Small visual update and direction

The only difference in appearance is making the ground gray and making the colors a little more vibrant. After playing around with possible colors, I found that having a gray game with you being the only colored thing had a better feel to it. It makes it seem more like you’re saving this rotten, boring world.

I also want to take a moment to explain some new direction I want to take the game. As this is my first game, I feel into a common pitfall of biting off more than I could chew. Although I learned game networking in depth and am rather confident in that regard, it would be faster for me to finish the game as a single player game, as I’m the only one working on it. 

But making it a single player game will give me more time and freedom to add cool features. Since you’re only playing by yourself, you’ll control all three (down from 6) colors; red, green, and blue. However, the position of each color is independent of the position of other colors. So if you jump a ledge as the blue dude, the green and red dudes will be left behind when you switch back to them.  The goal of the game is to use each color’s strengths to progress the level and reach the end prism, where all three colors must be present to continue. 

To be understand how each color will contribute to beating a level, I broke down their planned specialties. Two things to keep in mind: There will be no ‘jumping’ in the game; the colors each have a method to move vertically. There are colored objects around the level to be used to solve puzzles. Each color can manipulate these objects (generally basic shapes).

Red: Draws an object on the background that acts as a fan, allowing the player to float above it. Also manipulates objects by moving them. 

Green: Draws an object to ‘slingshot’ to. Thinking about letting him bounce on the object as well. Manipulates objects by stretching them.

Blue: Draws an object that acts as a new source of gravity. The player’s view of the world shifts as if the object is the ground. Manipulates objects by rotating them.

 

So far that’s the idea. I unfortunately haven’t been able to dedicate a lot of time to development as this is my last year of college and its getting pretty intense.

 

Making the paint

Another example of the paint effect in Kolora

Now that you’ve seen the paint effect, I want to explain how I did it. The method I used was based off of the following demonstration: http://www.patrickmatte.com/stuff/physicsLiquid/

Kolora is made in Unity, so I made use of the particle systems and created my own particle shader.

To begin, I used the alpha blended particle shader that ships with Unity. I wrote the alpha values that are calculated by alpha blending to the alpha channel, grabbed the alpha information in a seperate pass and either passed a solid color (red, green, cyan) or no color at all depending on if the alpha blended value exceeded a threshold. To get a better look, this is a picture showing the alpha channel in my game for the moment shown above:

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a reply!

The Paint Effect

Hey guys, I figured I’d start out by showing off the paint effect I made.

This video shows the effect I’m using right now. Players will be drawing on the background panel with this brush, and will be mainly used to navigate around the world. For example, the Red color can run on top of the effect as it moves. Unfortunately, its still a little clunky so I won’t show you that just yet (but stay tuned!). And for a sneak peak, purple is being planned to be able to create two circles anywhere on the screen that serve as portals that effect only the purple player but also all projectiles from all players.

Oh and check this video out. I was just playing around with the particle system and got this cool “pouring paint” effect. I figured I’d share since it looks pretty cool. I’m going to see if we can use a little less extravagant version of this as a part of the game…

In this last video, I’m launching paint blobs that behave like normal projectiles. You hold down the left mouse button, let it charge up, and release to fire. The longer you charge, the farther and faster it will travel. The main purpose this paint blob serves is the coloring of actual objects, unlike the previous effects which ultimately color the background. You’ll want to color objects certain colors depending on the level you are in and the boss/puzzle.

If anything seems a little vague, I do apologize. It seems that after a while of making the game, I lost my ability to think creatively. Fortunately, I’m currently working with a close friend to figure out the specifics and how all of these effects and mechanics will play a role. I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated, thanks for reading!

Introducing Kolora!

I’d like to introduce the game I’ve been working on the past couple of months, Kolora. Kolora is a game about using colors and drawing to solve puzzles, defeat bosses, and save the world of Kolora… with your friends! Kolora is a cooperative game and you and up to 3 friends will have to team up to bring color back to the world, one color at a time.

No matter how many friends you bring along, you’ll have the choice between 6 different colors: red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple. Depending on your playstyle, switch between these colors within your party at anytime!

I’ll be posting some screenshots and videos of the current progress and things I’m currently work on! Check back often :)