Spin Doctor website and Facebook page!

Keep up to date on everyone involved with the project and Spin Doctor on our website and/or Facebook page:

http://spin-doctor.webs.com/


https://www.facebook.com/SpinDoctorTheGame


Any likes will be very much appreciated! Spin Doctor will officially be in Alpha on July the 18th. Stay tuned...

- Gina

    Credits to Jonny Pickton for the image.

Spin Doctor: Finalised Room 4

Original Room 4: 

Amended Room 4: 

Spin Doctor: Finalised Version of Room 3

Amended Room 3  - Version 2 (from an earlier blogpost)

  Rough but amended sketch of Room 3 (Final version)

Finished Finalised Version of Room 3:

                                                      What has changed since Version 2:

1. Added "trap door" (floor will fall apart here when the player runs on it)

2. Added a fake switch here working as a focal point for the player, and added spikes on the side so the player can't rotate and jump to the switch, avoiding the trap door (although the switch wont work anyway, but is "meant" to remove the wall with the spikes on it)

3. Added a trap wall here, that will crush the player if stood below it. Player has to avoid this. Behind the wall there is also a switch that will enable a moving platform to the left of the hidden "room".

4. The moving platform has been enabled by the switch and the player can stand on this to reach the exit door. The green wall between the moving platform and exit door will be pulled up as well when the switch has been touched.

Spin Doctor: Cross Section 3-5

Cross Section 3:

Cross section number 3, drawn up and just been played through.

I found two issues with the cross section:

1. Harland wont fit on the tiny platforms between the ropes.
2. If player falls down, he/she will be stuck... The player can also take advantage of the gaps and rotate and run along the high platforms and in fact get straight to the platform near the stairs. I suggest adding spikes so the player dies if they fall down or try to cheat.

Other than that, the level is good to go, I will just add spikes and make the platforms a little bigger.






Voila! The finished amended cross section that now works 100 %!

Cross Section 4:

Level works perfectly, only one flaw, which is that it's quite a jump to get ahold of the rope  from the first platform to the second.




Amended Cross Section 4:

 I made the platform slightly wider so Harland can reach the rope. Nothing else was changed.





I also timed this cross section, and it took me approx. 9 Seconds to complete the cross section.






Cross Section 5:

Level works perfectly so no need to change it. Completing the level took me approx. 25 seconds. (00:25.1)

Spin Doctor: Room 5 - Version 2 and Finalised Version

                                                                            Original:

The original drawings' problems have been mentioned in an earlier post "Playthrough of Room 5". This post is for the amended and finalised version only. 

                                               Amended Version 1 including notes for Version 2:

Things that need to be changed for final version:

1. Add more spikes

2. Remove a gap near the start

3. Change one note into a switch for more gameplay

4. Make the two ladders into one long ladder

5. Make platforms bigger, thicker, longer, for visuals and scale

6. Make room bigger in general (for more space)

7. Move platform with star (note) further to the left

8. Remove rope near exit

9. Change two rotating platforms into regular platforms as they don't need to rotate

Finished & Final Version:

Things that have been changed for the final version:

1. Added more spikes in most places, for a more  challenging gameplay.

2. Made the trap near the start a horizontal one that goes to the left, instead of a vertical one that goes down. Changed the position of it slightly.

3. Removed gap near start, added spikes, made the rope distance longer as well.

4. Made platform under pendulum thicker for scale problems and room size, generally made other platforms longer and thicker so Harland can reach them, and also for visuals.

5. Added switch where previous note was, that enables a moving platform near the exit to move back and forth so the player can reach the exit door.

6. Changed old "fake" note to a real note.

7. Made the two ladders into one long ladder.

8. Made rope "distance" slightly wider near the switch.

9. Added the moving platform enabled by the switch.

10. Made the room bigger in general to fit everything in it nicely.

11. The platform that had the old "fake" note on it was too close to the rotating platform to the right, so it was moved slightly to the left (which is why I had to make the room bigger)


Overall, the time it took me to complete this finalised level, was 1 minute (1.00.3)

Spin Doctor: Cross Sections 1 & 2

Cross Section 1:

P.S. No idea why I can't rotate photos on here...






So, cross section number 1 has been drawn up and is ready to play.
And having played through it... Nothing really needs to change about this level. I like the fact the player can choose between jumping straight to the exit, or going the "longer" route, in order to get the collectible (note). Harland fits and everything is okay, so I'll leave this one!








Cross Section 2:

This photo is a little blurry, and it isn't very close-up, but I had to get the whole level in one photo.

So, this room didn't have a door. Yes, no door! Made it a little hard to scale my Paper-Harland... I have no gridded paper, so this was a little difficult. But just assuming Paper-Harland is a size that fits on the small platforms to the left of the level, the level works. I like the idea of shooting spikes inbetween the platforms. The walkthrough implies the lines in the middle of the picture (3 of them) are walls, and they are all seperate rooms. But seeing as doors are meant to show, this kind of defeats the point of the level, as you'd either have to have fully seperate rooms (drawn up seperately) or just have one big room. Personally, I prefer the latter and therefore I have just removed the walls inbetween sections of the room... Other than this, the level works as a whole, and I enjoyed the cross-section. 

So, following problems:

1. No doors.

- Solution: Add doors.

2. Walls that seperate the room but no doors, this would probably not work very well, either (unless it's seperate actual rooms)

- Solution: Remove walls.

Amended Paper Level:

1. Added doors.

2. Removed walls that seperated the sections in the room.

Spin Doctor: Harland's Death Animation

Okay. So this is my first animation, ever. It's not the best in the world but here it is. It's the death animation for Harland... Took me ages to get his hands right, as they were rotated the wrong way and just his arms just looked very odd. So he was meant to hit his knees first and then fall over, with the backpack "crushing" him (definitely broke his neck there)...I tried to make it look as "natural" as possible, but I still believe he kind of looks like a retarded bouncing snake once he hits the floor. But hey, first animation, and I'm not much of a Games Artist either.. I hope it will contribute to the game, either way. 

                                                            Spritesheet below:

.

Spin Doctor: Playthrough of Levels: Room 5

Having played through Room 5 I found a few flaws that need to be fixed:


1. Harland may hit the moving wheel when he jumps to grab the robe, unless the wheel is slow enough to do this.
2. Rope has to be lower/longer.Harland will possibly hit the wheel regardless of how he jumps and lets go off the rope. Wheel trap could be changed so it moves horizontally instead of vertically up and down, so the player has to time it to avoid bumping into the trap as they swing and let go off the rope, instead of bumping into it no matter what they do.
3. Near "4" the moving saw wheel moving above the platform, before they jump onto the very long platform in the middle of the room, is nowhere close to where Harland would stand, therefore not serving as a challenge. Saw should be moved closer, or be replaced by another trap entirely.
4. Near "6" a platform is blocking the ladder, the only way to get around it is to jump through the saw to the left, which would kill you. The removal of this ladder would solve the problem...
5. Near "6" again, having retraced the steps, the platform is no longer there, which will remove the platform needed in order to jump to the ladder above.
6. Near "9" the rotating platform has no use in being rotatable.

That was all the flaws in the level, one seems to break the level. I followed the walkthrough of the level I was provided with, but it missed bits where you are meant to explore other areas of the level that have no use using the walkthrough. I guess it is an optional thing due to there being collectibles and nothing but collectibles in this area, and it requires you to backtrace to the point you originally were in order to get to the exit door, so I will leave that untouched for now, unless anyone has any particular input on this issue.


                                                                    WIP ROOM 5

Spin Doctor: Playthrough of Levels: Room 4

I have just played through room number 4, of the 5 rotating rooms I need to play through. It seems this whole level was made based on a mechanic we decided not to use; the ability to climb ropes. That is my biggest concern about this level, since it's next to impossible to play through properly. I found a couple other flaws here and there that would break the level as well, here goes:

1. A cosmetic issue but none the less an issue during my playthrough. The size of the door was much bigger (taller) in scale compared to platforms and stairs, etc. I made a paper-Harland that would fit the stairs and platforms, as the scale of the door can be changed easily without affecting gameplay.

- Solution: Scale down the door, solve any problems with Harland being too big for the level, etc.

2. One of the biggest issues in this level, is that the platform to the left of the stairs can be jumped onto (via rotation) and the player can easily drop down to the platform below (where the arrow points in the photo with the notes I have made) and exit the level...

- Solution: Well, this is obviously not working so I suggest putting spikes onto this platform and change the level at the end so the player doesn't have to retrace their steps back onto this platform. Unfortunately this will no longer work as it is, but it can still remain there, as it needs to shoot out fire, perhaps if the player tries to stand on it, the mechanism where the fire comes out, will constantly be lethal/hot? 

3. Between the platform near the stairs and the platform that resembles a big block of stairs, has quite a distance between with them without the use of steam boots. The rope could be too far away from Harland so it'd be best to make sure the rope was closer to the other platform so Harland can swing onto the other, since at the moment it is closer to the end of the platform.

- Solution: Just make sure the rope is closer to the starting platform, for easy access.




4. This issue is similar to issue number 3, as this specific platform I spoke of above, serves as a platform later in the level as well, this is only a minor issue, though. The walkthrough says one must rotate mid-air after jumping off this platform, this does no longer work, as you must be either running or stand still on a platform in order to rotate, mid-air rotation does not work. This is only relevant to the end of the walkthrough, and as this platform would already break the level, this part is no longer necessary, but I thought I'd bring it up any way, as it was a flaw that I discovered while playing through this level.

- Solution: No solution needed, as it was already solved in issue #3, this platform will no longer be accessable by Harland, and will only serve as a fire mechanism platform of sorts. 


5. THE biggest issue of the entire level: at the time this level was made, one could climb up ropes, this no longer works, and as this was the whole mechanic of the level, it is broken. Leaving it as it is will do no use as there is no way this level can work with the kind of rope that is in it, since it cannot be climbed.

Solution: You could keep the spirit of the level intact, and include ropes, but keep in mind that they cannot be climbed up. The type of rope has to be changed into a regular one, and the platforms have to be amended accordingly, to make it work. 




So other than these 5 issues, the level was fine as it was, it made sense, it just didn't work because it is no longer possible to do the things required in the walkthrough.

Spin Doctor: Playthrough of Levels: Room 3

Room 3 (Rotating Room) Playthrough:

Level had a few flaws that I found solutions to, but I think the level overall could need some improvement as it is a little bit too straight-forward and easy to do. In total I found 4 flaws and 1 improvement.

Problem 1. Platform is too low, which would cause Harland to hit his head on the platform above.

- Solution: Lower the platform, to make space for Harland.

Problem 2. This isn't a flaw, but a minor improvement of the level: I suggest the 4th platform in the level to be rotatable, otherwise it will be a little bit clunky to get onto the next platform.

- Solution: Transform the normal platform to a rotating platform device, for a smoother playthrough.

Problem 3. This flaw was found near the end of the level. Harland would hit his head on the roof of the platform above, in the process of jumping onto the next and last platform before the exit. Said last platform is not needed either, as the player can rotate anti-clockwise and jump straight down near the exit. Sidenote: The spikes near the exit have too much room between them and the player could therefore cheat easily here and there is no challenge whatsoever.


- Solution: Put spikes closer together for more of a challenge, alternatively just add another more challenging obstacle here. Remove the platform closest to the exit as it is unnecessary. This could also prevent the player from rotating the room and jump straight down to the exit.


OLD PAPER BASED LEVEL AND UNFINISHED NEW PAPER BASED LEVEL:

WIP PAPER BASED LEVEL (ROOM 3)

1. Platform has been lowered so Harland can fit.

2. Regular platform has been changed into a rotating one. To prevent Harland from hitting his head on the spikes above when jumping down to the next platform, the player has to walk across it and just fall down onto the next platform instead of jumping down.

? = In progress

New finished version of this paper based level will be updated later.