alex-game-design

[alex-game-design]

Night Knight Playtesting Report

Through playtesting the final prototype versions of Night Knight we had developed, we then wrote a report on how we would implement improvements with further development.

This section was taken from the report:

Controls and information 

The main complaints with the game revolved around combat, controls, and simplicity; meaning those will be the focus when considering improvements and additions for the future. 

Combat/enemies 

While many testers said the combat was effective, the more knowledgeable ones (non-naive testers e.g. fellow game designers/gamers) stated that the combat and enemies were quite simple and spammy. We originally planned for the game to have more abilities and moves but could not implement such features due to time constraints, meaning it would be a good thing to work on in future. To improve on the combat, we would rework the darkness mechanic entirely, turning it into an ability resource, rather than a score system (which is what it was in the prototype). This ability resource would work like mana in games such as terraria adding an extra element to the combat in the game, giving something for players to manage during fights.  

Terraria mana bar taken as an example (image from: https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/improvement-of-health-and-mana-style.90368/)  

Darkness could be spent on abilities fitting into categories such as movement (dashes, jumps, dodges), offence (lasers, explosions, bullets) and defence (blocking, shields, knockback), which could be unlocked as the player progresses. Enemies would also have to become more complex to match the players increased arsenal, gaining ranged attacks, more health and other abilities.  Adding more abilities would greatly increase the players immersion in the game, as well as adding more replay ability, due to unique builds. 

Aesthetics 

The gameplay is not the only thing that needs improving as the game would benefit greatly from added sound design, music, and new animations. The animations were simple and effective at the start, with many play testers stating their enjoyment of the art style. That being said, there is much room for improvement: the design of the criminals is relatively simplistic compared to that of that player, and the animations on both fronts were rushed due to time constraints.  To improve, we would remove the motion blurring and add in between frames, focusing on making the movements more life-like. 

The prototype used for testing entirely lacked any form of sound design, To fix this, we would simply have a team member create sound effects and music, implementing them where appropriate. 

Additional changes 

There were two additional notes brought up by play testers. The naive play testers mentioned that it was difficult to determine whether or not the bigger enemy was receiving damage. This can be improved by either adding hit sounds, hit animations, a health bar, or some form of knockback. 

One of our play testers mentioned the speedrunning potential of the game. Speedrunning could be an interesting way to take the development of Night Knight. We could lean into mechanics such as the slide our character does upon releasing the movement keys, allowing players to build momentum very quickly. We could also aid speedrunning with an in-game timer. 

[alex-game-design]

Group Project

For the next assessment, I joined a group of my friends and we chose one of our game prototypes to fully flesh out. We are working on my platformer game Night Knight. Here's the one page/one sheet that I provided for insight into development:

For the first week, I am in charge of level design and puzzles, and then I will work on dialogue and story elements before playtesting.

[alex-game-design]

Racing Game Devlog

Here's the prototype gameplay footage:

I plan on including more features such as the timer and powerups, increasing spawn rates the longer the game goes on, adding score over time and extra for close misses, slowing turn speed when not on the road. The car movements were easy to implement as I just had all the objects move down towards the player car which stayed still on the y axis. I just had to recolour the car sprites for the car obstacles.

[alex-game-design]

Racing Game Pitch

Title:

Burning Tires

Pitch:

You've just got your license back! Now it's time to drive like you only live once and make sure you never get a license again! The longer you manage to avoid those pesky cops, the higher score you get! Don't hit any trees, cars, or obstacles and you'll be fine! Not that hard, right? Try again. Your car is on fire and you need to collect powerups to stay alive!

Gameplay:

has obstacle cars spawn at the top of the road in different colours

road/track top down

tree/obstacle cause car/player to lose health

collect powerups which add more time to the countdown timer

avoid obstacles and collect powerups to get higher scores and survive longer

Controls:

A and D to swerve left and right

Unique selling points:

specific time limit adds extra intensity and challenge for players aiming for high scores

powerups

[alex-game-design]

Asteroids Final Prototype

I made some background music to go in the game and implemented the items to the shop. They all work except for the Super Missile at the moment.

Here's the prototype gameplay so far:

Here's the full music clip, as you don't get to hear all of it in the gameplay recording:

[alex-game-design]

Asteroids Devlog

For the tank's movement, I made it rotate towards the mouse position and added a force at the faced angle, so that the tank would move towards the mouse. I had to rotate the sprite to face right as that is registered as the front.

I created a point on the sprite where the missiles would spawn. They would spawn at the same angle the tank was facing and a force would move them permanently in that direction. When the missile came in contact with the tree, I deleted both objects, spawned a patch of virus and played an explosion animation and sound.

I came into an issue where loading the shop scene and then returning to the game level would reset lives, bucks, and infection to their base values. This was easily fixed by removing the 'set variable to' actions at the beginning of the level scene and instead resetting them during the game over scene. This did not impact the first instance of gameplay when booting up the game, as I had already set the default values in the variable editor.

The infection actions that I have programmed seem to exponentially subtract lives instead of slowly depleting them. I may have to scrap the mechanic of having to buy an antidote and instead have the infection stop after a certain amount of time. I may also instead change what the infection does and have it make players unable to buy more lives until they cure themselves. This option seems both the easiest and the one that makes sense for the idea of the game.

[alex-game-design]

Asteroids Pitch

Title:

Super Virus Killer Tank 2025

Core Mechanics:

Asteroid games have the same core mechanics, those being that the spaceship that players control rotates clockwise and anticlockwise and can move forward from the angle it's facing. The spaceship can also move towards the mouse cursor. It can shoot projectiles that destroy asteroids (obstacles) into smaller pieces. The spaceship has health or lives that are depleted by running into the obstacles. Asteroids keep spawning at a higher rate or stronger levels after the room is cleared to give the player more of a challenge as they try to survive. For each object destroyed, the player's score increases. It is most likely a top-down shooter, similar to a shmup.

For this game, some core mechanics will be modified to create a unique Asteroids build, as well as adding new ones. They may not all be implemented in this early prototype phase.

Health can be depleted at different sections of the ship, all of which have different impacts on the gameplay

Pitch:

You are in the apocalypse, controlling a tank (referred to as ship in typical Asteroids context) and destroying the last organic life so that the deadly virus does not spread. Contact with the virus (which spawns in place of a destroyed object for a short period of time) will decay the tank, causing it to lose health (or lives). Destroying objects rewards the player with 'bucks' which function as a score system as well as allowing players to purchase upgrades and refill lives.

Images:

Game Controls:

Move mouse to move ship

Left mouse click to fire missile

Right mouse click to fire AOE missile (deals higher damage and has longer cooldown)

Spacebar to dash in faced direction, taking no damage and destroying nearby objects

Unique Selling Points:

Dash and AOE missile mechanics making gameplay more sophisticated and therefore a different experience than the original Asteroids.

Shop function and the ability to replenish lives makes gameplay sessions longer and less skill-based, appealing to a wider audience of casual gamers.

[alex-game-design]

Week 4

I successfully implemented some animations to the player character in my platformer, as well as prototyping the shadow dart mechanic.

I figured out how to spawn the darts at the player location when the button was pressed.

Here's a recording of the gameplay so far:

I still need to work on the Shadow Darts working as projectiles, moving, causing damage, and going in different directions.

[alex-game-design]

Week 3

Everything was basically cancelled this week because of the cyclone so I just continued work from last week and kept on reading the textbook.

[alex-game-design]

Week 2

This week, workshops started on top of the weekly lectures. However, I wasn't able to attend the workshop due to Tropical Cyclone Alfred :(

The work for this week is getting started with GDevelop and coming up with a pitch for our first prototype game, which will be a platformer.

Title:

Night Knight

Pitch:

As mysterious vigilante The Shadow Man, you will explore the city at night and apprehend criminals, all the while avoiding light sources that weaken you and reveal your position to enemies, as well as collecting 'darkness' from enemies that can be used to upgrade your character and unlock respawn points.

Unique selling points:

Shadow Abilities are unique abilities that can be upgraded via a skill tree.

When in light, you will not be able to use shadow abilities, have your position revealed to nearby enemies, and lose half your health.

Stealth mechanics: players are encouraged to flank enemies and avoid detection and light sources on harder difficulties/sections of the game.

How it's played:

Move through the city and defeat enemies to collect darkness. Spend darkness to upgrade abilities and inlock respawn points which will allow access into more areas of the map.

Controls:

A and D keys to move left and right respectively

Spacebar to jump, and if unlocked, double jump

W as a Shadow Ability to gravity switch

S key to go down through platforms to lower platform

J key to melee attack (short distance)

K key as Shadow Ability to fire Shadow Dart (ranged attack, long distance)

L key as Shadow Ability to dash in faced direction, jumping from point to point with invulnerability in between, can use to avoid/flank enemies

E for interaction (TBC feature, will be expanded on)

^ Concept Idea for The Shadow Man

In my other units, I've been practicing basic python functions, researching ethics in video games, and starting to work with Unity 3D.

[alex-game-design]

Week 1

This week, lectures started, but they were mostly just introductory and detailed the plans for this semester.

Through talking with some of my new friends, I have already started to visualise some concepts for games!

I'd like to make a rhythm game as the gameplay can be fun without extremely complicated mechanics, and if I have time I can work on my music composition skills as well!

[alex-game-design]

About

Hello! My name is Alex (he/him) and I am passionate about video games! I love being creative and coming up with concepts. I hope that at the end of my degree, I'll be able to go straight into the industry and write for some games like the ones I enjoy playing. I hope my games will inspire others, make them happy, and make some money for me while I do it lol