failingupwardswithphelixlee

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

Cars, Pistons, U-joint: Overheat: Postmortem

The concept phase was the most difficult stage of iterative game design for this project, specifically the generating ideas step. I personally find racing games to be homogeneous in design, rarely deviating in gameplay aside from the occasional unique power-up. However, Fullerton's reminder in chapter 9 that the primary role of the designer is as an advocate for the player provided the insight I needed to properly begin.

My favourite racing game as a kid were the extreme ones with lots of explosions, speed (or at least the sense of it), and crashes, namely MotorStorm (2006). Once I had the foundation, experimenting went well as I thought "how do I make this game about driving and explosions unique?" and, "I want this game to blow up (as in literally explode)." This dreary sentiment, indicative of my mood toward my difficulty practicing conceptualization at the time, clicked in my head like a character saying just the right word in a movie and all the game aspects fell into place

Currently the prototype exists as a child of the tutorial from class: 2D top-down-perspective. The majority of the game feel I strive for, however, extends from motion. And while early 2000's EDM music helps form the sensations of speed and chaos, the 3D medium would serve the game's feeling far better in its future development. The reason for this is simple, the introduction of a 3rd dimension adds a new axis for the user to player with, opening the possibilities of dynamic movement. Fullerton tells a story in chapter 8 of a designer who was unable to express his idea for a 3D feature of a game, so he developed a 2D digital prototype to communicate the essentials. His practice convinced the team to pursue his idea which would define a large portion of the gameplay. Since GDevelop doesn't do 3D games well, that is the goal of this prototype.

Sony Interactive Entertainment. (2006). MotorStorm.

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

Cars, Pistons, U-joint: Overheat: Atmosphere

Steve Swink's 'game feel' (Fullerton, 2014, p.246) is perhaps the key driving factor in the design ethos of this game. The reason for this is because racing games are a genre derivative of simulation, of which the goal is to imitate reality in the digital medium. The importance of game feel drives me (pun not intended) toward making this game 3D. However, my limited time and resources dictate this prototype remains in the realm of 2D for now. Therefore, to mediate the loss of game feel from the 3D medium I want to build atmosphere the way Michael Sweet does with audio (Fullerton, 2014, p.369).

Whilst I am an no audio-engineer, I recognize sound effects and music create atmosphere. Sweet highlights diegetic sounds as a complimentary effect to Diner Dash's music as it constructs a coherent atmoshphere evocative of a busy restaurant. This principle ties in beautifully with the interlacing culture of cars/driving and music. George Lucas reminisces on cruising culture from the early 1960's in his film American Graffiti (1973), depicting an intimate marriage of music and driving. Although, this prototype doesn't aim to replicate that tone, favoring the EDM, punk, hip-hop genres of the early 2000s to elicit a metaphor of the fast-paced action-packed ludo-narrative.

The use of countdowns or alarms could be key motifs of the soundtrack but personally sounds like those stress me too much to artfully develop into this version of the prototype.

George Lucas. American Graffiti. (1973).

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

Cars, Pistons, U-joint: Overheat: Conceptualization and Iteration, their applications in digital prototyping

When brainstorming I realized my first thoughts of racing games are about multiplayer interaction patterns. Unable to facilitate this- and unwanting to- I focused on experimenting with the player vehicle. Initially the core gameplay mechanic was going to do with the player's engine overheating but it felt uninspired and a menial step in the replication of system dynamics. I can't remember who said it, but a game studies scholar once said something along the lines of, "developing the game is as much play as playing the finished product is." And so I wondered, how can I play with this game?

At this stage I am taking inspiration from the meta narrative structure of There Is No Game. It aligns with the chaotic energy of an all-out rally race where every driver is out to get you in that the literal game constantly attempts to stop you from playing it. It is the rawest manifestation of Game v Player that Fullerton describes, and I would argue when that player interaction pattern is contextualized within a genre typical of multilateral competition the meta narrative subverts player expectations to establish the structure of the game's core challenge.

The way I reckon I'll do this is by overheating "the computer" instead of the engine. Obviously I can't actually overheat someones computer to the point of a force shutdown, but I can program a meter (shown below) that displays CPU% that goes up with every explosion, crash, and acceleration (frame-rate increase) for example.

Draw Me a Pixel. There Is No Game. (2020).

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

Lightspeed Jumper: Postmortem

I had trouble balancing the stress induced by the game (speed of the enemy ships) and the skill of the player (the precision and timing of their movement ability) to create an engaging chase. The distance the player traveled in the 'lightspeed jump' needed to significantly outdo the distance enemy ships could travel in the time it would take the player to travel at their default speed to that point. The application of this algorithm was it's own issue as my understanding of GDevelop seemed to dwindle in the face of it's method of mathematics. Eventually I decided an arbitrary factor for the speed difference between player and enemies, enabling the refinement of this balance as something to pursue if development continued- something playtesting with others would provide great benefits for (Fullerton, 2014, p.274).

An idea that would add depth to the chase is the expansion of enemy types as the player destroyed more and more of the fleet. This would raise the difficulty and establish something this prototype is severely lacking, flow: the challenge of the game does not grow in relation to the player's skill, it is stagnant (Fullerton, 2014, p.98).

Like the previous project, The Set Things, this one is incomplete, it lacks balance and only presents a skeleton structure. However, as Fullerton suggests, the fun of the concept is the main concern of the core mechanics being prototyped. I spent majority of development thus far self-prototyping kinesthetics, gameplay mechanics and balance, but this only constitutes half of the game's appeal and fun potential. The other half being the meditative nature of the visual language of the game. You could consider the ship shattering a property of the object- an element of system dynamics- but I feel the enjoyment extends from the aesthetic style as opposed to the elements relationship to others within a system. That said, the addition of diverse enemy types could continue the expansion of the system's dynamics into the visual language; certain ships explode in different ways or colours, produce special fuel that gives the player a streak line like Tron (1982).

The playtesting of kinesthetics in the sense of a control scheme was not the goal, since all prototypes were to be designed under a mouse & keyboard scheme. Rather, I interpreted kinesthetic "feel' as that of the PC's movement and control feedback- a digital kinesthetic or 'game feel' as Steve Swink (Fullerton, 2014, p.246-248) puts it, as opposed to a physcial one that Fullerton describes in chapter 8 (2014, p.239-250.).

Tron. (1973).

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

Cars, Pistons, U-joint: Overheat: Elevator pitch

What if Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes had a baby with There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension, and that baby went to driving school with MotorStorm: Pacific Rift?

Race against the game as it tries to shut itself down, the goal? You don't have to come first, you just have to finish the race. Other racers are controlled by the game, and it will use them as agents to disrupt your race, accelerating, crashing and exploding them- not in that order- to overheat your computer forcing it to shut down the game. You are also encouraged to accelerate, crash and explode your way to victory, so manage your CPU accordingly and finish. that. race.

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

Lightspeed Jumper: Core game play mechanics

This project explicitly negotiates with the formal elements of game design, elements Fullerton (2018, ch.3) outlines makes up the rules of play to form Huizinga's "magic circle." The power dichotomy of the magic circle is something I'd like this game to take full advantage of. The game's player experience goals center on a sense of desperation, so the game rules must invite the player to perform actions they would "never otherwise consider- shooting, killing," in tandem with ones they fantasize of performing "courage in the face of untenable odds, sacrifice, and difficult decision making." The latter of which is emphasized with the game's objective of "chase" (Fullerton, p.67-70).

-As a quick side note, I also find Fullerton's "alignment" objective pertinent to the design of this prototype. Despite the focus on matching games such as Tetris or Othello, the arrangement of game pieces in a certain spatial configuration to achieve a goal seems synonymous to positioning a spaceship to face enemies so that the player may defeat them in conflict and survive, no?-

Applying this design philosophy to the game was simple with a player versus game pattern of interaction, enemy ships would chase the player until they were defeated. This is enabled by the management of critical resources such as health (p.79) and fuel- which I view as an interpretation of currency (p.80) for its facilitation of the in-game action economy.

Currently the game only ends when the player loses the chase. While this exacerbates the feelings of desperation and survival to establish challenge, it does not allow players to exceed or even reach goals. Although the game creates challenge by successfully exercising the difficult skill of timing lightspeed jumps with spatial accuracy, it fails to establish an attainable goal which impedes on the fun (Fullerton, 2018, ch.11). Shifting the objective, so that after enough fuel is gathered from enemy ships the player can lightspeed jump to another galaxy and fully escape the swarm of enemy ships, would remedy this, ultimately making the game more fun.

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

Lightspeed Jumper: Experimentation

In the previous post my discussion on conceptualization focused on the game mechanics, omitting a crucial element of the elevator pitch and half of the game's appeal.

Below is Hector Vives' rendition of the Holdo maneuver, and it is stunning.

Like many star wars fans, watching this scene for the first time took my breath away. The dramatic climax of the first act of the film combined with the visual beauty left a lasting impact on me. So, in preparation for development I rewatched the movie and I realized the moment Vives depicts above is a calm against the devastating storm.

This prototype idea had already been lacking a visual style as well as a wealth of originality. Why not develop one to inform the other? Just like the scene uses tranquility to contrast chaos, I can use visuals to juxtapose gameplay to contrast the relaxing meditative cozy genre against the high-octane shooter genre.

Hector Vives. (2018). Holdo's Jump. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/o28R6k

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

Lightspeed Jumper: Conceptualization

This game idea had been incubating for many years as my love for star wars prepared it's emergence. The moment of insight was the punctual prompt of an Asteroids-esque game during my personal consumption of Season 1 of Andor (2022-2025) in preparation for season 2. The evaluation of one's insight is meant to determine originality, so although the idea is unoriginal- essentially ripped right from a movie- I found the emotional gravity of that part of the film quite prone to "gamification" (Hamari, 2019).

The Holdo Maneuver

The Holdo Maneuver is a dramatic tactic from Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017), where Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo sacrifices herself by jumping her ship into hyperspace directly through a massive warship fleet causing catastrophic destruction to buy time for the Resistance to flee. The concept art below depicts the scene.

In this scene Admiral Holdo dies as her ships splinters into millions of tiny pieces, something omitted from the game mechanics in order to sustain a flow state. So instead of dying, the players must exit hyperspace after colliding with their foes. Dependent on a fuel resource the player collects from the wreckages of their fallen foes we establish this flow state and extend the cinematic scene into a ludic experience.

In doing so I hope to translate the themes of the cinematic narrative into the game, the player experience goals: I want the players to feel the same desperation and courage the characters in this scene portray with their actions.

Tony Gilroy. (2022-2025). Andor. Lucasfilm Ltd.

Hamari, J. (2019). "Gamification". The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Malden: Blackwell Pub. pp. 1–3. doi:10.1002/9781405165518.wbeos1321

Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. (2017). Lucasfilm Ltd.

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

The Set Things: Challenges of Production Part 2, Postmortem

The largest obstacle for development was the core mechanic, the manipulation of 'setting' themed variables to affect the game world. Referring to the dramatic elements introduced in Chapter 4, Fullerton touches on the paradox of control as "a key element for the enjoyment of game systems." Whilst the process of programming was difficult for me, I wanted the mechanics to balance this paradigm to appeal to the wide range of player types Fullerton describes in Chapter 4, page 104.

One profoundly unexpected obstacle was the level design. Its impact is evident in the prototype, where I focused more on developing the game mechanics, believing they would better articulate the ideas presented in the pitch. However, the game's core theme of "dysfunction" inspired my solution for this issue. Instead of imitating the structure of game UI to constitute the game world, levels would instead consist of landscapes more akin to traditional platformer conventions while aesthetically evoking the UI layout of games. This would transcribe the motif of the game mechanics into the visual representation of the game, of which said mechanics are concerned with.

Whilst the technical production of this project was of great difficulty for me, the artistic and thematic elements developed quite smoothly. The player character's design shift from an ambiguous monster (honestly shaped like an Among Us character) to a mouse themed one felt natural and befitting of the game's narrative.

These challenges forced me to be creative in my solutions. Similarly to how the rules of a game serve players as never before used tools that encourage them toward creative solutions and achievements, the limitations of my technical prowess inspired constant iteration.

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

Lightspeed Jumper: Elevator Pitch

Space is your canvas and your ship's lightspeed engine is your brush, your paint? The shipwrecks of your enemies!

In this high-octane cozy bullet-hell you'll charge the enemy head on and shatter their vessels into millions of pieces, like grains of ivory sand spilled across obsidian glass.

Lightspeed Jumper, the perfect arcade game for adrenaline junkies & cozy gamers.

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

The Set Things: Character Iteration

As I was pouring over my development notes, it dawned on me, "if the player character represents the cursor on the screen it should probably visually represent it." While there is a simple affection to be had to the amorphous monster design it doesn't communicate to the player who they are playing as.

The idea of anthropomorphizing the traditional cursor (an arrow) was a struggle to apply in practice. In fact, I was unable to muster a design. However, I realized that the cursor is controlled by something much easier to anthropomorphize, a mouse. Being the literal embodiment of player control I set out to redesign the PC, below is the result.

This lead to the revision of my elevator pitch which I feel represents the game far better:

Ever wondered how your mouse feels clicking through endless menus? It's not as easy as it looks... All the setting have gone awry and it's up to your cursor to run through tabs, jump into menus and click and drag the interface around to save the land and restore Setting Preferences in the FIRST UI PLATFORMER, The Set Thing.

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

The Set Things: Challenges of Production Part 1, Predictions & Our Preemptive Solutions

In Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, Chapter 1: The Role of the Game Designer, the topic of difficulties during development is broached. Fullerton illuminates the challenges that may appear during production; fragile system's elements are inextricably linked and so when one changes it can send disruptive ripples throughout the system which is often a catastrophic event during the later stages of development.

I hold concern for the development of this platformer for task 1 for this reason: the game's core game-play loop involves directly altering fundamental UI & game-play experience elements, such as the brightness, audio, and keybinding settings which are all tied to puzzle and platforming solutions.

I am hoping to prevent this catastrophe by localizing the interactive, malleable variables to levels designed around the theme of each variable (brightness, audio, etc.) respectively. By developing levels instead of an open-world/one-map style game we can limit the complexity of the ramifications of the player's choices.

In Chapter 2: The Structure of Games, Fullerton defines a game system as a group of interrelated elements that work together to form a complex whole, and further posits that the interrelationship of a system's elements adds new dimensions to play when set in motion. With this I agree, and so, ideally, the most fun experience of this game would be one where multiple different settings can be manipulated by the player to allow for a more emergent game-play experience. However, for the sake of simplicity during development we will keep the scope narrowed to isolated themed levels designed around their respective setting... for this version ;)

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

Applying Fullerton's first step of iteration (2014, p.15), here I brainstormed for a game idea I had for the platformer task. The player will play as a little guy, the "Set Thing", and traverse the environment of the game, the settings menu. The player will face obstacles themed around the customizable variables found in the settings menu such as brightness, volume control, and keybindings to name a few.

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

The Set Things Development Post

Chapter 1: The Role of the Game Designer, on page 8, of Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games discusses how game designers can often see the world through a play-focused lens, essentially seeing obstacles as "challenges, structures and play." And I wanted to share how the inspiration for this game stems from that lens.

I was on my computer playing a game with some friends when my mouse disconnected randomly. Unable to reconnect it through the tried and true method of turning it off and back on again (and her less famous but equally successful cousin, unplugging it and plugging it back in again) I had to navigate my computers Home tab to the Settings window to find my mouse device options using just the arrow and enter keys. By the time I had reached the right window I felt a great sense of fun from being able to achieve something so trivial in an unconventional method; I had conquered a challenge that rewarded me with being able to play with my friends. Then, when I returned to my friends we messed around in the settings, discovering all the silly options and bushing the boundaries of what we could do in the game without even playing it! It felt like coming up with a game from a pile of branches and hill they rolled down and the tree they fell from. Tracy Fullerton describes this as analyzing the surrounding world's systems and operating mechanics as an opportunity for playfulness.

These feelings are what inspires this game, I want to cultivate that "huh" moment of satisfaction for something we take for granted and utilize it to encourage play, and embody the player experience goals.

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

Elevator Pitch Task 1: "The Set Thing"

Game title" "The Set Thing"

This is a game within every game, navigate the challenges of a world you've seen hundreds of times but never trekked this way before. A platformer where the very platforms themselves can change how you play and experience the game. In The Set Thing you will run, jump, and tumble your way through the settings menu; adjust your brightness to illuminate hidden mysteries, lower the volume to hear well guarded secrets and experience your first moments of gaming once again, the early frustration of figuring out what the hell all these buttons do!

Meet our main character of The Set Thing, Thing.

Use the controls below to move our lil guy (above) through the settings menu, across tabs and over buttons.

Every obstacle can be conquered by playing with the ground you walk on as you trek through the settings menu. The Set Things, where the very platforms you cross can change how you play and experience the game!

Email me @ n12101851@qut.edu.au

[failingupwardswithphelixlee]

Greetings, an introduction

Hello there (yes that was a reference), my name is Phelix Lee. I am 24 years old, soon to be 25 and have loved playing since the birth of our galaxy! I have been trying to study a Bachelor of Game Design for way too long now (like 4 years or something) but thanks to all the lovely complications of life I have made the exact amount of progress as you expect from being in this class. However, I am not deterred! I have gripped life by the balls the same way you grip a controller on the last lap of Mariokart as you and your friend vie for 1st place. The reason I want to enter this industry is because I believe games are a powerful tool for people to connect and experience the passion, the childhood even, of others. Additionally, I find the intersection of child psychology and game design of great interest and hope to pursue that inter-disciplinary...ness further into my studies.

For some insight into my taste in games some of my favorites include, but are by no means limited to:

Halo: Combat Evolved Deadcells Alba: A wildlife adventure A Short Hike The Outer Wilds Beastieball Ultimate Chicken Horse

If I could develop a game that brings someone the same joy these games have brought me I'd probably explode.