets too close. The map that the player explores will have various ruins and no signs of nature until they replant it.
The Inspiration:
A top-down RPG one player game inspired from the original Legends of Zelda. We wanted to create a fun experience for players while focusing in on nature and the danger of our actions today. We both have a passion for nature and plants and also loved the idea of creating a top-down RPG and the idea stemmed from there. Since there is no life and robots are often the criminals we thought having a robot bringing life back would be a unique concept for the game.
The Code:
Glasbot Trailer
The Process
1.The Beginning:
The project began with developing the base code to be able to do more complex things. This included tutorials and playing around with how to create a world. We used Pygame in order to create the game we wanted, after having a few weeks practicing on a previous project. Initially we created the movement and the basic functions of the player using the keys. We then worked on making a camera function which moved with the keys so it would follow the player, making the movement piece of the game. We also coded to have the player face the direction which you are moving in.
2.The Map Editor:
Once we explored how to create a map beforehand we found an amazing tutorial for creating a map editor. We then created our own pixel art tiles and edited the tutorial code in order to make it better suited to our needs. This map editor allowed us to create a map more easily than it would have been if we had to hard code the coordinates of every tile. This code also allows us to load our map beforehand. This also made it so that we could limit where the player can and cannot move.
3.Making Glasbot Plant:
The next step was getting Glasbot to be able to plant seeds on the map. We adapted the code in order to limit this planting function by testing to make sure the tile is the one in front of the player and is a dirt tile. We created tiles for the player to place as well as new faces for the robot when you select an item to appear in the robot's hand. We made it so that if you press space while you have seeds selected as your current item, you will place a tile on the space in front of you (as long as it is a dirt tile). The classes will also keep track of how many seeds you have left and will add the score value of that type of seed to the player's score.
4.Seeing What You're Doing:
In order to make the game playable we created additional visual pieces to add to the gaming experience. We added a main menu to the game so the user can click when to play or exit. In addition to this an instructions page was added so new players could learn what they needed to play. Once in the game the score is displayed as well as the health and is updated based on what the player does. In addition to this, the player's inventory is displayed in the bottom of the screen as well as the amount of seeds you have, this is also updated.
5.Creating the Visuals:
In order to enhance the game we wanted to create visuals that made sense in our world, We also knew we wanted to use mostly original art. In order to do this we used various photo editors and online pixel art tools as well as research with art already created. In doing this we were able to create a simple enough palette of pixel art tiles in order to create a world which will entice the player. In addition to this we needed to actually create a map which was interesting and told a story to the player. This visual piece was mostly completed at this stage however is always a bit ongoing, especially with creating the map.
6. Bags of Seeds
The idea of the game is that Glasbot must find seeds in the world and then plant them. In order to do this we wanted to create bags that appear where we place them and the user can pick up. We implemented this by creating a bag image that was linked to a sprite which is assigned to a type. The bag will contain a certain amount of seeds and when the player walks on top of the bag it collects the contents and adds it to the inventory and the bag goes away. These bags are placed based on position, decided by us when making the map.
7. Getting Glasbot to Fight
The final big task was making Glasbot fight enemies and interact with characters. We may create additional characters for Glasbot to interact with but the main idea is to get enemies for Glasbot to fight. We created a function so that he user can fight using the hoe and space next to the enemy but if the enemy is hitting the player then you will be damaged. The enemies will track you down if you are a certain distance away from them, however will not be able to go over blocked tiles.
Credit
Meloonatic Melons - Video tutorials for RPG and some base of code
Spelunky - Base robot sprite
Charochai on Deviant Art - Base wood tile
