Kyle Taylor - Game Developer

I'm a Game Designer/Producer. I'll post my WIPs & occasionally some other interesting things.

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

Getting my hands dirty with Sprites

My first attempt at making sprites ever! This piece is something I’ve been planning to do for my personal website. Which will be a Web GL game simply of myself in my room interacting with different objects to show different parts of my port-folio. i.e. A TV with a game console to show finished titles I’ve worked on.

I was a little worried about it at first when I started, but with some online reference it’s actually turning out pretty well. I choice this style as a throwback to some of the old Pokemon games such as Pokemon Ruby.

Using some new tools such as Marmoset Hexels 3. Took a while to figure it out. But with time, patience, and a few tips from others I’ve managed to hit the ground running. Look forward to future posts!

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

Ragtime Heist

Working on a 4 month long game project with 6 others at AIE. Just finished our proof of concept & starting work on Alpha. Check us out on twitter for updates! https://twitter.com/RagtimeHeist

The game is based in an alternate version of the prohibition in Chicago, America.

Players control two different characters and coordinate them in order to steal as much as possible from the notorious ‘Ragtime Gang’.

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

Making my First Mobile Game

Over the past 3 weeks I’ve been re-building an old prototype, with the goal of creating a mobile game which I can publish! With my final push currently underway, I plan to finish the game within the next 5 days. And with that, my first published mobile game will find it’s way onto the Google Play Store. So look out for Tunnel Ball!

I’ve always wanted to make this a published game for Andriod/iOS but I was always hesitant for some reason. Luckily though, as a 2nd year AIE student, we had an assessment coming up which was to make a game over 3.5 weeks using new technology. It was the perfect motivator and now I’m glad I did choose this.

The game was originally a prototype made last year, under the guise to learn how to code in Unity which lasted a 6 week period. I always had a lot of people telling me the game was fun, which was why I decided to have this game as my first mobile title.

It was definitely easier to start with a prototype for a number of reasons. The main one was that I essentially had already done all my per-production. That said, coming back to my code & files a year later I realized how badly I’d done certain things. It required me to remake the project from the ground up. Not something you’d be ecstatic to do.

After spending almost a week remaking & tidying up the project, it was all about optimization. Getting the game to run smoothly was the next, most important thing to do.

When I first made a build of the game onto my Google Pixel, it would run at an average of 30-40FPS with a minimum of 20. And for a game that requires high reaction time... that wasn’t good. Though after cutting down on a lot of lights, meshs, and more, it now runs at above 60FPS constantly.

I started polish on this game early as I planned to have my materials be made by one of my Artists friends (Shout out to Ninb Adam. Your the best!).

Making an animated Main Menu, animations, and more. Now that I’ve gotten my art, which looks amazing, I’ve been working on some final touches. Doing all round polish on all aspects of the game.

I’m really glad that I left so much time for polish. So much testing too. Adding up all the time I’ve spent specifically testing (playing on the train ride home), I’d say I’ve spent about 8 hours playing this game. Plus 2 rounds of user testing.

Though it was really worth it.

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

Egg TD - Almost got the basics!

Been making a tower defense on & off over the past month. Basic framework is almost complete! Since I last posted I’ve implemented a “layer” system to the eggs, having it change to a weaker one when it takes a hit, & a spawner!

Eggs contain a list of scriptable objects which, when hit, the egg will change it’s current stats, sprites, and any other variables to the next down in the list.

The Spawner uses a similar system. Based on what round it reads data from that round’s scriptable object and cycles through the list of GameObjects(egg type) & Integers (amount of that type to spawn).

Ideally I would of liked each Round’s scriptable object to contain a list of Tuples. Allowing me to pair each GameObject & Interger more easily. But unfortunately Unity doesn’t support them. :-(

I’ve also decided to make a change to the core gameplay. Originally the game was designed to be an exact replica of Bloons TD. And although Egg TD is heavily inspired by it, I was really trying to think of a way to make it unique.

My conclusion was to add Building Slots. Towers unlike Bloons TD, can now no longer be placed onto the ground. They can only be placed onto building slots. Building slots can be placed normally on any non-road part of the map. Most building slots can only support 1 Tower each, though some of the stronger ones can hold multiple. Depending on the cost of the building slot, the slot will increase the strength of the tower placed on it. This will most likely be through its attack speed.

Egg TD is a game I want to make as a HTML5 so I can put it up on my port-folio. I also want it to be something that I make from start to finish myself (though I might end up outsource a little bit of art & programming.

I am trying to code the game in a way so that I can add, remove, or change any possible variable in the game without the code needing to be changed at all. By the end of it, I want to be able to pump out 5 maps in 5 minutes, or implement new enemies, rounds & towers with easy.

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

Spreadsheet Prototype

Been learning about psychology and economies at AIE in order to improve our skills as Game Designers.

In order to explore this more we have been creating prototypes of our own games so we can test the economy in the game.

I thought this would be a good chance to learn more about spreadsheets, specifically Google Sheets. The company I work at (Two Bulls) uses it for their test plans. Plus, since being able to code spreadsheets always seems to be a desirable skill.

It only took me the majority of 1 day to code the prototype, and only 4-5 hours to learn the language from scratch (Google Script - variation of Java Script). It might have even taken less time if I was familiar with Java Script.

Now it’s just balancing the game. Something which I personally find quite enjoyable!

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

Making a game from start till finish

Over the past month I’ve decided to create my own game from start till finish in full, doing all the design, art, and programming myself.

The game I decided to make is a Tower Defense game heavily based off Bloons TD. I call it Egg TD. (p.s. Names are hard)

My main reasons for creating this was to brush up on my coding skills for Global Game Jam & to focus on creating a game I am confident and willing to take all the way from start till finish.

It has definitely proven difficult to create. Every new feature I implement creates at least 1 major bug, often 4-5. At the moment the only implemented features are the; Tower targeting system, Egg movement & the Lives/Money system.

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

Decided to try challenge myself to make a detailed Mesh in a day. This is what I ended up with.

Definitely not perfect. It is missing some fine detail & has a few problems with it. But overall I quite like it.

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

Starting back up with Maya

It has been a while since I last dove into Maya to do something complex. So with my thoughts in the stars I decided to make a Star Trek themed spaceship. 

So far I’ve done the Saucer and most of the Body is done. Once I finish the body the rest should be fairly quick and then I can just touch it up with some fine detail.

I’m getting into the habit of keeping track of each UV, since the last few times I’ve made anything in Maya, it has always been the UV that has screwed me over hard. I want to make sure I can at the very least allocate basic colors and nice looking materials.

First things first though, I at least need to get the mesh right.

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

Finishing up our final build

At AIE we 1st years are finishing up our end of year project, making a game. Overall we managed to hit our goal we had in the start with fairly large accuracy. Even with a few cutbacks and changes based on development and testing and iterating.

I’m very satisfied with how well my team has worked over the last few weeks, 1000+ hours of good, solid work and we’ve finished with a pretty decent game!

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

A Lighting Pass later, a whole new perspective now

In the final stretch for my end of year project at AIE. Creating a game. Started our polish a couple days ago we decided to do a full lighting pass. I have to say, it really made a difference to the visuals of the scene. The game looks so much better. Now it is simply balancing out the readability of both sides. Looking forward to seeing the final product.

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

Spilling over the edges

After this first day in our gold milestone for our end of year project at AIE, I’ve been experimenting with creating a more natural feeling play space by overflowing the scene’s assets off the edges of the screen. It definitely feels better than before, but it still has a long way to go. 1 day isn’t nearly enough, but it is a good start.

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

Beta, oh how colorful.

Recently finished our Beta milestone at AIE for our final project of the year. Creating a game with another designer as well as programmers & artists.

Producing is definitely not easy, but it is something I want to improve upon. But now due to some changes that have occurred, I’m now also the designer for the project as well. Boy is it not easy, but it does feel great.

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

The way of the Particle (2) - Fireworks

This time round I decided to focus on sub-emitters. Great way to break unity in case anyone was wondering.

Here it is just randomizing size, color, and speed. If you look closely the detail in these is quite lacking, but yet it is still somehow captivating. I’m assuming it is the inconsistency in each firework, but hey, who cares. It’s pretty and that is what matters.

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

The way of the Particle

Started to dig back into particle effects, but this time I’m going in deep.

After researching other particle effects and how they are made. It never really hit me that they are usually layers upon layers of different particles & effects. This explosion has 8 different effects going on. By themselves they look boring and really simple, but once you stack them up... KABOOM!~

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

Creeping up to Alpha

Getting close to our alpha milestone for the group project. Still missing bits and pieces and buggy as hell, but the base game play is there and soldiers can ’slide’ across the map.

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Paper prototyping - It’s so good!

It is getting close to the end of my 1st year studying Game Design & Production at AIE, and that means final year group project! Making a game together with another designer, artists, and programmers.

Although we are close to our alpha milestone, it was suggested to me that we should do some paper prototyping. One day, two teddy bears, and a few toy soldiers later...

It was definitely worth it.

[kyletaylor-design-blog]

Toy Wars - Industry Pitches

One week ago at AIE, we started production for our final assessment. To make a game in a team of designers, artists, and programmers. And today we presented these ideas to a panel of industry professionals. Also crunch time has been quite intense as the Alpha milestone is merely a week away!

Although it did seem quite intimidating at first, it was a very enjoyable experience.

The game is a PvP (2 player), Turn-Based, Strategy game where each player controls a small handful of Toy Soldiers. The goal, to destroy the enemies Teddy Bear.

The combat is heavily inspired by the Worms series where each player needs to use careful aim and precision in order to make each shot count.

Teddy Bears can also be used by the player in order to get their soldiers further into the action by walking up to the bear. The Teddy Bear will then pick up the soldier, and then be able to throw them right into the thick of the battle.

The game is currently coming in towards the Alpha milestone. Although Alpha does have a fair bit more work to do, I don’t doubt that we can get it done. When the team puts their pedal to the metal, the rate at which work gets completed is quite successful.

I’m also definitely looking forward to a nice Alpha build that we can have other people play test. I’m keen to hear other opinions too.