Game Development Blog - n11164743

Hi, my name is Saxon, I'm studing a Bachelor's of Information Technology, majoring in Computer Science and am currently in my last semester of study. During this class, I aim to gain a deeper understanding of the process of game design and the work that goes into developing a game through coding while maintaining a solid concept with a group of other designers. I'm personally interested in the ways that games are able to evoke a wide array of emotions that other mediums can sometimes have a hard time navigating. Some of my favourite games involve immersive experiences, such as games like the Dishonored IP, Death Stranding and survival RPG's like Subnautica, Valheim and The forest

[horssaxon]

Assignment 3 Postmortem

As most of my work on the game was based around visual/audio aspects, I found it alot easier to implement them as we already had our core gameplay loop implemented, with a wave system easily able to be added on top of my groupmates asteroids game. Yet again, pulling from the readings of chapter 7 did prove to be incredibly helpful. Due to the core gameplay being finished very early, my main aim was to ensure aspects such as design. visuals and sound complemented and worked off eachother, maintaining a retro-arcade feel. The 8-bit background, sprites, 12fps animations and sci-fi like block text maintained a congruent feel. If I was to change one thing about development, it would have been learning to depend on other software and materials to make drawing/resizing sprites easier. The sprites i used were 64x64, which looked too fuzzy when used in the game, so instead of looking for software that could upscale or resize without sacrificing resolution, I Instead redrew them to 128x128 where needed. This took a while, but let me have more control over the aesthetics of the game.

Design wise, I would have liked to have added more sound effects and varying body types for the player, as there were different enemies but only one player model. A moving tiled background would have been nice, providing more immersion as if you are drifting through space.

References: Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press

[horssaxon]

Assignment 3 Iteration and Changes

After playtesting, my next task was to change the background and add menu functionality. As I had done the sprites that were to be swapped out with the older ones, I only needed to integrate them into the code and refactor where neccesary. Finding a background that contrasted with the bullets, enemies and player was somewhat difficult, but I managed to find and asset that constructed pixellated space backgrounds. hers is a sample.

The low variation in colour made it great for viewers to easily understand what to focus on. Another change i forgot to add was background music that i synthesised in FL Studio, where i went for a spacey/8-bit feel, but didnt take any attention away from the game itself. I then updated the font used in the menus with the same one i had used in my sell sheet to futher fit the arcade/space aesthetic.

[horssaxon]

Assignment 3 Playtesting

Unfortunately, two playtesters were unable to help with the game due to commitments, so I started my playtests later than I had wanted to but nevertheless I conducted a couple. The process was quite easy, as my job was mianly just to take notes, record responses and notice player reactions. I recieved feedback that I hadn't thought of myself, giving me a clear direction on what to work on next, such as menu aesthetics, background and ensuring all moving objects are easier to see and contrasting with the background. One of the main pieces of feedback i personally recieved were the controls being jittery as the player is made to move toward the mouse, and when it reaches the mouse, it clips through/around it. Overall plytesting heavily contributed to my understanding of where to head next in development if i were to continue developing the game after submission

[horssaxon]

Assignment 2 Progress

Heres the sell sheet for my assignment 2 that I submitted a few weeks ago. I wanted to go for an arcade like theme, hence the 8bit look and spacelike fonts.

[horssaxon]

Assignment 3 Development and Team formation/Discussion

During week 10, a decsision was made and settled on which game we would develop, as two of us has similar games, the asteroid prototypes. We chose a more top down arcade like shooter as the basis for my game, which incorporates enemies and bullets/projectiles from my asteroids shooter. Along with those, I would port my sprites I animated over. We delegated tasks to eachother. I am responsible for sprites, and movement of the ship, as that was originally in my game. going forwards, we set up a github repository, each of us making our own branches, and making a commit to start

[horssaxon]

Racing Post Mortem

I am pretty happy with development of Total Track Mania, as the core mechanic was managed to be fully implemented this time, unlike Solar Shootout and Terraform. I believe this is due to the less ambitious mechanic, after learning from last time and understanding the constraints of Gdevelop. Since timer conditions and actions already exist within the game without the use of any extensions, this made it easier to map out and prototype the mechanic by following through Fullerton's Game Design chapters, such as chapter 7 and 1. The only thing that was not fully implemented is all collisions with enemies and obstacles, as it proved difficult to randomly spawn cars, with each one being able to push the player off of the track. If i was to redevelop the game, I would add warning signs along the track displaying an obstacle is about to come down. Not only does this bring a sense of urgency and increase tension for the player, It could be used as a tool to debug obstacle spawns as well. Design wise, I would have changed the track, making it somewhat more complex, or adding a ghost car showing the first time to beat. References: 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

[horssaxon]

Racing Development Post

Hello, the first goal during development was yet again the core mechanic, based around the timer system. Checking whether the set time has been beatern, laying down the road were completed first. Yet again, taking note from chapter 7 of Fullerton's Game design textbook, the assets were as simple as possible, laying down a proper foundation. A timer was introduced checking when the car is on the outer side of the road, decreaing points (or increasing time taken) the longer you are off of the road. During development I ran into problems with collisions and balancing the slowing factor damage does to your car. Specifically when vehicles bum into you, the winding track made it hard to bump the car into the road everytime without fail. References: 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

[horssaxon]

Asteroids Post Mortem

Yet again, I haven't uploaded any recent work that has been completed, including the post mortem for Solar Shootout. I took a note from the platformer game and decided to fully go into leaving the aesthetics and smaller mechanics be while I worked on the core aspects of the gamepley, which I took from Chapter 7 of Fullerton's Game Design Textbook. The goal was to have a movement mechanbic that felt like you were in space, where after you finish thrusting engines, you drift forwards, meaning you have to compensate for the drag. I found this to be challenging, as Gdevelop did not have many frameworks or conditions that could make it easily possible, so i made it as accurates as i could with the tools I had. With this in mind, I decided to tone down the fire rate and speed of enemies, making it easier to dodge bullets but still enjoyable. One thing to learn from this is to understand the available conditions and tools to work with, therefore setting a limit for the ideation of the game mechanics. Design wise, I would have added a more in depth wave mechanic, such as randomised enemies, instead of just one level with somewhat predefined spawns. Due to the game having an arcade-like feel, I feel it's important to randomise gameplay if the goal of an aracde game is to be replayed repeatedly. I would have added a more animated background, for example moving stars, giving a more immersive feel.

References:

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

[horssaxon]

Racing Elevator Pitch

Elevator Pitch

Title of Game: Total Track Mania

Try to beat the king of the tracks' best time while avoiding the many obstacles looking to send you off the racecourse. Total Track Mania is a time trial race game, where you need to beat the levels best time, while increasing or decreasing your total score by dodging cars and keeping on the road. Every second spent off the track increases your final track time, so make sure to brush up on you racing skills!

Game controls Left - Move left Down - Brake Right - Move right

Unique selling points

You have multiple goals that incentivise you to get the best time, such as the added time from being off the track or the challenge of beating the time score.

Keep trying to set your best time over and over, with increasing difficulties

Obstacles and vehicles not only bump you off the track, they can damage your car, slowing you down

[horssaxon]

Asteroids Development #1

During the development of the asteroids game, I reached a point where I had the starting enemy types, along with the starting player ship and weapons.

At this point, I had taken what I had learnt from the development of the last game, where the core gameplay mechanics should be entirely separated from the outwards branching sections. In my case the branching parts of the game were objects such as boosts, more weapons, enemy types and ship types.

Due to a timer sequencing problem in the scene events, enemy bullets were spawning at the top of the screen as seen above. I hadn't worked on player movement yet, as the fighting and health/death mechanics were more integral to the gameplay. The development felt much smoother and less bloated when focusing on one singular aspect and building the events and actions around it. After reading over chapter 10 of the textbook, and found that it applied to my game heavily, as the different weapons, enemies and ships with their different capabilities meant more balancing.

References: 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

[horssaxon]

Asteroids Pitch

Title: Solar Shootout

Genre: Arena Shooter

Elevator Pitch: Deep in space you are in control of a selection of fighter ships on the run from space pirates, with no option but to fight back. Dodge asteroids and bullets, as you fight your way to safety.

Primary Mechanics: Choose from multiple ships and weapons Upgrades available at the end of each level Avoid enemy projectiles Pick up powerups

Audience: All ages

Game controls: M1: Thrust Mouse to turn M2: Shoot

Unique selling points: Multiple ship and weapon options allow for different encounters Varied enemy types Experiment with different ships movement, speed, advantages and disadvantages

[horssaxon]

Platformer Postmortem

This is a very belated update on the Terraform game, which has been complete for a couple weeks now, but hasn't had any updates on tumblr since due to being very sidetracked by other subjects and assignments. Looking back, the original plan was for the player to jump through an object, therefore flipping the player upside down, sometimes even at an angle, as seen in the rough draft. Even though I had made this mechanic my priority, I had noticed I was spending too much time on implementing it, with little results.

Reading over chapter 7 of Fullerton's Game Design textbook I realised that even though I had defined my core gameplay mechanic and ensured that it was the first thing to be implemented, I hadn't fully isolated the core mechanisms. If I was to redo my planning for development, I would have started with just implementing a gravity flipping button, and then move on to incorporating it being triggered by a clipping event. This means I would have been able to cut development time down, and be able to build outwards from that mechanic if needed.

If I was to change the design of the prototype, more time would have been spent fleshing out the animations for the character, adding extra frames for killing an enemt, reaching the end, running, or flipping gravity. This would have added a more responsive feeling for the games reaction to player inputs, giving a better sense of control. Chapter 5 of the textbook covers system feedback to players, and helped me understand how controls and visual feedback can influence a players enjoyment.

References:

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

[horssaxon]

Dev post #2

Here's just a small update of the concept outline of the first level.

In the hypothetical case that this turns into a fully fledged game, this level would serve the purpose of introducing the player to the rules of the game itself, not being too hard of a level or a puzzle but ensuring the player understands how the interactibles can work, as well as the basic mechanics.

[horssaxon]

Dev post #1

Here's just a small demo of the very rough prototype of the gravity mechanic in action. After some trouble with my workspace and room being unusable for a while due to the tropical low I haven't been able to work on the game as much as I would have liked to, but there will be more frequent posts from now on. I have yet to find a sprite or texture pack that fits the aesthetic of the game, but for me it comes second to the main mechanics which have proved to be somewhat of a trouble to implement. There are no dedicated events for flipping gravity without the use of extensions, but I still think it can be possible.

I've been using the camera and player rotation while manipulating the player gravity when interacting with the cloud through the use of the object variables, and the next step is for handling the player once they have reached the platorm below.

The next step for development will be to add new interactibles, UI and events handling Death/Damage done to the player. Afterwards Resprites will be made and the textures will be replaced. I was originally going to go all in on the aesthetic, animations and smaller details, but after reading through Chapter 2 and 3 of (Fullerton, T.), I decided it would be best to focus on the core mechanics first, since I don't want to implement the whole aesthetic/setting of the game and then realise it won't fit the mechanics later on.

References:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

[horssaxon]

Platformer Elevator Pitch

I have been looking into what I can do within the template of a platformer mechanic-wise using gdevelop, and from there I have put together a pitch on what I would like the platformer to be as a finished product.

Title: Terraform

Genre: 2D Puzzle/Platformer game

Elevator Pitch:

Play as a government contracted explorer who has been tasked with exploring areas where an alien race had made landfall on Earth, planting devices that has changed the landscape, wildlife, even forces such as gravity. It is your job to return the land back to its previous state by disabling them.

Run, jump and travel through the terraformed land level to level, avoiding or engaging the wildlife, as you reach the device and shut it down, completing the level. Platforms have been flipped, moved around and can be reached by interacting with the world around the character such as flipping gravity, picking up power ups and items needed to move onto the next area.

Target audience: 13+