Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 18.11.
The “Flip-It Glove” icon created in Genetica (upper right and left). The
icon appearing in
Aaaaa!
's extensive menu of unlockable content (lower right). (See Color
Plate XIX.)
18.3.3 Avoid Fixed Designs
It could be said that the object of BASE jumping is to make it through each jump
while retaining as many teeth as possible.
Aaaaa!
takes this a step further by
rewarding players with additional teeth as they complete new levels, beat previous
times, and perform stunts such as spray-painting government buildings. Teeth then
serve as the game's currency and can be spent to unlock over a hundred additional
pieces of content such as new levels and items. With each piece of content needing
an icon to represent it, this presented another opportunity for using Genetica to
expedite the creation process.
One example of unlockable content in
Aaaaa!
is the “Flip-It Glove,” which
allows players to give detractors the finger as they hurtle by. Pictured in
Figures
some of which follow the shape of the hand. Such a pattern could be created in a
fixed manner by individually drawing each line. However, by avoiding fixed designs
and instead relying on procedural means to create patterns, it becomes much easier
to make artistic adjustments and to reuse the original work in the production of
derivatives.
As shown in
Figure 18.11
, the hand shape for the “Flip-It Glove” icon is defined
as a vector drawing within a Canvas node, which as mentioned earlier is the seamless
drawing tool included in Genetica. This makes the icon exceedingly easy to modify,
with the output of the Canvas node being passed to a pair of node groups below it
that will process their input into a glowing, futuristic line drawing.
This setup streamlines the creation of icon variations.
Figure 18.12
shows how
simply modifying the vector shape in the Canvas node causes Genetica to automat-
ically recreate the entire icon, with the output of the Canvas node being passed to
