playMaker

Author Topic: Noah's Elephant in the Room (Android/iOS) 2 year development, all Playmaker  (Read 3384 times)

joel.carlson

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    • Salvation's Story
After two years of development as a one-man-show, I'm FINALLY releasing Noah's Elephant in the Room. It's a Pac-Man style game where you run around Noah's ark on a giant elephant while trying to outrun Noah's 3 sons. After two years, that's the best description I can come up with for such an odd premise. :P

Here's the trailer. Hopefully it'll explain it better:


And here's a ton of gifs:

https://gfycat.com/@salvationsstory/noah27s_elephant_in_the_room

I was able to do everything in the game (minus the music). Unity is seriously an incredible tool. I've been an artist my whole life, but picked up Playmaker around 4 years ago. I've absolutely loved scripting in Playmaker and getting those 'eureka' moments each time I learned something new with it.

I'm quite proud of the game. It's definitely been the biggest game I've ever done by myself, and I can't believe it actually (hopefully) works! After two years of learning, there are SO many things I would have scripted/organized differently, but somehow it all holds together! As I move on to my next app, I'm so excited to have a clean slate again.

From the art side of things, I illustrated and animated over 150 animals and their pens, created a minute long cutscene, 25 illustrated verses. It's been an absolute beast, but I'm happy with the result.

In any case, I hope you guys enjoy it and let me know what you think! I know the subject matter can be divisive, but it's my hope to have great conversation. Feel free to ask any questions you'd like!

Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.SalvationsStory.NoahsElephant
iOS https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noahs-elephant-in-the-room/id1298701742?ls=1&mt=8

And if you're in Canada, you can check it out at https://www.backtothebible.ca/kids/ .
Check out Noah's Elephant in the Room, Bible ABCs for Kids, Bible Coloring for Kids, and Noah's Bunny Problem at
Salvations Story

djaydino

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    • jinxtergames
Hi,
Great trailer and game!
Also the graphics are very nice!

I played it a little bit (on android) and i noticed when i restart the level (on the outrun only) the fade out does not fade out completely.
Are you using tweens or animator? (or something different)

i played not enough to really know the gameplay, but for my first impression i do find it a bit short (to play a level)
It would be nice to get extra time when collecting peanuts (that makes it more challenging)

On the outrun mode maybe when using boost to drop one of the brothers on his back would be a nice extra.

But i have to say Great job!

joel.carlson

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Hey! Thanks so much for the feedback! I really appreciate you taking the time to download, check it out, and report back!

Replay fade out: Yeah, I noticed that too. :P I'm using the Pro2DCamera plugin and I think I either gotta switch up the layers so the transition is over the UI, or wait a split second more to load the scene and have the icons completely shrink. For those buttons I think I used a Tween. Most of my UI is Tween, while everything in the environment is animator. Good catch!

The length of play was a tough one for me to nail down. With the nature of the game and upgrades, it seemed either the starting elephant was too short, and the upgraded elephant was perfect feeling. Or the starting elephant was perfect and the upgraded elephant could last for a very very long time. Or the starting elephant was great, the ending elephant was great, but the upgrades didn't feel very powerful. So... I'm sure there's still a lot I could do to balance the game to feel just right. Right now it's my hope that kids won't take the short length at first and feel bad, but be insentivized to upgrade their elephant and get better!

For Peanko, adding time with each Peanut is a really great idea! That could really give a nice exponential curve on people just starting out and people who have upgraded their elephant to the max!

For Outrun, I did mess with that idea of being able to lose a brother, but the gameplay seemed to last a little too long and lose excitement. It is an often requested feature though. So maybe I'll take another look at that!

Thanks again for all your feedback! It's really valuable to have!
Check out Noah's Elephant in the Room, Bible ABCs for Kids, Bible Coloring for Kids, and Noah's Bunny Problem at
Salvations Story

djaydino

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    • jinxtergames
Hi,
Happy to help :)
btw. are you for hire to make some (animated)graphics?

joel.carlson

  • Junior Playmaker
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  • Posts: 66
    • Salvation's Story
Absolutely! Feel free to message me and let's talk!
Check out Noah's Elephant in the Room, Bible ABCs for Kids, Bible Coloring for Kids, and Noah's Bunny Problem at
Salvations Story

zirai

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Nice one bro.
One man work for 2 years,that's tough. I only lasted 3 months lol
Congrats ;D ;D ;D