SunFlower: Art Style

This is the background I created on Photoshop, inspired by Van Goghs Starry Night.

A Sunflower I created on Photoshop, I like how it looks, however, the flower head is too big.

Foxglove drawing I did on Photoshop

Sunflower: Setting

This is a background I did for my game on photoshop. The image on the left shows how the screen would scroll up as the flower grows, and the image below shows how it would look on the iphone/ipad.

I decided to have the game set in a rural village, in a field. I used Van Gogh pictures for reference to the cottage in the background to try and continue the oil pastel look of the game.

SunFlower: Flowers

Although I have decided to call my game SunFlower, I am unsure whether to actually use a sunflower in my game because they have large flowerheads, it may make the game too simple because there will not be much room for the flower to maneuver. Therefore I have been looking at other flowers which I could use.

These are some skeches I did of wall flowers, I liked the idea of the flower spreading in all directions as it grows, however, I need a prominant point so the player knows which part it of the flower would move first, otherwise it could become too complicated.

I really liked the Foxglove because its shape bends a tapers naturally.

SunFlower: Game Influences

Orsinal.com

 Flower
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Flower+for+PS3+gameplay&sk=&docid=287277843058&mid=D3748D59CCBDB10C3A79D3748D59CCBDB10C3A79&FORM=LKVR4#

Flower Chain
 
Pixel Junk: Eden

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Pixel+Junk%3A+Eden&sk=&sc=1-16&docid=289254998516&mid=C960D60C3366AAFC245FC960D60C3366AAFC245F&FORM=LKVR2#

SunFlower: Chosen Apple Idea

I have decided to develop my Flower game idea. I decided to change the control system where you control the sun directly with your thumb, to a pivot system because the sun is above the flower, which would mean the players hand/thumb would cover a lot of the screen. I still wanted the player to have control, so I decided to have a sun at the bottom of the screen which you would control with your thumb. How this smaller sun moves, would reflect on the main sun which the flower would follow.
The height of your flower,aka your score, would be shown in the top right, above your health bar, which shows how much longer your flower can grow.

I have also decided to add something the player has to collect to keep moving, such as water or plant food which will fill up the health bar.

The petals on your flower would reflect its health and how many lives you have left. A full flower would mean 3 lives, a few missing petals would mean 2 lives, and 3 or 4 petals would mean you only have one life left. Having the flower show the lives would mean less to cluter up the screen

Apple Ideas - Alice in Wonderland Croquet

This idea is inspired by Alison in Wonderland, and is more of a mini game. It would be first person and you control a Hedgehog which rolls. You control where it rolls by turning the screen.  The aim of the game is to see how far you can get, by picking up special bonus' that enable you to go further/faster, and avoid enemies which will slow you down/take away a life. You will also have croquet hoops to roll through which will give you points to go further.

Your character will be a small hedgehog, but at the start of the game, you would be hit by a flamingo, which you can control.

Apple Ideas - Umbrella

Umbrella and Rain - Tip screen left and right too blow the umbrella left and right. Help people cross the street below, get points for everyone you help - different speeds - slower people (old ladies) take longer but gets more points. 

The Teddy Bear hanging on to the umbrella would be something else you would have to protect from things flying through the sky such as birds. The size of the umbrella would depend on the difficulty setting the player choses, easy would be a bigger umbrella, harder levels would have a smaller umbrella.

Apple Ideas - Sun Flower

The idea for this game is that you control the sun with your thumb and have to guide a growing flower up the screen, avoiding objects and getting as high as you can before your 3 lives are up

The flower would grow towards the sun which you would control and move with your thumb. The game would be really simple with possibly just one level you play over again, trying to beat your previous score 

Enemies: There would be enemies in the game which would harm your flowers life such as bugs and shears
Bonus: There would be some items you could collect which would help your flower such as protect it from enemies or make it grow quicker. 

Moon - changes sun to a moon, slows ur growth down, makes it easier to manouver

Things I would change: The sun would only be able to move left and right in an arc motion and the thumb can be anywhere on screen, eg bottom, otherwise you cant see the screen because your hand would cover it.

Apple Ideas - An Idiot Abroad

Another idea I had was inspired by the sky 1 programme, An Idiot Abroad and Around the World in 80 Days.  This would be an education type game, teaching the player about different countries and cultures.

The basic setting for the game is you travel around the world searching for different "wonders" or landmarks across the world, such as the Eiffel Tower in France. You would have to collect objects representing that country, avoid enemies and reach a "wonder" (such as the pyramids in Egypt) inspired by each place visited in the show. The game play would be side scrolling with a simple background that would show which country/level you were playing. This is an example of the Egypt level.

Example, based on the Egypt episode of An Idiot Abroad.
The aim would be to get to the Pyramids, however, to get there you would have to collect so many objects, in this case, mummy heads.

Thinking about the controls, I looked at some other iphone apps like Dino App which has 2 arrows for control. I liked the idea of simple left and right arrows, but I wanted the player to move towards the screen and back as well, so i added 4 arrows, however, this looked a bit too complicated and it would be difficult to move forwards and towards the screen at the same time, to avoid enemies. I also looked at using an analog stick,  I think this would be the best way to move around,but all the different angles would not be necessary.

Apple Ideas - Car Park

This is an idea I had for a car parking game, where you have to park a car in a certain space within a time limit. The controls would be a steering wheel on the bottom right you could rotate with your thumb and then a gear stick on the left to move the car forward, backwards or to stop.

The game would have different levels with different difficulty settings, easy would mean you had to park something small like a mini, normal would be a regular sized car, then other vehicles such as limos and army tanks would be used for harder levels.

The view would be from a above and look something like this sketch. There would be different routes you could take to get to the space but have different things you could collect, such as a clock which would give you more time to complete the level, or a gas can which will allow you to move quicker. There would also be things to avoid such as oil spills which will make you slide and possible hits a parked car, thus making you lose points.

Things I would change

 I would flip the steering wheel/gear stick over - looking at console controllers/driving games, people are more used to controlling an analog stick with their left thumb and pressing buttons with the right.

Apple Ideas - Hosepipe

My first idea for an Interactive App is a simple game where you control a hosepipe and aim at things using your thumb
(need to upload sketches)
(tip phone up and down to view more, control pipe with thumb)

I liked this idea, but i wanted to make it more fun and challenging so I decided to make it into a puzzler inspired by a game i remember playing where you had stickmen and had to kill them all, but you had to do things in a certain order to complete the level and succesfully kill them all.

(show pics)

Flip the screen to change from birds-eye-view to first person/side scrolling

Show character ideas/story ideas