connor107

[connor107]

Final Post

SO, I am finaly finished with this blog. To be honest I wasn't good at keeping up to date with it. Since my last post (which was later than I had hoped) we have fully finished our game. I implemented enemies that spawn in the side of the screen then start shooting at you, as well as fixed loads of bugs (although I'm sure we missed some). Overall this unit has been really fun. I have enjoyed learning how to use this engine, even if it was a bit of a struggle at first, the only thing I havent enjoyed about this unit is this blog, because the only thing I am worse at than game design is writing about it :). Thank you for a great unit, it genuinely has been really fun and probaby my favourite game design unit of the year, I hope you enjoy the holidays and have an extremely well deserved break.

[connor107]

Asteroid escape update 2

So few things I forgot to mention, when I started working on this game, before I fixed up the upgrade system, I also implemented a boost, as well as fixing up the ships gun to shoot from alternating sides of the ship. We were just adding things here and there and fixing up lots of bugs before before we began playtesting, then, tho no ones suprise playtesting revealed MORE bugs, and really showed how lacking our game was in terms of its features AND balance. Since we got our feedback back I have mostly been fixing bugs and we have been discussing how we can fix up the balance and make the game more engaging to players. I changed up how the player can move, instead of pressing s to stop and and then w to stat moving again you can just hold s to slow down instead. This change makes the game a bit harder and also makes controls simpler and in my opinion more intuitive. Next time we are planning to add enemy ships that fly into frame and start shooting the player.

[connor107]

Racing game Postmortem

So i have been working on this game on and over over the last few days, I have been mostly working on the final assignment so its not super done. Honestly the most limiting factor of this games development was a combination of time and unfortunately lack of interest/creativeity. I genuinely did not really know what to do for this game. I added some features here and there but even now while its in a somewhat playable state its not fun and I am really struggled to bring myself to work on it.

I guess that is a major part of game development right? You aren't going to enjoy or even like every game you make. I feel like thats a pretty important thing to get used to, and especially if this becomes an actual job I'll need to work on projects I might not like. I really need to get better at that I think, working on games even if I dont like them, oh well next time I'll just need to power through a little better.

If I were to make something different about this game I dont know if I would, I have enemies that kind of just b-line towards the player which are hard to avoid but still dodgeable, as well as a good ammo system. You only have 3 bullets to shoot, but if you land your shot then whatever you hit (passive car or enemy car) drops one bullet on the ground you need to pick up. This makes shooting really risky because you might need that bullet to clear a path through traffic or defend yourself from enemies, but you can only miss so much. One thing I would have liked to build is maybe a fuel system, at the moment all the cars move pretty slow so its not too hard to hit/dodge them so the game isn't super hard and fuel could have added a bit more complexity.

[connor107]

Final game update 1

So we started working on the final game we are going to submit for assignment 3. We decided to go with Harry's asteroid game, its called asteroid escape. Its actually fairly completed considering how long he had to do it. There are a lot of bugs and things that are yet to be added but a really good start. The first thing i'm working on is the upgrade system, every time you complete a level by destroying the largest asteroid you are supposed to get some upgrade points that you can spend to level up your ships stats. None of it worked but it was supprisingly easy. Just create a bunch of global varibles for things like speed, fire rate, handling, etc and increase them when you hit the button as long as you have enough upgrade points, which is also a global variable. I decided to make it a bit more interesting, you could spend a point to unlick rockets as an alternitave fire, but you only have a limited supply of them. Right now they only do a bit of extra damage to the boss asteroid but ideally i'll put in some kind of explosion that deals A.O.E damage to destroy multiple asteroids.

[connor107]

Racing game update

So quick update, I have mostly been doing our final asignment and this racing game has kind of been on the back burner but I have fully fleshed out the movement and passive vehicle spawning. I wasn't super happy with how the tuorial implemented movement because it meant you could only move left and right but i wanted the player to be able to go back and forward aswell just so its a bit easier to avoid the enemies once they are implemented. With the other vehicles on the road I made the time between when they spawn random, this means that the can spawn in a way that blocks the player completely although I kind of want to keep that in because it means you need to save ammo to make a gap in the road incase they spawn in a really unlucky formation. I have shooting but I'm not super happy with it because you need to be truning left or right to aim that way and it just feels weird to aim. I haven't implemented pickups or anything yet but so far its coming along ok, again I'm personally not a fan of this style of game so its a little difficult to come up with something fun but its slowly getting there. Anyway, till next time :)

[connor107]

Racing elevator pitch

OK so its been a little while, I've actually already started working on the groups final assignment for this semester but i have been super slack with these tumblr posts so I'm going to catch you up today :)

So I dont really like endless running games. I think they have a lot of potential to be fun but they need to have something other than just go, to do this I want my racing game to have a little bit of resource management or something to make it more than just an endless runner. Hopefully this can keep the players engaged and make them think about what they are going to do rather than just dodge cars aimlessly forever. Now because I'm not very creative with names I'm going to call it Crazy Clarke: Angry Street, obviously a play on Mad Max.

Gameplay: My game will primarily be an endless runner where the player drives along dodging cars, while they do this they will have to evade the police and collect ammo/fuel from destroying other cars

Will it be compelling: So I personally don't think the endless runner style game is super compelling, so hopefull thanks to the enemies the player must dodge and the resources they need to manage (fuel and ammo) it will be more compelling.

Taget audience: young teens.

Players Role: the player takes on the role of Clarke, he works at the citys water supply and is running late for work.

How will the player be motivated: The player will be rewarded with pickups to restore their ammo/fuel, as well as a timer to show how far they have traveled. The further they travel before they die or run out of fuel the better.

Genre: Endless runner.

Setting: The setting is post-post-apocalyptic, so everything will look like a post apocalyptic wasteland, but act like they live in modern society. so cars on the road will be covered in blades and spikes and look like they are straing out of mad max, along with the buildings and clothes, but people work 9-5 jobs, there is a sound system of government, but they are all post-apocalypic psycos.

Elevator Pitch: Crazy Clarke: Angry Street is a play on the setting of Mad Max in the form of an endless runner game. It takes elements of games such as subway surfers where you dodge obstacles along an endless path, and introduces resource management, hostiles, and a very simple form of combat. The player must get as far as possible as fast as possible to stand any chance of getting to work on time and keep their job. Along the way they must collect ammo and fuel by destroying other psycos on the road while avoiding enemies.

This is the kind of backround i was planning to make, except with more lanes to weave btween. (retrieved from: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/pixelart-desert-topdown-mengo-fedorov-on-artstation-at-httpswwwartstationcomartworkbmdze8--501447739766207214/)

This is the vehicle aesthetic, except pixelated and with different variants for the enemies, passive vehicles, and for the player. (retrieved from: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/404198135281427942/)

[connor107]

Asteroids Post Mortem

So my asteroids game turned out pretty well in my opinion, its decently balanced, the core mechanic is chanenging with simplistic controls, overall I'd really like to keep working on it in assignment 3. The more I worked on it the more I wanted to add so I dint really have time to do everything I wanted, the best example of this is the darkness surrounding the light, I couldnt figure out even just how to darken the screen and have the middle illuminated by a moving light source. The only work around i had was to have a huge black rectangle with an empty cricle in the middle, then set its position to the position of the light. This made the movement of the light look weird though, plus I didn't want it too be totally opaque because I think that would be too challenging, it needed to gradulally get darker away from the light source.

[connor107]

Asteroids dev update

So, little update on my asteroids game called Moth Simulator:

after much struggling I managed to implement a moving circle to represent the light source, and the closer you get to it the more points you recieve :)

as of right now I dont know how i would have it actually give off light, aka have a circle of visability that moves around the light. I'm also worrid that that would make it too hard because its already pretty difficult to stay near the light.

In other news I made it completely un-fun and awful to play. I made the asteroids spawn more frequently and put boundarys so that they wouldn't leave the screen, which made it impossible to do well in so I quickly scrapped it.

My next idea is to add a dash which can shoot you forward destroying asteroids in your path, And to add a fly swatter that will wipe half of the screen at random so you have to quickly get from one side of the screen to the other to avoid it.

[connor107]

asteroids elevator pitch

So, the second style of game we are making in IGB220 is an asteroids, bullet hell esque, game. I don't really have a good name fo it so I'm going to just go with Moth simulator (work in proress).

Gameplay:

You play as a moth tasked with staying close to a moving light source. The player must stay close to the light to gain more points, while also dodging and shooting obstacles.

How it's compelling:

The game will focus on being hectic, with lots of obstacles and a constantly moving objective the player will need to juggle their priority, surviving or gaining points.

Target Audience:

The game will be extremely accessable to a huge variety of players, however it will be targeted towards pre-teens as its theme and difficulty are well suited to that age range.

Players Role:

the player is tasked with staying near a moving light source while dodging and shooting obstacles, the player must score as many points as they can before they die

Player Motivation:

The game will use a scoring system, the longer you live and the closer you are to the light, the more points you revieve.

Genre:

The game is a shoot 'em up game, simmilar to the classic arcade game asteroids, just with more things to keep track of.

Setting:

The setting of the game is just in the sky. There is no real story as of right now, there could be if it was developed further however it would not impact gameplay. You are a moth, you like light.

Elevator Pitch:

Moth Simulator is a chaotic and challenging shoot 'em up/asteroids based game where the player plays as a Moth. In order to score points you need to keep close to your light as it floats around the map, but be careful to avoid and destroy floating obstacles that will come at you from all angles. The main idea behind this game is to force players to split their attention and make them decide between playing safe or risking it all for points. The longer you live, the longer you can earn points , but you need to put yourself into dangerous positions to earn those points.

[connor107]

platforming post mortem

So, turns out making a game is kind of hard, particularly in gdevelop. Now its time to move on to making an asteroids game but my platformer is shockingly unfinished. The main mechanic was throwable bombs that would be detonated to launch you through the levels. I couldn't do it :) so basically the problem is that I couldn't even make a throwable item that would follow an arc. If i appled physics behaviours to the projectile it would interact weirdly with the ammo properties. The only way (as far as I found) to make projectiles was through the fire bullet action. This action can only apply a constant speed to the projectile, not an initial force to launch it the way that i needed. I spent SO long trying to fix this but couldn't. I really like the concept and the mechanic, I just didn't have the time (or ability) to implement it. Realistically it was pretty far out of scope from the beginning and I probably spent too long trying to make my idea work when I should have found an idea that was more achievable. I will say however that it did let me exlpore the physics in gdevelop pretty well and now I have a much better underastandingof how to use the engine as well as what both myself and the engine is capable of.

[connor107]

Elevator Pitch

The first prototype I'm going to be making in IGB220 is a little platformer game which is yet to have a name.

This week in our lecture we looked at gameplay, and how its 90% of what the player does in the game, which made me panic a little bit because if we don't nail that then the game won't be fun. To nail the gameplay you need to have seeds of gameplay to encourage a fun experience for the player. Now there are a few kinds of gameplay seed you can play with to create a fun game, emotional, role/fantasy, rhythm, and mechanics. Personally my favourite (and conveniently the easiest) is game mechanics. I need a fun, interesting, and unique machanic that players can play with so that my game is actually fun. In addition to this I am worried about the moment to moment gameplay because if the game isn't fun to play most of the time then no one wants to play it. That's why I want my core mechanic to be a movement ability that makes it fun to simply just move around the levels.

Gameplay:

The game will focus on movement and platforming, featuring throwable explosives that the player uses to launch themselves.

How it will be compelling:

Players will mainly focus on the movement as they navigate levels, the levels will feature difficult jumps that require speed to encourage fluent and rewarding movement.

Target audience:

Ideally it will be somewhat challenging so the target age is around 12+

Players role:

The players role is to navigate levels that get progressively more difficult, trying to reach the engine of an alien ship to destroy it.

Players motivation:

The game will be timed, with the lowest time to beat the game being the best player.

Genre:

The game is a platformer with speedrunning and puzzle elements.

Setting:

The setting for this game is an alien ship, the 'story' is to reach the engine and destroy it, saving the world from sn alien invasion however the game is more focused on mechanics than setting and story.

Elevator Pitch:

Boom zoom (name in progress) is a fast paced platformer where the player must speed through an alien warship filled with traps and defences that must be dodged. The player must reach the engine where so they can destroy the entire ship and save the world from invasion. The main movement mechanic will be throwable explosives that when detonated will launch with considerable speed, which will be utilised in conjuction with other common movement mechanics to make progress.

concept artstyle:

Sources:

Google images: 2D scifi platfomer. Retrieved from: https://www.gameart2d.com/uploads/3/0/9/1/30917885/2816069_orig.jpg

[connor107]

About

Hi, my name is Connor and I am currently studying Games and Interactive Environments at QUT! I have been interested in making games for a while now despite my late introduction to gaming. While others might have been playing video games growing up we didn't really have a platform to play games on until my mid to late teens, so around late 2017. My goal this unit is to make something that feels good to play and is unique, I love tight controls and rewarding movement so if I can making something with those I will be happy.