Starcraft 2

I have always loved star craft and it has been my favorite game since I learn about gaming on the PC. Star craft is a RTS game (Real time strategy). I'm going to talk about the star craft 2 mutiplayer aspect of the game because I am a monster at the game. First thing to know is there are three races you can play as

Terran- the Terrans are the most splintered of the StarCraft races. There are multiple factions that fight other races but also each other. They are considered an adaptive and mobile species.

I found them to be the easiest race for new players to start with because of the easy mechanics they have for newer placers to control.

Protoss- The protoss are considered the most advance race which means they have very strong units but the cost to porofuce them is high 

 The zerg- The zerg strive for genetic perfection by assimilating worthy races into their own creating numerous different strains of zerg. Unlike the protoss and the terrans the zerg do not use technology instead they assimilate other species traits by directed mutation in order to match such tech.

I will only touch up on some of the muitplayer aspects of the game because each race while being easy to play is extremely hard to master. I am now an avid zerg player so some things to know about the zerg is they do not have defensive structures compared to the other races. The zerg is played kind of like a living organism. One thing you must always do is drone. Which means a worker is made to gather money and supplies to  While all other races have to produce units out of different buildings the zerg build all their units from a single hive because of this mechanic zerg are able to mass produce units.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNFxuKarcvk A battle that explains how a starcraft game is played and how some mistakes can cost you the match.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_569412&feature=iv&src_vid=i0B_oiJTcDI&v=MMezn7cLwE0

A video on top players doing the craziest stunts in a mutiplayer match

Matinee Ideas

       Okay now that our grey box is due its time to make our level look like a game. That means its time to add intro's to the level, make props, and overall make things look pretty. In order to do that I took some time to look at other racing games to see how they accomplished showing off their levels before the race started.


Mario Kart 64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl6hzf3FvN4


Although Mario Kart 64 is an older game its still best to check to see the progression of older games to see what worked and what didn't. In Mario Kart 64 the introduction are dulled down to show the race track as a player starts and pans away from the character on turns so we can see how "Fun" the map is, they also begin to show key landmarks on the race track.


Mario Kart Double Dash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-eHTSLVd6c
In Mario Kart Double Dash the introduction to the level has changed to key land marks or the cool center piece of the level it self. Game mechanics aren't always the top things that they show on the level it self but some cases they are. Sand level compared to the jungle level.

Examples 6:15-12:00-

Mario Kart Wii
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_wRERiTZp7Y#!

In Mario Kart Wii it seems they have changed the intro to the map by showing key land marks and game play mechanics in a quick overview. So from first gen to the wii what they kept on the introduction of the level is
-A pan of racetrack showing major landmarks
- Game play mechanics the player will encounter around the map or at key spots they showed us.
- Kept it upbeat and fun to look at while we wait for the start of the race.

It seems easy enough but then again making things simple and good is quite difficult to accomplish at times.






Formula One Championship-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfEEzWk6agU

Just a little extra but in Formula One Its not really an intro but the tv mode of the race seems pretty cool and could have some good mechanics/shots we can take from it.

Ridge Racer 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5CxmxWXtvY

A city level of Ridge Racer that gives off a little vibe on how I want the art aspect of my level to somewhat resemble.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AYoVvpJWWs

Just some cool prop ideas that I wanted to show people

My Lambo Reventon

So this is my Lamborghini Reventon I modeled for my game class. Now that it is modeled I have to make the texture for it before I can use it. It was pretty hard to make because of the way the car is angled but now its just satisfying to see it complete.Either way enjoy the sneak peak.  Ill upload the finished process soon.

Sketches

Just some fast sketches or concepts before I refine 3 of them

Reventon Modeling

Lamborghini Reventon Model

Lamborghini Reventon diffrent views 

So I started modeling my car for a racing game I am making with my classmates and realized that this car is hard to make. The car itself has multiple things that make it difficult the angles, being inept at Maya, and the blue print is hard to read at times. I am doing it a little slow but I feel like I should have most of this complete by the end of the weekend :)

Theme and Paper Map

Theme: Modern to futuristic city
Location: Blade runner city or the city of new york.
Time of day: Night time
Terrain: through the city streets and crashing through office building

     So the theme of my character and car is that that he is a high class assassin (hitman) for multiple reasons one being that he is driving a lamborghini reventon and is wearing fancy clothes. The story for my character will be that he just finished a job ( Killing someone) and now must get away. The way I want to portray that during the race that it is also a cop chase scene is the radio will randomly say things like what make and model is in the lead or what car to look for. Another idea is to add a trigger to whoever is in last place will start to see red and blue lights in their screen. Since it is a getaway race also I want to add my stunt incorporated into the theme of it. The stunt will involve crashing into a building and driving through an office building filled with cubicles.

Concept statements

"Business is Booming"

"Name your price"

Some images I want to base the office I want to crash through would be a glass high rise and maybe have the empire state building be a land mark that can be seen through out the map

Looking at my references i was able to develop my stunt or what would make my map unique and that is when the player drives the car up a ramp or unfinished bridge they will shoot towards the building and crash into the glass and drive through an office space which could allow them to destroy cubicles and bust out the other side of the window down to the lower level of the map it self.

Some obstacles that can be put int he way to hinder or harass the players is by adding barrels of oil to make the surface slippery before the jump or have the barrels spill after the player jumps or hits them so all other players will have a hard time making the jump.

My own stunts

Now that I found a few stunts I want to make some of my own. 

A few of my ideas......

1. A short cut in the level where you must drift for it to be an effective shortcut. instead of taking a long loop around players can just drift like in Tokyo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbTBbTDjjHI

2.  Instead of making a hard turn players can go up a side ramp and come down it gaining some momentum like bmx riders.

3. Players can go up a ramp and depending on the speed either take a top track or a bottom track. ( bottom being more hazardous a penalty for not gaining enough speed for the top track?

 Ramp jump instead of following track

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_DzKLbUiyU- skateboard but instead a car

Drifting shortcut

Most of the stunts can vary depending on the level design so jumps and flips can always be altered depending on the track or multiple choices for stunts can be done off one obstacle.