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Group Recap/Thank you

I have to say I couldn’t have asked for a better group as we all worked seamlessly together with all of us getting stuck into work, giving valuable feedback whenever anyone asked and just being all around great lads. Thanks for the tutors and lecturers for putting on such an enjoyable unit

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Drill Til Still: Postmortem

I was to make the boss for our game Drill Til Still. It was a lot of fun to make as developing the stages gave me a lot of creativity which is why I decided to make a kraken and how your progress through the stages is by shooting its tentacles off. Which is why I designed the boss to work in three stages, stage 1 is when the boss swings fairly slowly and loosely follows the player, stage 2 is where the boss will swing frantically at the player while it slowly follows the player and stage 3 is when the kraken has no more shootable tentacles left it will just charge the player at full speed.

If I had to redevelop the Kraken I wouldn’t have made the hitboxes as complex as they were as it took a long time to do the hitboxing for every animation and every shootable tentacle. I would have also have gotten the animations for the attacks to reach further as it makes it a little too easy to avoid the krakens attacks.

If I had to redesign the kraken I would have given it a ranged attack that would also kill asteroids and enemies because of two reasons, 1 it would make the player have a more difficult time battling it and 2 it would declutter the screen which had a lot of asteroids on it by the time the karaken came out.

Here is the kraken

And here is the game prototype

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Drill Til Still: Playtesting

We conducted three sets on playtesting, the first was practice playtesting with peers, the second and third were proper play testers who had no information on what we had made.

First we did our practice playtesting where we did play testing with our peers and we found that players struggled with knowing the controls. So we added the controls to the main menu for the players to see. Next we learnt how to correctly take notes on the play test, this was very good because if we did some proper play testing we would have likely struggled for the first few testers.

Our first batch of proper we discovered a couple problems with the spawning as they were spawning on or right next to players, players also experienced some difficulty learning how the projectile worked as some didn’t read the control screen, players also explained that the learning curve was too steep and they would get frustrated more easily, and we also encountered a problem with our playtesting as it was too hard to get to the boss so in the first batch we didn’t get much information on the boss. But we made very little changes to the game mostly for the boss to come out earlier and balance the game to make it easier for the players. That lead us to the information about how it was difficult for the players to know that they should shoot the tentacles off the boss.

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Drill Til Still: Development

As a group we had a difficult decision as we had two games that we wanted to make but we went with Drill Til Still and added elements from the other game. These were:

1. Art Redesign

We did a redesign of the majority of the assets to fit in one cohesive style and to add in space gods and aliens as the enemies.

2. Boss Rework

I was tasked with reworking the boss, the original boss was a death star styled space station. I reworked it by changing it to a space kraken, who was based in three stages and is defeated by shooting off its tentacles. Stage one the Kraken slowly followed the player swiping every so often, stage two the Kraken will still follow the player but will manically swipe at the player and stage 3 the kraken will just charge at the player.

3. Add score

We added score was added and is gained when the player picks up gems.

4. Win/Loss screen

We added a win screen for when the player defeats the boss and a loss screen for when the player dies.

5. Menu and controls screen

We added a main menu with the controls on the same screen for the player to read.

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Get Pipped: Postmortem

Last week our required (ch.10) reading was on functionality, completeness and balance as I mainly focused on functionality mostly on my hitboxes on the cars. They function very well and did need to be refined quite a bit more than I anticipated. But as a whole the prototype functioned well where a naïve tester could sit down and naturally gravitate towards the arrow or wasd keys and figure out the basic mechanics as this is defined as “the system is established to the point where someone who knows nothing about the game can sit down and play it.” (ch.10, pg.313). As I had two play testers who did just that and very much enjoyed the “murdering of cars” and both felt like that the mechanic that were implemented were functional but felt the game wasn’t complete as it got quite repetitive with the same enemies following the same patterns coming at the player.

What I very much wanted to try with this game is to play around with hitboxes and to have different mechanics different hitboxes. I implemented this by having game where the player crashes into opposing racers to try and kill them but only if they get hit them in the back left and right corners. But if they hit them on the side they would bounce you and if the player get hit in their back corners the player would lose. The control scheme for this game is very simple as all the user has to do is use the left and right arrow keys or the A and D keys to move left and right. 

If I had to redevelop the game now with what I have learnt of developing this game is I would have the enemies be more complex as the only move in a straight line at a singular speed. As well as add some powerups to the game to spice up the game as it can get repetitive very quickly and a finish line as currently the only way to win is to kill 10 enemy racers.

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Racing Elevator Pitch: Get Pipped

I came up with the idea for Get Pipped when playing F1 2020 and racing against my friend where we were mostly just trying to ram each other off the road for fun but it helped me conceptualise the idea for Get Pipped. But not after reading chapter 6 of the required readings which is all about conceptualisation. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (whom had been discussed earlier in chapter 4) had described the classic stages of creativity them being Preparation, Incubation, Insight, Evaluation and Elaboration (ch.6, pg.169-170). I decided to loosely follow these as I had mostly done the Preparation and Incubation steps without trying to do so. But I did very much try the insight step which came at an aha moment as I was thinking about how hitboxes work in Gdevelop, more so how to have the game detect different parts of the characters body. Which lead to Elaborate on Get Pipped where the elevator pitch is as folows:

-          What is your gameplay?

o   My game will focus on the collisions between the player and various parts of an enemy.

-          Why will it be compelling?

o   The player will primarily focus on their movement as based on that is how they attack and weave through cars and collect powerups. As the player progresses through the levels, they will get faster and more challenging.

-          Who is the target audience?

o   Target audience 10+

-          What is the players role?

o   The player plays as a F1 driver trying to get to first place

-          How will you motivate the player? How will you reward them?

o   Sound, visual effects and high score

-          What genre is the game?

o   Action-Racing game

-          What is the setting of the game?

o   The player plays as an F1 driver who is in an endless runner game where to get points they must do a pip maneuverer by turning into the back corner of the opposing F1 cars. If the player turns into the side they just bounce off if they turn into the front corner they lose and if they hit the safety car. The player will have to survive for a limited amount of time and will have to accumulate a high score.

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Asteroids Postmortem

The control scheme for my asteroids game was very simple as it was move towards the mouse and left click to fire which is why I decided to focus more on things that would interact with the player. I did this through adding a variety of enemies for the player to interact with such enemies as:

- The shooter: This enemy will move in a random direction and fires a projectile at the player at regular intervals

- The charger: This enemy charges at the player at high speed

- The tank: This enemy is a mini boss where it takes 3 hits to kill. The enemy is a combination between the shooter and the charger as the Tank charges at the player and fires at them at regular intervals

- Debris: The debris will just spawn and move in random directions

If it had to redevelop the prototype I would change a few things. First I would make the characters look like the hockey player/mascots that they were supposed to instead of the placeholders that are there.

If I had to change the design of the prototype I would add a few things to the prototype. Firstly I would add powerups to the game so the player can aim to do more than fire at the enemies. Secondly I would add a boost feature for the player so they can traverse the screen quicker. I would add more to the HUD such as a timer and how much boost they have.

Here is a picture of the prototype:

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Asteroids Elevator Pitch: Hockey Mascot Mayhem

What is your gameplay? 

- My gameplayer will focus on differenet types of enemies for the player to come up against and power-ups for the player the change up their combat style

Why will it be compelling? 

- The gameplay of unique enemies will help increase the speed of the levels and the bullet hell of the game which will increase the feiro of the player but not making the levels go in too long for them to get frustrated

Who is your target audience?

- Target audience: ages 10+

What is the players role?

-  The player plays as a hockey player who has to defend himself from opposing fans, mascots, players and garbage that has been thrown onto the ice.

What will motivate the player? How will you reward them?

- Sound effects, power-ups, high score

What genre is the game? 

- Top down shooter

What is the setting of the game? - At a hockey game where a riot has broken out againt the away team by the home fans

Elevator pitch

A riot has broken out in Toronto at the Maple Leafs game where one Boston Bruins Player has do fight for his life from the opposing fans. He must use all his hockey skill to survive or be ripped apart by the fans whose heart he has just crushed by scoring the winning goal in Quadriple overtime. The player will have fast movement, acurate hitting of the puck and power-up at their disposal to defeat a whole slew of unique enemies across a range of increasingly difficult levels.

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Platformer Postmortem

I didn’t get the chance to be able to add much to the this game due to being very busy that week but I did add one mechanic and dabbled in level design. The mechanic I added was a basic firing mechanic that kills the enemies. 

Although I didn’t get a chance to implement much to my game this week I did look into the required readings which were (ch,3,4,5). In chapter 3 it was discussing how to create an objective for the game. Where I looked to give the game the capture objective which is defined as “ The objective in a capture game is to take or destroy something of the opponent’s (terrain, units, or both), while avoiding being captured or killed. ” (ch.3 pg.68-69) I intended to implement it using this objective due to the Condiments Hero being based on destroying the Evil Ranch Dressing and his minions to take back the kitchen.

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Platformer Elevator Pitch: Condiments hero

What is your gameplay?

-          A shoot em up platformer where the weapons are weaponised sauce bottles of condiments e.g., BBQ sauce, tomato sauce, garlic aioli, etc that sticks to floors and walls which will give interesting effects.

Why will it be compelling?

-          My game will focus on the interaction between the character/enemies and the condiments that will be fired by their weapons. With some examples being Smokey BBQ reduces stamina, pickle juice being able to shoot electricity through it, ranch dressing slows and poisons, tomato sauce is slippery, etc.

Who is the target audience?

-          Players aged 7+ and memers

What is the players role?

-          The player takes on the role of a Hero who’s tasked with taking back the fridge from the Evil Lord Ranch Dressing

How will you motivate the player? How will you reward them?

-          The player will be motivated by xp, new weapons and the villain the Evil Lord Ranch Dresisng

What genre is the game?

-          Action Adventure

What is the setting of the game?

-          Condiments Hero is set in the kitchen where the Evil Lord Ranch Dressing has taken over the Fridge and the player must take back the Fridge from the Evil Lord Ranch Dressing and his minions

Elevator Pitch

-          Condiment’s hero is an action-adventure platformer game where the player mush battle across the kitchen to take the fridge back from the Evil Lord Ranch Dressing and his minions who wants to put ranch dressing on all pizzas across the world. The player will have weaponised sauce bottles as weapon that have interesting effects when they hit enemies, the floor, walls, and the player. The player will have access to power ups which will give the player an edge against the Evil Lord Ranch Dressing.

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Introductory post

Yo I’m James Ellem i started my journey in Games just out of high school where I did a diploma of Games and Interactive Design at Tafe which lead me to prefer the programming side of game where I decided to undertake a degree in Infomation Technology (Computer Science) at QUT with a Minor in UX Design which is where I am doing this unit from.

My favorite games come from a wide range of games with Rainbow Six Siege, Red Dead Redemption 2, Portal 2, Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2005) and Football Manager Series being in my top 5, with Rainbow Six Siege, Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2005) and Football Manger having over 1000 hours easily. But I do always love a good singleplayer game with a greats story with some of my favorite singleplayer games being Red Dead Redemption 2 (I just love it so much), Spiderman (1 and Miles Morales), Turing Test, Borderlands, Shadow of Mordor/War and the Assassin’s Creed series with Black Flag being my favorite of the series. But I’ll basically player any game with my totally not having over 1000 games on steam. With my interest in Rainbow Six Siege, it helped pique my interest in Esports where I follow it very closely but like my favorite sport Football, hence the keen interest in Football Manager and you’ll see me wearing Manchester United (my favorite team) jerseys very regulary. But some of my other hobbies is making stuipid videos on YouTube, regularly playing Poker with mates and loving Star Wars and Marvel movies/tv shows.