The Great Story

The human race is dead. All that remains are the ruins of their once glorious empire. Deep below the ground you and your fellow apes have been used for all kinds of testing that wasn’t suited for humans. But that time is over, now your only goal is to escape the underground lab, through the ruined city and out into the wilds. Barring your way are tons of malfunctioning machines, crumbling buildings and rough terrain. But you must not falter, only you can save the other apes still trapped in the lab, and only you can become the Great Ape.

The First Great Milestone

So our initial goal is to focus on getting a lot of fun physics into the game so that we can build puzzles around them as well as some apes to hop around with. Personally I love playing with physics. We want to make it possible to come up with your own solutions to the challenges you’ll face in Great Ape.

Take this image with a bucket of salt, it’s still far away from finished but it’ll give you a rough idea of the style we’re going for.

Great Style

We’re working with silhouettes and simple models to really push what we can express in a limited environment. I find that when you limit what you can do it forces you to work more creatively with the tools at your disposal.

Great Thoughts

A lot of what I do and would like to do when it comes to game design, often comes from my deep love to SNES classics. I remember playing Soul Blazer, Yoshi’s Island, Star Fox. I want to emulate that feeling of sitting in your pajamas while the snow is crashing down outside and you’re sitting wrapped up in a blanket in your bean bag playing Super Mario World with a hot coco by your side.

Currently Working On…

I’ve been working with Anima2D for the first time ever. I have some experience with animation in 3dsMax and Maya. However, that was in 3D, not 2D. So far I’ve found Anima2D to be a really useful tool. With a little time and effort, I have no doubt we’ll get some snazzy animations for you all to enjoy!

My Primary Focus

I will be working mostly with teaching the player new skills through level design. it’s never been my focus for a full project until now so I’m quite excited about that!
How do you tell a player they can jump up to the platform above? how will they know where to go? If they get lost, is there any way for them to find their way back on track? These are questions I aim to answer in the next 8 weeks of working on this project and hopefully beyond that!
We’re all still hammering out the basics before we start working on the level design, so I’m saving those gifs for next time!

What’s Coming Next?

I’m going to take a look at Shovel Knight and see how they teach players their mechanics and then do something to Great Ape with that knowledge.
That’s going to be the topic for my next post, but for now, farewell!