jesiahnettlefold

[jesiahnettlefold]

Racing game development

I have finished the workshop for week 7, which means majority of the game’s functionality is complete.

The completed functions include:

- user input

- a score

- car movement

Components I have added:

- The car’s velocity decreases when in contact with the grass

- every 5 seconds a boost can be used which increased the cars velocity by 1.5x

Yet to be added:

- a leaderboard

-animations for the boost

-visual que for when the boost is ready to use

[jesiahnettlefold]

Racing game elevator pitch

We are on to our 3rd and final game! Woohoo!

This last game will be focused on a 2d top-down racing game.

Elevator pitch:

Start your engines and drive your way through a timed circuit avoiding obstacles at every twist and turn. After each race check the leaderboard to see if you beat your best time. Drift your way to the top and challenge your friends to see who is the best racer.

Inspiration pictures:

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Boulder Bash postmortem

Quite a bit has been added since my last post. The game is now fully complete and includes a score counter for each time you destroy a ‘boulder’ as well as the boulders movement and procedural generation working. Moreover, I included more aesthetic textures to each of my objects to make the game seem more colourful and thus more appealing to the player. 

Chapters 13 and 11 were the core concepts that I used to ultimately drive this project. Chapter 13 focuses on the development process in the games industry, and although I’m not working in a team with a budget and marketing, the core principles still applies.

I used this structure of a production pipeline to accurately and efficiently plan out and create the game. The concept phase was vital and helped me come up with the core movement idea (although heavily inspired by the workshops).

If I had to redevelop the game I would probably change the core movement. Although, quite unique, (in which the ship is floating through space while spinning and the user clicks with the mouse when they want to activate the boost). It lacks enjoyment and rethinking this idea would benefit the pace and overall gameplay.

If I had to redesign this game, there would definitely need to be sound effects and a music track. Within popular space shooters, music and especially sound effects are what set the tone of the game and can really make or break the game. Stars in the background would also be introduced to add more ambience to the space theme. Lastly particles would be added to the rocket ship each time the player decides to boost, this provides feel for the power of the boost and makes the player feel in control.

Final game look:

Sources used in this post include:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. ProQuest Ebook. Retrieved from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/reader.action?docID=5477698

[jesiahnettlefold]

Asteroids development

During the past week I have worked on Boulder Bash quite a significant amount. I have basically completed the overall look of the game, as it just consists of basic shapes and colours. 

I have included into the game the following:

-User input

-Player movement

-’Boulder’ sprites

Aspects that I still have to introduce are:

-Random boulder generation

-Score system

-Shooting system

-More refined textures etc

-’Boulder’ movement

Considering I had completed most of the core development already, I wanted to test the game thoroughly. Chapter 10 of the text book proved really helpful for this as it discussed ways to test if your game actually works, and if 3 factors(functionality, completeness and balance) all coincide well with each other. For the testing’s, I used a table that the text book provided to test the following attributes, thus the functionality.

Textbook example

Because I haven’t fully completed the game prototype, I left refinement out for the sake of a fair test. My results found that the foundations were, Functional, balanced and fun, structure was functional and fun, and the formal details were ranked true for each category. These results were provided by 3 of my friends that sat down and all agreed upon the data.

Current look at Boulder Bash:

Sources used in this post include:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. ProQuest Ebook. Retrieved from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/reader.action?docID=5477698

[jesiahnettlefold]

Asteroids elevator pitch

The second game prototype I will be creating is a recreation of Asteroids. Essentially, I am wanting to replicate the original Asteroids game but alter the gameplay slightly. The original game is as seen below.

Elevator pitch:

Boulder bash is a retro style game where you literally....bash boulders. Shoot and avoid your way through a rock filled sky in space as you desperately try to savor your ship. 3 hits and your out. Experience a revolutionary asteroid title where the added gameplay of dashing as you continually rotate within space.

Inspiration pictures:

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Meliorate postmortem

Yes! That’s right, the game finally has a name... MELIORATE! Although it’s very simplistic and arguably not very memorable, the name provides a unique meaning. Meliorate means to make something bad better, or to upgrade. Considering, that the focal game mechanic are these upgrades, I've decided to call the upgrades ‘meliorates’.

Chapters 3 and 7 of the proquest textbook really helped me in developing a successful prototype. Chapter 3 really help me understand the core fundamentals of the elements I need to include and how to include them effectively. For example the overall objective and goal within the game is straightforward and the player will never be confused or lost while playing. The one way map generation significantly helps with this aspect. Secondly, prototyping with different methods i.e paper prototyping, and object prototyping within gdevelop helps speed the development process up. 

If I had to redevelop the prototype again I would first incorporate all of my own sprites and assets to make the game feel closer to what I intended it to be. Due to some the assets coming from separate asset packs, the artistic style contrasted a bit. Secondly, I would incorporate better movement and smoother controls. In this current, build the player sprite doesn’t even have a ‘fall’ state due to some bugs, which caused a very static motion while airborne and falling. Other than that, increasing the overall immersiveness by adding techniques like parallaxing, a more detailed background and sound effects for the player, enemies and objects.

If I had to redesign the prototype again I would definitely incorporated a boss fight with a timer to add to the competitive scene as mentioned before. However, the prototype is based off of the ‘first stage’ and it didn’t feel right putting it in prematurely. Secondly, changing the terrain to be less blocky would provide more variety and help with the block glitch in which the player sometimes gets stuck on the edge of the block. Making the ‘meliorates’ look more appealing would also be prioritised.

Here is the final map design for the first level:

Double jump meliorate:

Sources used in this post include:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. ProQuest Ebook. Retrieved from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/reader.action?docID=5477698

[jesiahnettlefold]

Platformer development

Throughout week 3 and 4, majority of it was spent getting the basic sprites and core functionality built into the game. The player animation and basic movement was achieved and was later play tested.

The lectures looked at working with different types of systems and elements in a game environment. This includes formal and dramatic elements.

Example of formal elements:

Players/Avatars/Game bits

Objectives/Goals

Rules/Mechanics

Resources

Game States

Game Views

Information

Sequencing

Example of dramatic elements:

Story

Challenge

Play

Premise

Characters

Formal elements are the more structured and bare bones makeup of a traditional video, and implementing well developed dramatic elements creates a layered and more thorough game. As a result, I decided to incorporate as many of these as I saw fit within my platformer game prototype. Dramatic attributes I decided to focus on were challenge, play, and premise. I wanted the game to have a more competitive feel to it while also allowing for casual players, so a timer system was planned.

Furthermore, the example upgrade will be a double jump, which means the player will have permanent double jump for the rest of the game, resulting in harder jumps and more complex level design. 

My character:

Enemies, the upgrade prototype and the finished level will be discussed in my next post.

Sources used in this post include:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. ProQuest Ebook. Retrieved from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/reader.action?docID=5477698

[jesiahnettlefold]

Elevator pitch for my platformer

The first game prototype that was to be constructed in IGB220 was a simple 2d platformer. 

During the first week of classes we were introduced to the fundamentals of game design and what constitutes to a fun and enjoyable game. The first 2 chapters of the Game Design Workshop textbook also explain theses concepts very well. These chapters state that playtesting is more than essential and to create a good game you need to be able to see the game from a players point of view to get a better understanding of how the game will operate. Furthermore, game structure was shown as an important consideration, and that games that have a clear order of operations and set mechanics will work best.

Within my approach to a platformer I was focused on bringing out more life to the standard platformer experience, while still maintaining a recognizable structure as mentioned in the textbook. I thought about it for a little while, and settled on a dungeon crawler in a 2d platformer setting where the character can obtain upgrades that change the way the user interacts with the gameplay permanently. Essentially, it was a permanent upgrade or ability change. For example, a dash powerup could be acquired and then each time the player presses a key they will have a short position boost. The concept was that the user starts as nothing with just simple run and jump, and by the end, has acquired an arsenal of powerups and abilities.

I was also posed various questions to think about during the concepts stage when designing a game:

What is your game play?

- Basic platformer movement with special upgrades with progression 

Who is it for?

-10+

What world/setting?

-Medieval setting in a dungeon like map 

Genre?

-Action Adventure RPG

How will you motivate the player?

- With the addition of permanent upgrades and the excitement of how each one will change the gameplay, keeping the game alive and fresh

Rating?

-PG due to its pixel/cartoon like aesthetic, however, contains mild violence

An elevator pitch is a brief, persuasive speech that you use to spark interest in what your organization does. You can also use it to create interest in a project, idea or product – or in yourself. A good elevator pitch should last no longer than a short elevator ride of 20 to 30 seconds, hence the name (MIND Tools,2003). My elevator pitch is as followed:

(game name) is a 2d dungeon platformer rpg where you play as a warrior and unlock upgrades and power ups to progressively increase your abilities and overall power. Traverse the cave environment and defeat the enemies that are lurking throughout to finish the game in the shortest time possible. The time limit increases the competitiveness of the game and encourages speed runners.

As you can see a game name is still to be decided on.

Some inspiration pictures:

Next week I will look more into the development, and making tests and prototypes with gdevelop.

Sources used in this post include:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. ProQuest Ebook. Retrieved from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/reader.action?docID=5477698 

Team, M. T. (2003). Crafting an Elevator Pitch. Retrieved from Mind Tools: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/elevator-pitch.htm

[jesiahnettlefold]

About me...

My name is Jesiah Nettlefold and I have chosen IGB220 due to my passionate interests in games as well as game development. Throughout this unit, I’d like to grasp the fundamentals of game engines and their core functionality. Furthermore, I’d like to sharpen my skills as a game designer as well as a developer.