Mega Monkey Mayhem

Why and how our game is innovative.

Despite the short time span for this project, we tried to be as creative and innovative as possible. We implemented our own custom skeletal animation system for this project. It allows us to reuse the code and support Microsoft built for its “.X” file format, but allows us to specify arbitrary soft-coded breaks in the model so we can control each part separately. It saves the animator work by only having to specify an animation once for a body segment. For example the animator can provide a walk sequence for the legs once, and then provide shooting, throwing etc for the arms. The animation system can play the leg animation combined with any of the arm animations. This animation system also allows for the artist to insert events in his animations, which are used to synchronize events in the animation with game logic. We use this technique in Mega Monkey Mayhem for the footstep sounds. The animator placed events in the animation data for when each foot and hand struck the ground. Then when the animation is played back, the footstep sounds are played in synch with the animation, no matter how the animation is time scaled due to the monkey’s movement speed. We then rendered the character’s skin around this animated skeleton in a cel-shaded

We attempted to create a game without the graphical violence typically involved with modern video games. While there is still some violence (bombs), we try to keep it to a minimum by not showing blood or explicit violence. We rely instead on the theme of the game to take the focus from violence and create a humorous jungle environment with cartoonish monkeys. We create this theme through the music, the sound effects including the monkey voices, and the brightly colored levels. We believe that this game is appropriate and enjoyable to both kids and adults, and would receive an ESRB “E” rating.

The music for the game is innovative because it blends a typically "tropical" instrument palette with a number of analog synthesizers and electronic beats. The mix of organic and inorganic sounds helps to keep the songs "fresh" from a player's point of view. Even though they are a minute long, they should loop perfectly and in a way that is barely noticeable to someone immersed in the 'Monkey Mayhem'. Sound designers sought to establish a unique 'cartoony' feel that included the tropical elements, but also tried to catch people off guard with goofy sound effects.

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