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smead32 · 2 years ago

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【Week 3】 ▹Platformer Postmortem◃

【Feedback】 I was able to receive some feedback for my prototype after getting a classmate to playtest my game. I was hoping to get a few more features added before the playtest but considering it was only a prototype, the key mechanics were enough to show the tone of the game. They were given minimal amount of information on the game so it was a blind playtest.

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This is the feedback I received:

Q: What did you like about the game?

A: The concept of numbers in the game was interesting. The combat system where you build up power and use it to fight the enemies.

I'm glad they were able to find it interesting as it was the main mechanic for the game! I wanted it to be something that was different from a normal platformer. I'm also glad they were able to recognise right away on the objective of the game and how the combat system works.

Q: What did you dislike about the game?

A: Some of the platform placements were hard to reach during combat. At one point, the double jump feature was glitched out and I was stuck between the platform and the enemy making me die instantly.

As you can see, some of the arrangements of the platforms are not the most optimal for players. I didn't realise that there were areas where players would get stuck and result in an instant death. In my future iterations, I would make change it so that the players can move up to the platform from below so they can't get stuck in between the enemy and the platform. I would also arrange the platforms more appropriately so players can enjoy the game without the challenge of faulty maps.

Q: Any changes that should be made to the game?

A: Like the last question, just the arrangement of platforms so that the player can't get stuck while fighting enemies. Having a background would give a better look too.

If I was to further expand on this game, I would create bigger levels which may help in solving this issue too. As this was a prototype, I focused more on implementing the core gameplay to portray the idea of the game. Although it may not be the main focus, next time it might help to have simple backgrounds to set the tone of the game and express the theme!

Q: Any changes to the control / speed / physics of the player?

A: Movement was good, I would keep it as it is.

I wanted the jumping to be appropriate to the game so I played around with the values for a while. I'm glad they enjoyed it as that was the aim!

With all this valuable feedback, I know for future iterations what I need to focus on improving. Gaining player feedback allows me to know what is fun for them and what is not. After all, player experience is key!

I think for my next prototype, I will aim to get a few more playtesters so I can get a broader opinion on the game.

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Changes to the prototype design

Before anything else, I would first focus on the feedback I gained. It's important to keep the player experience in mind. If I was to continue working on this game, I would love to implement the other features that I couldn't add (which was mentioned in the previous post). This includes a Shop, player skills, and player debuffs. The shop will give purpose to the coins that players gain throughout their playthrough. These coins can be used to buy items that can either help keep them alive or give temporary boosts. They would also be given the option to buy weapons which help with their fights too. As for player skills, the simple combat system implemented in the game is a good basic feature. However, I believe it would enhance the gameplay if players had the option to choose different types of attacks as there would be various enemies which may favour certain fighting styles. Player skills would also include things like healing. I haven't established any way to heal the player in the prototype so that would be one of my main focuses! These skills will give the player more options to use their numbers on. I would also love to add variety to the maps and the types of enemies too. There are a few minor changes I would make such as smoother scene transitions.

If time permitted, I would like to add a tutorial stage for players to give them an easier time to ease into the game, flesh out the levels more and possibly add a simple story to accompany the gameplay.

For the most part, I was pretty satisfied with how my prototype went! Besides some of the issues found, I was able to express the main features of the game .

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#week 3 #post mortem #game development

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smead32 · 2 years ago

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【Week 3】 ▹Platformer Development◃

This week in the workshops, we continued to develop our prototype platformer game.

Previously, I had mentioned that there would be a puzzle element integrated into the game. However, after playing around in GDevelop, I found that it would be much better to just focus on the combat and remove that element from the game. I believe it would be better to expand upon the combat system and simplify my focus onto one aspect.

Unfortunately, due to the time restrictions I was only able to create one level to this idea. However, considering that this is only a prototype, I believe I was able to showcase the main mechanics that I intended to include for this game!

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What have you been trying to achieve in GDevelop?

I wanted to explore through the features of GDevelop and gain more experience in using the software. I focused on implementing the key features of my game so I worked around with the events, player controls, and mostly with variables/values within the game. During the brainstorming phase I mentioned a combat system, health system, and items so that's what I included!

These are the main features of the game:

Combat System

Currency

Items/Weapons

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Combat System:

✧ I wanted to add a system for the player to defeat the enemies using number values as that is the objective of the game.

✧ A value is built up while the player is moving around the level which is displayed above them.

✧ The enemy has a health bar on top which represents the total value that the player must inflict on them.

✧ The player can choose to use their current value or build up to the total value of the enemy's health. These methods can be more effective depending on the situation.

✧ The value will reset to 0 once used.

✧ The player's value will be maxed once it reaches the same amount as the enemy's health.

✧ Players have a health bar. One health depletes when player's attack with a value of 0 or touch the enemy anywhere that isn't above them (players can only attack when jumping on enemies).

Currency

✧ Players can obtain coins throughout the levels.

✧ Coins can be spent in shops to obtain various items and weapons. (Shops are not present in this iteration of the game).

Items/Weapons:

✧ Items and weapons can be found through the levels or in a shop.

✧ In this iteration, the player can obtain a sword from a chest. This weapon gives the player a value speed boost. This means that the value is increased by double the time, allowing them to defeat the enemy quicker.

UI:

✧ UI shows the player's coins, health bar and any weapons equipped.

Unfortunately, there were a few more mechanics that I wanted to include in the game such as a shop, player skills and player debuffs but I was unable to with time restrictions. I will discuss this more in the next post.

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What was something you learned?

The hardest part during the development was working with variables. To implement the combat system, I had to create a sort of value counter which increases with every second. I didn't know how to do this so I looked around online for solutions, focusing on key things such as 'how to make a timer' as they had the same concept. I found that multiplying the value by TimeDelta() created the counter I was aiming for! Referencing this variable to other aspects of the game was hard to keep track of. Holding appropriate names for the variables made it much easier to identify as I knew what their purpose was.

While I was testing some mechanics, I noticed that the jumping and speed of the player was a bit off from what I was aiming for. So, I played around with the numbers (gravity, jump speed, etc). I noticed that with every change, it would achieve different results and change the vibe of the game. This was really interesting to me as little changes like this affected the game drastically. In the end, I reached a level where I felt was appropriate for the type of game I was trying to make.

I wanted to create a UI for the game as there were features such as the player's health, currency and weapons that players would need to keep track of . Having a UI would help visualise these mechanics for them. I used free premade assets to represent these features and found a way to create the UI. I also wanted a message to pop up when a player picks up a weapon or item which is present in the prototype.

Overall, just learning how scripts work in GDevelop and applying these to what I was trying to make was a real learning experience for me! It's very different from other game development softwares.

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Ideas and concepts inspired by readings

In my previous post, I mentioned that in Fullerton's book the main focus is on the 'Playcentric Design Process'. This was something I kept in mind during development. I focused on making elements where players were easily able to understand how to play the game and what the features were. This was done through the use of UI which can visually aid players. A tutorial would have been suitable as well to achieve this.

This week's reading material consists of chapters from Fullerton's Book "Game Design Workshop" (Chapter 3-5). I decided to focus mainly on the formal elements that they mention in the book. Formal elements are features that are present in games that form the overall structure of it. Reading this really helped me to flesh out what elements I should include in my game. Establishing the objective is one of the key things required for any game. Without an objective, there is nothing for the players to strive for. Depending on the objective, this can also change the overall theme and tone of the game. This was one of the first things I considered when making the game. Simply put: kill the enemy and proceed to the next level. There may be smaller objectives throughout the game but this was the main objective. They also mention the resources in a game which are the assets implemented for the purpose of helping the player in accomplishing their goals. Just having an objective wouldn't be very fun so having elements in the game that aid the player in doing so while adding challenge makes all the difference. This lead me to adding elements such as health, currency and weapons/items. Originally, I didn't have a shop feature in the design but I decided to include the idea as it would enhance the player experience.

In the lecture materials for this week, they talk about the seeds of gameplay. I also wanted to design my game around this concept. The seeds of gameplay revolves around growing the game from the seed which stems from a strong and refined core gameplay. By establishing the core gameplay in the game, players can understand what type of game it is. This is why other features such as a shop and player skills were not in the prototype. My main focus was on the core gameplay of the game which was the value building combat (this is also the reason why I decided to remove the puzzle elements and focus on the combat). By using the free assets available to me, I can get a vague idea on what the game looks like without focusing too much on the art/visuals of the game as that will come in much later into development. The seed consists of emotion, role/fantasy, rhythm, and mechanic . Although these may not be evident in the prototype, these were considered for future iterations of the game. The game would give a sense of freedom with the amount of choices players would have in using their numbers. I wanted the game to be a roguelike to give the players the chance to replay the game in different ways. Depending on the items/weapons they use, it can change their playstyle from a defensive to an offensive type of gameplay.

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Next post will consist of feedback I received from my prototype and changes I would consider for any future iterations of the game!

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#week 3 #game development #development #platformer

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smead32 · 2 years ago

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【Week 2】 ▹GDevelop Experimentation◃

During this week's workshop, I started experimenting in GDevelop which is the game developing program I will be using to create my game prototypes for this semester.

I'm really glad to have been introduction to this program as I've never heard of it before. Although it may have its limitations compared to other engines, it is a great introduction for beginners to create games as you don't need to have as much programming knowledge to design a game. I've played around with Unity in the past and compared to that, GDevelop is considerably easier to navigate.

The tutor helped guide us on elements of the program, showing us how to add sprites and tiles, create player and enemy movement, and a simple combat system.

The workshop was straightforward and I was able to get the hang of the program fairly well.

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The only issue we found during the session was that the enemy slime didn't collide with the left / right sprites placed in-game. The enemy would move off screen in the same direction without triggering the collision event with the sprites (the enemy is supposed to switch directions once colliding).

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I checked my codes in case I had assigned the wrong events but they were written correctly and the sprites were placed in the path of the enemy so it would have to collide.

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Luckily after some investigation, the tutor was able to find a solution! For some reason, the original collision mask for the slime wasn't working as its intended to be and thus didn't trigger the collision event. So to fix this, all we needed to do was recreate the collision mask! That's it!

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#gdevelop #game development #gdevelop experimentation #week 2

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smead32 · 2 years ago

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【Week 2】 ▹Elevator Pitch◃

For this semester, I'll be creating several small prototypes to explore the foundations for developing a game and applying theoretical concepts explored through this unit in a practical manner. The best way to learn how to make a game is to make it yourself!

The first genre for my game is a...

Platformer

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A platformer game sounds like a great way to introduce myself into developing my first prototype game! However, there are so many games that take on the platformer genre so how do I make it different but interesting?

During this week's workshop, we were required to brainstorm ideas for our first game and to create an elevator pitch to present the idea. I've never made an elevator pitch for a game before so this is great practice for me! I had a bit of trouble at first deciding on what type of game mechanics the platformer will use and the key concepts for it... That was until one of the discussions we had during the workshop mentioned that the simplest things can change a game drastically such as making a slight change to the variables in a game. That got me thinking... why don't I just make a game doing exactly that!

Now that I decided on what the focus will be, I pondered on how this mechanic will be used in the game? I wanted the player to be able to build up a value which then can be used on other things in the world.

Some thoughts I had while brainstorming:

✧ Player builds up this value from items that they can equip and objects in the world.

✧ Enemies may have a set number for their HP and the value that the player has must either equal or be more than the HP value.

✧ The higher the value, the higher the damage?

✧ High value also means the player becomes heavier = lower jumps (high risk, high reward).

✧ Puzzles in the world which require a certain value from the player in order to solve?

✧ The value is reset to 0 once the player uses it (enemies, puzzles, etc.)

I plan to further expand on this idea through the development phase to see what I am able to do in GDevelop.

In Fullerton's book that we are assigned to as our reading for this semester, they explore the idea of a "Playcentric Design Process". This process focuses on the 'player' to be involved throughout the development of the game starting from the initial concepts to the finished product. They make it a key point to put player experience first before anything else! In saying that, I plan to keep this in mind while creating these prototypes and to question myself: will the player enjoy this or am I just making a game that 'I' will enjoy. They also mention that the key part of any game development is to set player experience goals first. So for my game, I decided that I want the players to engage in an environment where they will need to decide on what the best / efficient way is in using their abilities for the course of the game.

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【Platformer Elevator Pitch】

Name: Not decided yet (I'm terrible at making names - I hope to have an appropriate name once I get a clear idea for what the game entails)

A 2D pixel platforming game with puzzles and combat in a fantasy setting focusing on the concept of number values. The player will have a number assigned to them (initial value will be 0) which can be used to increase their stats, defeating enemies and interacting with their environment. They will have the freedom to build up and use the value in any way, but it will reset once used! Players can increase this value through items and objects in the world, but a high value doesn't always necessarily mean it's a good thing!

Controls:

✧ Basic Controls (WASD or Arrow Keys)

✧ Movement, Jump and Interact

Demographic:

✧ Casual gamers

✧ Young teens and adults

Unique Selling Points:

✧ Interesting game mechanic utilising numbers

✧ Various options for player to make use of this concept

✧ Items and objects around the world to help players

Contact Info: [email protected]

Images:

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I will begin to start the prototyping and development process for this game next week!

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#elevator pitch #week 2

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