#required readings

[prideandparchment]

Trying to tackle all of this uni work week by week while also having a job and a side hustle is exhausting...

[polyglot-night-owl]

Me, a good student: *usually read all the required readings before class*

Teacher: *never brings up the background reading*

Me yesterday: *don't have time to read the background reading*

The teacher during class: So this was in the background reading and so was this and also this

Me today: really? --'

[torschlusspanikattack]

Liberal journalists not be unbearably cringe about ‘democracy’ challenge—impossible

[jsigh]

Space Recruitment Readings Discussion

In Chapter 12: Team Structures from Tracy Fullerton’s Game Design workshop discussed that “understanding your role in a team and having the interpersonal skills to work within a team structure are as important as any of the design skills” that Fullerton has mentioned throughout her book. I believe both Jhana and I know each others skills and capabilities from prior assessments and throughout working together during this unit. Fullerton also recommended to take time to practice team-building and communicate properly with team members. Although Jhana is the lead Game Designer for this project, we generally both brainstorm together and end on the same wavelength of thoughts, which results in what I’d interpret as having good synergy. Due to the fact that we decided to work together as a two member team, all the work and processes are split appropriately.

[jsigh]

Racing Game Required Readings

In Tracy Fullerton’s The Game Design Workshop, Chapter 10 of Functionality, Completeness, and Balance, breaks down the results from playtesting into phases. The feedback can give a rough indication of the game’s completion state, specifically, the game must be considered functional before the game can be considered ‘complete’. It is important to balance the game, by adjusting mechanics and concepts when setting a goal for the player to meet. Once the game becomes functional and balanced the game is then ready to be refined before it is officially completed.

The main concern for the racing game is the balance between each of the playable models. The current 3 models can be categorized as:

Cyclone - Technical/Utility-based

Outsize - Tanky/Durable

Omniglide - Speed

Since each model has its own uniqueness, each model has its own variables that need to be considered for balancing the playthrough experience and to ensure that there isn’t one best model which objectively breaks the game. Initially, I intended for the difficulty of each model to scale up to test the player’s skill. Supposedly the Omniglide or the Speed model was meant to be the most challenging as it is a high-risk and fast-paced model which aims for the fastest completion time.

I believe the concept of the model to player skill difficulty is a good element, but the concern to how each model functions or performs is the test for balance. I hope to refine any potential loopholes or unintended experiences when the time comes.

[jsigh]

Readings for Asteroids

Upon looking into Chapter 6: Conceptualization of Tracy Fullerton’s The Game Design Workshop, it is concluded that “most beginning game designers simply borrow elements from successful games and adapt them to their own purposes”. I believe that as a beginner game designer myself, I will be heavily structuring my game as Fullerton said. Additionally, I don’t find myself being very creative for major or mind-blowing concepts and much prefer to work on certain existing features that can be adapted and changed to create another unique style of playing. Polygons VS Circles is the prime example as I only wished to have the power-up as the core unique feature that was different from the already existing asteroids game concept.

Negative thoughts aside, I am learning to use Fullerton’s method of Turning Ideas into a Game, which mentions Focusing on the Formal Elements when creating a game, which helps me as a guideline for times that I am stuck during the design process. Specifically, it was mentioned to flesh out the game structure, consider the following:

Define the player’s goal(s)

Only focus on the most critical rules

Map out how a typical turn or core loop works.

I have noticed that there is a core loop regarding the asteroids game having an infinite scoring goal, however, I believe over time it will be necessary to develop more critical rules to clarify the game’s win condition. 

[jsigh]

Platformer Required Readings

In Tracy Fullerton’s Game Design Workshop, Chapter 1: The Role of the Game Designer, the considerations that were mentioned when Designing for Innovation;

Appealing to new players-people who have different tastes and skills than hard-core gamers

Creating games that integrate into daily life, real-world spaces, and the systems around us

Trying to solve difficult problems in game design such as:

The integration of story and gameplay

Deeper empathy for characters in games

In regards to creating a game using real-world spaces, I considered the platform’s theme to be relative to the current COVID-19 situation. My intention for the game developed was to be satirical in hopes of lightening any feelings of anxiety. At one point I considered if the game itself should be educational where the player has certain goals they would like to do. For example, simulating a person in real life wishing to do things during the pandemic, but to achieve the goals they would need to follow appropriate protocols done as a mechanic of the game. Proceeding with this concept would give an empathetic connection to the player, however, this idea seemed to take too much time to process and implement into the game while also learning GDevelop.

In Chapter 2: The Structure of Games, Fullerton discusses that about engaging the player where considerations regarding what elements give meaning to the player which draws them in and allows them to connect emotionally with the experience.

Some of the elements that I considered while designing the platformer include; the premise set as the current pandemic outbreak, an attempt to represent the player as the character for empathic feelings when given tasks or goals and possibly creating scenarios for creating story for characters.

While playtesting the platformer during the workshops, I began to understood the aspects of Prototyping Your Original Game Idea from Chapter 7: Prototyping. Every game obviously starts with a foundation like a road map which needs to define the core gameplay for the game, followed with a structure that categorizes certain functionalities. Within the categories of functions, the finer details regarding how the functions work should developed and be known to the users and finally the feedback received from testing the prototype should be used to refinement to improve the game through ideas or concepts and fix any issue along the way.

Chapter 8: Digital Prototyping, essentially discussed the consideration of handling the GUI for a game, where aspects like what type of game model/engine should be used, layout and scheme of controls, the viewpoint that should be used and certain UI necessities and the appropriate placement.