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Assignment 3 Postmortem

The aspect of the readings that helped me the most for this project was Chapter 12: Team Structures. At the start of this project I knew that the team is what will get me a good mark in this assignment. I didn't want to be overbearing on the team so I facilitated discussions between the team on what they wanted to make and the theme they wanted.

One thing I would change of the development of the prototype would be trying to make my team meet up all together more often. Where the team did not do well in was everyone completing their parts on time or communicating that they were unable to complete what we needed.

One thing I would change about the design of the prototype is getting a better art for the playtest build. If I knew Christian wasn't able to complete the art I would have done a better job finding art or would have asked the other group members to fill in.

#gamedev #igb120 #devlog #postmortem #game design

Assignment 3 Iteration and Changes

The game for assignment 3 only had two major changes

The players dash was removed. This was due to it causing previous levels designed trivial. Since we already had a similar late game power-up (the plat-o-former) we decided that for the scale of our game it was best left out.

Some levels were removed from the design. This was due to the scale and perceived difficulty. These two levels were the penultimate and finale level. Designs shown below. As I was making the levels I brought up how these levels were unrealistic for the player to complete after having completed the game before hand.

The iterations the game went through was minor placement of obstacles as when I was making the levels my player's jump I was testing with was not the same as the one Gabe implemented. Thankfully, it was a simple matter of moving two or three spaces over.

#gamedev #igb120 #devlog #game design

Another Interesting Mechanic/Book Chapter/Game Discussion

Chapter 14: Communicating Your Game Designs

Chapter 14 is all about Fullerton breaking down how to share designs and visions within teams. She says there are no industry standards, but a "single document created by the game designer. Describing all of the elements of the game in as detailed a manner as possible" is trend that she endorses.

She says this design document would be part of a design wiki. A place for documenting all the iterations and changes the game goes through for easy communication between the team.

This chapter is all about using clarity to get ideas across. Not using paragraphs and paragraphs of dense hard to understand language that gives all the information after deciphering it, but rather not being afraid of using images and quick descriptions.

Because at the end of the day a picture says a thousand words and designs get changed. So rather than getting your idea perfect, plant the seed of the idea and facilitate the growth of it within the team.

#gamedev #igb120 #devlog #game design

Assignment 3 Playtesting

Notes for playtesting:

The build for the playtest is very well done

Expected:

I expect players to complete the game with difficulty, even some people giving up and not getting through.

I could see the controls tripping up players early on, but then it will feel intuitive

The player will have a questionnaire (expected time: 3 minutes) before playing the game (expected time: 10 mins) and a survey to fill out (expected time: 5 minutes)

Playtesting:

Playtesting went better than expected as only Gabe and I were able to make it. We were only able to get players from the lecture to playtest limiting the diversity of the player. I do not mind this at all because it gives us more to talk about within out report.

The playtest consisted of me reading the script and interacting with the player and Gabe taking notes. I used some of the techniques I observed from completing the part C. I was going to stay silent the entire playtest but I found that some interaction was good for drawing out feedback from the player.

#gamedev #igb120 #devlog #game design

Group Formation and Assignment 3 Team Discussion

Group formation was not as smooth sailing as I would have hoped.

At the start I reached out to Gabe (click the name to go to their blogs) who said he had another person. We were then joined by Peter when asking around. For Assignment 2 both Gabe and Peter had made platformers their focus, so it was easy to do what everyone was passionate about.

This was to be the team for part A with Peter doing the level designs, Gabe and I doing the implementation of mechanics and the level creations respectively, and the other person Gabe had as the artist.

But there was immense difficulty contacting the other person Gabe had, so after a week before handing in part A, we moved on without them and replaced them with Christian who didn't have a group yet.

This all has shown me what I believe to be very similar to working within the industry. All these road bumps out of mine or anyone's control is just a part of life and working with them is better than working against them. Sure the game turned out not as polished as I expected, but that is just due to time constraints. And delays are part of life.

#gamedev #igb120 #devlog #group formation

Assignment 3 Development Progress

Quite a lot has been going on for assignment 3

First Peter has designed the map:

He also did each individual level

Then I took this design and made all the levels.

And finally Gabe used my made levels and built all the behaviors.

Accumulating into:

I believe we are very close to the product I would like to playtest.

#gamedev #igb120 #devlog #game design

Assignment 2 Final Design

The One-page and One-sheet are finally done. Really crunched at the end, but I'm very happy with what I finished with.

One-Page

I like how the AI aspects came out. I wanted a more mechanical mech because I wanted the player to feel more machine than person. So, the feats they do in-game are closer to what a mech would do.

I feel like the title its self could be a little more impactful, so the viewer feels like they are about to be crushed. I want for the viewer, even if glancing over, to kick into fight or flight. A big emotional response will make the game stick in the mind. Not sure how to do this though.

The three tilted phrases I feel are a bit too big.

Now that I look at it the bottom three icons aren't perfectly spaced, but still convey the core of the game

One-sheet

This was a lot better than I was expecting. The feedback I got before submitting was to emphasise the theme more (this was when there was no dedicated font, no metal background and no bolt). Adding these three things really gave the feel the viewer is building the robot. Adding to the immersion.

What I didn't like is the asset. Assets, assets, assets I am really learning that Game development is almost entirely asset based. No matter how many I gather I still need more. Will have to keep this in mind.

Most of the assets shown in the one-sheet have been ripped from other games. I haven't got any marks back so I will see if I get caught on that.

I could have run them through AI to "change" them, but I a) didn't want to add images that weren't mine and technically copyrighted to the AI database. And b) felt like anything the AI produced would be at the wrong angle or just look wrong.

#gamedev #igb120 #devlog #game design

"Ground Under Metal" Post Mortem

I liked that I got the customisation to work, but did have the problem at the start trying to force all customisation into the one mech. Splitting the mechs and weapons meant I needed to create all 9 combinations but if I kept it all in the one main one I could just call the needed combination and do a case basis.

Even though the assets changed dramatically it was a good, as the mech design and weapons were distinct. This added to the gameplay allowing the player to play how they liked.

My favorite bit was the different scenes. I felt quite proud of how the scenes interacted with each other and how choices carried over.

An improvement would be to add a high score that persists that the player could strive for. A definite thing to implement in a later iteration.

#gamedev #igb120 #devlog #game design #postmortem

Explicit Linkage of "Run from Alfred" to Game Design Theory

Within the previous posts these thoughts did not just only come from within my head, the theory taught within the lectures and Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games were key for the central framework the game is built upon.

In particular, it was the idea generating philosophy that propelled the base ideas. When I was told we needed to do a platformer I wrote a list of platformers that I had played and stuck in my mind. I then wanted the player to be forced to make choices on the fly so that narrowed my lens down.

This was how I landed on Alto's Odyssey and Temple of the Mask

#devlog #gamedev #igb120 #elevator pitch #game design

Assignment 2 Progress

I've chosen the racing game "Ground Under Metal" because it feels the funnest to me. I like its aesthetic and want to create that feeling of the player must keep running or be destroyed.

I like the title because it evokes the harshness of the environment "being ground up", and the imposing nature of the robots in the game "under metal". I want it to seem that one wrong move and the player is crushed. I want this to create an emotional reaction from the player so the game sticks within their mind.

Below are some images I am using for inspiration. I plan on using AI to create most assets as I am under a time crunch and I have not practiced making assets.

#gamedev #devlog #igb120

"Ground Under Metal" Development Post

The player has three options of starting out mechs, and three options for guns.

Mechs:

A light small mech that can jump high and cannot go through walls or buildings.

A medium mech that can jump normally and crash though walls but not buildings.

A heavy mech that cannot jump but can crash through both walls and buildings.

Guns:

A light gun that fires quickly but does little damage.

A medium gun that fires at a normal pace and does a medium amount of damage.

A heavy gun that fires slowly and does a lot of damage.

these options are chosen by me to implement because i want to give the player a weighted decision within the game. A feature that i believe will give depth that my other games didn't have.

#gamedev #devlog #igb120

"Ground Under Metal" Elevator Pitch

Title: Ground Under Metal

A cross between Armored Core and Jetpack Joyride. The player will have optional mech vehicles with different attributes that allow for ways of completing the level (Haven't decided if i want it to be levels or endless running) .

FromSoftware Inc., 2023

Halfbrick Studios, 2021

The player races along as a side scroller and depending on their mech choice can jump over or crash through walls, or buildings. Then with their gun choice shoot enemies (with either machine gun style, rapid fire, or one-shot heavy fire) that come continuously from the right side at the player.

Three key selling points:

9 different types of play styles. With the choice of three mechs and three guns

Feel powerful. Whether its spectacularly crashing through buildings or weaving in between enemy shots

Challenging fast pace gameplay. As the game is played for longer, the more enemies spawn in and the gameplay gets faster.

Sources:

ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON. (2023). Bandai Namco Europe. https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/armored-core/armored-core-vi-fires-of-rubicon

‌Halfbrick Studios. (2021). Jetpack Joyride. Google.com. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.halfbrick.jetpackjoyride&hl=en_AU&pli=

#gamedev #devlog #igb120 #elevator pitch

"Save the City" Postmortem

Things that went well:

I really improved on the use of assets. It brought the game forward is the immersive aspects.

Things that I want to improve on:

There were some edge cases that I could of improved upon. If I were to improve this game I would add so the player can run on the ground, there was feedback when an alien was hit, and a leader board on the end screen with multiple previous scores.

The game was also very one dimensional. In the future I want to increase the interactivity and the amount of choices the player can make within the game.

#gamedev #devlog #igb120 #postmortem

Interesting Mechanic/Book Chapter/Game Discussion

When learning I came across the idea that within your game your objects that you use in most levels should be global objects. It was described as the since you don't know when you will use specific objects you should get comfortable making most objects global.

Since I started learning programing first before game design this is in complete opposition to what I was taught in programming. Never use global variables. The thought behind this was so that programs couldn't be interfered with by the user. Global variables are easy vulnerabilities they make the program loose "encapsulation" the program only works with its own data and the data its working on only gets changed from one source.

I believe that since programs like GDevelop are higher level their back-end, which I looked up and found to be JavaScript, takes care of that nitty gritty stuff.

#gamedev #igb120

"Save the City" Development Post

The movement, enemies, score, shooting, and health have all been implemented

^This should be a video of what the game looks like so far. It should show the start screen. Then the game + all the implemented features, and finally the end screen.

After a bit of play testing the feedback was mainly about there wasn't much impact when an alien was shot or when the player was hit by an alien.

To address the feedback a few ideas could be:

For the alien being hit,

An explosion when an alien is hit

A sound effect when an alien is hit

An animation on the scoring system

These are chosen as it reinforces to the player that they are doing the correct thing and playing the game the correct way.

2. For the player being hit

The player sprite flashing

Screen shake

A red overlay of the screen edges

These are chosen to give feedback to the player that there is danger

#gamedev #devlog #igb120 #Youtube

Asteroids Elevator Pitch

Title: Save The City

An asteroids game but changing the premise. Instead of in space the player is on Earth and is a super hero that can shoot lasers that kill the bugs that spawn randomly. The score is saved as the amount of bugs killed and displayed when the player dies. The player takes damage by being touched by the bugs.

Controls:

The player flies towards where the mouse is for movement.

When the mouse button is clicked a laser fires in the direction of the mouse

3 unique selling points:

Fast pace gameplay,

Score system,

Intuitive controls,

#gamedev #devlog #igb120 #elevator pitch

Platformer Postmortem - "Run from Alfred"

What went well: Making the basics of the game. Understanding how to create games in GDevelop.

How it come up short: I felt the game was severely lacking in sprites and interesting levels.

What I learnt: Learnt a lot about how GDevelop handles objects. What you can do with objects on the screen. The presets that GDevelop has for sprites and mainly objects.

What I want to improve on in the next game: In the future I would like to have better sprites mainly.

#gamedev #devlog #igb120 #postmortem

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