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Assignment 3 postmodern

After completing my final assignment for IGB220, I have learnt the full process of game design, from designing, prototyping, play testing to refining , it was a long progress. However, this whole assignment has taught me a lot apart from making games with Gdevelop.

The playesting part is the main highlight for the assignment. Expecially for part C, the external play testing has provided me an opportunity to try on a VR play test host by the honours degree student. From the external play test, I have learnt how to set up a play test for other people properly. I should first let them fill out a survey to know some of their background information and their habits on playing games, like what games do they like and how long do they play games every week. Then let them play the game for a few rounds, meanwhile explain the game rules to them while they are play testing the game. Lastly, let them fill in another survey to provide feedback on the game they have played.

Although I am not designing a VR game for this assignment, I have learnt a lot from the play testing process. In the future for my other game design units, I can reference the way how the honours student run play testings in QUT.

Another important thing I have noticed after completing Assignment 3 is to advoid having copyright contents in my game. The obvious copyright content I had in assignment 3 earlier was the Mario sound tracks. They were defenitely appealing sound effects but at the same time they are copyrighted so I replaced the sound effcects with Gdevelop's assests' sound effects.

In the future, I need to advoid using copyrighted contents in my games. The best way is to make my own sound effects to prevent plagirism.

Ultimately, this assignment has provided me the opportunity to make games on Gdevelop with my groupmates and also provided me valuable experience in play testing. I don't know if I have chance to use Gdevelop next year or not but I have defenitely learnt a lot about game designing.

Further reading:

Chapter 13: Chapter 13 is about different stages that are involved in designing games. Apart from setting up different goals, it is also important to have a schedule to be set before start designing the game. Everyone in the team would know what they need to do every week from the pre set schedule. Meanwhile, setting up a budget is also important, this allows the team to know how much does it cost to make the game, some small expenses like rents, supplies and insurance needed to be counted as well.

Chapter 14: When designing games, the way how we are communicating our design is important. According to this chapter, the author suggests game designers to use methods like spreadsheets, flow charts and concept arts when coming out with ideas for our games. My groupmate, Lachlan did sketch out a prototype for our game and it was useful when we were designing the UI for our game. If we went through deeply, we could have used tables to plan out the conditions/rewards/punishments for players. We did not do this this time but perhaps I will do in the future when making games.

Chapter 15: This chapter has shown the games' trend. According to figure15.2 How many U.S. households own devices used to play video games, 97% of the people in the US owns PC and 81% people owns a smartphone. This suggests that the market for PC games and mobile are promising and it will grow bigger in the future. I also learnt that actions game were the best selling game in 2016. Indeed, I enjoy playing action games like Apex legends and PUBG because it allows me to interact with the in game character like real time, it makes me feel like I am inside the game !

Chapter 16: The last chapter is about how to get inside the game industry. I have just almost completed my first year in QUT for my games degree. I still have another two years to go. The author has suggested some different ways on how to get started when seeking for career in the game industry, like networking and interns. In the next 2 years, I should consider to join some activities like expos host from the game developers and companies. This is one of the best opportunties allowing me to talk with the developers face to face and get to know new people in the game industry. Also, interns would provide me work experience in the game industry. I might look for an internship job in Brisbane in the next 2 years when I am studying at QUT. This would provide me the experience working in the game industry.

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Playtesting

After the game was fully set up, it was ready for playtesting. During the tutorial in week 11, our tutor Chris Lee and a fellow studednt in class playtested our game. They have given us valuable feedbacks to improve the game.

Our first playtester is a fellow student in our tutorial class and he has made the following feedback based on his experience:

The ship's collision points seems a bit too big , this results sometimes even asteroids aren't colliding with players directly would still make the game thinks that they are colliding with each other.

Sometimes asteroids are spawning on top of player the player, which means the player would sometimes directly get hit by new asteroids that are spawned on top of player.

Spaceship size is too small, sometimes hard to spot where the spaceship is in game.

This game feels very fast pace, the asteroids spawns and move at a very fast pace.

Shooting speed can be delayed (if the spawn rate is different when we fix the game)

Our second playtester is Chris Lee, our tutor in class. Based on his playing experience, he made the follwing comments:

For the starting page of our game, the text colour should be changed to fit the vibe of the game and also need to be centered.

Asteroid spawn rates are high and are mostly prominent on the left side of the screen which means the right hand side of the screen can be used as a safe zone for players.

Recommend to have the asteroids spawn outside the border and then close in on the map.

It will be great to have particle effects when asteroid is destroyed instead of just being deleted.

Sound effects should be changed to suit the game, also avoid copyright music(currently, the sound effect of our game is mario sound effects)

Possible changes can be made :

Both Chris and our fellow student in class has given us important feedbacks, they have addressed some issues and suggestions based on their playing experience. Based on what they said, below are some of the changes that can be made for our game to enhance the player's experience:

Fix the collision points for all objects in game to exsure the collisoin works properly in game (expecially the spaceship and all asteroids)

Change the spawning rate of the asteriod , make them spawn a bit slower (e.g. from 1 s to 2 s)

Change the spawning locations of asteroids to make them spawn around the screen, not only just from the left side of the screen

Consider to adjust the size of spaceship to make it see easier

Fix the letters postion and fonts on the start screen to make it looks better.

Consider adding particle/ mini exposion effects when asteroids are destroyed

Change the sound effects, consider using sound effects from Gdevelop instead of the mario sound effects (due to copyrights)

Conclusion

It's great to receieve feedbacks from playtesters as they have addressed us issues they have spotted when playtesting and providing us some possible changes can be made for our game to improve the player experience. Some changes will be made for our game later this week and we will ask more people to playtest for us when changes are made.

Further reading

This week's reading is chapter 12. Chapter 12 of the book is about team structures when designing games. Making a good game requires a good team, there's no way to make an appealing game individually.

A good team should consists of different people in different roles. They are publisher's team who are responsible for tasks like marketing, QAs and the executives. For the developer's team, it's ideal to have people like game designers, programmers, game artists, QAs and specilized media.

However, we are only a small team of 3 people for assignment 3 so we mainly have a programmer and artist for our game(one of our group member is resposible for conducting play tests with other people).

Conducting meetings are also very important when designing games. During meetings, goals can be defined to every members in the team so that they will know what to do next and by when. Therefore, in the future for other game design units if I am working as a team with other students, it is more essential to hold regular meetings with my teammates, not only to stay on track for the assignment, but also allows everyone in the team to know what they need to do for the assignment clearly.

Reference:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

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 Assignment 3 Development Progress

This is the final game that I am making on Gdevelop. It's the final assignment for IGB220! I am working with Shane Andan and Lachlan Griffiths together for assignment 3. After discussing with Lachlan and Shane, we have agreed to use my Asteroid game(Lost in the Galaxy) as a prototype to work for assignment 3.

I have already made this game earlieer this semester. In order to make this game look a bit more professional, interacting and appealing, we are going to make the following adjustments and adding the following features for the game:

Make UI look more appealing, for example use Health bar instead of just showing plain number

Add some special rocks serve as bonus ability (giving players extra health and extra scores

Add a start menu, players start the game by clicking start

Change the Game over scene : display the player's final score achieved in the game and add buttons that navigates players to restart or exit the game

Make borders around the gameplay screen

Prototyping

Lachlan has created several prototype for our game, here are some of the prototypes created by him. (Prototypes were created by Lachlan Griffiths and he has given me permission to put them on my blog)

There are a couple options for the UI for our game. The first one was having the score displayed on the right top of the screen and the health bar on the bottom of the base. The second option is to use hearts to represent health and score displayed on the right top of the screen . After discussing with Shane and Lachlan, we have decided to use the first one, since health bar are commonly seen in video games, besides it is easier to indicate this way to show the exact health player remains in the game.

These are new added special abilities rocks, the heart shape rock is called bonus health rock and the yellow one is called bonus score rock. The player gains one additional health when they get the bonus health rock. 20 points will be given to players when they get the bonus score rock. These rocks can be shot down by bullets as well. This means if the players shoots them down, they can be destroyed too but no effects will be taken.

This is the start screen of the game. SImply start the game by clicking the start button on the screen.

When game ends, it automatically switches to the game over screen. The final score player achieved in the game will also be displayed. The restart button would navigate the player to start a new game while end button would simply close the game.

The spaceship would explode and game ends if it touches the grey base.

This is the health bar, designed by Lachlan.

Sound effects

In order to make the game experience more appealing, we have added some sound effects for our game. Below are the sound effects that we have used in our game that are from YouTube:

When spaceship collides with asteroid rocks:

When player shoots down special ability rocks:

When player gains bonus score/health rocks:

When player hits the asteroid rocks:

When game ends:

When spaceship touches the edge of the screen :

BGM:

We have also used the laser shooting soundtrack from Canvas learning materials.

Refining:

A few problems were found in the game, they are listed out as following:

Asteroid rocks and bullets goes through the grey base.

Healthbar doesn't work properly.

Actual final score isn't displayed on the end screen.

One single bullet can destroy more than one rocks(they are still going straight after shooting down one rock).

Solving problems:

To prevent the asteroid rocks going past the grey base, I added a command to delete the rocks when they collide with the grey base.

To avoid one single bullet taking down multiple rocks, I added a command to delete the bullet if it collides with rocks

Added a global variable to slove the problem for showing final score.

Replace customized health bar with the health bar provided in Gdevelop.

Meanwhile, I also added the game rules and X statement on the start page so that the players can understand our game rules and genres easier.

Final gameplay :

Further reading:

This week's reading is chapter 11. Chapter 11 is Fun and accessibility. It is important to consider how to make the players enjoy the game while they are playing it and finding it fun. There are some points can be considered when designing the games.

For example, rewards and punishments are an obvious one. When players collides with asteroids, they will lose health, this is a punishment to players. However, apart from losing health, there should be some ways allowing players to regain health in the game. Therefore, I added the asteroid rocks that gives rewards to the players. When their spaceship collides with the bonus health or bonus score rocks, players will gain additional heath or scores.

Meanwhile, according to page 357, the author said, "Dilemmas are the situations where players must weigh the consequences of their choices carefully". For example, if the player is low in health, they need to find some ways to regain health by reaching the spaceship to the rocks that provide bonus health but they need to take risk because if they are trying to reach the bonus health rock, they need to avoid colliding with the asteroids and avoid accidentally shooting them down.

[n11456388-adrian-lai]

Racing game postmodern

This is my third game that I have completed in Gdevelop. After this, I am moving on to work on my group assignment. Apart from learning the skills to make a basic racing game, I have learnt to use the commands adding instant force and create tree objects to stimulate that the race car is moving in the game.

Next, I have successfully added a timer that shows the player how long they have survived in the game. It took me some time to figure out how to set up a timer that counts up every second in Gdevelop.

At first, I used the similar concept on how to set up a scoring system in Gdevelop to make my timer but it does not work. I also tried to find resources online, like Google, Gdevelop forum and ChatGPT but none of them work. Until I looked up a video on YouTube that teaches me how to set up a stopwatch timer in Gdevevlop, I know how to set up the stopwatch timer in Gdevelop. I should use the command 'modify the text of a Text object' and use the command that inculdes "ToString(floor(Variable(Timesurvived)/150))" . The floor function rounds down the result of Variable(Timesurvived)/150 to the nearest whole number. This means that the time is being scaled down by a factor of 150, and any fractional part is being discarded.

Lastly, I have learnt to use a hidden object as a collider in my game for scoring system. A hidden object is placed under the traffic road to detect if the player has successfully passed through traffics on road. If the traffic passes the collider, they gain score for that.

In short, after making this racing game, apart from gaining the skills on how to make a basic racing game, I have learnt to solve my problems that I am facing in Gdevelop by looking up resources online and how to add a simple stopwatch timer in Gdevelop, which isn't covered in the teaching materials.

[n11456388-adrian-lai]

Racing game development post

The third game I am designing on Gdevelop is a racing game - Traffic Simulator 2023. My goal is to use the materials on Canvas to create a basic version of the game first, then refine it to look appealing.

Prototype:

This is the first prototype of Traffic Simulator 2023. The player is required to control the car by left and right arrow keys. They need to swap lanes with those keys to prevent getting hit by the traffic cars that spawn at random time. In order to stimulate that the car is actually moving, trees will be spawned regularly at the same X coordinate on the side of the roads.

Assets provided on Canvas:

Development process

Different traffic cars, trees and explosion effects are provided on Canvas. I am going to use them to create my first version of the game.

This is the setting of the scene of my game. The trees are spawned on the side of the roads to simulate that the car is 'moving' in the game.

Game over screen : You died!

When the player has collision with traffic cars, the game ends and it switches to a screen that displays a message, "You died". A few seconds later, a new game begins.

Events/ scene settings

The events and scenes for the game are set as following:

Refining :

Everything works well during playtesting. However, in order to enhance the player experience and make the game more engaging, the following adjustments will be made:

Minor adjustment : New background color

I changed to background colour to green in order to make the game looks more attractive

Adding a timer:

I am adding a stopwatch timer in the game, so that the players will know how long they have survived in the game.

Above shows how the stopwatch works in my game. I learnt how to add a stopwatch timer by watch a YouTube video, How To Create a Timer in GDevelop by Whatever Games and made some adjustments from /60 to /150 . (If I set the value divided by 60, it runs too quick and isn't standard one second timing)

video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cn8U0YfgJs

Added new scoring system:

A new scoring system has been added in the game. Players will gain 100 points every time they successfully passed one traffic car. I made this by adding a collision point underneath the highway to detect when traffic cars has collision with it. When a traffic car collides with it, 100 points will be added to score.

The events are updated as following to make the scoring system worls:

New outlook for player's car :

The player's car has been updated to make it look more appealing.

image url: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/759067712183595194/?amp_client_id=CLIENT_ID%28_%29&mweb_unauth_id=%7B%7Bdefault.session%7D%7D&amp_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Famp%2Fpin%2F759067712183595194%2F&open_share=t

Added sound effects

Originally, there are no sound effects. In order to enhance the player experience, background music(BGM) and engine sound effects have been added to the game.

BGM's URL :

Sound explosion effect:

An explosion effect has been added, it will be played when car has collision with traffic cars

New item obstacle:

One of the traffic car has been updated to a rock as following:

Final gameplay :

This is the final gameplay of my game after refinement with all the new updates.

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Racing game elevator pitch

My third game in Gdevelop will be a car racing game. The name of the game is Traffic Simulator 2023.

My favourite racing game is Gameloft's Asphalt 8 : Airborne. Asphalt 8 is a racing game that allows the players to purchase different new cars/bikes by official car companies around the world by completing different matches in game and earn coins / tokens in games. This game also offers intensive arcade gameplay, with a variety of high-speed tracks, real-time multiplayer action, and time limited events.

However, I am not going to create my racing game like Asphalt 8 in Gdevelop because I have limited knowledge on using Gdevelop and also to create a sucessful car racing game like Asphalt 8 requires lots of time and play testing.

The genre of Traffic Simulator 2023 is a racing genre game.

Traffic Simulator 2023 has no story or objectives. It is a simple but challenging car racing game that tests the player's reflexes and skills. The player has to control a car on a busy road and switch between five lanes to avoid getting hit by traffic cars that comes at random time and lanes.

Traffiic Simulator 2023 involves a couple of game mechanics. They are lane changing and collision. The game mechanics presented in game are as following:

lane changing: This game requires the players to switch between four different lanes on the road to avoid getting hit by traffic cars. This game mechanic presents a challenge and a choice for the player. They must decide whether to stay on the lane or swtch to another one, which creates a risk-reward trade-off.

Collision : The collision system decides whether the player's car has hit a traffic car or not. If the player's car collides with a traffic car, the game ends. This mechanic creates a consequence and for the player, as they need to avoid being hit by the traffic cars in order to keep their game ongoing .

Traffic Simulator 2023' is a PC game. The target audience is set to everyone from all background/countries who play games on PC. The game is recommended to players who are interested to cars or racing games. The rating for Traffic Simulator 2023 will be general as it is a racing game that is suitable for people of any age group.

My goal is to make a racing game that is captivating and runs smooth. The development process will involve prototyping, play testing and refining.

Further reading

This week's reading is Ch9. It is about Playtesting. After making the prototype for the game, apart from testing out by myself, it is also very important to run play testing with other people. I can play test my games with friends from QUT or even my friends from school that I had. It will be mroe ideal to play test with my friends who are more likely target audience groups because they will more likely to provide me more relevant feedback.

The author has also listed out how to run a play test easliy. The process includes introduction, warm up discussion, play session and discussion after play testing. Assignmemt 3 invovles making a game in Gdevelop. In order to gain valuable feedback from players, I will run play tests with different people. This will allow me to know how to refine the game properly to meet the players' need.

Concept art of Traffic simulator 2023. (a concept art image of "a car racing game where players need to prevent being hit by traffic on road with trees on surrounding" , generated by Bing Chat AI DALL.E )

References:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

[n11456388-adrian-lai]

Asteroid game postmodern

After completing the asteriod game, I am more experienced in creating game concepts with Gdevelop. I think the most tricky part when creating this game was some of the steps weren't provided on the worksheet on Canvas. This is actually testing out my problem solving skills to show what I have learnt after completing the first game in Gdevelop.

For example, the worksheet didn't show the steps on how to remove the asteriods rocks when they were hit by bullets and I used the "hide object" function at first. This caused the issue that the asteriods were just invisible when they were hit. In fact they are still not gone and when the spaceship has collision with the asteriods that are invisible, heath will be reduced. The correct function to be used should be "delete object" instead of "hide object" as this deletes the asteriod from the scene so that there won't be collision between asteriods and the spaceship.

Also, I have learnt to set up a scoring system, which is helpful for me when I create other games in the future with Gdevelop. At first, I used the way how I created a variable for health to create a variable that adds score when the asteriod has collision with bullets. It successfully add score but the score goes up really high, like per frame. To fix this, I have learnt to use a function called "trigger once" to prevent multiple score increments.

Overall, the development progress of the asteriod game has taught me problem solving skills in Gdevelop and how to add a scoring system in games. I am more well experienced and confident to myself in using Gdevelop after making my second game in Gdevelop.

[n11456388-adrian-lai]

Asteroid game development process

This is the second game that I am designing in Gdevelop. Some basic materials have already been provided in Canvas. However, my goal is to use this as a template and create my own Asteroid game - Lost in the Galaxy.

Prototype:

This is the first prototype of the game. Asteroids will be spawned randomly around Kira's spaceship and the player needs to shoot down the asteriods around them by left clicking the mouse. They need to avoid having contact with the asteriods. They can achieve this either by shooting down the asteriods around them or use the mouse to control the spaceship. If the spaceship hits any asteriods, the player's lives will be reduced as following:

Hit by large asteroid: -2

Hit by medium asteroid: -1

Hit by small asteroid: -0.5

Assets provided:

These are the different assets provided on Canvas: different sizes of asteriod rocks , a simple spaceship and green bullets. However, in order to make my game look more appealing. I am going to use other images later on to replace them.

These are the events / behaviours for Lost in the Galaxy.

The player's lives will be displayed on the top right corner of the screen

When the player's life becomes zero, the game ends and it changes the scene to above to show the message Game over.

Refining

During play testing, I have spotted a few issues in game. Incuding 10 lives aren't enough because the game ends too quickly; firerate too slow, players can't shoot the asteriods quickly; Asteriod rocks won't disappear when the spaceship has collision woth them; Player loses health unexpectedly.

In order to tackle them, I am going to make some adjustments to the enents/conditions/actions. I will also add some small details in the game to enhance the player experience, such as background image, sound effects and scoring.

But before that, I have come up with a refined prototype that shows more details and ideas.

I am going to add a background image that suits the theme of Lost in the Galaxy, also a dramatic background music that to make the game more engaging. In addiction, I will also add a scoring system to the game and when Kira's spaceship tounches any asteriod, apart from deducting lives, the rock that touches the spaceship will also be hidden as well.

New outlooks:

In order to make the game look more appealing, I have updated the assets' outlook as following:

New Kira's spaceship: ( from New spaceship that i made. I am still quite new to pixel art, so I would love some feedback :) by r/PixelArt, 2020(https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fyct20hubfk061.png&xpromo_edp=enabled)

Colour of bullets have been updated from green to red:

Modified the outlook of the asteroid rocks to look more realistic:

Added a space/galaxy theme background wallpaper to suit the theme of the game. (from Cool Space Wallpapers, 2023, https://4kwallpapers.com/cool-space-wallpapers/)

Added a dramaic BGM to make the game more immersive. The BGM choosen is Hajimari ga Yue. A music from Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny. Gundam is a scientific movie series from Japan, which has similar themes with my games.

music : 佐橋俊彦 Toshihiko Sahashi, 2020 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6h42hwp3lw)

New scoring system and health (replaced lives) added.

The default health will be 10 . The health system works as following:

Hit by large asteriod: -2

Hit by medium asteriod: -1

Hit by small asteriod: -0.5

The larger the asteriod, the more health being reduced !

The default score will be 0 . The scoring system works as following:

shoot large asteriod: + 2

shoot medium asteriod: +10

shoot small asteriod: +5

The smaller the asteriod, the more score will be gained!

Updated bullets firing rate:

Firerate has been updated from >0.25 to >0.15, this allows the players to fire more bullets in a short period of time and makes the game run smoother.

Updated some actions:

The error causing health losing unexpectedly was due to old action "hide objects" was used. In this case, "delete objects" is a more suitable option because "hide objects" means that the asteriods are just becoming invisible but they actually still exist so they should be deleted in order to solve the issue.

Final game play after refining:

Further reading

This week, I have read ch6 of the book Game design workshop : a playcentric approach to creating innovative games by Fullerton, Tracy. Chapter 6 is about conceptualization. It is important for me to brainstorm or think about what will the users experience when they play the game that I designed.

For example, I should define clearly on the player's goal(s) and how do player win a game. Indeed, Lost in the Galaxy is like an endless asteroid game because the players will not die until they lose all their health. The player's goal is basically shoot down the asteroids and do not get hit by them. The longer they survive, the more scores they are earning.

This time I didn't use the ways suggested by the author when deesigning the game (brainstrom with mindmaps, put out all the ideas I wanted to be included in my game. However, I would consider to use brainstorming to design my game in the future for the others game I am going to make.

Refernces

r/PixelArt, (2020), New spaceship that i made. I am still quite new to pixel art, so I would love some feedback :), Reddit. [PNG]Source. https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fyct20hubfk061.png&xpromo_edp=enabled

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

Cool Space Wallpapers, 2023, [JPG], 4K WALLPAPERS. https://4kwallpapers.com/cool-space-wallpapers/)

Music from Toshihiko Sahashi 佐橋俊彥 - 主題 Toshihiko Sahashi (2020,08,21), 始まりが故 Hajimari ga Yue. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6h42hwp3lw

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Asteroids Elevator Pitch

The next game that I will be creating in GDevelop is an Asteroid game. The name of the game is Lost in the Galaxy.

According to AARP(2021, paragraph 1), the first Asteroid game in the world was published by Atari in 1979. Players are required to control a spaceship in space and destroy all the asteroids that are around. This game has become very popular and inspired many subsequent games afterwards.

The story of the game was set in year 3000. Humans are able to travel to space freely. The main character, Kira was exploring around inside the solar system with his spacceship. Suddenly, there were asteriods falling towards him. The players need to use the weapon from Kira's spaceship to shoot down all the asteroids otherwise Kira will be hit and may die in space.

The genre of Lost in the Galaxy is an action game.

Lost in the Galaxy is an asteroid game. The player needs to control Kira's spaceship that can rotate left and right, shooting bullets straight forward and thrust forward. Once the spaceship starts moving in a direction, it will persist in that course for a duration without player involvement unless the player exerts thrust in an alternate direction. As the player shoots asteroids, they break into smaller asteroids that move quicker and are more difficult to hit. The player loses one life if Kira's spaceship collides with an asteroid or a fragment of an asteroid. When the player loses all their lives, the game is over !

Lost in the Galaxy involves several game mechanics. This includes movement, shooting, collision, spawning. The mechanics presented in game are listed out as follow:

Movement: The player controls Kira's spaceship in the game by moving around with their mouse and firing bullets by left-clicking the mouse. The spaceship would also loop around the screen.  The movement of the spaceship affects its direction, speed, and position.

Shooting: The player needs to fire bullets to shoot the asteriod rocks. Bullets can be shot in different directions or angles.

Collision: If the spaceship collides with asteroids, the player loses one life and if they lose all lives, the game is over. Also, collision occurs when the players are shooting the asteriod rocks, large asteriods becomes smaller when they were hit by bullets.

Spawning: New asteriod rocks are spawned randomly in the game. They move downwards in radom angles. smaller asteriods are spwned after large asteriods were hitted by bullets, which makes the game more challenging.

Lost in the Galaxy's target audience is set to everyone from all background/countries. It is recommended to players who are interested in space-themed games and action games. The rating of Lost in the Galaxy will be classified as general, as it is a game that focuses on space exploration, shooting asteroids, and avoiding collisions.

My goal is to make a seamless and engaging asteroid game. Same as the first game I made in GDevelop, the design progress will involve prototyping, play testing and refining.

Meanwhile, I have read ch 10 of the book "Game Design Workshop : A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, Fourth Edition" by Tracy Fullerton.

Further reading:

In ch10 of the book, the author has mentioned about the spawning points in a game. Spawning point is very important and players should be spawned safely when they start the game. Therefore, when I build my asteroid game, I need to make sure the asteroids will not be spawned nearby the players.

On the other hand, the game should be functional, internally complete, and balanced. Therefore, I may consider to add some ways to allow players to gain buffs like extra scores or extra health and also I will make sure everything works properly when I develop the game.

Concept art of Lost in the Galaxy. (a concept art image of an asteriod game Lost in the Galaxy , spaceship, generated by Bing Chat AI DALL.E )

Reference:

AARP. (2021). Atari Asteroids. Retrieved August 26, 2023, from https://games.aarp.org/games/atari-asteroids

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

[n11456388-adrian-lai]

Platformer Postmortem

After completing my first game in Gdevelop, I have learnt what Gdevelop does and how to make my own game in it.

I have also learnt a lot from the book Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games by Tracy Fullerton : A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, Fourth Edition by Tracy Fullerton. This book has inspired me a lot when I was deisgning Planet X and I will list them out as follow:

First two chapters: I have learnt the importance of playtesting and prototyping for game designers. Therefore, in order to ensure I am able to deliver a smooth and interacting game experience to the players, several playtesting and prototypes have been done.

Chapter 3(Working with Formal Elements): I have learnt to define the player's role in game clearly. For Planet X, the player's role is to help Zyrahn to eat as many alien enemies as possible.

Chapter 4: I have learnt about considering dramatic elements when designing games, such as setting up a story and theme for my games. For Planet X, I have set up the story of Zyrahn and what he encountered in the mysterious planet.

Chapter 5: I have learnt about system dynamics in game design. In Planet X, blocks are placed in random positions around. Players can jump between different blocks , some of them are close/far between each other, while some of them are high/low between each other. The player must stay on the platform to survive.

Chapter 7 & 8: This chapter is about prototypinig. In order to have the ideas on how to design and develop my game, I have done some prototypes for my game. Some refinements were made during prototyping before I came out with the final version of my game.

I sketched out prototype ideas of my gameplay concepts. According to the book, prototypes can be completed by simple sketches physically or digitally. In order to make refinements or move objects easier, I did my prototype on a tablet computer.

According to chapter 7, refinement is the time to add all good ideas for features that have come up while testing. My first version of my prototype is platfroms will be placed on about same level with different heights. I realise the game could be more fun to have platforms all around. This allows the player to reach platfroms at different height and levels; thus enhances the player experience and make it flow.

Book reference: Fullerton, T. (2019). Game design workshop : a playcentric approach to creating innovative games (Fourth edition.). CRC Press.

[n11456388-adrian-lai]

Platformer game development process

My game concept will be completed in Gdevelop. My goal is to use Gdevelop to design a smooth, easy to navigate and interective platformer game.

GDevelop is an open-source game development platform that allows users, including those with no prior coding experience, to make video games using a visual interface "events" and "actions".

In my opinion, it shares similarities with another programming platform called Scratch. 1 Scratch is a coding language with a simple visual interface that allows people to create digital stories, games, and animations. I have used Scratch when I was in high school and it was very interactive and fun. I have made my own games with Scratch simply by putting coding blocks together. Both Gdevelop and Scratch are good for beginners like me. Even it is my first time using Gdevelop, I found it easy to navigate. Through this project, I have learnt to use Gdevelop's visual interface fuctions to design games. This is only my first game and I am still getting myself being familiar with Gdevelop's interface. Eventually, I will be more familiar with Gedevelop when I use it to design more game projects in the future.

References 1 : University of York, (2023). Block-based coding https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/coding/scratch

Playtesting/ development process

This is the main character of my platformer game, Zyrahn

These are the events / behaviours for my platformer game.

Above is the first version of the platformer game. It is just made with 2 set of blocks and one obstacles. In order to make this game more engaging and challenging, the game will be expanded by adding more obstacles and blocks. The sizes of the blocks may also be adjusted as well.

These are the prototype sketches for Planet X. I would like to design my platform game based on these ideas, either with platforms on about same level but different heights or with lots of mini platforms and there will be alien enemies on each platforms. However, I have decided to ue mini platforms with different heights instead. I think adding more platforms and obstacles are some of the keys to make the game more interacting.

This is the screenshot of my game, platforms were placed randomly around.

This is a shortclip of the gameplay, everything works well so far.

Refining

Everthing works well in the first version of the game. However, in order to make the game to suit the themes and and run smooth, a few adjustments were made and after adjestments, the player experience becomes more immersed.

New background image has been added to suit the story of Planet X. It is a mysterious planet that Zyrahn crash landed. Image source : PROMETHEUS Adventure Mystery Sci Fi Futuristic Planet Space HD wallpaper Free download , URL: https://www.pxfuel.com/en/desktop-wallpaper-ieiyf/download/2561x1601

Above is the setting of my current game. The behaviors of the player have been changed in order to suit my game scene and enhance the player experience. During refinement, I have made the gravity smaller, this allows Zyrahn to jump easier. Longer jump sustain also means the character can jump higher.

Above is the setting of the older version of the game before refinements.

This is the final version gameplay of Planet X, with the new background and adjusted variables. The game is now well developed and more immersed when compared with the original version of the game.

[n11456388-adrian-lai]

Platformer Elevator Pitch

The first game concept in IGB220 that I am designing will be a platformer game. This project will be completed in Gdevelop. The name of the game is Planet X.

The story of the game starts with an alien from Jupiter. His name is Zyrahn. He was traveling on his UFO to discover around in the galaxy. Suddenly, engine failure occured and he was forced to land on the nearest planet. The UFO ended up crashed landed on an mysterious planet. Zyrahn had to discover around the planet and collect resources to fix the UFO but when he was returning back to the spaceship, it was surrounded by the aliens who lives on that planet. Zyrahn was becoming furious and starving. Therefore, he decided to kill and eat the aliens !

The genre of my game is an action-adventure game.

Planet X is a platformer game. Players have to use different keys to control Zyrahn. (arrows for directions and space bar for jump). There will be multiple platform blocks. The aliens who live on the mysterious planet are the obstacles for the game. Zyrahn has to step on those aliens to get rid of them. This is an endless platformer game, the game only ends when the player lose the game. The player must help Zyrahn to kill as many aliens as possible.

My game involves several mechanics. This includes jumping mechanics and collision mechanics. The mechanics are presented in game as follow:

Jumping mechanics: The players can make Zyrahn jump by pressing the space bar. The jumping mechanic would impact how high and fast can Zyrahn jump. In my game , the variables that would affect the jumping mechanics are gravity, jumping speed, jump sustain time, falling speed, ladder climbing speed, acceleration/ deceleration, max speed and maximum angle for slope. In order to provide the best player experience and also ensure the game mechanics works well, all variables' value must be set to the most suitable value. This would involve lots of play testing later on during development stage.

Collision: The collision mechanic determines how Zyrahn interacts with the blocks and the alien enemies. The collision mechanic would affect what happens when the alien touches or hits something. This may include bouncing, touching , sliding, or breaking. The collision mechanic would depend on various factors such as the shape and size of alien enemies, jump speed, fall speed and gravity. Same as jumping mechanics, the variables' value must be set to the most suitable value in order to deliver great player experience.

The game mode of Planet X is action-adventure. The players are required to control Zyrahn in the game to overcome the challenges and obstacles ( alien enemies) in game, they are required to jump through different blocks and kill as many aliens enemies as they can. If the players fell off the platform, the game is over.

The target audience for Planet X is set to all teenagers and young adults (aged around 15 to 40) from all background/countries . Based on the settings of the game, the rating would be classified as Parental Guidance (PG). Planet X involved Sci-fic elements so teenagers and adults who are above 15 years old should be mature enough to understand the story and themes of the game .

My goal is to make a smooth, simple to control and interective platformer game. In order to achieve my goal. I believe that play testing and prototyping is very important. As a game designer, I can create a simplified and playable version of my games' ideas by prototyping and test out the game concepts before investing excesssive money and time. Playtesting allows me to know the real situation when players interecting with my game and also get to know the issues that needed to be fixed. It will be continous but defenitely compulsory before the final product comes out. (Fullerton, T. ,2019)

In chapter 7 and 8 of the book, I have learnt about prototyping for my games. There are two types of prototypings and they are physical prototypes and digital prototypes. The author has mentioned that prototypes are like sketches and the purpose is to allow the game designer to focus in on a mini set of the game’s mechanics or features and see how they function. Therefore, I am going to sketch out a simple prototype of my game ideas before start making it in Gdevelop.

Book reference : Fullerton, T. (2019). Game design workshop : a playcentric approach to creating innovative games (Fourth edition.). CRC Press.

Concept art of Planet X. (a concept art image of an action-adventure game where an alien has to escape from a planet full of strange and dangerous creatures, generated by Bing Chat AI DALL.E )

[n11456388-adrian-lai]

About me

Hello everyone!

My name is Adrian and I am studing Bachelor of games and interactive environments(Game Design )at QUT. I was born and originally from Hong Kong!

I came to Australia in 2020 to study high school at Sunshine Coast for three years, then I decided to study at QUT after graduating from high school in 2022. I chose to study game design at QUT because this program offers me lots of opportunities from game design, to animation and even IT.

My favourite hobby is playing video games. Meanwhile, I also love watching movies, listening to musics and photography. My favourite game is Apex Legends and PUBG MOBILE. Both Apex and PUBG have very realisic in game graphics and effects ! I get immersed in these FPS games easily and I can play for hours without notice.

I am looking forward to gain the skills that I need to design games while I am studying at QUT and probably work in the video game industry in Australia after graduation!