IGB120 Development Blog

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Assessment 3 Postmortem

Through the development of the project used for assessment 3 many things have came to light about what makes a good game and a team.

Communication as well as being able to discuss and come to conclusions when communication does go south is extremely important when developing a game in a team. In one instance a team member in charge of designing sprites for the character mistook arms of the character as antennas, this was resolved by clarifying the mistake and apologizing for not clarifying it earlier.

Playtesting has also been a big contributing factor to the success of the game taking a prototype that had a novel concept to a game that was fun and required skill and thinking, which would of not happened if the problems weren't brought up and ideas weren't suggested from playtesters.

overall the experience was a gratifying one and resulted in a game that is interesting and fun to play.

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Assessment 3 Iteration

Through the results of playtesting we made a few changes and additions that would make the game more challenging and varied.

One new addition was the 'power bar' which would drain when 'magnetism' was used, this disincentivised players to holding the button and clearing gaps with ease, putting more attention to where they used their power.

New levels were also created that added new mechanics for the player to learn. One of these was a 'repulsion platform' which instead of attracting the player towards to object, it would repulse them pushing them up quickly. Moving platforms were also added.

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Assessment 3 Playtesting

Through playtesting, we discovered many things that affirmed our development decisions as well as parts that could be improved upon to create a better experience for players.

The main gimmick of the game was understood by all player rather quickly with the longest person taking about 10 seconds, this displays that the beginning level has done its job in teaching the player the mechanics of the game.

One common issue that most players had is the volume of the sound effects being too loud, as well as the levels being few and easy.

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Assessment 3 Development Progress

Once the group was formed for assessment 3. All of the members current protoypes were looked at to find the game that would be worked on. Mine as pictured, was built upon the platformer prototype and used gravity shifting 'conductors' instead of jumping to traverse the levels leading to interesting puzzles that could form.

My Prototype was picked as the group project and we started right away to make something that would be complete enough for playtesting. 3 levels were created that would teach the player the concept and challenge them. Sound effects were also implemented

Discussions were also made on what mechanics could be added. One mechanic that was decided on was moving platforms as it would add the challenge of timing to levels in the game.

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Racing Game Postmortem

In reflecting of the development of the Racing game, I have come to realize that time management is a key aspect of Game Development. Being able to pace yourself and not have too large of a scope as well as working consistently on a project are very important skills in developing a game.

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Racing Game Development Post

Through the development of this game. I used the skills i have so far learnt in GDevelop to create a game prototype with little guiding from the tutorial. Though I did not have enough time to implement the extra features that i was hoping to

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Racing Game Elevator Pitch

The game would be a racing game where you gain points by passing cars but there would be power ups that speed up the car, making the game more fast paced and challenging while rewarding the player with more points

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Asteroids Postmortem

In reflecting in the development of the asteroid game. it has become apparent how important end conditions are in providing interest and motivation to the player to keep playing. The fuel mechanic adds extra pressure to the game requiring awareness at all time, which in turns creates more engagement from the player

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Asteroids Development Post

First the tutorial was followed to create a basic asteroids game. the major difference I made at first from the tutorial was the controls. The ship will now look in the direction of the mouse and move towards it when click. From there I started tweaking the project to become closer to my elevator pitch. adding fuel and a timer that clocks down to 0 but replenishes when you get the fuel.

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Asteroids Elevator Pitch

the concept of the game would be an asteroids like game where you would have to move a ship around to avoid asteroids with fuel mechanic which requires player to collect fuel items to continue the run, or you would run out of fuel and cause a 'game over'. Another mechanic would be multiple weapons that provide a limited different shot type to deal with asteroids. The Game would be controlled with the mouse to aim your ship and left click to move and the space bar to shoot.

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Platformer Postmortem

In Reflecting on the platformer prototype, Playtesting is quite important to the development of games. During the playtesting, the tester found many quirks and bugs regarding the wall jump such as being able to climb walls and hang on ceilings, which would be very interesting concepts to explore. If I was to continue the platformer I would explore these concepts in a way that could be used for interesting and intriguing gameplay such as a puzzle platformer.

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Platformer Development Post

Beginning work on the Platformer, I followed the Tutorial to learn the basics of GDevelop, through this I was able to learn to basics and the core mechanics of the software. Mainly Objects and Events with The conditions and Actions inside the events. This led to me completing a very basic platformer with a character that can move and jump, and an enemy that moves and can be killed by jumping on it. I proceeded to try an implement a Wall Jump to more allign this prototype to my Idea discussed in the elevator pitch. It does work but there are some kinks that need to be fixed about it. A short puzzle like level was created to show off the wall jumping mechanic for playtesting purposes

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Platformer Game Elevator Pitch

My Initial idea for the platformer consisted of fast paced platformer based on completing the level as quick as possible. the character would be equipped with a sword where they could easily slice enemies in front of them as well as many movement options such as wall jumping and sliding. the setting would be cyberpunk-esqe with inspiration from feudal japan