Educational Flash Game

Title Screen

This is the current title screen for my Flash game. It is similar in layout to the original project, but with some changes for the better. I have moved away from the green User Interface of the original to a light blue UI inspired by the new Star Trek. This gives the UI less of a "military" feel and more of a "science" one.

The space station now has windows that "revolve" around the outside. This was a colossal pain because I make the windows with shape tweens, which I have never been strong with. It took me about 2 hours to get that to look halfway decent.

There are also some quick animations for the buttons and other UI interfaces that keep the design fresh and fun. I'm more or less finished with this screen, although I don't like how much smaller the text for "Instructions" is than the rest, so I will need to fix that.

Rooms are Complete!

(Click on the image to play the game)
(Note: You must click on the game with the mouse before you can start moving around)

All the rooms are now complete! Use the arrow keys to walk around and the Space Bar to open the doors to travel between rooms. By the end of this week all of the interactive elements will be put in and I can begin the introductory animation!

This is the first room of the game. I sketched this design in pencil and then traced it in Illustrator before bringing it into Flash. Many of the elements will animate once they are in Flash.

Click on the image above to see the walking test. The character now faces and moves left and right based on keyboard arrow presses. He also blinks every few seconds!

EDIT: You will need to click on the screen when the Flash file opens to be able to make the character walk.

Now he faces both ways! I'm sure the shadows aren't accurate, but they'll do.

He will be controllable with the keyboard by tomorrow.

Black Hole Game

This is the (as yet unnamed) Player Character for my Flash educational game. I began by sketching out the character by hand in pencil. This took a very look time because of an unfortunate combination of a lack of drawing skill and perfectionism. Next, I scanned the image into Flash and traced the image in black with my Wacom tablet. I used pressure sensitivity settings to vary the line thickness.

Then, I had to separate the character into the specific parts that will move when he is animated. His arms, legs, eyes, eyebrows, and mouth are all individual movie clips, which will be tweened to create movement. I digitally inked each part with a shadow on the left side, which will need to be switched when the character is facing left.

The next step will be to create a walk cycle for the character. I will then create a test screen where the character will be able to be moved with keyboard arrow presses.