Wenqi Wang

Student name: Wenqi Wang Student number: N12240648 Freelance artist skilled in extensive disciplines (illustration, key-animator, concept art etc.) Interested in gameplay design and capturing graphics. Aim to create indie games with design skills from this unit and my artistic expertise. Temporarily immersed in OMORI and SIGNALIS.

[wenqi-wang]

Assignment 3 Playtesting

Finally, it's time to get some feedback on our prototype. I was assigned to read the instructions for the playtest to make our testers comfortable with the entire experience.

We asked the testers some simple questions about the genre of games they play in their spare time to familiarise ourselves with our clients. Also, we kept track of their reactions when they got to our prototype, whether they were frustrated with the gameplay or found it boring to play with. We've had 5 testers so far, and most of them were stuck with the controls of the prototype as it struggled to adjust the angle aiming at the target. Some of them attempted to jump to reach the required height. However, they failed since there is no a particular mechanic of jumping. It turned out to be the lack of informative instructions for interactive keys, which was absolutely annoying when you have to figure it out yourself.

In conclusion, most of the testers ranked the visuals and audio the highest, and a few were a little frustrated with the controls and gameplay because they were slightly unclear and simple. We will be refining the prototype based on the feedback so far.

[wenqi-wang]

Assignment 3 Development Progress

Since I'm assigned the role of asset creation, the progressing reflection will primarily consist of artwork. The first showcased asset will be glowing crystals.

Different values are adjusted to four animation frames in a loop, achieving the glowing motion. It is the object where lights that can be angled by wheeled mirrors originate to find the entrance.

Lights can be stretched to different lengths meeting the requirements as various interactions are triggered.

Mirrors can be adjusted to different angles to change the angles of the lights targeting the door.

The player asset is an open-source reference, but I altered it into 3 frames for the walking animation.

[wenqi-wang]

Racer Postmortem

The game design readings we went through—especially Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design—really shaped how I thought about Racing. Schell’s idea that "a game is a problem-solving experience" made me focus on making the racing mechanics satisfying but not too easy. I added rubberbanding (so no one gets too far ahead) and risky shortcuts to keep things tense. The concept of flow from class also stuck with me—I tried to design the track so players learn the basics early, then face tougher turns later.

Looking back, I should’ve playtested way sooner. I tweaked the controls and track layout based on my own gut feeling, but when friends finally played it, some things felt off, like the drifting being unclear or certain turns being unfairly hard. Schell’s advice—"your game isn’t for you"—hit hard here. If I’d tested earlier, I could’ve fixed those issues before sinking time into polishing stuff that didn’t work.

The biggest miss? The drift mechanic needed better feedback. Right now, it’s hard to tell if I'm doing it right. A simple fix would’ve been adding screen shakes, tire smoke, or even a Mario Kart-style boost spark to show when you nail a perfect drift. The readings stressed that good games communicate their rules, and I dropped the ball there.

Making Racing taught me that theory only gets you so far—playtesting is everything. Next time, I’ll test early, listen to feedback, and make sure the game feels as good as it looks on paper.

[wenqi-wang]

Racing Development Post

I’ve been building a fast-paced arcade racer in GDevelop with tight drifting mechanics and competitive opponents. The goal is make a game that feels challenging enough, where skill matters, but beginners aren’t left in the dust.

Adding steering system for the Player Car

Press "WASD" to move around. Vehicles lean at a certain angle when turning left or right.

Adding Variables for timing our spawns

Variables reflecting left or right directions spawn your rivals at the random positions.

Adding road barriers to elevate challenging level

Players have to dodge the assaulting hazards, including their opponents and spiky traps.

Adding Camera system for the Player Car

While moving forward, the camera will concentrate on Player Car, and the X positional screen width is also half of the original one.

The traffic cars coming from opposite directions were the most difficult mechanics for me to catch up with. I felt lost in chaotic variables, which is annoying when things don't work as expected.

It turned out to be unmatched position of scene variables and it's fixed when attached to specific coordinate.

[wenqi-wang]

Racing Elevator Pitch

Title: Throttle burns: One Way Out

Synopsis: A ruthless last-man-standing survival race where four players are thrust onto a Calvary-like highway, relentlessly pursued by the 'Reaper Cavalry' - an unstoppable decapitator whose steed never tires of hunting you down. Survive the hazards, dodge deadly traps, and outlast your rivals… or let a single skid leads to another smoldering wreck in this asphalt purgatory. Will you harvest or be hunted? Only the road knows your fate.

Controls: Steer with "W, A, S, D" , "Shift" to accelerate, "Space" for brake, drift with an "A/D + Space" Combo.

Unique Selling Point:

Survival & Racing Hybrid - A high-speed racing game with survival features integrated, leading to thrilling and suspenseful process.

Sabotage mechanic - The Inevitable vehicular collision between you and your rivals is satisfying as explosive encounters occur.

Cinematic or Dramatic Moments - Close calls, last-second boosts, and dramatic finishes at the shelter gates.

[wenqi-wang]

Asteroids Postmortom

The Asteroids development didn't progress as expected due to my lack of inspiration. Chapter 2 (page 56) reminds me not to implement combat, racing, and platforming gameplay just because that's already been done, solved, and expected by the audience. It was really helpful since I was stuck with the basic Asteroids frame, which could be less challenging when shooting objects is the only mechanic. Thus, a target system that allows asteroids to approach the player ship was attached as it stimulates more intensive reactions.

Instead of spawning objects directly near the player ship, shout out to Jack sitting next to me during the workshop, I asked him to do the playtest before the feedback. He told me that those actually can be spawned from random areas which provides more operating space for players unlike leaving them no choices when dealing with those frustrating circumstances. All I did is hop to the events, adding an instant force of 'RandomFloatingRange' pixels then it's done as expected.

If possible reinforced level-up system would've been fulfilled since it's vital for long term progression even if it's extremely time consuming. Health of asteroids can be increased, requiring more than one shot to be eliminated. This offers more challenges as chapter 4 (page 97) mentioned challenge is very individualized and is determined by the abilities of the specific player in relationship to the game.

Frankly saying, this prototype was downgraded compared to the last one as no creative artwork was contained but only the rough mechanics. Meanwhile, tons of leaks occurred because of my lack of knowledge about Asteroids development. I will try harder since then by watching additional tutorial videos on YouTube.

[wenqi-wang]

Asteroids Development - Initial Prototype

Eventually the workable prototype came out. Though it looks simple, you will be shocked as many mechanics are demonstrated under this blog.

Adding Target System and Dynamic Respawn Zones to Asteroids

This mechanic allows asteroids to threaten players with collisions destroying player ships, while larger asteroids fragment into smaller pieces that respawn dynamically across the play area.

Adding Firing System

Players can shoot bullets by left clicking the mouse, eliminating the approaching asteroids which is the core mechanic of the entire prototype.

Adding Scoring System

Score stacks once any asteroid is destroyed, resulting in a recorded progression.

Adding Pop-up Outcome

An instant scene indicates your success when you eliminate all of the asteroids by shooting them.

[wenqi-wang]

Asteroids Elevator Pitch

Title: Space roaming Pitch: Earth's energy has already run out. Your mission is to explore the enormous universe, finding the infinite power which is 'Ragnarok Drive' to rescue the civilians on Earth. While your mission is accomplished, you have to combat reckless opponent ships from other planets since 'Ragnarok Drive' is also highly demanded by them. All you need to do is to eliminate those stopping your way one by one. Controls: "Mouse direction" to move, left click to shoot, "1, 2, 3" to equip Unique selling point:

1. Resources management - all of the supplies are limited requiring you to have a high level of arrangement.

2. Rogue-like mechanic - you will be teleport to the next level once you eliminated all of the enemies.

3. instant upgrades - your ammo will be improved once the mission is accomplished.

[wenqi-wang]

Platformer Postmortem

In terms of the Inspiration for my prototype, I barely had any idea until I found one line from Fullerton's book telling me that I could design games based on life experience. This reminded me of the old days when I was a little kid jumping on the trampolines. Thus, a hardcore platformer came up, requiring intensive timing to jump.

Fairly saying, I prioritized the prototype before working on my elevator pitch first due to the concern of advertising what I may fail to offer, resulting in the uncertainty of the ultimate demonstration. Although I should have completed the pitch first in order to create my prototype efficiently, as the tutor mentioned, you should prioritize the core gameplay before adding other components.

One thing I wanted to improve was the little gameplay which made my prototype uninteresting. I would like to add more compelling gameplay if possible in case the repetitive mechanics frustrate players a lot and add respective tiers of difficulty what I learned from the class is that we are not supposed to traumatize our audiences being game designers.

[wenqi-wang]

Platformer Development - Prototype Initial Version

Eventually the initial version of my prototype is accomplished. Details of mechanics and gameplay will be illustrated in this post.

Adding Camera zoom and center on player

By adding camera zoom and centre, the player's progression will be focused while moving forward. This prevents potential distractions when the player moves out of the screen.

Adding Death count for player

Once the player collides with the enemies or falls into the abyss, the death animation will be triggered as the Player teleports back to the beginning scene, which results in the calculated integers behind the 'Death Count'.

Adding rectangular moving tracks to enemies

The enemies will move by the track of the rectangle attached at different speeds when assaulting the player. You are required to grasp the appropriate timing either jumping or dashing forward.

[wenqi-wang]

Platformer Development - Assets Creation

The assets in my prototype were wholly crafted by me, commencing with a blank canvas. The process was quite time-consuming as I had little prior knowledge of drawing pixel art. Thus, I discovered the inspiration for pixel art on Pinterest and dived into animation tutorials on YouTube, both of which significantly enhanced my work.

Player Sprite

For the player sprite animation, the large graphics like outfits were low-saturated based on black and white, implementing high-saturation colours for smaller details (accessories or hair). It also maintained appropriate value, leading to the character with a lively impression.

Enemies Sprite

The enemy's design came out with a random thought of my ideal opponents, the one-eyed spooky eggs blinking when assaulting the player.

Platform Sprite

In terms of platforms, tier-valued colour schemes were scaled into respective sizes being utilized to reinforce the scenes.

[wenqi-wang]

Platformer Elevator Pitch

Title: The Siege

Pitch: A hardcore 2d platformer that will both frustrate and delight you. You play as a pixelated anime girl whose mission is to evade relentless assault of evil monster eggs while moving forward. This journey may require numerous deaths to fully grasp the mechanics and intensive concentration to jump which is reminiscent of "I wanna".

Controls: "D" to move right, "A" to move left, "Space" to Jump.

Unique Selling Points:

All visual assets were entirely created by me (starting from a blank canvas). Your death count will be recorded, giving meaning to your previous attempts. You only have one chance to succeed, which will heighten your focus and determination.

[wenqi-wang]

Initial Post

Due to the cyclone, my initial post was slightly delayed. However, as some content was prepared last week, I hope it still qualifies. While brainstorming my elevator pitch, I was inspired by the book’s first chapter: "Look at other games for inspiration as long as you don’t fall back on all of them" This reminded me of watching YouTubers play "I Wanna" as a child, a game demanding intense focus, mastery of mechanics, and precise timing for jumps and dashes. Combining this with my love for anime, I would like to create a hardcore platformer merging these passions. I’ll continue updating with more content including pitch throughout the day.

[wenqi-wang]

Introductory Post - About Myself

Hi there! My name is Wenqi Wang, currently a first-year student at BGIE at Qut.

I am a Freelance artist skilled in extensive disciplines (e.g. illustration, key-animator, concept art etc.). I have been passionate for art creation since young and I found that video games can transform artworks into interactive and engaging experiences. Thus, this inspired me to dive into game development to integrate my artistic innovation.

My interests in game development are gameplay design and capturing graphics. I have been working on RPG Maker and RenPy to develop visual novels incorporating my artwork, worshipping those compelling gameplay mechanics and extraordinary art creations.

Aim to create indie games with design skills from these units and my artistic expertise on my own or with a group of associates. It could be a simple prototype at the beginning but the playability of it will be continuously refined from the outset.