Code change.

Alright this is where it gets somewhat awkward, having used actionscript before i knew that every key has it's own "value" for example A is (65) B (67) etc...

When playing the game (if you have) you'll see that the buttons to move up and down are infact Q and A which are a HORRIBLE way to move and play the game.

So i decided to change them to the UP and DOWN arrows. Looked through the code and managed to find this on the movie clip of the paddle.

onClipEvent(load){
spd=20;
}
onClipEvent(enterFrame){
if(Key.isDown(81)and _y>50){
_y-=spd;
}
if(Key.isDown(65)and _y<350){
_y+=spd;
}
}

The bold parts are the most important parts, the 81 and 65 are the values of Q and A. So i changed the values to what i found out from Adobe to be 38 and 40.

The new code looks like this ;

onClipEvent(load){
spd=18;
}
onClipEvent(enterFrame){
if(Key.isDown(38)and _y>50){
_y-=spd;
}
if(Key.isDown(40)and _y<350){
_y+=spd;
}
}

I changed the speed aswell, as the ball seemed almost too quick.

Monster pong!!

Before i even started i had to find a basic source code (Script) for a game of pong. Luckily it was easy enough to find one, albiet it somewhat ugly the basic game is down and open for change.

LINK!

Finished game?..

Not quite, but it's incredibly close.

CLICK!

Just realised that the score has bugged, i'll be honest it's a huge kick in the balls and because i'm not adept with coding i can't even begin to fix it. I could backtrack and rebuild it from the start but i've done to much now to rip it all apart.

Quite annoyed.

Knew i forgot something.

It seemed i had forgotten the mothership from my sprite designs, i went back and turned it into a package shot (Be it shrunk down and not overly noticible, i think it's noticable for people to realise what it is).


Edit : Oh, and i got to use my old design for something \o/..

Mark #3

This is the 3rd and hopefully final design for the sprites, i stuck to a "2" pixel wide pencil this time as so that's why they are blockier than the pre-designs.

I'm happy with the way they came out, even with less detail you can still see what and who they are supposed to be.

Redesign#3

So this is the 3rd version of the blue monster. (You can see previous version in previous posts). I just simplified it and stuck to the block look so it worked when scaled down.

Sprites

This is the finished sprite sheet (For the monsters and the barracks), but upon testing found that they are too smooth when shrunk, so back to the drawing board.






As you can see here because of the detail i put into the sprites when shrunk down it all seems to blend together and isn't as detailed.

So as stated, back to the drawing board.

CLICK TO SEE!

Testing...123

So i decided to throw the blue monster sprite i did into the game to see how it'd work out, seems it was actually ok.

LINK

Tests

The first is a very quick test of the barracks of the "Space invaders" game being turned into monster munch. The idea was to instead of "Disintegrate" like the original source but to take for the bullets to take chunks out of the barracks, as if eating them.

This however didn't work as if the player shot the pieces from the bottom the chunk still came out of the top, so i think the best thing to do will to stick to the disintegrate theory. It isn't "That" far from fact as Monster munch as a snack are incredibly messy and flakey.

CLICK

Sooo....pixels?

Alright so i've started attempting to "pixelize" these monsters. I tried to transfer the most obvious things in each monster the things that stand out most.

Obviously with this guy it's the hat and the 4 arms. So i tried to keep these in and make it noticable. This is what i ended up with.

Style?

The style of the Atari was limited as it was one of the earliest consoles, so many of the games looked similar and played similar (to some extent). The only USP many games had were the unique characters. This in turn made for some EXTRAORDINARY lead mascots and many are remembered 30 years down the line.

Pacman and Harry (Pitfall) are instantly noticable with the gamers (and surprisingly) non gamers
out there. (Pacman more so).


Pacman, this circle with a wedge missing is possibly the most well known character out there.

Space invaders - This little creature is also incredibly well known by both gamers and none gamers.

First idea (S)

On the day i got the brief i was torn between 2 ideas, seeing as the idea of creating a game was definitive and the fact i decided to focus on Atari, the 2 games that sprang straight to mind were Pac man and Space Invaders.

Pac man Atari 2600

The idea i had for pac man was 

that pac man would be replaced with one of the monsters (Blue,pink or yellow) and the dots pac man had to collect along the way would be monster munch. The 3 ghosts would be the 3 remaining monsters (Yes there are/were 4).

Sticking with the graphics of the time, everything would be pixelated which would mean that flash wouldn't be the design tool, photoshop or even paint would suffice when it came to pixelling.

Space invaders Atari 2600

The idea for this was quite similar to the idea of pac man (Atari games were reasonably simple so i didn't want to go too drastic).

The 3 barracks protecting the space ship would be Monster munch (Or the 3 barriers would be the 3 monsters protecting the Monster munch (Ship) ), so the goal would either be to protect the Monster munch (Ship) or to get to the monster munch (Alien mother). Once again sticking with the original pixel style as to not stray too far.

Monsters

[Pink monster - Roast beef]

The pink monster is the monster representing the "Roast beef" flavour of Monster munch. Long nose and rather gangly frame.

[Yellow monster - Pickled onion]

The Yellow monster is the monster representing Pickled onion, unlike the Pink monster his frame is alot bigger, this is the monster (as far as i know) that the actually shape of the crisp was made from. (His eye being the circle and the eyelashes being the 4 "finger like" pieces).

[Blue monster - Flaming hot]

The blue monster is the mascot for the Flaming hot flavour, his 4 arms and feet like ears make him weird and wacky, which i guess is what monster munch were going for when creating these 3.

These 3 images came with the download of the brief, it didn't say "You must use these" but the basic design i will use in creating the sprites for the game.

Atari

"The iconic Monster Munch snack was first launched in 1977, during the heady days of long hot summers, Raleigh Grifters, Choppers and BMXing, when wrestling was still cool and Atari was the ultimate gaming experience."

Being an avid gamer i zoomed in on "Atari" when i read past it, as far as I'm aware "Retro" has never left the youth of today and this is (in part) thanks to games. Redo's of old games seem to hit the younger audience and get them interested in both retro gaming and in the past few years fashion. It's never left us as we've grown up and i thought it would work, seeing as "Monster munch" as a brand are incredibly nostalgic for a few of the older generation out there as-well as the younger generation being aware of Monster munch's age.

After an incredibly quick search on google i stumbled upon http://www.atari.com/arcade which allows people to play a few of the retro games online along with high-score boards and such.

Mindmap (Brainstorm)

This is a pretty basic "First thing that comes to your head" brainstorm of Monster munch as a whole.

Moodboard.

Atari was the focus of this moodboard, i wanted to pick up on the fact the sprites aren't all that overly detailed, some games just being blobs. Also the colours were alot more restricted on the old console.

The 1st one is based on the 70's gadgets,colours,music,movies,fashion. I tried to cover it all.

Live brief (Monster munch)

Below is the brief i decided to pick from the few at Ync, i chose this because I'm a fan of Monster Munch myself so i connected a little with the brief. I was also well aware that they had fun wacky characters that have been part of the franchise for a long time, which i knew i would be able to work with when i chose the brief. It was also pretty open as to what was wanted, also it was for students, so this seemed like the perfect brief.I've highlighted things that i feel needed to be "bolder" in the brief. Things that seemed more important to the objective then others.