October 8th, 2017 - Game Component Explanations

Hi everyone, and welcome to the second Development Log for our Naramon project! Today, we're going to talk about some of the elements that will be available with the game!

Disclaimer: This is going to be a long one.

First of all, let's talk about the characters. For those who read our Game Design Document, you will know that there's going to be at minimum 6 characters that will be in the game. Here are the list of the 6 characters: Naramon, the main character himself; Alexander, a mysterious figure; and the 4 Spirit Elements: Ignis (Fire), Azure (Water), Gaia (Earth), and Zephyr (Wind). And in today's Devlog, we're going to reveal the sprites for both Naramon and Azure! The picture one on the left is going to be Naramon's sprite, while the one on the right is going to be Azure's sprite.

The second thing that we're going to talk about an insight towards some of the puzzles that we're going to include in this game. As you may know, Naramon is going to be made as a 2D Puzzle Platformer game. Now some of you may think and ask something like "What kind of puzzles that the developers are going to include in this game?" to yourselves. Well today, hopefully some of your questions about the puzzles are going to be answered, as we're going to give you some examples about the puzzle system in the game!

This is going to be the first example. See those colored lines? Those colored lines indicates how each Elemental Spirits will react to the whirlwind (the arrow that says "angin").  The blue line is Azure/Water, yellow line is Ignis/Fire, brown line is Gaia/Earth, and the green one is Zephyr/Wind. In this picture, let's say that there a gap with a violent whirlwind that the player can't go through safely, and he needs the help from the Spirits to find a trigger (located "off-screen" here) that will disperse the whirlwind and activates a bridge that player can go through safely.  From those lines, we can see that:

• If we use Azure and Ignis to go through the whirlwind, they will be sucked through whatever direction the whirlwind is taking on. Because the whirlwind's direction is going upwards, that means that both of them will hit the spikes at the very top end of the gap.
• If we use Gaia to go through the whirlwind, he will fall down through the whirlwind into the spikes at the bottom of the gap.
• And finally, if we use Zephyr to go through the whirlwind, you'll going to find out that Zephyr can go through the whirlwind in whatever direction that he wants to.

Based on the explanations above, we can conclude that in order to pass through the whirlwind safely, we have to use Zephyr to get across the gap to activate the trigger that will help the player to continue on in the level.

Another example of the puzzle that we're going to use in the game is shown in this picture. 

In this picture, the player finds himself inside a sewer-themed area and needs to find the Exit. However, you can't access the Exit unless you rotate the pipes marked with numbers 1 & 2 (marked with a large circle with the numbers 1 & 2 on it). In order to rotate the pipes, you need to use the Levers located in the level to rotate the pipes. The access of these pipes are indicated by a "grate/manhole" located in the area. Be careful though, some of these pipes are actually a dead end, which will drop you to a "dump area". Don't worry, if you fall down to the dump area, you can use the stairs at the far right of the map to bring you back to the Start area.

Here's another thing. Only Azure can have access to the pipes. Naramon/the player can only stand and/or walk inside the rectangle areas on the map. So... how does Naramon able to access the other rectangle areas that isn't the Start area? Well the answer is simple. Whenever Azure interacts with a pipe on one end of the pipeline, he (along with Naramon, who will follow him through the pipe, and don't ask why and how did he do that) will instantly teleports himself to the other end of the pipeline. 

And finally, let's talk about the map. Here's an example of a map concept that we're going to use in the game and a somewhat long explanation on how's the game flow on this map.

The first thing you may notice is that there are numbers indicating on how's the map flow is going to be. Note that we're going to assume that Naramon has unlocked Azure as one of his usable Spirit Elements. 

Unfortunately, the explanation on this map is in Indonesian, which we must say apologies for that because we are from Indonesia. So, here's a lengthy explanation on how's the map flow's going to be in English:

1. You're going to start in the stick-men's position on the bottom left of the pic. First thing you notice is that there's a pool of water right in front of the player. Switch to Azure to walk on the water (water is marked with blue lines, also Naramon will swim on water), then climb the ladder indicated with the number #8 beside it, walk to the right until you find a gap on the floor, and drop down the gap below (as Azure) to activate the lever inside the gap.
2. After you activated the lever in the gap, you'll find out that the ladder with the number #1 beside it will drop down to the area at where you currently stand on. Quickly climb the ladder once it reaches you and wait until it goes back to it's original position, and go to the first platform you see.
3. Once you reach the platform, you'll find out that there's a pressure plate that will cause a bridge to drop down whenever you step on it. What you need to do is to step the plate, then quickly run and climb the #1 ladder to the small upper platform, and then quickly jump to the bridge before it climbs back up.
4. Once the bridge goes back to its original position, climb up the bridge and get past the windmill platforms. The next step is to reach the bridge at the middle-bottom part of the pic. Quickly run to the slope and jump at the end of it to reach the bridge. 
5. Now go on to the bridge until you find a ladder indicated with number #4. The bridge is long enough that you can jump from where your current position is and still reach the ladder. Whatever you do, do not climb up the stairs right beside the #4 ladder. Why? That's because there's a trap switch located at the top of the staircase. If you activate the switch, the #3 bridge and the #4 ladder is destroyed, and you need to restart the level if it happens.
6. After you climb #4 ladder, pick up the box marked with #5 on it, and slowly jump up the platform jumping section until you reached the top of the section. Drop the box down in the platform with #6 on it, then jump the box to be able to jump to the ladder right above it.
7. After you climb up the ladder, you'll find a lever. Activate it, and congratulations! You have opened up the exit door. But you can't access it just yet as it's underwater. We got one more thing to do...
8. Now head back to where you start the level. Right underneath the pool of water beside where you start the level is a lever to "flush" the water there away. Switch to Azure and swim underwater to activate the lever, and congratulations! You're now able to exit and pass the level!

And there we go, that's the end of the second Development Log from us! Hope you'll like this Development Log that we're created!

P.S.: The name of the game and/or characters may change in the future. But for now, this is going to be the name that we're going to be used until we noted it in a future Development Log.