Zac Cornell

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Tetris

Tetris is a game where you need to stack different shaped blocks to clear a row. When you clear a row your score goes up. The aim of the game is to get the highest score you can get. It was released on June 14 1984 and was published by Nintendo.

About the game

This game is a very fun and simple game. Blocks will fall from the top of the screen and you must put all the different pieces together to then clear a row. It is a very beginner friendly game because it is very easy to learn. IF you are unable to clear lines and you build the blocks too high then you will die and have to restart the game.

Design of Tetris

The design in this game is more to do with the blocks in my opinion since the blocks are what the gamer is focusing on the entire time. To keep this game simple to teach the player mechanics the blocks fall down slowly giving the player plenty of time to react and think. Over time the blocks fall faster and faster making it more challenging and can appeal to both casual gamers and hardcore gamers.

The shape of the blocks are interesting because the way they are shaped makes you have to think a few steps ahead. As the game progresses I find you get the more odd shaped blocks which makes it harder to clear lines because it increases the chances of having gaps.

Game Audio

The audio in the game is very catchy. I really like the music that is playing throughout the game and it can keep the game from getting boring at the start of the game for a more experienced player just trying to get to a harder point in the game.

Even when the game gets hard I find the music can keep you calm through a stressful point in the game. Instead of the player getting mad and frustrated it has a calm feel to it so you are more calm and happier.

Conclusion

The game is simple but really effective and it can help get people into gaming and enjoying it. Tetris proves that a game doesn't have to have a long story or many mechanics to be a really fun and successful video game. The game has been made very well and it lets you explore its mechanics rather than put text on a screen and tell you how to play. For this I think this is a great take away.

It is a really good game to learn from because of its simplicity and easy to understand gameplay. You understand what is happening even if you haven't played the game before you can understand what the game is about in a matter of seconds. These are the reasons I decided to do a blog post on Tetris. A simple and fun game everyone can enjoy.

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Game Design Sixth module

I have completed my sixth module of studies for my first year at AIE. I have Started working on my end of year project with my team and we have just completed alpha. 

Working in a team means that there is not much room for error because it doesn't just affect you it affects the whole team. I have learnt that communication is so important because we all need to work together. Programming can affect the artist and what they make and vice versa.

I have spent a bit of time in unity working on this project and I am enjoying it and I cannot wait for what's to come next.

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Post Mortem QA and Testing

The last module I completed is the Quality Assurance (QA) and testing module at AIE. In this module I learned about different ways to test a video game. I was given a few games to test and I had to check for things like bugs. A bug is something that is an error with the code and needs to be fixed.

Some of the different types of testing I learned about was user, bug, Smoke and soak. There was so much more as well. As well as learning what different types of testing we also learned why these types of testing are important. We also had to identify what types of testing were appropriate for the games we were testing.

I also learned how to write up the documentation needed for each type of testing. This module has taught me so much and I now know that there is so much more to testing a video game than what I had previously thought.

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Level Design

There are different types of levels you can make for different types of games. I am going to be writing about the two videos I watched about balancing an action, RPG and designing celeste.

Guiding the player 

When you have different quests in a level it can be hard to decide how you want a player to direct the player to the quests. In certain levels you want the player to do a quest in a specific order. You can’t just teleport a player to each quest you have to let them get to the quest on their own. In the picture below the player is funnelled using high walls and clearly marked paths so the player knows where they can and can’t go. In the case of horizon zero dawn adding in high walls it began to lose its open feel.

To combat this they decided to focus on the transitional space. In the picture below, you can see that there is a lot of verticality so the high walls don’t become so high anymore. The player can also go up high or down low on the map. You can also use ziplines and tightropes so it almost feels like you are exploring a large playground.

Framing the scene

The reason that this staircase is here instead of having the player just walk straight down into the level is that it lets the player see the level as soon as they are at the top of the staircase. The player then needs to turn right to walk down the stairs and when they do that they see that there are boxes and walls on the right. This can also tell the player how they should approach the level because they see that they need to hide behind objects.

When they go down the last set of stairs they see the other side of the level where there are more options on the other side of the map such as a room to hide in and more objects to hide behind.

Readability

Something that is important in a level is that the player knows where the enemies are, what objects they can hide behind and where the goal/objective is. In the image below the player can clearly see where the enemies are and where the goal is. The player can just see the rooms on the left and is now intrigued and may want to go and see what is over there. The player is now exploring the level and is not going to get lost because the goal/objective is clear to the player.

Mechanics influencing design

One thing to keep in mind when you are designing a level is how you can show the player a mechanic using the level. In the gif below you can see that there is a gap with nowhere else to go this shows the player that between this gap is where the player needs to go. This takes advantage of a double jump and wall jump feature.

Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RlpMhBKNr0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8WDPmwOHKg 

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Post Mortem

I have just completed the narrative level design module and this is my post-mortem for that module. This has been a really fun module and I have quite enjoyed it as I love to make levels for video games.

For my vertical slice you are a pirate being held captive on the enemies boat you are locked in a cell and you have to escape before anything bad happens to you. One of the things 

I have learned throughout this module is that everything in a level has a purpose, whether it to guide the player or to make you feel a certain emotion nothing is random.

In my level I put a table in the middle of the cell you are in this is so it not only guides the player but it lets them explore the level because they are forced to walk around it and see the things on the ground.

This module has taught me a lot about the scope of a project and the importance of planning although I am getting better at these things I still have more to learn about scoping smaller and planning my time.

Overall I not only really enjoyed this module but I learned so much about level design and telling a story in a video game. It has definitely grown my knowledge about levels and storytelling and that makes me very happy.

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Downwell

Downwell is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, IOS and Android. It was released on different days for different consoles these dates are IOS: 14th October 2015, Windows: 15th October 2015, Android: 27 January 2016, PS4 and PS Vita: 24th May 2016. It was developed by Devolver Digital.

This is a 2d game where the player jumps down a well and has to avoid or kill enemies to reach the bottom of the well. Once you get to the bottom of the well you get to choose an upgrade. Once you choose an upgrade you get to advance to the next level. Once you die and run out of lives you restart back to the first level.

There are also secret rooms that you can go into to get power-ups and unlock different guns.

Upgrades

There are 20 different upgrades that you can get in Downwell some of these are

Youth, Rest In Pieces, Rocket Jump, Knife and Fork, Laser Sight, Candle, Gem Powered, Members Card.

I will link a webpage that tells you what all of these do but for this blog post, I will tell you some of the ones that I got when I played the game and what it does. Some of the upgrades I got are

Gem attractor (Sucks in nearby gems)

Drone (A drone that fires a bullet when you shoot)

Heart Balloon (this is a heart-shaped balloon attached to the player and when an enemy hits it, the balloon will pop and explode killing nearby enemies)

Laser sight (This shows a laser at the position your bullet will go. It also extends the range of your bullet travel, so you can shoot all the way to the bottom of the screen)

Art Style

For most of the game, it only has 3 colours. The colours are Red, black and white. This choice really suits the game well because it has that arcade feel to it and you can clearly see which part of the level are enemies because they are red.

There are some exceptions to this though. The candles in the second level are red but they don't do you any harm. In stage 3 the colour palette changes and now parts of the level are blue.

The game being in pixel art also gives you a sense of an arcade game. The way they have made it with the colour palette and music gives you a good sense of an arcade game.

You can also unlock different colour palettes throughout the game but it usually only uses three colours.

Conclusion

I think this game is very fun and I like how it has simple controls. I like the controls because when you first play the game it may seem like there is a lot going on and you have to figure out which ones are the enemies and how do I get passed them. So you can focus on the game and not trying to remember the controls.

I like how the enemies stand out in the first level so you get a good understanding of what you have to do. The game also has variety introducing a new enemy per level. The game seems simplistic but with many different weapon and upgrades to find and secrets to discover there is always something to do in this game. If there were no unlocks or upgrades in this game it would definitely get boring quick.

The biggest takeaway I got from this game was making your enemies stand out. How I would do this is make them a different colour from everything else and make them a bright colour.

Links 

What all upgrades do

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=537123243

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Post Mortem - Programming

I have reached the end of another module and I have been learning about programming in CSharp. This has been an interesting experience because you have to think like a programmer to solve some problems.

There will be at times where you will type up the code and it will not work. There are certain types of problems that will not show up in the console. The console is where unity displays errors with your code. It doesn't show up in the console because it follows all the rules of the programming language but it just means that you have maybe not added a capital letter or you may have misspelled something or maybe there was a word missing.

Either way it is your job to try and find where it went wrong and this can take a while if the code is long and this was a new experience for me. Not because I don't get stuck with anything but because I have not done much coding in the past so sometimes it can get confusing and it can take hours to find what went wrong.

The game that I prototyped is called Zombie Slayer and it is a zombie survival game where the objective is to survive for as long as possible and if you die then retry and try to get to a higher round the next time.

I really enjoyed this module because programming is a very useful skill to have. It is also can be a very frustrating thing to do but when you spend hours trying to fix a bug (problem) and you finally figure it out, it is very satisfying and I think that getting stuck and overcoming it and seeing everything work is an amazing feeling.

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FPS Level Design

I am going to be writing about first person shooter maps and the way they are designed. In both single and multiplayer first person shooter games

Multiplayer Maps

One thing to look out for when designing a map for a multiplayer first person shooter is the scale of the map.

You don't want a map that is too big and the players will never get to see each other. Some games that have large maps may use vehicles which helps the player get around the map but the problem with this is if during the game all the players take the vehicles and someone respawns and there are no vehicles left then there are going to be players who are left angry and frustrated.

On the other hand you don’t want a map that is too small. If a map is too small then it can be easy to spawn trap other players and this would lead to a lot of people disliking the map. Even if the players are not spawn trapping each other you don’t want players spawning and then instantly getting into gun fights.

To understand what is right for your game is to greybox a level and quickly test it and see if it is right. If it is too small either scale the level so it is a bit bigger or think of new areas you can add to the level to expand and make it bigger.

Coming up with a theme for your map

If you are struggling with ideas of what you want your map to look like try and think what the theme of your game is. Is it set in ancient egypt? Is it set in the future? So on. Then try to think what is around in that time.

If it set in the future think of what types of buildings there would be. Having your game set in the future can give you a lot of creative freedom to try and come up with new things, because you can come up with objects or cars etc that haven't been invented yet.

Try and think about where you want the players on each team to meet, where do you want the gunfights to happen? Try to design your map around what you want to have happen.

Singleplayer Maps

When designing a singleplayer map try and think about how much cover the player has and how the player is going to kill the enemy.  If the player is going to need to flank around behind the enemy to take out something like a boss to find its weak spot then you should leave a gap where no enemies should be so it will encourage the player to go that way.

Make sure the levels fits the story line this can also help you design the levels. For example if at the point in the story line it's set in a city then base the level around a city whether it be a real city or one that is made up and maybe change a few things so it fits the gameplay and is fun to play.

Conclusion

Overall there are a lot of things to think about when designing a map in general but the absolute most important thing I have learnt is to sketch and plan out your ideas to make sure that it is the best thing for your game.

Sources

https://blackshellmedia.com/2017/01/17/importance-small-scale-fps-level-design-mainstream-development/

https://critpoints.net/2018/02/18/good-fps-map-design/

http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/wold-members-tutorials/peteellis/level-design-pacing-gameplay-beats-part1.php

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Half Life 2

The game I am going to be doing an analysis on is Half Life 2. It is published by Valve corporation and was released on November 16, 2004.

Half Life 2 is an action game with Most moments being an FPS. you are even required to solve some puzzles to get out of situations, situations such as the enemy shooting at you.

Level Design

At the start of the game you are spawned in a train and are taken through a prison like camp scenario. Once the player arrives at the prison, they care then interrogated in a room for questioning.

While going through the level there are some design tricks that tell you where you should go. There are things like people walking in the direction you should go and a massive screen that gets your attention, there are fences that make the characters line up like a queue so you know to wait your turn.

Although there isn't really a queue at the start of the game. You will walk in between 2 fences and the gate behind you will shut, this tells the player that there is nowhere to go until a character opens a door. There are also non player characters (NPCs) that tell you where to go. Like at the start of the first level where the guards in the hazard suites tell you what door to go through and what questioning room to go to.

There are subtle things in the levels that tell you how mechanics in the level work. There is another level where you are required to stack boxes to escape out of a window. There are things like at the start of the game the guard knocks over a can and you are required to pick it up.

Chase scene

Towards the start of the game you are required to run from the guards you are guided through apartments with blocked doors and non player characters (NPCs). The path you need to take is very clear and with it being a chase scene I think it is important to not let the player get lost.

There is a level where you are on a roof and you are running away from a floating robot that is giving away your position. This level makes it super clear where you should go with only having one path so there is no where to get lost.

Rooftop Scene.

Core Loop

Spawn → Get passed enemy → Complete objective.

Moment to Moment

Players are constantly thinking about how they are going to complete the objective.

Introducing Enemies

When the game introduces a new enemy, The game will always show you how the enemy behaves.

For example In a level you come across an alien looking enemy that hangs from the ceiling with its tongue dangling down. This enemy is called a barnacle.

When you are first introduced to this enemy you walk around a corner and just as you see the enemy a bird flies into the tongue. The tongue then captures the bird and the tongue slowly retracts back into the barnacle's mouth, eating the bird.

This shows you what happens when you run into this enemy.

Later on, in the level, you are introduced to exploding barrels. Which then gives you the idea to blow up the barrels, which allows you to get passed a group of barnacles a lot easier.

This is a picture of a group of barnacles.

Conclusion

What I have learned about playing the game is the importance of having the level teach you about the mechanics in the game. It is also important that the level tells the player where to go so the player cant get lost. Half life 2 does this well and it is obvious that there was a lot of thought and effort gone into making each level in half life 2.

The way you are introduced to enemies in the game are done really well and I have learned a lot about how the player is introduced into an enemy.

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Level design Fundamentals - Post Mortem

I have just finished making a level for my course at AIE( Academy of Interactive Entertainment) and it has been an interesting experience.

I was given an assignment to make a level for a game. We were put into groups of four. What you do in the game is there are 2 players and each person is trying to collect the most amount of ducks. Whoever has the collected the most amount of ducks by the 4th round wins the game.

We started by choosing an area around Melbourne, we want to base the level off. My group chose hosier lane.

We started by sketching out ideas for what the level was going to be like. After some group discussions and many different ideas and sketches, we agreed upon a design.

Greyboxing

Once we had figured out how we wanted the level to be we started geryboxing the level. We did this using Pro Builder. Pro Builder is a tool that allows you to easily greybox your level.

Greyboxing is were you put in the main features of the level without any detail. This leads to the scene being made up of mostly different size cubes. The reason why we do this is because we need to see if the level is going to be fun. If we add a lot of detail and then realize the level isn't fun it means we have wasted a lot of time on something we don’t need.

So instead we make a simple object that has the same dimensions as the object we want to be there. We then test the scene.

Once we have gone through different iterations of the level and we have tested it and think that it is fun and have a design we like. We then start making more detailed assets in Maya.

Greybox version of the level.

Art Asset

Once we had made the model for an object we then had to change the mesh from the Pro Builder mesh to the mesh we made in Maya.

This was something new I had learnt to do and instead of placing the new object and trying to line it up with where the old one is, it was actually just as simple as a few clicks.

Once most of the art asset models were kin the scene. The level started to look better and it also showed we had made progress which is a good feeling.

Art assets in the level.

Textures

When we were able to make the assets we then learned how to texture them. I then realised how hard making textures really is and it also showed that i'm not that good at art.

That is ok though because that is something I can only get better at and they didn't turn out that bad so I am proud of myself and my team.

But texturing isn't all about how to make pictures we also learnt about unwrapping an object in maya. On some objects it wasn't too hard but on some more complex objects it was a bit more challenging. It ended up working out well in the end and I learnt another skill which is never a bad thing.

Animations

We also learnt about animations. We learnt about how to make something move, change colour and we also learnt you can animate more than just objects. You can animate lights as well which I had no idea you could do.

Conclusion

By the end of the project I have learnt so many new skills and I am so happy I have learnt them. One of the most important skills I have learnt is time management. If you don't get your work done on time it can affect the whole outcome of the project and it can show. I also learnt a bit about lighting and got to play around with it in my scene and I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.

Final version of the level.

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Post Mortem

I have been studying Game Design at AIE the outcome has been positive experience. I have just completed the first unit and I learnt a lot of new things. This blog is the highlight of what I have learnt.

We started by making board games. We got into teams of 4 people to design a board game, make a rough version and test it out. I found that coming up with a good idea for a board game and how it is going to play was actually pretty hard.

We worked through it as a team and the end result was I had learnt a lot. I learnt having a roll and move function was bad for a board game. I also learnt that it is important to have a game where someone who is losing needs to be able to catch up.

I learnt a lot about video game history and there was a lot of information thrown at me but I didn't feel overwhelmed. I was able to write down information and ask any questions I had. Some of the games we learnt about are Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Asteroids and many more.

We play a game every two weeks and discuss things about the game. Such as what we liked, what we did not like and anything we want to say about the game.

We learnt about unity and was able to build a small level with trees, water, rocks, small medieval town and a player. We have learnt about grey boxing. This is where you make a level of your game with no textures and not much detail. It is just the main aspects of your level. We also got to mess around with particles in unity. I learnt a lot just by messing around with particles.

We had just recently learnt about game design documents (GDD) and how to make one. This was an interesting experience and one I will not forget. A GDD is a document where you have to explain everything about the game you are going to make. This is so your team knows what to do and how you plan to make the game.

This course has exceeded any expectation I have had. It has been so much fun and I look forward to learning new things. Any advice I would give to anyone learning game design or something similar, would be to put the work in and stick with it because hard work pays off.

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Mechanics in horror games and how they make a horror game scary

By Zac Cornell

In this post I am going to talk about the mechanics in horror games and how it makes them scary.

I am doing this to get a better understanding of what makes horror games scary.

After watching a video and reading an article to get a better understanding of what makes horror games scary. (video and article are listed in sources at the bottom of the page).

No Weapons

The first thing I am going to be writing about is that having no weapons in a horror game can make it even scarier.

This is because when a player cant fight back it makes them feel helpless.

Its like witnessing something horrifying and not being able to do anything about it.

It can also be because they cant get rid of the enemy by killing it. Making a game where the player can hit the enemy then run away but the enemy will still be after you. If the enemy looks frightening and you can’t get rid of him then it's going to be a scarier experience.

No Death

Having no death in a game can also make it scarier, because it makes the player feel like that there is no respawn screen that you can just wait and calm down at. You are always in a scene that is scary.

If the player is always dying then it isn't going to be fun for the player. The player can also get used to the scene, if they are dying and repeating the level over and over therefore the game will seem a lot less scarier because they are used to that scene. If they keep dying throughout the game a fair bit then it isn't going to seem that scary.

If you have a game where the player must die then make it so they won't have to die more than twice otherwise the game can seem a lot less scarier

No Combat

Having no combat and having the player focus on one thing and one thing only lets the player notice more.

For example, instead of having multiple enemies attacking the player instead just have a creaking noise when an enemy is near, the player then freaks out and starts thinking am I being followed? Where did that noise come from? They then start to feel really scared.

If the player was attacking multiple enemies then the player doesn't notice the creaking sound.

repeating levels

To have a more scarier experience don't let the player constantly repeat the level. If the player is constantly repeating the level the  they get to used to the scene and it becomes less scary because  they have seen it many times.

If you are making a game and the player must die and repeat the level, then when they die instead of having them repeat the exact same level, change the level up a bit so it's not exactly the same.

Even just adding in some extra noises or changing where the enemies are each time can keep the game constantly scary.

Surprising the player

Catching the player off guard is a good way to scare them. For example having the player walk into a room and they hear a creak the player thinks it is going to be a monster, but instead they realize that they just stood on a loose part of the floorboard, but just after they realize that you then throw something scary at them at the moment they have calmed down.

Catching a player off guard is a good way to scare them.

Being in the dark

If there is one thing that most horror games have in common is that there is usually darkness.

Something like a scene with very little lightsource.

Games do this because most people are either afraid of the dark or most importantly afraid of the unknown.

If there is a sound of an enemy or an unusual sound and the player can't see what is happening then people usually find that quite scary.

Example of dark room

Having scary monsters and eery music can make a horror game scary but these mechanics are what make a horror game even scarier.

I definitely think i have a better understanding of what makes horror games scary.

example of dark room

Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBhiE6QZjzY

http://www.cinelinx.com/games-culture/item/8425-the-best-mechanics-of-horror-games-we-love.html  

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Hey everyone just made my tumblr and this is where i will post about games im making and things that i am interested in