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Vertically scrolling underwater game, what to use as background?

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Started by BdR November 03, 2014 09:37 AM

7 comments, last by MatthewMorigeau 9 years, 5 months ago

BdR

177

Author

November 03, 2014 09:37 AM

I'm working on an endless-runner-game type game where the player has to catch coins and avoid bombs. It's underwater in the ocean and the scrolling direction is downward. The player moves towards the ocean floor, except it's like an endless pit and he will never actually reach the ocean floor.

The problem is that I don't know what to display as a background, because in open water there are no plants or rocks.

With a horizontally scrolling game this is easier because you can show plants or the floor moving. The enemies slowly move upward ofcourse, but I don't think that's enough to convey the downward scrolling motion...

Any tips or ideas will be much appreciated. Or does anyone know any underwater vertically games like this that I can take a look at?

SimonForsman

7,644

November 03, 2014 10:59 AM

I'm working on an endless-runner-game type game where the player has to catch coins and avoid bombs. It's underwater in the ocean and the scrolling direction is downward. The player moves towards the ocean floor, except it's like an endless pit and he will never actually reach the ocean floor.

The problem is that I don't know what to display as a background, because in open water there are no plants or rocks. With a horizontally scrolling game this is easier because you can show plants or the floor moving. The enemies slowly move upward ofcourse, but I don't think that's enough to convey the downward scrolling motion...

Any tips or ideas will be much appreciated. Or does anyone know any underwater vertically games like this that I can take a look at?

I would put things like fish, cliffs, etc in background.

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mousetail

2,541

November 03, 2014 12:22 PM

bubles and rocks, and creatures, maybe you can have a wall on the sides that can move?

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jbadams

26,386

November 04, 2014 10:57 AM

How about:

A solid coloured background that starts off blue, and gradually transitions to black as you get deeper. You could apply ripple type patterns to show movements in the water.
While you're still close to the surface (i.e. at the start) there could be distorted beams of light from the surface. They would of course get fainter and then not show at all past a certain depth.
You could put bubbles and sea creatures in the background. When you get down low enough that the background is almost black you could start adding glowing deep-sea fish.

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StarMire

1,292

November 04, 2014 05:20 PM

As another mentioned, you can put rocks along the sides, as a cliff.

If you're moving down very deep, it makes sense that you would be descending in a deep sea trench.

Otherwise, your main focus should be on things floating around in the water. If you've ever seen deep sea footage, there's all sorts of stuff floating around and raining down constantly. Everything from above them that dies eventually settles down to the bottom. This stuff usually only shows up clearly because it's illuminated (they're kind of small particles), but you should be able to capture that in the game.

One thing is, if you've ever dived in the open ocean, it's incredibly disorienting. It's very hard in reality to tell which way is up or down, much less in which direction you're moving. You can think you're twenty meters down, and then suddenly your head pops up out of the water and you realize you had your BC set wrong and you should have been watching your depth gauge more closely.

Anyway, the point of that is, in order to show decent in this regard and make it non-disorienting (as it is in reality), you'll have to break with reality just a tiny bit (perhaps stylistically).

Your best bet for this may be to use multiple layers with repeating gradients, so you can see their edges rising. It wouldn't need to be very strong, but a little bit should help show what you want, in addition to the other techniques discussed.

latch

949

November 06, 2014 05:35 AM

Use blood and random meat pieces!!

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riuthamus

8,390

November 07, 2014 02:51 AM

Simple gradient background with parallaxed elements in the background. Best result is to make something not noisy and super simplistic.

Ovicior

1,564

November 08, 2014 07:14 PM

How about:

A solid coloured background that starts off blue, and gradually transitions to black as you get deeper. You could apply ripple type patterns to show movements in the water.

While you're still close to the surface (i.e. at the start) there could be distorted beams of light from the surface. They would of course get fainter and then not show at all past a certain depth.

You could put bubbles and sea creatures in the background. When you get down low enough that the background is almost black you could start adding glowing deep-sea fish.

This is a good idea. Basically anything I would say.

What will you make?

MatthewMorigeau

1,672

November 16, 2014 01:15 AM

This might help.

I would focus on looped lighting, use water depth to alter the player's mood. Use underwater objects (ruins, rock formations, underwater vegetation) to creating a sense of pacing and speed (based on how close the items are to the player). I would use a semi dynamic populating of fish and other swimming things to make the levels feel less repetitive.

Vertically scrolling underwater game, what to use as background?

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