Daniel Lowe IGB220 @daniellowequt - Tumblr Blog

Assignment 3 Postmortem

The final playtesting session was probably the most insightful of all the playtesting I conducted this semester. The game my team presented was a fairly comprehensive prototype. It was fairly short on content and a new player could play through the entire game in 3 - 5 minutes. However there was enough features implemented for a player to get a real feel of the game and to provide some meaningful feedback.

Using Fullertons recommend playtesting of using 'naive' playtesters who continue on to a deep playtest was an extremely effective method. By having players no nothing other than the information provided to them in the game, it gives the developer a clear picture of what basic features are lacking in terms of gameplay, story and accessibility.

For our prototype, most players were able to work out the steps to complete each level quite easily. For some of the puzzle aspects of the levels players often took themselves through a route that collected them the most fruit rather than the shortest route. There is no inherent benefit to collecting fruit unless it is necessary to plant a tree and progress. It was interesting to see that players were still draw towards the fruit. Collection is such a big part of video games that I think it is just ingrained in peoples minds that they should collect things where they can. Fullerton even goes as far to suggest that "Some remnant of our hunter– gatherer ancestors must drive this need". The levels were intentionally designed in this way to move away from a predictable path. At times this meant the player was gaining access to a new platform that ultimately would not help them to reach the goal. In a way this does seem like a trick to put the player off but it does also offer a sense of exploration and discovery of the correct path.

Immersion is limited in a pixel art platformer but our consistent art style and soothing background music did create a nice feel to the theme. The main area where the game fell short in terms of player experience goals was the educational side. Most players learnt little to no information about cassowaries. I think this mainly came down to the delivery of information and also lack of information. To increase the learning aspects more content is required that is delivered in an engaging and entertaining way. GG.

Assignment 3 Iteration and Updates

In preparation for the final round of playtesting at the Halloween playtesting event our group made a number of improvements to the game. We completely redesigned the game art with the only things that didn't change being the character model and tree model. We created a new background, new platforms, new fruit, updated the goal to be eggs, and created a new animated dog sprite for the enemy.

We expanded on the second level in an attempt to make it slightly easier for the player to complete. We added some background music which mimicked rainforest sounds. The pitter patter of rain on leaves, birds chirping, and the rumble of thunder in the distance add to the atmosphere and feel of the game.

Another feature added is that at the start of the level, the camera is focused on the goal and then slowly pans and focuses onto the player. This gives the player a clear direction of where they need to go. It does not however show the player how to get there. The player is still required to use some basic problem solving in order to reach the goal.

Assignment 3 Playtesting

For our first round of playtests in the group phase we approached the tests by letting the tester play the game and then questioned them about their experience. Players where given no information about the game as the controls and intro screen describe everything necessary to play the game. However, some testers simply didn't read the information and skipped straight into playing. These testers had to be given some prompts in order for them to know how to play. From this I learnt that it is important to tell the testers to read the intro information so that they know how to play.

After the tests, each tester was questioned on their experience with the following questions.

What are your thoughts on the theme?

What did you feel where the threats in the game and how did you react to these threats

How did the controls feel?

Can you briefly describe the Gameplay Loop to me?

Did you learn anything about cassowaries

Are there any features that you would like added to the game?

Do you have any additional comments?

Feedback from the testers was overwhelmingly positive in relation to the theme and art. People enjoyed the rainforest backgrounds and liked the new tree model.

People reacted in different way when they came across the enemy in the second level. Some people avoided it entirely while others attempted to jump on it. The players who jumped on it excepted the enemy to die like what would happen in mario. At this stage of development, combat is not in the scope so when the player comes into contact with the enemy they are destroyed. Most players were somewhat confused by the appearance of the enemy. As we had not yet created a model, it appeared as a default alien sprite. Some people found it funny and joked that aliens were the natural predators of cassowaries.

Combining all of the feedback from players gave us a pretty clear direction of what we need to iterate on going forward. Players liked the art style so we plan on expanding on that. The game lacks animation which we will attempt to implement.

Assignment 3 Development Progress

For Assignment 3 my group and I decided to continue development of my platformer game Kurranji. I teamed up with two art majors for this project so most of the art work was delegated to them while I focused on level design, UI, and game mechanics.

My team mates created a new background, new platforms and a new tree sprite. I integrated the new sprites and models into the current build and began working on a new level. In the second level an enemy is introduced to the player and they will need to avoid it in order to complete the level. This adds another element of danger to the game and makes the second level more difficult than the first. As we had not yet created a model of a dog for the enemy a placeholder sprite was used.

Along with this I added a title screen, controls screen, and intro screen to the game. The intro screen gives the player some information about the theme of the game as well as the basic controls and goals. With this build of the game our team moved onto playtesting.

EXTRA POST - GROUP FORMATION

I was lucky enough to have 2 friends in my IGB220 tutorial who agreed to be in a group with me for assessment 3. I originally proposed the idea to them as I had already worked with one of them in another subject where we worked well together to achieve a good result. To decide which game we were going to develop further we each pitched the games we had created throughout the semester. Based on the time frame and the current state of my platformer game "Kurranji", we chose it as our assignment 3 game. As my group members are both artists we decided that they would do the art / UI side of the game and I would focus more on the game mechanics and level design.

#kurranji #developmentpost #assignment 3

Thunder Bird Final Thoughts

Going forward there are few things that I would add to the game to increase enjoyment. The first thing would be to add a proper model for the enemy so that the players know what is attacking them. I would also add another type of enemy that would hang at the top of the screen for a short time and throw projectiles at the player. This would increase the challenge of the game.

Along with this, I would like to implement the speed increase mechanic mentioned in the elevator pitch. The buff would be gained by collecting an item (food) and the buff will slowly decrease over time. The pickup will appear periodically allowing the player to stay 'buffed' providing that they do not miss it when it appears.

To incentivise replays of the game a scoreboard and timer are crucial. The timer and scoreboard will allow players to see how their performance matches up to that of other players.

EXTRA POST - ASSIGNMENT 2 FINAL DESIGN

Overall I am quite pleased with final product of my one page and sell sheet. I did find the visual side challenging as I am not the most artistic person but I think they look appealing enough. The design of the sell sheet in particular incorporates art from the game as well as some external material that I used as inspiration. I believe the content included in the documents clearly highlights all of the necessary features required and is delivered in a readable manner. The one page does look a little bit bland but as the more information heavy document I focused on the quality of the content over the overall visual appeal.

#thunder bird #postmortem

Playtesting - Thunder Bird

I attempted to do playtesting for this game slightly different than my other two games for the subject. Rather than giving the player the background of the game straight away I just let them play to see what they thought. The player was only told that the arrows control the character. I tested the game with 4 participants - some my peers and some my personal friends.

As the game was fairly simple at this point, players were able to successfully play it quite easily. After the test I asked some questions based on gameplay, the theme and the testers feelings during play. These questions were:

What did you think the goal of the game was?

What did you think the theme of the game was?

Where did you think the setting of the game was?

How did it feel to control the player character?

Are there any features of the game that you did not understand?

Are there any features you would like added to the game?

The testers generally came to understand that the goal of the game was to avoid the enemies. I noticed that some of the testers who regularly played games tested the what the enemies were by aiming for them initially (this is likely because the enemies model was only a placeholder). After they were 'killed' by the enemy and level restarted they knew to avoid them. Testers who were not so familiar with video games were a little more confused by the simple box shaped enemies though still learnt to avoid them.

For the theme and setting, most people were able to work out that the player character was a bird, though (understandably) no one correctly identified it as the extinct mega fauna.

Control of the character was well understood by all though some made comments that it felt a bit sluggish. Some people commented that although they knew they were supposed to avoid the enemies they had no idea why. As a result of this players became disinterested very quickly. When asked what features they would like added some people said a timer. As the game is of an endless format a clock would and possibly a scoreboard with the longest survival times would give the game an element of competition and improve the overall player experience.

#thunder bird #developmentpost

Development Update - Thunder Bird

I started development of this project by first creating the character model. In a pixel style I created a model of a Thunder bird from a top down view. I then animated the character so that the legs were constantly moving as if it were running.

I used a simple green background and created 4 different grass sprites. These sprites were then spawned in random positions above the game field of view and give a negative velocity on the Y axis. The animation of the character and the grass moving past the character create the illusion that the player is moving forwards.

I then added an enemy and used a rectangle as a placeholder sprite for the purpose of playtesting. The enemies were also spawned above the game field of view at random locations on the x axis. The enemies were given a negative velocity on the Y axis moving them towards the player. During play, the player needs to avoid the enemies as coming into contact with them will end the game. Due to time constraints I was not able to implement some of the features described in the elevator pitch. With this build of the game I moved onto playtesting.

EXTRA POST - ASSIGNMENT 2 PROGRESS

For assignment 2 I decided to create a sell sheet and one page for my platformer game, Kurranji. Having never created either of these designs before, I took inspiration from the provided examples and also researched some examples of my own. I attempted to make the background and text blocks as appealing as possible although with my lack of artistic ability I did find this challenging. I focused first on the background and layout of the sheet using only headings before filling it in with any details.

Elevator Pitch - Racer - Thunder Bird

50 000 years ago, the flightless thunder bird (genyornis newtoni) roamed the forests and planes of northern Australia. With arrival of mankind to the continent, the birds were hunted prolifically for their tasty flesh. In Thunder Bird, the player takes the role of the last surviving thunder bird and must avoid hunters in order to survive for as long as possible.

The player races along the infinite level avoiding the enemies which are human hunters with weapons. The player will be able to move left and right to avoid the enemies. The player will also be able to collet food which will increase their movement speed along the x - axis making it easier to dodge. The buffs gained by eating will slowly deplete over time meaning the player will need to continue to collect 'food' to survive.

Some enemies will deal damage via direct contact with the player whereas other enemies will have projectile attacks that the player will have to avoid. The game ends when the player loses all of their health as a result of melee or projectile attacks.

#thunder bird #elevator pitch

Playtesting - Asteroids

I play tested my game with a number of my peers and made adjustments to the game between each test based on feedback from the testers. To perform the tests players were asked to read the short introduction and rule set below:

"In 1932, The Royal Australian Artillery began a costly and embarrassing campaign in Western Australia: The Great Emu War. Whilst the emu’s claimed victory in the end, they never forgot the loss of bird-kind inflicted by the humans during the conflict. In the year 2082, the emus have managed to harness alien technology and are hell bent on revenge. Move the “mouse” to steer your starfighter and use “left click” to fire. Watch out for the pesky emus as their improved warp drives mean they can appear anywhere. Use “space” to gain a speed boost but remember while boosting your ship will not have enough power to fire."

That was the only information given to players for the duration of the test. At the end each test I asked the players some questions which allowed me to gain interesting feedback and iterate my game. The first testers main complaint was that they could not turn the player ship fast enough which made it difficult to control. I increased the turning speed for the player then went onto the next test.

As a result of the increased turning speed, I found that players were easily able to hold off the enemies and had no use for the boost feature of the game. To make the game more challenging, I added a second enemy that could move faster than the players base speed but as not fast as the players boosted speed. After these adjustments I went onto the next test. I found that still players were able to very easily hold off the enemies and as a result, I decided to reduce the turning speed slightly. After the reduction, players were able to obtain a reasonable score whilst the game still being challenging.

#second great emu war #DevelopmentPost

Development So Far - Personal Thoughts

6 weeks into the unit I thought would be a good opportunity to reflect on the projects and decisions I have made so far. The first game idea I created, 'kuranjii', was inspired by my personal life growing up in Far North Queensland. I lived in Mission Beach from the time I was born until I moved to Brisbane at the age of 22. Mission Beach is home to one Australia's largest populations of the endangered bird the cassowary. I was inspired to create a game that showed people a bit about myself whilst also educating people on the amazing creature that is the cassowary. I find it interesting that I was compelled to use my personal experiences to create a unique game experience that others can enjoy. This has helped to open my eyes to the way that developers utilize their personal experiences during game development. I can see that there are definitely situations where this sort of influence from personal experience will benefit the final product, but also that the same influences can become destructive if not handled correctly. It is fun to make games that we think we would like to play but at the end of the day most of the games we make are for other people and not ourselves.

For the second game, I decided to stick with the theme of flightless Australian birds and used the great emu war as inspiration. The great emu war has become something of an internet 'meme' in recent years and I thought a comical and futuristic twist would be a good theme for my asteroids style game. The theme for the asteroid game compared to the platformer holds a lot less personal value for me. It was interesting to me how my development process differed when I had little to no emotional attachment to the game.

#postmortem #reflection

Development Update

I started development by creating a sprite for the enemies of the game - the spaceship flying emus. As the theme of the game is somewhat comical, I did not put much effort into making a realistic looking model for the enemy. Instead, I decided to use a crudely drawn, almost child-like, flying saucer outline with the silhouette of emu inside.

Once I had my enemy created, I programmed the player to follow the mouse for movement and fire when “left mouse button” was clicked. I also programmed the enemies to move directly towards the player. If the player and an enemy, make contact then the player is destroyed and the level ends. I then added some random spawn points and put the enemy spawns on a timer so that enemies would continuously spawn as the time went on. I also added a score counter that increased by increments of 10 every time the player destroyed an enemy. With this build of the game, I decided to begin play testing.

EXTRA POST - GAME DISCUSSION

Overwatch 2 has now replaced the original Overwatch game and they have made a plethora of changes. One change they have made it to the post game UI. In the original Overwatch, at the end of each game 5 players of the match (who had high statistics for the match) have their banners displayed on the screen. Each player has the option to vote for the player who they thought played the best during the game. Each player can make one vote for someone either on their team or on the enemy team. If a player receives more than 5 votes their banner gains an animation and a sound effect plays. If a player receives a lot of votes they do not gain any in game rewards but this simple mechanic is a personal reward which is granted by peers. Speaking from experience, it is a great feeling to be recognised by your peers and it also feels good to congratulate people who have achieved above expectations. In Overwatch 2, this has been completely removed. Now at the point where the player would previously have gone to the voting screen, they go straight back to the matchmaking screen. I'm sure there must have been some reason for the developers to remove this feature although I can not fathom why. The cost free nature of the reward and the fact that it is granted by peers worked extremely well in my opinion.

#second great emu war #developmentpost

Elevator Pitch - Asteroids Game - The Second Great Emu War

In 1932, The Royal Australian Artillery began a costly and embarrassing campaign in Western Australia: The Great Emu War. Whilst the emu’s claimed victory in the end, they never forgot the loss of bird-kind inflicted by the humans during the conflict. In the year 2082, the emus have managed to harness human technology and are hell bent on revenge. The Second Great Emu War is an asteroid style shoot em’ up where the player character is a lone human fighter ship. The player must repel waves of incoming emu star fighters in order to survive for as long as they can. The game runs infinitely with a high score style reward system. The player is able to move their ship around the level and fire bullets to destroy the enemies. The player is also able to increase their speed with a boost, but while they are boosting they are unable to fire. If the player comes into contact with an enemy their ship will be destroyed and the game will end.

#second great emu war #Elevator Pitch

Development Update - Post Playtesting

Post playtesting, I amalgamated the feedback I was given and began to make changes to the game. The first problem to fix was the infinite tree spawning bug. To combat this, I created a variable that would equal 0 at the start of the level and would need to equal 1 in order for the player to poo/plant a tree. To change the state of this variable, players can collect bananas which increase the value by 0.5. This means that in order for the player to plant a tree, they need to collect 2 bananas. I also added a bar in the top left corner that displays the players ‘fulness’. When the player is ‘full’ they are not able to collect extra bananas. This is important as there is only a finite number of bananas in the level and more than one poo/tree is needed to complete the level. Additionally, I added a new food object, a quandong (a favourite food of cassowaries), and made the goal of the level to collect it. Once the player has collected the quandong the level ends. A short visual description is shown below.

The player at the start of the level:

The player jumps to the next platform:

The player collects one banana half filling the fullness bar:

The player has collected 2 bananas meaning they are now full:

The player plants a tree which also resets the fullness bar:

The player jumps onto the newly created tree:

The player jumps off the tree onto the previously unreachable platform and collects two more bananas:

The player plants another tree and can see the quandongs across the gap:

The player reaches the quandongs:

#kurranji #DevelopmentPost

Play Testing

For initial play testing I had five of my classmates play the game and answer some questions relating to their experience. Testers were first shown a short description of the game and controls:

“Kurranji (koo-ran-jee-ee) is a hungry cassowary looking for a feed. Interesting fact about cassowaries, their poo grows trees. Use the “arrows” to move Kurranji, “space” to jump and “v” to poo.”

The game was then started, and players were left without any other feedback. Once the play session was complete, I performed a short interview. The initial questions were:

What are your thoughts on the theme?

How did the controls feel?

What did you think of the Gameplay loop?

Do you have any additional comments?

After the first playtest, I also added an additional question to this list:

If anything, what did you learn about cassowaries?

For the last couple of playtests, I edited some of the questions and added another, making the final question list:

What are your thoughts on the theme?

What did you feel where the threats in the game and how did you react to these threats

How did the controls feel?

Can you briefly describe the Gameplay Loop to me?

Did you Learn anything about cassowaries

Do you have any additional comments?

(Note: Changes and additions from the original list have been highlighted)

The evolution of the interview questions was driven by a lack of helpful information generated from my initial test. I required more information which is why I added the two questions. The re-wording of the gameplay loop question led to more engaging and useful feedback.

Learning Outcomes from Initial Playtest

Theme – Most testers reported that they enjoyed the uniqueness of the theme though they also wanted to see a more realistic representation of features such as the trees. At this stage of development, feedback like this was to be expected as I had not put a great deal of time into the game world.

Threats – The only threat in the game at the time of testing was that of falling off of the level. This was reported by the testers and the majority even suggested adding more threats.

Controls – It was reported across the board that the controls were simple and intuitive. One tester suggested a tutorial level to help explain the poo / tree growing mechanic.

Gameplay Loop – Most players understood the gameplay loop and reported it as expected. Some players recommended adding more ways for the player to engage. For example, adding a score counter or some enemies.

Learning about cassowaries – There was a mixed response from testers with this question. Some players did not trust the fact that cassowary poo grows trees and simply thought it was a fun idea for a platformer mechanic. To change this, I could reference real research and also incorporate the learning aspects into the level more. This could be achieved with text pop ups when certain events are taking place. One tester suggested adding more cassowary facts when the player either finishes the level or dies and has to restart.

General Comments – Most of the additional comments were positive though most testers asked to see a more detailed game environment. For example, changing the place holder tree to a real tree model and displaying a short animation of it growing.

Bugs – Playtesting highlighted one major flaw in the current build of the game. The way it was scripted, whenever “v” (the button to grow a tree) was pressed a tree would appear in the position of the player. This meant that if the player held in the button, then trees would continuously spawn. This created an unpleasant overlap of platforms and the massive number of platforms also led to framerate drops.

#kurranji #Postmortem

Development Update

I have started to take the core concepts from my paper prototype and implement them into my GDevelop prototype. I started by creating the cassowary sprite for the character (kurranji), and also added a stationary bobbing animation. The sprite and animation were both created using GDelevops inbuilt sprite editor, Piskel. This was my first time creating a sprite and although it took me quite a long time I am pleased with the outcome. Chapter 4 of Fullerton’s textbook focuses on dramatic elements. To help familiarise players with cassowaries, I have tried to make the model as accurate to reality as I can with a pixel sprite. The character model helps to create a sense of immersion in the game world. My initial prototype level simply consisted of a few platforms that the player could move around with relative ease.

My second iteration of the level included platforms that were unreachable by the player using only the jump mechanic. With this new level design came the implementation of the cassowary poo / tree growing mechanic. I created a placeholder tree which consisted of a vertical platform with a horizontal platform on top of it.

Initially, I made the tree spawn towards the rear of the player and the “tree” was fully solid. This meant the player could not pass through it and was forced to jump over it. To improve the player experience, I made the vertical part of the tree non-solid meaning the player could pass through it. I also changed the spawn point to be the same location as the player and made the horizontal part a “jump through” platform meaning the player could immediately jump and land on top of the tree. I added some fruit to the level that players could collect, and moved my focus towards an initial play test.

#kurranji #DevelopmentPost

Physical Prototype & Controls Table

Paper Prototype

In Fullerton’s prototyping process, there is a heavy focus on physical prototypes as an initial method of testing concepts and mechanics. For this part of the process, I have used the paper-prototype method to conceptualise my game and gain a better understanding of situations where certain mechanics will be advantages in the players experience.

Controls Table

Once again following Fullerton’s design process, I have created a basic controls table to clearly represent how the player will control the character.

Sources used in this post include:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. ProQuest Ebook. Retrieved from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/reader.action?docID=5477698

#kurranji #DevelopmentPost

Player Experience Goals and Target Audience

As recommended by Fullerton, player experience goals are an integral part of the player-centric design process. Kurranji is intended to be an educational experience which will teach the player about cassowary behaviour and how they fit into (or fail to fit into) native and urban environments. Cassowaries are an endangered species in Australia where it is estimated that there are only two to four thousand remaining in the wild. Some of the biggest threats to cassowaries are habitat loss and human interference. Along with education, the other main PX goal will be exploration. In order for the player to collect enough food to finish a level, they will be required to explore potentially hidden areas. The game will target a juvenile audience though it can be applied to people of all ages.

Sources used in this post include:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. ProQuest Ebook. Retrieved from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/reader.action?docID=5477698

#kurranji #Postmortem

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