Posted by Ross
Fri, 9th May 2014
Hello all,
In last week’s Flame Over blog I talked about how rescuing cats is an important part of the game. But who else will Blaze Carruthers be rescuing? The answer is: workers!
As Blaze moves from level to level, he’ll come across various Infernal Industries employees trapped by the flames. Each worker will be static in the room Blaze finds them in, raising a polite hand for attention if not in immediate danger, or frantically waving their arms and shouting to alert you if they’re threatened by a fire. To help you see them they’ll always face the camera so you have the best chance of spotting workers tucked away in corners! ;)
Above: Blaze finds a worker who’s currently safe. He’ll shout softly and wave to attract attention.
Once Blaze has found a worker he simply moves near to them and they’ll begin to follow him around like ducklings, sometimes leading to an awesomely cute conga-line effect! Once workers are in tow, Blaze just has to keep them alive long enough to get them to the level exit and safety.
Above: This worker is in real danger. He’ll shout loudly and wave his arms to get Blaze’s attention.
So, how does Blaze keep workers alive? Well, if NPCs are in a room that’s on fire their health bar begins to drain. And it drains pretty quickly! In the interests of safety Blaze can leave workers in a safe place by pressing the X button, then deal with any hazards between them and the exit before returning and getting them back in tow. If time is running too short for the safe approach, Blaze can just clear a path through burning rooms and rush the workers to the exit, hoping to get there before time runs out! Both techniques have their pros and cons…
Above: Workers will let you know they’re taking damage by coughing and via a health meter.
So, what effects do workers have on gameplay I hear you ask? Well, in Flame Over rescuing people affects TIME, which is a vital aspect of the game. Flame Over is played against the clock, so you only have a limited time to clear each level. Any spare time is carried over to the next level as you progress, so it really is of the essence!
Above: Blaze can attract a real following! They trail him like a conga-line of ducklings. Aw, cute. The final version will feature a variety of worker designs.
When you reach a new level a small amount of time is added for each room used to build the level, with a small modifier applied if it has a greater number of exits. Outside of that you only get time by either finding rare stopwatch powerups, OR by rescuing those all-important workers. Taking a worker safely to the exit grants you 30 seconds of time. Fail to rescue a worker, however, and you’ll lose 1 whole minute… so it really does pay to be a hero!
Next week I’ll be filling you in on another NPC you’ll meet during your adventures through Flame Over. :)
Until then, have a great weekend!
Al
Posted by Ross
Fri, 2nd May 2014
Hello all,
This week’s Flame Over blog post concerns one of the game’s primary NPCs, the astonishingly cute and previously hinted at, Cat. :) Here, take a look:
Above: Flame Over’s super-cute cat, in his scared, idle and running poses. He looks awesome in motion. Good job Marc and Paul!
While you’re playing Flame Over you’ll be leading lone fire fighting hero, Blaze Carruthers, through the many highly-dangerous levels of the Infernal Industries building. As you do so you’ll undoubtedly come under sustained attack, be it from the flames that threaten to overwhelm you at every turn, or the various hazard filled rooms that you might encounter…
With so many dangers to be mindful of, it’s vital that Blaze can top up his limited health supply. Whilst you can heal Blaze by finding or buying a Heart powerup, by FAR the noblest and most life-affirming way of keeping Blaze healthy is by rescuing the cat that is to be found in each of Flame Over’s randomly generated levels.
Every level in the game contains a lonely, scared feline, waving its tail forlornly, waiting for a heroic fireman to rescue it from the approaching flames. Once you’ve found a cat, rescuing it is easy. Simply approach it and it’ll begin to dutifully follow Blaze around the level. You’ll have to be careful though because if a cat goes too near any fires whilst trying to follow Blaze, then it’ll begin to take damage of its own. Blaze is able to leave the cat behind with a push of the [X] button leaving you time to deal with any nearby fires before returning to your cat which, with luck, should be just as healthy as when you left it – unless another fire broke out in the meantime!
Once Blaze and the cat have returned to the level’s exit point, the cat will gratefully run off to safety, rewarding Blaze with additional health as it does so.
So, you see, it really pays to be kind to the animals - especially the internet’s favourite creature! Perhaps this mutually beneficial relationship explains why firemen are so famous for saving our beloved feline friends? :)
I’ll be returning with more Flame Over news next week. Until then have a great weekend and, for those in the UK, have a great Bank Holiday.
All the best,
Al
Posted by Ross
Fri, 25th Apr 2014
Hi everyone,
This week I’ll be talking about Flame Over’s art style. When I first dreamt up the idea of a fire fighting Roguelike I saw it as a top-down 2D game, in the tradition of Rogue, Nethack, etc , albeit with more bells and whistles, because– let’s face it – RLs aren’t famed for being the prettiest games. ;)
Paul, one of our artists responsible for the look of Ace Armstrong and the Alien Scumbags and Orbit, (both PSP minis) came up with a target image for a 2D game. Paul has a really dynamic cartoon style, which would be helpful in making a fire fighting Roguelike feel like a fun game and not the harrowing experience a fire fighting game potentially could be.
Above: A very early concept image, showing relative scales of walls, fuel items and player character. We soon decided to make the jump to 3D.
Once we’d decided on a top down 2D perspective Paul did some quick test images showing how we’d present our world (see above.) There are lots of problems with forced perspective in 2D games as you want to minimise the thickness of walls as much as possible (otherwise you end up with just as much wall in your level area as you do interactive areas.
After much to-ing and fro-ing we decided on a U-turn. We would create the game in 3D instead! That was a BIG decision as we’ve never worked on an entirely 3D game before (Vibes and the Fighting Fantasy minis did have a few 3D elements.)
Once we settled on 3D there was no turning back!
Above: Concept images of our Lab and Executive level themes. These were invaluable in deciding the overall direction of each theme and helped ensure each had a distinct identity.
Even though we had moved into 3D art we wanted to ensure Paul’s distinct art style was carried over without loss. Paul and our 3D artist Marc have done an amazing job of working together to ensure Paul’s 2D concepts are recreated faithfully in 3D. Paul is able to apply his style to the textures used to ensure we hit the right look.
Above: Examples of concept art for the Lab theme. Paul creates these and Marc creates models based on each asset, scaling them as appropriate. Paul then works with Marc to create textures.
Our overall ethos for the Flame Over world was to create something that felt like a toy town, with lots of tiny details even in such a dinky environment. Our room designs support that, and feature an insane level of detail. We’ve certainly not made life easy for ourselves, but that means our world is incredibly rich and varied, certainly in comparison to similar games in the genre.
Needless to say, we have an exceedingly high level of variation. Our estimated final room count across the game’s 16 levels is 1200+ rooms and corridors, giving us near infinite variation possibilities.
Above: An example of 3D assets used to create a room for our Lab theme. Note these aren’t lit to final standard.
Above: An array of smaller room types used in our Executive theme. From top to bottom: kitchen, boardroom. There are MANY variations of each room in all layouts and sizes.
So, that’s how we’ve arrived at the look of our environments, but what about Flame Over’s player character, Blaze Carruthers?
I also wanted to establish a look for our main character right from the off, as I felt this would inform every other aspect of the game. Getting the character’s proportions nailed down would help us build a world that fit people of that size and his appearance would set the overall tone for the game.
Above: Some early concept images of Blaze, with the final face on the right and the 3D version at centre.
For some reason I can’t really guess at, right away I was determined that he should have a large nose and larger moustache and that these would be his dominant facial characteristics. Maybe because a big nose is a good direction indicator in a top down world? I don’t know… Anyhow Paul produced some concepts and eventually we got to the final Blaze Carruthers design you can see in the image below.
OK, that’s all for now I think! ^^ Come back next week to find out even more about Flame Over.
Cheers for now!
Al
