Game Design Journey

Weekly blogs as I go through a game design course at AIE.

[braydensgames-blog]

Flux is Finished

After a few months of working on Flux, it is finally at a point where we can say it’s finished(more or less). The journey have been fun, painful, and full of lessons. There was a lot learned throughout this project that will only help in the future. But for now it’s time to put it down.

[braydensgames-blog]

Mini Metro Analysis

Released: 6th of November, 2015 Genre: Puzzle, Strategy Platform: Browser, Smartphone, PC

Overview:

The player must try to create a group of railway lines to efficiently and effectively pick up passengers and take them where they wish to go. This starts with a simple game and concept but is quickly blown out of proportion by the increasing number of passengers and different station types.

Core Mechanics:

Stations

Passengers

Railway lines

Stations and Passengers:

These go together because the station is there at the start of the game, and more appear later on. The station is where the passengers spawn. They spawn as the shape of the type of station they need to get to, and you must get them there before their timer runs out.

Stations and Railway lines:

Considering the whole game is about getting passengers from point A to B the railway lines that connect the station are very important. They are also what causes most of the chaos in this game. When the game starts there is only a hand full of stations and railway lines. So it is quite easy to manage but as time goes on the number of stations and lines becomes out of hand and becomes a mess

Loops:

Core/Level/Moment: 

Create/Extend railway line - transport passengers

[braydensgames-blog]

Super Meat Boy Analysis

Released: October 20, 2010 Platforms: PC, Xbox, PlayStation, IOS, and Switch Genre: 2D Platformer

Overview:

Super Meat Boy is a platforming game where Meat Boy tries to rescue his girlfriend, Bandage Girl from Dr. Fetus. The player must traverse through a large number of increasingly difficult levels.

Core Mechanics:

Jumping

Jumping puzzles

Jumping & Jumping Puzzles:

Considering the entire game is centered around movement and jumping around to avoid different obstacles the core gameplay involves jumping and jumping puzzles. The controls are very tightly wound a feels extremely responsive which give the player a lot of control when they are trying to pull off the jumping maneuvres required. To go with the tightly wound jumping is the jumping puzzles which come in all different shapes and sizes, with a range of difficulties. Something that Super Meat Boy does really well is putting forward what looks to be a really simple level but has one change that adds layers of difficulty. 

[braydensgames-blog]

World of Goo Analysis

Released: 12 October 2008 Genre: 2D puzzle Platforms: PC, Mac, Smartphone, Wii, and Switch

Overview:

World of Goo is a puzzle game where the player must use their goo balls to build different structures to get the requested number of goo balls to the end goal. The player must build structures such as towers, bridges, etc to avoid the obstacles( spikes, hills, etc). 

Core Mechanics:

Puzzles Building Physics

Puzzles & Physics:

The whole premise of the game is to try to solve the puzzle and reach the end goal with the desired number of goo balls. On top o this the game's physics are what really makes the game more difficult, ensuring the player really thinks about what they make. Because they have to think out where to add more support to keep their structure going.

Puzzles and Building:

Puzzles affect the building of the game because of the different obstacles that the player may encounter throughout the game. For example, the player may have to build a bridge across a spike floor and roof. So they really have to think about how they are going to build a functional bridge.

[braydensgames-blog]

Beta is here!

Yesterday Flux reached its beta milestone and it has come an extremely long way since alpha. Now looking forward to the two weeks of gold ahead I am excited to see what we can do.

[braydensgames-blog]

Flux Final Character

Here is what our final character design looks like for our game. The design has been kept simple due to the zoomed out camera of our game but has still got nice smaller aesthetics. The texturing also allows for easy readability of what colour character you are at a quick glance.

[braydensgames-blog]

More Teacher Feedback

We had the teachers come around looking at the alpha progress of our game. And to say the least, we have a lot of work still to do to reach a finished game. However, the progress we have made from the first conceptual idea to how is remarkable.

I can’t wait to see how the game turns out and all the potential improvements we can make, but for now, it back to work.

[braydensgames-blog]

Alpha done and dusted

So Flaming Toast has just reached our alpha milestone. We as a team are very happy with the progress we have made from original idea to now. However, we know there is still a lot more work t be done in all categories of the game.

I look forward to the weeks to come and then seeing what the final results will be.

[braydensgames-blog]

Starting to come together

Yesterday, my partner and I spent some time going through our game and working on making the screen easier to read. Adding the UI elements of health and oxygen levels as well as creating a level progression bar. On top of that, we spent some time with the emission and colour to make things more noticeable. 

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Ready for Production!

Now that paperwork for pre-production has been completed, production can start. Now, on a one-week break, we as a team are getting ready to smash out all the production work for alpha as quickly and effectively as possible.

Never worked in a team like this to create a game from start to beginning so I am extremely excited to see how our idea develops into a fully playable game.

[braydensgames-blog]

Flaming Toast

The past couple weeks has seen a large amount of planning towards our end of year project. Lots of lessons learned already with a heap more to come I’m sure. After multiple meetings to discuss game ideas, and plenty of idea refinement we settled on FLUX. A 4 player co-operative game we you all work as a team to survive by maintaining ship health and oxygen levels. Players will have to manage their limited number of flux canister to power the things they see as most important at the time.

We have almost reached the end of planning and with production just around the corner its a very exciting time, and i cant wait.

[braydensgames-blog]

Stardew Valley Analysis

Platforms:  PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS Genre: RPG, Simulation Released:  26 February 2016

General Overview:

Stardew Vally is an RPG simulation game where you play the role of the newly acquitted farmer, taking control over his now deceased grandad's farm. As you progress through the game you meet new people, create bigger and better farms as well as going through a small narrative that you can follow or ignore.

Core Mechanics:

Farming

Relationships

Mining

Farming: Seeing as the game is based on a farm, a large portion of the game is spent on farming. Buying and selling new crops, ensuring that they are always watered and safe from crows. Farming can be approached in all different ways and gives you the options such as fertilized soil. Relationship: Every NPC in the game can be spoken to and interacted with. They also all have certain relationship state and how much you get along with that person. These relationships can change how you approach specific situations. On top of that, you can later get involved in serious relationships if you want too. Mining: Mining is a key part of getting materials to help improve your farm or to make more money. Mining is one of the more dangerous tasks of Stardew Valley as the ore and minerals are protected by enemies that you must defeat.

Game loops:

Level loop:

Plant crops - Water crops - Harvest crops - Sell crops 

M2M loop:

Mine - Fishing - Farm

Sessions loop:

The typical session will vary from person to person, however, I believe the average would 3-4 in-game days cycles.

Exit points:

The game is saved at whenever you sleep. So the intended exit point would be at the end of the in-game day cycle.

[braydensgames-blog]

The end of QA

We have reached the end of the testing and QA module. A short, yet jam packed 4 weeks. Going into the module having a slim idea of QA as a whole and the types of testing for games. I was quickly shocked to see the incredibly large number of different types of testing as well as ways of testing. 

Along side the many ways of testing, I also learned about a large amount of documentation and planning that goes into having useful and unbiased testing results. Bias, that was a whole nother ball game. Just learning about the number of different bias types there is was interesting. As well as learning how incredibly difficult it is to avoid bias in testing and opinions.

Another terrific learning experience was how well the testers and designers can work together to make testing easier. Creating ways for testers to get to specific parts of the levels to test bugs quicker can be the biggest time saver in bug testing.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience and would be very much interested in working in QA and testing in the future.

[braydensgames-blog]

Business cards

Spent some time this week working on my first ever busy card. Somewhat happy with the result considering I’m not an artist.

[braydensgames-blog]

Game testing

Been spending time in class looking at a game from http://www.alphabetagamer.com/ to experience what it is like trying to manage testing in games. 

Going into this module i had some idea about QA and testing. But i was still shocked as to how much planning and documentation goes into testing. As well as the strength of a players raw first impressions and reactions of a game.

None the less I am still thoroughly enjoying this module and look forward to finding some more ridiculous bugs.

[braydensgames-blog]

Almost finished

Its been a difficult few weeks, but the narrative module is almost finished. Outburst had seen a few plot changes over the course of the module. However I’m pleased and proud of the end product and looking forward to the next module.

[braydensgames-blog]

Terraria game analysis

Genre: Action-adventure, survival Platform: Almost all semi recent devices Released:  May 16, 2011

General overview: Terraria is a 2D sandbox game with a wide variety of things to do. It has be described to be like a 2D mine craft to to its overall premise and blocky look. Terraria is a game where you find yourself just letting the hours go by as you immerse yourself in this amazing world. Getting lost in the 100s of weapons, enemies, NPCs and thing to do.

Core Mechanic:

Movement

Enemies/bosses

Combat

MDA:

Movement & Combat:

Combat and movement work together due to the large amount of different weapons as well as modification you can get to you movement. Being able to get items such as wings, rocket boots, double jumps, grappling hooks, etc. With all these movement items it changes the way each player can and will approach combat. On top of that, their weapon type will also change the way you play. This creates a semi-unique for every player, and leads to the development of different strategies.

Combat & Enemies/Bosses:

Similar to the movement combat and the different weapons and strategies you have will change how you approach the large number of bosses in Terraria. All bosses have unique attacks and movement/attack patterns that you must quickly learn to be able to win the battle. Most bosses also require the use of multiple weapon type to be able to efficiently take them down.

Game Loops

Core: Fight enemies - get loot - upgrade amour/weapons - fight bosses

Level: “”

M2M: Dig blocks - fight enemies - find loot

Session: A single session for Terraria is hard to determine due to the fact that there are no levels so you can play until you want to have a break. I found myself sitting down for a quick play and then it would be 3am before i stopped.

Exit points: Terraria allows the player to leave whenever they see fit with the ability to pause then save and exit at any time.