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Mechanics and Power ups The Mechanics of our brilliant game Coffee Run includes Theodore, who you control by pressing the arrows to move left or right on your keyboard or you can click the space bar to activate the jump. These are chosen because they are the most common keys used in today’s generation. These movements help the character manoeuvre across the spaced out buildings. Although Its very simple to navigate the character around, the movement isn’t too quick, however when Theodore jumps on the girders, we have increased the density and added a bounce, so he can bounce automatically from girder to girder and gain momentum. Other mechanics we have used would be the air vent. The air vent was an unusual idea, however is great because it makes the Theodore float up onto the crates away from the enemies. The way this came together was simply through tagging Theodore and setting behaviour to the Vent, which would automatically change the velocity of Theodore when they collide. This enabled the player to achieve something through levitating their character instead of climbing a boring ladder. Another mechanic, which was successful, would be the crates. They are a great idea to get the character to move them and jump across in a unique way, However the fun starts when the crates separate in freefall, and the player is forced to speed up to get across. The mechanics were easier for the Gravity Crates than making them normal Crates; normal Crates require gravity attributes and a vast amount’s of behaviour’s, which we originally had planned, until we felt it would be better to go with something different and more fun. We didn’t include any power ups, because we concentrated more on the core mechanic’s. We wanted the game to be more like an obstacle course. With the Achievement being that the player actually completes the level.
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Game Flow Our coffee run game-‐flow is very intense, challengeable and repetitive when you begin your journey past the different obstacles. The flow is about a the player, well adjusting himself with our character and Coffee Runs atmosphere before he moves forward and explores a big city like NY. He begins leaving the coffee house, with his coffee cup through the city itself before getting towards ‘night life’ his workplace/or the finish line. The key point is to avoid crowds of people and not to fall off cranes, or broken buildings or you will die and have to start all over again. During the sun-‐lit city, it will look very cheerful and not too hard to play, however the challenge begins once you enter the dark side, which includes trying to cross over girders and avoid hitting the parked vehicles. You will also cross over large buildings and the density will be less so the challenge will increase by controlling your character. The new ability of ‘coffee run’ is crossing over to the next level, which is nightlife and making sure your character does not fall off any buildings. We do include warning signs about the long drops, so the player will have pre-‐caution and have chances to understand the element of the game thoroughly. We haven’t considered a score just a character gaining skills and exploring new abilities to cross over buildings. The only score is completing the level. There are no weapons included, just an escape route. Interesting things to help you get away from the enemies, for example when you enter the world, you will see a crowed of people starting towards Theodore. He cannot jump over the crowd; the only option is to find an escape route, like the wind vent provided. Once reaching the vent, it will alter Theodore’s velocity and begin to animate wind, creating the appearance of thrust. With the help of the wind vent, your character will be taken up to the cranes, where the real fun begins.
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Replacements of Enemies
The player will face many enemies throughout the Coffee Run game. The first ‘enemy’ or ‘obstacle’ of the task is to avoid the crowed of people at the start and they are considered enemies because if you collide with them, you will die and have to start over. The interesting thing about the group of people is that, they don’t look evil; they are just dressed in casual for work, they blend in with the CoffeeRun Theme and could be easily mistaken as something positive and not a hazard. We don’t have any enemies, other than the distant ground from the rooftops. I believe that there is an element of excitement for a player, playing with death in a game. So to make it more exciting, we created a way that allows the player to freely fall, entirely depending on Gravity crates to pass over the streets. Sometimes it is better to create obstacles instead of enemies because its more unexpected and fun. The tactics are the mystery of the challenge, For example the crates are falling apart as you cross over them and the challenge is to get to the finish line. This is a great replacement because it adds more pressure and leaves the ending with a thrill.
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Coffee run is a game based on one coffee, one journey. The player controls the character of Theodore. A hipster, young adult that works night shifts. As the player, your job is to take control of Theodore and help him bring his boss a cup of coffee. This however, is easier said than done.
The player must use the arrow keys and the spacebar to influence Theodore's movements; run forwards, backwards and jump. He must avoiding any potential hazards. These vary from construction sites, to crowds of people or even just falling from tall buildings.
The character Theodore is the only fully commandable Actor during gameplay. With just using his basic ability to move and push against other actors, you can reach high levels and move gravity crates in order to create new pathways for your character. This is very important for the game to include, it gives the player a feeling of total control over his character, with a sense of freedom, allowing him to choose what he does with objects.
The player has not been given a time limit to complete his game, purely for the amusement. The color, music and the overall design of the game has been described to be quite beautiful, and so it was in our best interest to not rush the player, and give them the time and ease to appreciate the game for what it is.
The controls responsible for Theodore’s movement and interaction with other actors, are the eight rules shown in the picture. Most are straightforward, for example: the collide behaviour was added to Theodore so that he could bounce away from any actor with a given tag. The collide behaviour becomes useful when creating a surface that an actor could bounce from, like a trampoline, then you also have access to the trampolines physics elements, allowing you to change the bounciness. I am mentioning this because, halfway through the gameplay, Theodore approaches some falling girders that have the same behaviour, allowing Theodore to jump from one to another.
The ‘move rules’ are basic commands, simply changing the attributes once or twice per movement and a reserve, so if the forward arrow on the keyboard isn’t ‘down’ then the ‘don’t move’ rule is applied in default. This is very important to the characters movement appearance once the animation is include, because not only is it easier to find where to place the animation in the rules, it also corresponds with it’s change, each time a different button is pressed.
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Theodore’s background The story begins with our main character, named Theodore. Theodore works night shifts at a firm called ‘Nightlife’ a co-operation run by one man, who depends on his coffee in the morning to function, his name; Sir John Fritz. He normally chooses from his employees to get it for him. One Monday evening, five minutes before he left for work, Theodore received a text from Sir John Fritzes secretary, informing him to pick up a latte from the Coffee House down the boulevard, with no given extra time, Theodore would be fired if he disobeyed/arrived late. His journey embarks on a series of exaggerated, health and safety hazards downtown. Including a wind tunnel at the beginning, to thrust Theodore upwards, keeping him from knocking over his drink by a crowd of people heading to the CoffeeHouse. When Theodore reaches the middle gateway tunnel, he enters the city life during the night. Although he pursues the same goal, Theodore is faced with more challenging obstacles. The first set includes a broken down crane, dropping many girders. Theodore must wait, then jump from girder to girder, to reach the next building. At the rooftop of the second building, he comes across three 'gravity crates'. He realizes that he can't reach his destination without moving the crates in order to create a disfigured, stepping stone path. After they are positioned, Theodore athletically jumps from the first to the second and third, when he finally makes it to his workplace. • Avoid crowd of people. • Reach vent. • make it to first building. • Make it through girders. • Approach second building. • Push and position Gravity Crates. • Jump from one crate to another. • You have completed the level.
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Like every platformer game, the player cannot see the whole map during gameplay. He or she can only see as far as the character’s camera allows them. In our game CoffeeRun, in order for the player to see what the map consists of ahead, he or she must maneuver Theodore to either to the side of the screen to display different parts of the map. The music is a soothing and peaceful song that we selected for the game, right after we created the paper prototype. The fact that it fits with the world of CoffeeRun so well, improves the experience for the player. The odd tune’s collaborate well with the make believe world and compliment the overall design. Podington bear’s soundtrack became the song for our game, immediately after we heard it. The idea of coffee run was to create a different interface where the player, could start the game with a peaceful mindset allowing them to easily adapt to the controls. This heavily depended on the atmosphere of the game being bright and easy at first. Then, to introduce new challenges, a dark side was literally created within the game. A juxtaposition of the ‘pretty opening’ We called this, The City Nightlife. The ‘dark side’ is not only a change in color scheme, but where challenges become more daunting and very intriguing for the player, which also includes some surprising elements that are unlikely to be found in any other game.
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Below is a Simple Flow chart demonstrating how the player navigates the interface.