Graphics for Mall Cop Rampage

Below, I drew some graphics for the game. The first two items are the vending machine and the gun shop sign. In the game, the player will eventually face a fork in the road and must choose a path. One path is the same path on the bottom floor where there are vending machines.  The other is an escalator which leads to the gun shop. Vending machines replenish any depleted health, and the gun shop is where the player can spend money on power-ups. We thought it would be a good idea if we had a sign which drops a big hint of where the gun shop is, which is why I drew the gun shop sign. 

Next, I drew the health bar. The group thought it'd be hilarious if we had a donut resemble a health bar. So, I drew just that. With each hit from a zombie, a bite in the donut would appear. If you notice, there's also trails of crumbs which replace a whole piece. These crumbs emphasize on the lack of donut chunks left. I drew the donut in fourths, but we as a group did not quite decide on this factor so these graphics may change.

Zombie Concept Art

I drew some of my zombie ideas and two more zombies that were mentioned in class. The other two being a lady zombie with a purse and a big hulking zombie. I tried my best to make the art look cartoony without making the zombies looking too much like the zombies seen in Plants vs. Zombies.

Zombie Ideas for Mall Cop Game

I've been thinking about what kind of zombies we could have for our game. Instead of just having the typical slow moving zombies, we should mix things up a little just to make the game a bit more frantic. Here's a list of what I thought up. Tell me what you think:

Regular zombie- These are your typical slow moving zombies. Easy to blast down.
Fast zombie- Zombies that run.
Jumping zombie- Zombies that jump and try to stomp on you. I was thinking these zombies could be on pogo sticks for a comical effect.
Spitting zombie- Zombies that spit some kind of pus that damages the player.
Flying zombie- Zombies that fly in the air and try to drop on the player. I was thinking these guys could be wearing jet-packs to fly around and the jet-pack detaches once the zombie's directly above the player.

Metal Justin Bieber!... I mean Fieber!

Here's a concept for one of our bosses for our potential game. In the game a famous pop singer named Justin Fieber (modeled after Justin Bieber), operates this mechanical version of himself. I have a couple of ideas of how this boss fight could function. Perhaps he could sound like Godzilla and use an attack in which it spews out a loud stream of pre-pubescent voice that injures the player. Anyway, enough of my thoughts here's the image:

Mall cop shooter boss concept for presentation

Here's an example of what types of bosses we're probably going to come up with for the Mall cop game: 

Basically most of the boss fights are going to resemble iconic characters from several movies and video games. Most of the bosses are going to ride on segways like the hero. Here, we have a picture of Nemesis from Resident Evil 3 standing next to a segway. While the final version of this boss is not going to be Nemesis, its going to be a super zombie that's somewhat modeled after this creature. 

Penguin Shooter Concept Art and Ideas

Here's my concept art for how I think the penguin should look. I thought it'd be cool to use a cyborg approach to the penguin character. Tell me what you think:

Although I was highly against the jet pack idea at first, I suddenly realized the cool factor of it. And hey, maybe doesn't have to be a jet pack per se, but an actual attachment to the character's body, making him seem even more mechanical. The laser eye emphasizes the cyborg theme, and the bandana gives the character kind of a bad-ass vibe. The lower picture demonstrates how I think the game should play. Basically the character can fly around and shoot stuff from his mouth. There could be several types of power-ups that players can pick up. I thought of a couple that we can potentially use:

Laser pellets- Default shooting weapon. Player needs to keep pressing the fire button to shoot.
Rapid Fire- Like the laser pellet, but shoots more upon use. The player can hold down the fire button.
Tri-Attack- Like the laser pellet, but shoots three pellets at once in three different directions.
Laser beam- A powerful beam that reaches across the screen and demolishes anything in its path. The player must charge this weapon to activate it.
Rockets- Devastating tools of destruction which deals heavy damage. Perhaps rockets come out of the penguin's body. Limited quantity. Use sparingly.
Fish Shield- Not a weapon, but protection. Basically it's a ring of fish that circles the penguin's body. If one fish get hit, then an open gap appears for the penguin's vulnerability.
Penguin Frenzy- Kind of a special attack where the penguin summons a barrage of penguin friends to attack any enemy on the screen. This should only be used when action becomes too hectic.

Shooters: What I Like and Don't Like

In my group, we're about to create a shooter. For this assignment I've started some research. I've played a few demos (namely Ikaruga, R-Type, and Rez) and watched videos of shooters. There are many things I like about most shooters, but some things I do not.

Things I like:
-Fast paced
-Interesting power-ups
-Flashy graphics
-Straightforward gameplay

Things I dislike:
-Most shooters only give you the option of shooting in one direction.
-Sometimes shooters can get monotonous because of how repetitive they can become, which is where variety in enemies is crucial.

So there you have it! Some of things I like and dislike about scrolling shooters. There's more that I like than dislike, but that's because I like action games.