Comments on: vander: Dry as the Desert (Project 3)

By: David Byas-Smith

David Byas-Smith — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 18:47:19 +0000

I like the textures and environment. The music and sounds added to the dreamy feel but I’m not sure if the movement did. I guess a dreamy meerkat is a hard combination to really evoke but I liked the concept and understood the metaphor.

By: Seong Pil Yoo

Seong Pil Yoo — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 18:15:07 +0000

Your meerkatt is so cute!!! I like it. Also when meerkat said “water” with jump, I was so laughed. It was so funny. Background songs and dessert pretty much to explain dreamy. But sometimes, I felt it is joyful instead dreamy. For water sound, it little aggressive that meerkat cannot find the water so crying………
Anyway, this is pretty nice work!!

By: Suraj Saripalli

Suraj Saripalli — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 15:28:04 +0000

The structure of Meerkat is really nice. Level design using cactii, the water balloon and sand dunes is nice. It adds to the feel of the game.
And a great choice of music, makes you feel like it’s a dream.

By: asuna

asuna — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 19:20:18 +0000

The meerkat is adorable, and very meerkat-ish.
That little tail is a great touch. One thing to note is that after the initial tilt forward, his body/arms/head don’t move. I feel that you could have really sold the motions if the meerkat leaned all the way down and ran on all fours, maybe with a bit of a jumping motion. That way when he stopped running, he would have that characteristic meerkat sitting up right motion.

As for dreamy, I am not so sure. Nothing in the actual motion seems dreamy too me. The raising of the arms during a jump seems more joyful than dreamy. I guess I don’t read dreamy as completely random and impossible. I read it more as lost inside of one’s head. Think Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter. That is just my take, though.

Great choice of music.

By: Jonathan Betancourt

Jonathan Betancourt — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 06:06:59 +0000

I think that the level has a nice design to it for emphasizing a dreamy state. The sand, the cacti, and the beach ball water objects are not part of a meerkat world, so the style conjures a separation between reality and imagination. In essence, this world could be a meerkat dream for all we know. Also, the level reminds me of a sand terrain from Minecraft.

The song playing in the background helps with situating the level and the meerkat’s shout of “water”. I think the music is dreamy in itself, so it was a good touch.

I would take off the text and numbers from the screen. Its kinda difficult to move around and concentrate on your world with those numbers adjusting all the time.