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Assignment 3: Post Mortem

As a team, we are very proud of the final outcome of Witching Hour. We worked hard collaboratively to deliver a polished game.

Being able to build upon my initial prototype was a lot of fun. We managed to add all the features I outlined in my design documents, as well as add some extras. We ended up with seven unique, puzzling levels.

From playtesting we were able to perfect it even more. Everything we learned is outlined and discussed in our design document.

Overall, I'm very pleased with our final product and how our team worked so well together.

#assignment 3 #post mortem

Assignment 3 Development

Finding a team for assignment 3 was relatively easy. I was able to use the discord channel to find someone in the same tutorial. From there I joined up with Ethan and Kasey and we created our own discord server for the assignment. We quickly organized our first meeting to decide which game we were going to create. We each uploaded our one-pages and one-sheets to a shared google drive folder and met up to discuss which would be best to pursue. We came to an agreement on my platformer Witching Hour as we decided that the main premise of using two characters to solve puzzles would give us lots of options to build upon and develop fully. I also had a complete prototype that was already ready to go.

From there we simply put together a rough to-do list to start off with and ways to communicate effectively about who was working on what. We had a couple channels for this;

versions: Once a new version was uploaded to google drive, you'd put the number in the chat along with a list of the changes made.

working-on: Simply to alert other members that a new version is currently being worked on.

to-do: A list of everything that needed to be done for us to refer back to easily. New things could be easily added as well.

Progress on Witching Hour was paced nicely throughout the weeks of development. We each worked on new versions when we could and consistently made sure we were not falling behind on progress. If we ever did fall back a bit, gentle reminders were sent to the chat and we would quickly bounce back.

#assignment 3

Extinction Defense Force: Post Moretem

In its current state, the game isn't very complex. It showcases some very basic mechanics and the playability is low. There's definitely a lot of room to build upon. In further development, I would like to improve the player movement as right now it's hard to maneuver around the scene. I think it had something to do with the default controls and scripting this movement myself to my liking would be more beneficial to the smooth and fast-paced movement I had imagined.

After seeing the basic prototype in action, I was able to determine that the current layout isn't very nice to play in. The screen is too small so the enemy ships reach the planet very fast and it's difficult to maneuver in such a small space, especially when trying to avoid enemies. Making the sprites a bit smaller would help the scene feel bigger and also give it more of a retro arcade feel.

Secondly, the enemies only spawn on one side and go straight toward the planet. I thought this would be a good idea as that is the goal of the player to destroy them before they can reach their goal, but it seems very robotic and repetitive. I think a better idea would be to add some simple AI for the enemies to attack the player and break through their defenses before aiming for the planet.

There are a few things from my initial design that didn't make it into the prototype such as planet shielding, multiple types of enemies and projectiles, traps etc, but overall I got a decent idea of the final game could look and feel.

#asteroids post moretem #extinction defense force

Extinction Defense Force: Development

As usual, my first steps to making this prototype began with grabbing some free assets from Itch.io. I do this because it helps me set the scene, and I find it easier to develop when I know the visuals I am working with.

I got three space packs:

background: https://screamingbrainstudios.itch.io/seamless-space-backgrounds

Ships: https://foozlecc.itch.io/void-fleet-pack-2

Environment: https://foozlecc.itch.io/void-environment-pack

I already had a good idea as to how to set up the scene so I quickly imported the sprites and their behaviors and placed them in the scene.

The first thing I wanted to do was fire the projectile as it's the main mechanic of the game. This was fairly easy to do by spawning the object at the players' position and giving it a constant force.

Next, I wanted to spawn the enemies. I wasn't sure how to approach this in Gdevelop so I did some research and came across an extension created by VictrisGames called 'ObjectSpawner'. This extension is added to an object and another object will be created from that position within the spawning period. This extension also makes sure there are no more objects in the scene than the maximum quantity set. I placed two spawners with a max quantity of 5 and a spawn period of 3 seconds. All it needed now was to be called in the events.

Now that I had enemies, I moved on to the main objective of the game; defending the planet. First, this meant adding a 'health' variable to the planet which I called 'Defense', and set it to ten. Collison was then added for the enemies and the planet that would subtract 1 from the defense variable. At first, there was a bug with this where when an enemy collided with the planet, the defense would go straight to 0. I figured out that it was because the event was being called constantly as they collided, so this was an easy fix by adding a 'Trigger Once' to the condition.

Lastly, I made the enemys be destroyed when colliding with projectiles and made a 'game over' scene when the player failed to defend the planet.

#asteroids development #gdevelop #extinction defense force #Youtube

Elevator Pitch: Extinction Defense Force

Extinction Defense Force is a type of shoot-em-up game with the goal of defending a planet from waves of enemies. The player must make sure no stray ship slips past their defenses and gets to the planet, or it's game over. Armed with shooting capabilities, building defenses, setting traps, and calling reinforcements, players must prevent an extinction-level event in this fast-paced space shooter.

#elevator pitch #extinction defense force

Witching Hour: Platformer Postmortem

Witching Hour has been a fun idea to design and prototype. Throughout development, my platformer has grown and evolved, and I have learned a lot about how I can go up from here.

In its current condition, the game is lacking challenge. This comes from a few things; the puzzle is not difficult, the enemies are easy to defeat and the enemies do not harm the player. I would either add more work to the existing puzzle to make it harder or completely re-design it which could also mean re-designing the entire layout of the level. I would also change how the player can fight the enemies. Instead of jumping on top of them, I would change it to some spell casting (since the character IS a witch) and of course, add a health bar so the enemies can cause damage to the player.

The controls are also something I would change. I used the default platformer controls in GDevelop which only uses the arrow keys to control the character. Most pc games these days use the WASD format, so for the more experienced players this could be frustrating, and to newer players, it could be difficult to utilise the arrow keys + W and C (the controls to change characters). To fix this I would change the default controls to WASD and change the character swapping controls to Q and E which are easily within reach and keeps the controls together for a more cohesive feel.

To make the game more interesting, instead of the crystals only adding points to the player, I would use them as a charge for powerups. So, there would be a bar that needs to be filled up to reach a powerup and each crystal collected would slowly fill up the bar.

Overall, I think my prototype does what I set out to do; it demonstrates the basic idea and gameplay elements and throughout its development, I have been able to see what needs to be added and changed.

#platformer postmortem #witching hour #platformer #gdevelop

Witching Hour: Prototype Development

The beginning of my prototype began with sourcing free assets. I was able to find some 2D pixel sprite sheets of a cat (https://pop-shop-packs.itch.io/cats-pixel-asset-pack) and a witch (https://9e0.itch.io/witches-pack). I was able to find the rest of the simple sprites I needed from the GDevelop asset store.

Once I had those sorted, I took some advice from the textbook to start prototyping. It is recommended to start with the core mechanics and build outwards from there (chapter 7, pg. 216) so I moved on to designing a simple level that would prominently demonstrate the core mechanics and gameplay.

The purple lines show the path the witch needs to take, while the blue lines show the path of the cat. Both characters must take these paths to complete the puzzle and finish the level. The cats path takes it to an orb that then needs to be then picked up by the witch and used to open the portal to the next level. The witch on the other hand, must defeat the enemies and collect the crystals.

I quickly set up the level within my GDevelop project and imported my witch and cat assets.

The current assets do not particularly fit well but I’m more focused on gameplay rather than artwork in this prototype.

The most important mechanic in Witching Hour is being able to swap between the characters, and it is what the rest of the game is built around, so it is the first thing I began working on. As I am not entirely familiar with the visual scripting in GDevelop I did get stuck on how first to approach the mechanic. With a little research I was able to establish an idea that could work using the action of ‘Ignore default controls for’. I created an object variable for both characters called ‘active’ as a boolean. If active = false, then the controls for the character would be ignored. Whereas if active = true then the character would be moveable.

I was able to get this system working for one character, where the ‘W’ key is pressed it would change the boolean value, but it would not work for both characters at once. Utilising the debugger, I was able to determine that I needed to use two key presses instead of one to switch between characters. So now when ‘W’ is pressed the witch is activated and the cat deactivated. When ‘C’ is pressed the cat becomes active and the witch becomes non-active.

To finish the prototype, I simply added in a couple more mechanics. The witch can now defeat enemies and collect crystals. Both of these actions also add to the score. The cat is able to climb the tree and retrieve the orb, pushing it down for the witch to pick up.

#Youtube #prototype #witching hour #development #platformer

Witching Hour: Initial Design Conception

The first inkling of inspiration for Witching Hour came from a game built in GDevelop called ‘Possession’ wherein a sorcerer used his spirit to possess bodies to help him unlock doors (I can no longer find the game otherwise I would link to it). I enjoyed the concept on being able to switch characters to help complete puzzles and decided to do something similar.

I stumbled upon this picture on Pinterest (https://www.deviantart.com/simoneferriero/art/Morning-Coffee-894658458) which sparked the idea for a magical witch theme.

With a magical witch theme, I was able to conceptualize a cat as a secondary playable character. Having an animal as the second character also helps to differentiate the skills between characters that allow them to work together to solve the problems and puzzles of the game. From here, I was able to brainstorm specific functions for gameplay and story.

Having a theme of a magical witch and her cat helps create engagement with the player as it is a concept they will most likely be familiar with, and from there it is easy to keep the player interested by using game elements to create an emotional connection with the game.

According to Tracy Fullerton in ‘A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games’, chapter 2 lists 5 elements that engage the player through emotional connection:

Challenge

Play

Premise

Character

Story

Using this list, I was able to lay out my ideas more concisely:

Challenge: “…conflict challenges the players, creating tension as they work to resolve problems and varying levels of achievement or frustration” (chapter 2, pg. 39).

The main challenges of 'Witching Hour' will be the interactive puzzles that require the use of both characters to solve. Because both characters have different skills, it will take a bit of critical thinking for the player to solve and finally move onwards to the next level. Additionally, there will also be enemies roaming the play area to add more conflict and they must be taken care of to continue.

Play: “free movement within a more rigid structure” (chapter 2, pg. 39).

Witching Hour has a more rigid structure as a platformer game, so free movement is limited in that capacity. Levels are also confined by a series of puzzles to unlock doors and gateways to move throughout the level.

Premise: “A basic way that games create engagement is with their overarching premise, which gives context to the formal elements” (chapter 2, pg. 45).

The premise of Witching Hour is that the players are a witch with her cat, trying to escape a forest full of angry spirits.

Character: “…characters are the agents through which dramatic stories are told, providing a way for us to empathise with the situation and live vicariously through their efforts” (chapter 2, pg. 45).

The player will be able to take on the role of both characters and experience their friendship as they help each other escape. This adds a layer of tension as the play will want to help them reach the end.

Story: “…story integrated with play can create powerful emotional results” (chapter 2, pg. 46).

The story of Witching Hour is two friends trying to escape the forest and free it of the plague of spirits currently haunting it.

So that is the current concept of Witching Hour. My next post will cover developing the prototype in GDevelop.

#design concept #week 3 #initial design #elevator pitch #platformer

Elevator Pitch: Witching Hour

Witching Hour is a puzzle platformer utilizing two playable characters, the Witch and her cat. Both possess unique abilities to help each other tread through the magic forest, fighting ghosts, and solving problems to unlock gateways. Switch between characters and get to the edge of the forest to fight the demon and rid the forest of spirits forever.

#elevator pitch #week 3 #platformer

In this weeks workshop 1, I worked through the tutorial on creating my first platformer. It only took about 30 minutes but I was able to grasp how to use and navigate the software very quickly.

As a programmer, the concepts of conditions and actions are something I already understand so it wasn't difficult to pick up on.

After completing the tutorial, I went ahead after class to add more to the game by myself. I added coins to be collected by the player and a scoreboard to keep score. Each coin is worth 1 point. Killing the enemy also adds 1 point to the score. I also added a glow to the coins so the player knows they can be collected.

Lastly, when the player comes into contact with the enemy they lose a point and the game stops.

After playing around with this small project, I am now very confident in using the software and look forward to creating a bigger game.

#youtube #gdevelop #week1 #workshop1

Introduction

Hi, I'm Taylor!

I've been interested in game development since I was a teenager. As an avid gamer myself, I always found it fascinating how these huge AAA games were made. This spiraled into my interest in game design and programming.

In this unit, I hope to learn how to best approach the steps in the game design process to make an enjoyable and unique game.

#introduction

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