Level 4

Here is some concept art for level 4. As you can see, our level design is completely original. Now Edward must make his way through Jake's castle to his sweetheart Bella. But not if Jake has anything to say about it. Jake eagerly awaits Edward's arrival by Bella's prison, ruing over his past defeats. This time, he will not be beaten so easily.

We also finished adding all of the game's cutscenes. Level 3 now has enemies, too! All that remains is to implement Edward and Jake's special attacks for level 3 and 4, and further level polishing. The rough outline of levels 2, 3, and 4 is now in-game, but we are not satisfied with their difficulty and flow. We plan to use the next two weeks to implement the few remaining features, fix bugs, and balance gameplay.

We are all very happy with our progress. As of writing this blog entry, we have a full game. All of the general structure (levels, fights, etc.) have been implemented already. Players can now play the game from start to finish, and witness first hand this epic saga of love and vampiracy.

Cutscenes and Level 3

We're quickly approaching the end of the semester, and it's high time we got an important aspect of the game implemented--cutscenes. We have found that without cutscenes even people who have been around our game since the beginning don't understand what's going on! This week we did the opening cutscene. In it, Bella is kidnapped by Jake while Edward is in class. Now Edward must escape to the forest where Jake's werewolf henchmen are waiting.

We hope that the silliness of the game is made more apparent with this new cinematic. Previously our game has been misinterpreted as serious. Hopefully now players will see a distinct theme as they play through our game.

We also started on Level 3. Level 3 is based on a city in Italy. Edward must traverse rooftops in pursuit of his love. This level will stress jumping more than previously. If you miss a jump between some rooftops, you fall to your sparkling death. This level may not be as polished as we like because we are focusing on getting the cutscene in.

Let the Fight Begin!

We are currently working on implementing our first epic boss encounterbetween Edward and Jake! After completing the second level, there will be atransition into an area specifically designed for the fight and our mainantagonist will be there waiting for you. The fight will be broken down intotwo phases, Jake in his human form and in his werewolf form. The switch willoccur after you have damaged Jake a certain amount. It should be achallenging and exciting experience.

On a different note, we are still working on adding in features to ourexisting levels and making some touch ups. Such as going back into level oneand adding the correct enemy, the brutish jock who terrorizes every highschool hallway. As for level two, we've added in our standard health pack forthe game, a cute and cuddly baby deer. It just warms your heart to see Edwardcradle that adorable little guy as he drinks his blood. We will have moreinteresting features to add in soon enough that should really enhance thegame play, dare i say sparkling?

-Alex (posted by James)

Welcome to the Opera

This week we prepared a feast for your ears. We added tons of sound effects for damage and attacks by player and enemy. We added new tracks for high score and menu. We updated the track for level 1's background music. The overall effect of all this is that you can play this game with your monitor turned off and its still fun.

We also added a 2nd level and a soundtrack for the 2nd level. The setting for the 2nd level is in the woods, the platforms include trees with branches at varied heights and turtles. It's a veritable adventure.