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Assignment 3 Postmortem

This assignment 3 process has been amazing, to work with a functioning team and understand the full process of using a classic arcade game, and turning it into a fun game for others to enjoy. My team worked exceptionally well together, and helped to create an amazing game in "Rubber Duckie Hero".

My official title for this game was 'designer'. My work consisted of generating ideas for our game, and coming up with interesting challenges, puzzles, and mechanics to make the game more enjoyable.

Other work tasked for me consisted of:

Recording, and editing the video of our game. Here is a link: https://youtu.be/J25BF72KVjU

Designing the shop screen, where I decided to make it a docks area, using the same background as the game, as well as putting the new ships and potential upgrades in bubbles, which would pop when the player purchases it. The player would also be able to see the amount of Rescue Points they have gained so that they know what they can purchase.

I was also tasked to conduct some playtesting of which I have posted about previously.

In the playtesting report, I wrote about our Participant Demographics, and contributed to our teams Discussion of Additions/Changes. Where I would mainly discuss the changes towards the In Hot Water mode that was outlined during our play tests.

Overall, this has been an incredible experience and I definitely look forward to future projects such as this, where hopefully I will be able to spend more time on and implement more amazing games.

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Assignment 3 Playtesting

For the final playtesting, we had each member do at least 2 playtests of which I play tested 2 more of my roommates, Samantha, and Zoe.

Both would be 'naive' testers, then after their naive test, I continued with a deep play test of both, where I would continue with explaining and answering any questions that they may have.

These were my final findings:

Play testing I found enjoyable, it was fun to view the tester play the game I helped to make, as well as hear their interesting views, thoughts, and ideas on how we could improve on it. Overall, the play testing went very smoothly.

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Early Assignment 3 Playtesting

For my playtesting goal of our MVP, I was tasked with playtesting the Controls and Gameplay, and whether the controls feel good, are they intuitive, and is the gameplay smooth.

I tested my roommate as a novice player, and these are my raw notes during the test.

Translation:

Very easy to avoid shooting sharks and octopuses.

The coloured ducks don't give extra points.

Controls are easy to learn.

Sharks are very fast when they slingshot back.

The Octopus has a cool movement design.

I like the distinction between bullets and nets.

In Hot Water is an exciting and terrifying moment but I don't understand why they still spawn in bubbles.

The timer keeps going.

Before this playtest I also prepared some questions to ask the playtester, and these were the responses.

Q1: Were the controls for the game quite intuitive?

Yeah they were very easy to get the hang of, as there weren't too many different controls, and they were all very close to my fingers so I didn't have to spread far across the keyboard.

Q2: Did you find the game difficult?

I found it very easy to avoid the sharks and octopus, the only real challenging part was In Hot Water, but then after that started things started going back into bubbles which I found confusing.

Q2 (follow up question): What would you change to make it more difficult?

I would make it so that the sharks and octopus are able to escape the bubble after maybe 5 seconds or something so that the player has to be careful of them and be more aware. I think making quick decisions is key for an enticing game.

Q3: How smooth was the gameplay?

I think there were a few bugs with the game, such as the timer not ending, and some ducks I wasn't able to collect, but I also think the player moving vertically up was a bit strange. Other than that If those bugs are fixed I think it was quite smooth. I'd probably just change the layout of the tutorial though, and have a finish screen.

Discussion of Playtest:

This playtest has helped identify key areas that need to be discussed and improved upon in our MVP. The bugs we already knew were there and are already on the way to being fixed. However, I agree with my play tester in that the game is too easy and there aren't any quick decisions to make, so I will bring up his suggestion of making the sharks and octopus escape the bubble to my team and see if we can get that implemented to make the game more difficult.

The controls and smoothness of the game seemed to be fine with my play tester, however, they seemed to quickly understand the controls when playing the game and kept aiming to beat his score, which is exactly what we were aiming for in our game.

Overall, I think to improve our game and reach a high-fidelity prototype, we need to:

Fix the bugs

Upgrade the UI

Upgrade the Tutorial screen

Either use the sharks and octopus escaping the bubbles idea, or come up with another idea that will make the game more difficult.

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Assignment 3 Development Progress

After communicating online, we met in class the following day, where everyone had arrived except for Alex whose flight unfortunately got delayed. However, it was great to officially meet Ann.

Prior to this class, Lily asked for us to read through her one-sheet and one-page and write down some ideas that might modify the game.

These were my thoughts and questions.

Lily and Ann thought there were some amazing ideas in here, so we decided to highlight our favourite modifications and write them down in our High fidelity. During this discussion some more interesting ideas were thrown around such as:

A shipyard environment for our UI screen between levels for upgrades.

Different boat designs with different bullets.

A different trail for each boat as well.

And a big discussion was also about the movement and controls of the player. Originally, Lily had wanted the boat controls to be WASD for movement, space to shoot, and the up and down keys to shoot nets. However, the boat would only shoot in the direction it was facing, which I mentioned could be challenging for the player.

So I suggested a new method of player movement, which would keep the WASD movement but instead of angling the boat sprite all the way up and down, it would instead just tilt the boat slightly, similar to the movement in the car race project. I also suggested that the shooting style should change to aiming with the cursor, left-clicking to shoot, and right-clicking for the nets. Lily and Ann agreed with my solution as it allowed for easier learnability for the players and a smoother gaming experience.

This progress helped us to create our first build for Rubber Ducky Hero.

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Assignment 3 Team Discussion

Before meeting, we had communicated online via Discord and discussed who's game we wanted to create. The overall decision was to go with Lily's game which seemed to have the best art design and one-page creation, which also allowed for modification with our group of which we all admired.

We also created a group document and wrote down all of our strengths and desired roles for this project.

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Group Formation

For Assignment 3 I will be working with Lily Wang, who was actually in my buddy group for IGB100 in semester 1, so it's nice to see a familiar face, and someone I have worked with before.

I also will be working with Alexander Garner, and Annmarie Gomez, who I haven't met before but I look forward to doing so.

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Assignment 2 Final Design

One Sheet:

One Page:

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Assignment 2 Progress

For assignment 2 I shall redo my asteroids game.

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Racing Game Postmortem

Now that I have finished "Why did the duck cross the Road?", I can say that whilst I don't believe it is my best project, it has helped me learn that, projects can change very quickly and easily depending on how you perceive them. In this project, I realised that all I really had to do to change my game was rotate it, which changed it from a racing game to a "get to the other side game".

In this project I realised that in the first assignment it was more just me deciding on a game and doing it without considering any other ideas, whereas, in this project, I conducted some prototyping, allowing me to take a view at multiple ideas and see how they might change the game and increase player engagement.

Now for the review of this project.

During my final project playtest, I found that the players enjoyed the game, but it got almost impossible after a few levels. This was because the cars would become exponentially faster as the player beats more and more levels, making it much faster than the player. I considered increasing the speed of the player at the same time, but considering the size of the map it would end far too quickly.

To fix this in a future project, rather than just exponentially increasing the speed of the cars, I would instead include more unique vehicles with special abilities that become more prominent, such as:

A tank that is slow but damages the road, meaning the player can't cross it for a certain amount of time.

A jet that can shoot and is very fast.

A Pirate Ship that shoots one lane up and down adjacent to it.

A Motorbike, which will be the fastest vehicle.

etc.

Overall however, I am satisfied with my project and look forward for the next assignments.

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Racing Game Development Post

Firstly, for this racing game, I began by following the tutorials provided and creating the proper functions and mechanics of the game until it was complete. I also replaced the character's car with a duck that must avoid traffic just like Crossy Road.

However, it wasn't exactly like Crossy Road but it still had the same idea of it, where the player must avoid the moving vehicles and make it as far as possible.

At this point though I was unable to implement a score, which I struggled with, however, I want to come up with new additions to the game to give it a unique edge, from other people in my unit.

To do so, I am going to attempt to rotate the game 90 degrees and have the duck actually cross the road to avoid the oncoming traffic.

This will be a classic game to the phrase "why did the chicken cross the road", which has now inspired me to name this game "Why did the duck cross the road?"

Key features will include:

A horizontal version of the Race game.

The player will be a duck crossing the road.

The player must reach the other side to get to the next level.

Each level will have the cars moving faster and faster.

The only controls will be WASD which will control the movement of the duck.

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Racing Elevator Pitch

Using the models that have already been given to us, I find it difficult to develop a new concept that can slightly alter this game. However, I have decided to make it simple, by changing the car the player controls into a duck, and the oncoming traffic will become crocodiles. This modification changes the game to suit a younger demographic, however, may still encourage others to play the game.

A little similar to the game Crossy Roads, that was popular on IOS for a while.

This concept will allow me to start up the project with a simple racing game, and manipulate it to my liking.

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Asteroids Postmortem

I am happy with what I was able to complete for this game, however, as I also stated in the development post, I had too many ideas for this game, and the scope of the project was way out of reach. However, here is a screenshot of the final game, "Space Labyrinth"

Instructions:

Avoid the red balls that will kill the player if in collision

Collect the yellow balls to unlock the green goal at the end, (Shows in this case just for demonstration)

Complete the maze and go through the goal to reach the next level

The deaths will count up as the player dies

Each level becomes more and more difficult

Controls:

WASD to move around

Use the mouse to look around and aim

Left click to shoot

Overall, I am extremely happy with what I have created, and I look forward to what I might create in the next game.

However, continuing my review of this project, I would have liked to include the ideas I had mentioned in the development post, however, time was not in my favour, and this is where I ended up. I think more enemies and upgrades definitely add to the thrill of the game, as the player must come up with new strategies and combine mechanics to defeat them.

I thought about creating a tutorial for the game that would help the player learn what they are trying to do, however, I remembered that one of my PX goals was to make the player frustrated, so I thought that going into the game as a complete novice would add to that goal, and it certainly did. During a playtest, one of my players, asked "Was this game meant to annoy me? Because it's certainly working". With this in mind I considered my game complete.

This was a fun design to create, and I look forward to the next project.

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Asteroids Development Post

This week I have been following the tutorial provided by trying to get my asteroids to randomly spawn around the designated screen space and my player to move around and shoot the asteroids. Once I completed my prototype I tried to import a maze using the platformer sprites. However, the design doesn't feel very much like the game I had envisioned it. It feels too simple and unsatisfying.

In order to make the game feel more satisfying and smoother, I decided to go with a design style that fitted the artwork of the Cool Maths Game design "Worlds Hardest Game", which I felt would make the game feel smoother, and more entertaining for the competitive type players.

However, I wanted my game to be even more challenging and exciting by adding bonuses and more mechanics.

Key features I have imagined implementing include:

Powerups:

Rapid fire

Multishot

Invincibility

Speed Boost

Enemies:

Static

Moving (different speeds)

Enemies that shoot

Vacuums in space, that suck the player in

Each enemy type will be different in colour

Customisation:

Different spaceship designs for the character

Different coloured bullets

Different backgrounds

In each feature, I want to use a pixelated design style, that will fit an arcade-type asteroid game. This will elevate the smoothness of the game, and actually make it feel more natural and exciting. With the addition of competition by making the game frustrating.

After reviewing my ideas, I may have to reconsider the scope of the project, however, I shall see what I am able to accomplish my next week.

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Asteroids Elevator Pitch

The next GDevelop game being created is an asteroid-style game, where the player must navigate around the borders of the screen, whilst avoiding flying objects that will kill the player if in collision.

Before developing the game, I began brainstorming a few ideas that would elevate the enjoyment of the game.

Game ideas:

Instead of asteroids, make them ships that shoot

A maze whilst avoiding asteroids

Collectibles that the player must get to beat the game

Time based for competition

As I came up with the maze asteroid idea it sparked a memory I had of playing a game similar to the concept I was going for. It was a game on Cool Maths Games called "The Worlds Hardest Game", where the player must move through a maze whilst avoiding the blue balls and collect all the yellow ones before reaching the end zone and advancing to the next level. However, if the player died then a death score would be added to the top right of the screen, which encouraged my friends and I to make it a competition, to see who could beat the levels in the least amount of deaths.

As described in the textbook there are different types of players that can be categorised into different sections such as:

The Competitor

The Explorer

The Collector

The Achiever

The Joker

The Artist

The Director

The Storyteller

The Performer

The Craftsman

For my game I want it to appeal to The Competitor branch, as that is exactly the branch I was in when playing the cool maths game version.

For my game, I will make it similar to "The World's Hardest Game" (TWHG) but with the controls of an Asteroids game, where the player will also be allowed to shoot the balls, which separates itself from TWHG.

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Platformer Postmortem

Finally, I have completed my first game of this semester for IGB220, and I due to a minimal amount of game design knowledge, I am proud of what I have accomplished.

This platformer game reminds me a lot of Super Mario, where the players are able to jump on enemies' heads and shoot them when given an upgrade. But instead, I went for a boomerang as my weapon.

During development, I have realized that making a platformer requires a lot of thought in making new ways to make the game more exciting. As during a playtest, I found the player was impressed in what was created but found the game to be rather boring, which I completely understood, and have already come up with other ideas that may improve platformers that I may create in the future.

Instead of adding just more levels with the same concept, I would start the player off with only being able to defeat enemies by jumping on their heads. Then after defeating maybe 2 enemies, I would introduce a new powerup such as the boomerang powerup that would allow the player to defeat enemies in a new way, as well as change the character's skin showcasing the change of the character.

Different kinds of enemies would also allow the player to gain a new experience and come up with different strategies when facing them, such as an enemy that can:

Shoot

Fly

Regenerate

Spawn new enemies

etc.

All these I believe would create a more enticing game.

However, I realised that even with all these different mechanics, there must be something that encourages player retention, such as upgrades, bonuses, or even objectives. As described in the textbook, objectives give players something to strive for, something to accomplish.

Different objectives may include:

Capture

Chase

Race

Alignment

Rescue or Escape

Forbidden Act

Construction

Exploration

Solution

Outwit

For a platformer such as this I would want to go with a capture or explore, type of objective, if I include both then that may even double the player's involvement and retention of the game. I would use collectibles to represent the capture experience and have different portals throughout the map that send the player to different locations expanding on the exploration format. This would allow the player to get the full experience of the game.

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Platformer Development Post

This week I have progressed from learning and into execution.

Focusing on my movement, enemies, weapons, and map design.

I had a basic game of the player running around and jumping on enemies.

However, I wanted a new method of defeating them, so I came up with the idea of implementing a new weapon to defeat enemies, adding an extra layer to the game. I ended up sticking with a boomerang as a weapon, which would take out the enemies. So I started making weapon designs, and ended up with this as my boomerang.

After a few attempts at designing my boomerang, I decided to stick with the more pixelated design and chose the colour blue as to easily identify the weapon.

During week 3 of the workshop we conducted Playtesting which I grabbed a friend and got them to play my basic game without saying too much. This allowed them to learn the game all on their own, and allowed me to identify the learnability of the game. I realised that it wasn't immediately obvious for them that they had to jump on the enemies heads, and to make it more obvious I should have the player jump down onto a platform which would kill an enemy at the beginning. This would therefore encourage them to do it more often.

I was also asking about my boomerang idea for the game, which they stated the design was very cool, and had the idea of making the player have to pick up the weapon again when it hit the enemy as to make it more realistic.

After playtesting I had many ideas to work with and look forward to what I could create in GDevelop from here on out.

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Platformer Elevator Pitch

A game that I think would be fun to design is an action-adventure game where the player is in 2D zombie-apocalyptic world, with his only weapon being a boomerang, leading to the game's name idea "Boomerang Man".

The platforms and character designs will all be manually designed using Piskel, which is a free sprite design website, meaning I will use an arcade pixel design for the game. This allows me to create simpler designs whilst keeping within my design and animation style.

The setting will be a 2D zombie-apocalyptic world where buildings are all run down and humans are fighting for survival against zombies. Luckily the zombies are a lot slower and easier to defeat, however, they become more dangerous in groups meaning the player should remain vigilant.

The primary mechanics of the game will be quite simple, using a basic movement system of running and jumping, and if the player collides with a zombie then they will be turned into a zombie themselves. However, the more difficult mechanic will involve a boomerang weapon, that the player will be able to throw and retrieve. If the boomerang hits the zombies then they will die. The player must reach the end of the level, as well as defeating all zombies to win the game.

The intended target audience for this game will be younger demographics and people who enjoy arcade games. This will be shown through a pixel design and basic enemy movement patterns, as well as an enjoyable method of defeating enemies.