Download - Project Development Journal
Project December: Development Journal
by Marie Lazar
Dance and rhythm mechanic in video games:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6npVMGDCNrU
Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door- appropriately eerie, does a good job for only using quick-time events.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6v0CRUUnHE
DDR is classic. Other rhythm games use similar interfaces. Versatile because it allows you to do two steps at once.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHBLQage_AA
Dance Central…is completely irrelevant to my method of input (keyboard). But it looks like fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y16ocEC8h_E
I like Elite Beat Agent’s way of keeping the interface to a small portion of the screen.
http://nyarlulabs.tumblr.com/dancedancedance
Dance dance dance
Short indie game where you fling your waltz partner at other couples. Not really relevant, but neat.
Style: Isometric or top-down?
Classic top-down is easy to organize, and movement maps naturally to the arrow keys. The tradeoff is that you can only
see detail on the far wall (as in the right example). Golden Sun found a creative workaround for this, distorting the side
walls so you can (somewhat) see what’s on them, but it only works for boxy rooms and the game reverts to the standard
isometric for the dungeons.
The other way to go about it is to use isometric projection. Isometric looks sleek and hey, you get twice as many walls to
work with. The big problem, as already mentioned, is that it’s not intuitive to move around using the arrow keys.
Solution:
Using the top-down style but “cheating” the walls a little so you can see more of the sides, a la Golden Sun. Wall niches
will be added to the design of the room so there is more space to decorate.
Setting: I found out from The Art of Anastasia that the ballroom from the movie is based on the one in the Catherine Palace, not
the Winter Palace as was originally planned. It was also expanded from one floor to two, and augmented with a grand
staircase.
The Winter Palace was still used for exterior shots, and I think I’m going to make it the setting for my game. It’s location
right off the street in St. Petersburg makes it plausible that someone could stumble inside, as opposed to the more out of
the way Catherine palace. Besides, the Winter Palace is stunning. There are lots of photos from the present-day museum
it’s been converted into. Like the creators of Anastasia, I have no problem taking creative liberties with the design to
make it fit the game and capture the emotional response I want. But it should still be identifiable as this specific place in
St. Petersberg.
The Catherine Palace. Lovely, but we can do better.
Much better! I really like the colors in the last two.
Color Schemes: http://www.colorhunter.com/ Colorhunter gave me some pretty colors based on a photo
Another palette, this one from I forget where.
This one from bighugelabs.com even names your colors and lets you download them as a photoshop swatch.
Another one from color paletteFX. It’s interesting to see how all these formulae break down color differently.
One more, from photocopa.
Floor plans:
How to waltz:
The standard waltz is very basic. For women is goes as thus:
Step back with right foot
Step back and to the left with left foot
Step to the left with right foot
Step forward with left foot
Step forward and to the right with right foot
Step right with left foot
Repeat
More complex versions add rotation to the mix. Waltzes come in “slow” and “Viennese” flavors, with the latter being up
to four times faster. The slow waltz, or the American waltz, is the one that’s commonly danced at weddings and social
occasions.
Music: This is tough. “Once Upon a December” isn’t going to cut it. I need a piece that:
1. could plausibly have been danced to by the Romanovs (Russian composer, late 1800’s.)
2. sounds equally good as an orchestral piece and a music box tune.
3. is available in midi format (so I can make both versions in FL studio)
4. fits the mood of the scene and is easy to keep the beat of
Some possibilities:
Johann Strauss II – Blue Danube Waltz (everyone knows it, not especially sad or mournful)
Dmitry Shostakovich – Jazz Suite No. 2 Waltz 2 (I love this one, it reminds me of Eyes Wide Shut, but it comes a little too
late to be historically accurate)
Tchaikovsky – Anything by Tchaikovsky (but only if it’s never been in a Disney movie)