Sebastian Game Design

[sebastiangamedesign120]

Week 9 Racer Game Post Mortem

For this project, I've added some more functions to the game. The player can now move up and down, and the turn speed is slightly faster making the player more agile

What went well: -Adding vertical movement (up/down) made dodging obstacles more flexible and fun.

-Improving turn speed made the controls feel smoother and responsive.

What Didn't go well:

-Collisions with traffic is too big making it difficult to move through tight spaces between traffic.

Future improvements/additions:

-powerups.

-fix collisions.

[sebastiangamedesign120]

Week 8 Racer Game Development Post

This week, i focused on completing the core gameplay for my racing game. The game is a top-down endless racer where the player controls a car to avoid randomly spawning traffic obstacles while driving down a highway. What I implemented:

-Basic Car movement with top-down controls.

-An endless scrolling highway.

-Randomly spawning traffic cars that the player must dodge.

-Player death when colliding with a traffic car.

-Score system that increases as the player survives longer.

Next Steps

-potentially add powerups

-Implement high score saving between runs

[sebastiangamedesign120]

Week 7.2 Racing game elevator pitch

Neon Rush is a fast-paced, top-down endless racer where players dodge oncoming traffic at high speeds along a neon lit highway.

The goal is to survive as long as possible, weaving between rogue traffic and environmental hazards. With simple but responsive controls, dynamic traffic spawns, and an escalating difficulty curve, Neon Rush challenges player' reflexes and decision-making in a relentless sprint to achieve the highest score.

[sebastiangamedesign120]

Week 7.1 Asteroids game postmortem

One of the main things that went well was getting the core gameplay loop functional early on. I followed the Asteroids tutorial as a base but made adjustments to better fit the experience I wanted. Changing the player controls from automatic mouse movement to manual WASD input made the game feel more responsive and gave players more freedom to move how they wanted. I also got the shooting and aiming system working smoothly, which was satisfying to play with. I also managed to get the destruction of asteroids working.

While the core gameplay was functional, I ran into some challenges when modifying the movement system. Getting the player to move using WASD while still aiming with the mouse required a lot of experimentation with forces and rotation. It took longer than expected to get it working smoothly.

I also didn’t have enough time to polish the game visually or add audio. The UI is functional but basic, and there’s no sound or particle effects to enhance feedback. These missing elements made the game feel a bit unfinished compared to what I originally imagined.

After working with GDevelop for some time now, the event system is quite flexible but does require some experimentation for custom behavior.

[sebastiangamedesign120]

Week 6 development on Asteroids game

The first thing I changed, from the sample given to us in the workshop, was the how the movement of the player worked. Instead of the player constantly moving towards the mouse position, I changed it so that the movement is done using WASD.

This already feels so much better, giving more control for the player.

As can be seen in the clip, the asteroids cannot be destroyed as it was recorded before that feature was implementation However, it should show how this implementation changes the gameplay.

[sebastiangamedesign120]

Week 5.2 Elevator Pitch 2

Asteroids Reborn is a fast-paced, top-down space shooter where players control a spaceship in a dangerous asteroid field. Using WASD for movement, the ship points in the direction of the mouse cursor, allowing players to navigate and shoot asteroids with precision. As the game progresses, asteroids break into smaller fragments, creating a dynamic and challenging environment. Future updates will introduce power-ups, ship updgrades, and more environmental hazards to keep the gameplay fresh and exciting. Perfect for those who enjoy retro-inspired space action with slight modern twists.

[sebastiangamedesign120]

Week 5.1 Platformer Development and Postmortem

During the week, i have been playing around with visuals of the game. I managed to give it a CRT look to it and changed some of the assets to reflect the idea of the game. I also made all the sprites in piskel and kept them as pixel art.

This (below) is the player character sprite. Err01, for lore wise, is the unauthorized user aka the player in the subnet.

This (below) is the Enemy sprite. This is a automatic defense system that attacks the player. I made them blue to stand out more but also makes them look more corporate.

I also changed the platform tiled sprite (below) to match the aesthetic.

After creating these simple sprites i moved to the layers section in GDevelop. I had a look at ConvictedWeirdo's GDevelop CRT effect and reverse engineered the one for more project. Link: https://convictedweirdo.itch.io/gdevelop-crt-effect

With that i managed to get the following effect:

I think it turns out quite well. Though the pixel writing on the sprites do become a bit hard to read.

I didn't change much with the gameplay just yet. I still have a bit of trouble figuring out how GDevelop works and find it hard searching for different events. I did play with the player characters movement speed and jump height.

What went well?

The sprites may be simple but i'm happy with how they look. The CRT effect really makes it stand out and creates that nice, ominous atmosphere combined with the deep reds.

What didn't go well?

While i managed to get the basic visuals down, the sprites don't seem to match each fake pixel in the CRT effect. I also found navigating GDevelop still difficult as I'm more used to Unity.

What would I change about the process?

I may have spent too much time on figuring out GDevelop's layers and effects. Next time I want to focus more on experimenting with the gameplay whilst also balancing with creating the visual style.

In future games, I want to try to focus on gameplay more and after getting base ideas and mechanics down, to then focus on the visual effects and style.

[sebastiangamedesign120]

Week 2.2! GDevelop Experimentation

Whilst thinking of a platformer game idea, in the workshop we also played around with GDevelop and went through making a basic Platformer game with some pre-made assets.

This is the simple game that we ended up with.

We've set up a basic player character that moves with the arrow keys and jumps using the space bar. There are also some enemies that the player can jump on to defeat. Currently, though, they don't damage the player on contact. The enemies are very basic, they move from the arrows back and forth.

To control everything, we used GDevelop's event-based logic system. Honestly, I found this a bit confusing at first. The way everything is stacked in a single place can make it feel cluttered, especially as more systems get added. That said, i can see how it helps keep everything visible and easy to test quickly.

One thing I've taken away so far is how important it is to get the core movement working well early. Even though this prototype is simple, tweaking the jump force and movement speed has shown me how much feel can change the player experience.

Once I start designing my own levels and systems, I'll begin using custom visuals and recording gameplay.

[sebastiangamedesign120]

Week2.1!

Elevator Pitch for a platformer game.

Target audience: Fans of fast-paced indie platformers, ages 13+, especially those into sci-fi or retro-futuristic styles.

For my platformer project, I want to work on a game called Blackwall. You play as a rogue AI that's been released into a network. Your mission? Infiltrate digital subnets and eliminate a high-value target. Each subnet (level) is a maze of data full of enemies that roam and search the net to stop you from reaching your destination. You will need to dash, jump, and exploit glitches/faults in the subnet to bypass enemies and reach deeper into the network.

I'm aiming for a CRT-inspired, heavy cyberpunk aesthetic.

If i can, I'd love to implement:

-Dash mechanics

-Visual distortion effects

-Enemy AI that behaves like antivirus software

-Minimalist storytelling told through corrupted fragments of data and logs.

[sebastiangamedesign120]

Week 1

Hi everyone!

This is the start of my game development journal for my uni course! I'll be diving into some game development using GDevelop which seems to be a great starter engine for beginners, like me, who want to try creating their first (decently) polished game!

A bit about me: I've always played video games and loved them. I don't have a specific genre of game that I play, I enjoy almost everything, except for the same-y hero shooter, but if I had to pick a favourite, it would have to be RPG's. Games like Cyberpunk 2077 definitely have inspired me to up this course to, one day, create a game with an amazing story and fun gameplay.

This blog is going to be composed of weekly reflections and development updates on the games that I will be making and the challenges I come across during the process.

I'm looking forward to experimenting with new mechanics, learning the process of designing and iterating, and maybe even breaking a few things in the process.