fishwithlegs-scribbles

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

assignment 3 postmortem‼️

hi !! the development of cosmos custodians has now come to an end, which means the end of this subject ! I've learnt so much over the course of this semester, especially in IGB120, and also within this assignment. during the development and playtesting portion of this assignment, chapters 8 and 9, digital prototyping and playtesting, of Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games guided our process.

if I could change the development process of cosmos custodians, I would make the delegation of tasks clearer, as well as a smoother GitHub integration.

if I was to alter the design, I redesign the game's UI, purely for aesthetic purposes; to strengthen the visual identity of the game.

references:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

assignment 3 playtesting‼️

hi !! playtesting of cosmos custodians has now begun :) we needed naive playtesters, so I asked some of my roommates to playtest our game. a lot of the same feedback was given: there is a bug where enemy ships are able to escape the border boundary and become stuck, meaning the player cannot kill all remaining enemies within a wave and move onto the next. this is something we will have to work on as we continue to develop our prototype. however, a lot of positive feedback regarding the game's mechanics, sprites, and aesthetics was received !

feedback on the game-breaking bug

feedback concerning gameplay and intuitiveness

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

assignment 3 development progress‼️

hi !! development of the group prototype of cosmos custodians has begun😊 our group has been working on making the UI more easily readable, the sprite designs, and fixing bugs. there was initially an issue with the powerup timer not working, meaning that the player will have the powerup activated indefinitely. however, after tweaking the cooldown code, this has now been resolved. after playtesting, more bugs and tweaks needed will be found, and further development can occur, as according to chapter 9, playtesting, of Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games.

references:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

assignment 3 group formation and team discussion‼️

hi !! we have officially begun assignment 3, which begun with group formation. within our group of four, we had to choose one of our games from our assignment 2 to work on and playtest as a group. we chose an asteroids game (cosmos custodians !) from one of our members whilst combining aspects, such as sprites and animations, from another's asteroids game. we divvied up roles and jobs and discussed things we would be adding to our final prototype, such as music and a title screen. we'll begin further development and debugging soon !

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

assignment 2‼️

hi !! for our second assignment, we were required to choose one of our prototypes and create a one sheet and a one page for this game. these allow for potential players and investors to see at a glance the core mechanics and gameplay of a video game, and also allow for progress to be tracked during development. for this assignment, I chose to use paper racers as I felt it had the strongest aesthetic identity, and would work well within these contexts.

paper racers one page

paper racers one sheet

I am very proud of how these pages turned out (I spent far too long on the logo design) !

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

racing game postmortem‼️

hi !! the development of paper racers has now ended :) whilst having some issues, I'm happy overall with the final prototype, especially with the game's overall aesthetic.

the final prototype of paper racers is my take on a racing game where the player controls a paper plane that they must charge up to achieve maximum speed and acceleration. The goal is to travel as far as possible whilst dodging airborne obstacles and doing tricks to accumulate points. the space bar is pressed to stop the charge bar, left and right arrow keys to move, and the left mouse button to do tricks.

if I was redevelop paper racers, I would focus more on the development of the prototype's mechanics. according to chapter 5, working with system dynamics, of Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, a game must be "internally complete", which is something paper racers suffers from and I will work to improve this balance in my future prototypes.

if I was to alter the design of paper racers, I would try to simplify its mechanics. I got too ambitious during the design process and will ensure to keep mechanics both interesting but simple for the best user experience.

references:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

racing game playtesting‼️

hi !! paper racers is now in the playtesting stage, as in accordance with chapter 9 of Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. after receiving feedback from playtesters, I decided the speed of the paper plane's movement had to be increased slightly to increase the smoothness of the plane.

original player movement

updated player movement with increased values

as well as this, the game's mechanics will continue to be expanded upon in further development :)

references:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

racing game development‼️

hi !! the development of paper racers has begun :) this begun with drawing the sprites of the different paper planes the player can choose to race:

green, pink, and blue paper plane sprites

I then coded the horizontal plane movement, which allows the player to move their paper plane left and right with the arrow keys:

player movement code

I begun to implement the obstacle spawn code, but this still needs further troubleshooting in order to work properly:

obstacle spawn code

I also designed the basic UI of the game, including the distance and score counters, and the charge bar:

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

racing game pitch‼️

hi !! our next task is to develop a prototype of a racing game in GDevelop. my user experience goals, as per chapter 1 of Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, are:

players will feel motivated to compete for the highest score

players will feel tension as they combine reflexes with skill

title: paper racers

tba is a top-down racing-esque game where you aim to toss a paper plane as far as possible whilst dodging airborne obstacles whilst doing tricks to accumulate points. Doing tricks momentarily stops horizontal movement, so timing is integral. To achieve maximum acceleration and speed, players must charge their plane toss by stopping the moving arrow on the charge bar, with the plane moving faster the closer to green they get.

controls:

left and right arrow keys to move

space bar to charge paper plane

left mouse button to perform tricks

three unique selling points:

graffiti-esque style

unique spin on a top-down racing game

combines speed, skill, and reflexes

references:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

asteroids postmortem‼️

hi !! catgun has now finished development, and I'm very happy with how I've improved since my first prototype ! I feel I have successfully met the goals I set for myself in 0007's postmortem: to focus more on aesthetics, and included more playtesting to optimise the game for player enjoyment.

catgun's final prototype is a spin on asteroids where the player controls a cat with a gun fighting against an ever-increasing horde of fish with legs, whose speed increases slowly as more time passes to create a steadily increasing sense of conflict and difficulty. shooting a fish with legs adds one point, whilst shooting a smaller, faster bell adds three. the left mouse button is used to shoot and mouse movement is used to change the angle of the player character.

if I was redeveloping catgun, I would focus more on the brainstorming and physical prototyping process of making the game. as outlined in chapter 7 of Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, trying to design a whole game at once is overwhelming, and she recommends focusing on isolating the core game loop and developing prototypes from there. this significantly slowed down catgun's development process, and is something I will focus on going forward.

if I were to alter catgun's design, I would add a high score tracker to increase the competitiveness of the game by allowing players to either attempt to beat their own personal best or compete against other players for the most fish with legs defeated !!

references:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

asteroids playtesting‼️

hi !! catgun has now reached the playtesting stage, as according to chapter 9 of Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, so I asked my friends and family to play and give feedback on my current prototype. I also asked for one of my playtesters (my sibling) fill out the playtesting survey provided to us in one of our workshops:

name hidden for anonymity as requested

the majority of the feedback received concerned the movement of the enemy fish with legs and the accessibility/QOL of the game. i agreed that the loss of lives should have a clearer indication, so I added a sound effect that plays whenever a fish collides with the player:

The sharp jump in the fish acceleration was also fixed by altering the code to give them a slower, smoother increase in speed:

the feedback given during playtesting proved very valuable to the improvement of catgun's prototype !!

references:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

asteroids development‼️

hi !! catgun's development has now begun😊 this started by modifying the asteroids prototype made in our workshop. I first started by creating new unique sprites for catgun (learning from 0007's prototype), as seen below:

the player sprite - cat with gun

the enemy sprite - fish with legs

power up sprite - bell

I also modified the enemy mechanics: I decided to make the player stationary, so I programmed the fish with legs to constantly move towards the player:

enemy movement code

I also added a score variable to give players incentive to play the game, and adding a sense of competitiveness: shooting a fish with legs is worth one point, and shooting a smaller, faster bell is worth 3.

lives and score variables

I have begun to implement an increase in enemy speed as the game progresses, but these exact values will need to be playtested.

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

asteroids elevator pitch‼️

hi !! we have now moved past the platformer project and are now starting our next task: making an asteroids-style game in GDevelop ! my user experience goals as according to Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games are as follows:

the game is designed to be silly, so players will feel a sense of playfulness and happiness

players will feel incentivised to reach as high as a score as possible

title: catgun

catgun is a silly, cutesy 2D asteroids-style game where you control a little orange cat with a gun who has to fight back against constantly encroaching fish with legs. collect bells to increase your score whilst simultaneously defeating a never-ending army of weird fish!

controls

the player character is stationary - the mouse is used to change in which direction it faces

left mouse button to shoot bullets

three unique selling points

you play as a cat. with a gun. that's awesome

game art: all sprites are pixel art drawn by me :)

risk and reward: players can decide to collect faster moving bells to gain more points at the risk of potentially losing lives to fish

references:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

platformer postmortem‼️

hi !! the development of 0007 has finally finished, leaving me with many aspects to reflect upon. firstly, chapters 7, 8, and 9 of Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games guided my prototyping and playtesting process, as well as influencing my design process. for example, a major aspect of playtesting 0007 was balancing difficulty with both the level design and the speed of the chaser. the final prototype of 0007 involved a 2D side-view platformer where the player is chased by an enemy whilst they navigate through the level, with the player dying when coming into contact with the enemy. this chaser creates conflict and tension within the game. the player can also shoot bullets; however, in the prototype, these bullets do nothing to the enemy. the left and right keys are used for movement, the space bar to jump, and the left mouse button to shoot.

if I was to go back and redevelop 0007, I would include more playtesting to improve the core of the game earlier on, and as according to Fullerton. I would use unique sprites and include animations to give the game a distinct theme - these changes would also likely impact the gameplay itself. I will strive to include this in future games I develop to maintain a balance between focusing on gameplay and aesthetics. unfortunately, I ended up not fully implementing the shooting mechanic, so if I was to redesign 0007, I would allow the player to fight back against the enemy whilst finding the exit.

if I were to alter the design of 0007, I would add more levels to the prototype in order to further immerse players into the game. I would also include pickups and improved weapons that can be collected to add more interactive aspects of the game (as outlined in my original plan).

references:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

prototype playtesting‼️

hi !! after receiving feedback from playtesting, I have decided to implement certain changes to my digital prototype:

to make the path the player must take through the level clearer by adding directional arrows

to increase the speed of which the enemy chases the player to increase the stakes and tension of the game; however, this needs to be further tested so the game can be enjoyed by players with different skill levels

to change the default sprites the prototype currently uses to custom sprites I create

the speed of the enemy has been increased

arrow for clearer direction

further playtesting also revealed that the issue with the player shooting arose from default code that hadn't been deleted, so the player can now shoot projectiles !

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

platformer development‼️

hi !! 0007's prototyping has begun ! this first started by creating a rough paper prototype, following the game development process laid out in Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. this paper prototype represents the first ideations of the level design of my game's first level:

by using GDevelop's basic platformer template, I have created a barebones first digital prototype level of the game, as seen below:

the level design of the paper prototype had to be modified slightly in order to work within the digital prototype, with changes being made through constant playtesting, as per chapter 7 of the textbook. the game controls were also slightly changed, with the A and D keys being replaced with the arrow keys.

currently, this digital prototype has movement controls, enemy pathfinding, a win condition, and player death implemented. however, the enemy pathfinding still needs to be tweaked as the sprite continues to get stuck on platformer blocks and stop for short periods of time. I have also attempted to implement the ability for the player to shoot at the enemy, but currently this mechanic remains incomplete.

winning the game!

next, the obstacles and collectibles drawn in the paper prototype will need to be implemented within this digital prototype. custom sprites will also have to be created to replace the default GDevelop sprites.

references:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟

[fishwithlegs-scribbles]

first elevator pitch‼️

hi !! for my current unit, IGB120, we are making a platformer prototype using the game engine GDevelop. my readings of Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games have guided and influenced how i approach the prototyping process - to follow her playcentric design process, i have set the following player experience goals:

players will feel a sense of tension and pressure when playing the game

players will have to utilise their surroundings to progress

title: 0007

0007 is a fast-paced, techno-futuristic 2D platformer game where you attempt to escape a distorted, labyrinthine server room whilst being hunted by a "malfunctioning" AGI computer. you must fight back against robots controlled by this sentient machine while searching for an exit as quickly as possible. improvise weapons, evade bloodthirsty robots, and navigate twisting turns and dead ends whilst deciding both your own fate and that of the AGI hunting you.

controls

A and D keys to move left and right

spacebar to jump

left mouse click to attack

three unique selling points

the player decides the ending of the game - whether to spare or destroy the AGI, with either option having their own consequences

narrative and lore - as the player progresses, the history behind the AGI and the backstory of the game will be slowly revealed

improvised weapons - the player can find and fight back against oncoming enemies with weapons hidden throughout the levels

(0007 = sad Mac error subcode that signifies a privilege violation)

concept art by me :3

references:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

Tinker Different. (2012). Sad Mac Error Codes. https://tinkerdifferent.com/resources/sad-mac-error-codes.82/

Deliberate Game Design. (n.d.) X-Statement. https://deliberategamedesign.com/x-statement/#:~:text=The%20x%2Dstatement%2C%20also%20known,should%20be%20excited%20about%20it.

best fishes and keep swimming 🫧🐟