25/11/16
Construct 2
Construct 2
In today's lesson we were introduce to the program construct 2. Construct 2 is a powerful game creator designed specifically for 2D games. Today's lesson wasn't the first time I have heard of construct 2 however it was the first time I ever used the program. From what I have heard from peers in the past Construct 2 is a great place to start for beginners, even though Construct 2 is recommenced for beginners it's powerful enough to create outstanding/popular games such as " Our Darker Purpose".
For an exercise our lecturer Vinny showed us his project that he made back in the day, the game was called "Street Wanderer. Vinny told us to play his game and inspect it for any game breaking bugs.
The game had such bugs as audio, visual and interactive problems.
Here are some key terms we learned during our lesson
Layout - is the Canvas, Event Sheet
Object - In Construct 2 objects perform the most work in a project. Most things you see in a Construct 2 project are represented by objects. Objects cane found in the "bin" similar to Adobe Premiere bin.
When adding new objects, you click on your canvas and a box of plugins will appear after picking a plugin this will create an object type
Properties - The Properties bar is a list of all the settings you can change on the object you have selected. Features like projects, layouts, layers object instances animation all contain properties.
Many behaviors and plugins have their own properties
Many behaviors and plugins have their own properties
When we start a new project we have to choose a template from a list that contains templates such as Top-down shooter, driving game, Turret Defense and etc. For today's lesson we were working on creating our a 2D platformer, so we used the platformer template. The template gave us the basic setup, background tiles, Jump thru tiles (blue blocks), moving solid blocks, solid blocks and a controllable player.
The task we were given was to completely change the design of the level.
 |
| Default |
Here's the end goal of my 2D platformer, by clicking on the objects I was able to edit the behaviors of each block.
For these type of block I gave them the Sine behaviors which allows me shift the movements Vertical, Horizontal, Size, Angle, Opacity and height. I edited their behaviors because I wanted to create a level that you would find mid way into the game when the player is use to the game mechanics and they want more of a challenge from the game.
After fishing the platform I edited some of the properties of my character, as I felt it wasn't hard enough so I decided to change the Max speed, Acceleration, Jump strength and Max fall speed.
I got people to peer assess my game. The feedback was very positive, as they said it was a challenging level the only thing that was requested several times was to add a re-spawn point, just so its more fair on the player.
Today's lesson was very refreshing because it was getting very tedious doing animations over and over. Next time we're task to create a simple gaming using a temple I will redesign the level, for example change the black solid blocks into ancient jungle blocks just like minecraft.
Bibliography
- Daniel Tack. (2014). Our Darker Purpose. Available: http://www.gameinformer.com/games/our_darker_purpose/b/pc/archive/2014/01/30/our-darker-purpose-review.aspx. Last accessed 25th Nov 2016.x
- Sergei Sushil. (2014). Objects. Available: https://www.scirra.com/manual/68/objects. Last accessed 25th Nov 2016.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28/11/16
In today's lesson we were introduced to the basic principles of walking animation cycles. We're learning how to do a walking animation because every action that a characters performs has to be animation for example if the character not animated moving the character will start sliding everywhere. Animators have to create different animations for different actions for example if they had to do a jumping cycle then the animator has to create a frame by frame animation for the jumping cycle.
After drawing this is the end result didn't look that smooth also it ended up with lots of hiccups
Here's my 2nd attempt of doing the walking animation
Here is my final result of my work. I followed a spritesheet I found online, I drew 9 unique keyframes with the with brush tool. I'm very happy with the outcome , the walking cycle looks a lot smoother than my other two creations however I missed out a key action "High-point". without the high point my character looks like he's doing a power run. My character isn't moving cross the screen most animations have their characters at the anchor point doing a walk cycle while the background moving giving the effect of the character moving.
Bibliography
- dermot.(2010). tutorial-2 : walk cycle. Available: http://www.angryanimator.com/word/2010/11/26/tutorial-2-walk-cycle/. Last accessed 28th Nov 2016.
28/11/2016
In today's lesson. we were given a sheet with the definition of some sound related key terms which will help us evaluate our work more efficiently.
Sound- Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's ear or can be recorded if using a microphone and device for capturing the sound
Analogue- recording audio in a format of continuous vibration that are similar to the original sound waves
Digital - Signals or data expressed as a series of digits 0 and 1. typically represented by values of a physical quantity such as bytes
Frequency- the measurement of the number of times that a repeated event occurs per unit of time
Volume- The size of vibration, and this deter,times how loud the sound is
Sample rate- Determines how analogue frequencies are described digitally
Bit Rate - determines how analogue volume is described digitally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
02/12/2016
In today's lesson we were asked to visit the website Udemy. Udemy is an online learning platform. It is aimed at professional adults who want to add new skills to their resumes. We used our lecturer Vinny's Udemy account to view a courses, that would help us learn the fundamentals of creating a 2D construct 2.
The Course was Instructed by Jeremy Alexander who introduced us to Game Setup, Player Stepup and Enemy Setup.
As we started learning about players set up, I added the character model Jeremy Alexander supplied, since Jeremy already prepared a character for us, we didn't have to create an animation for him. To create the walking animation for the character, we had to create an event sheet for the character and connect it to the level event. Using the Event sheet we can control the character movements, for example I can implement the button D to make the character move right, when I press the a Key , my character will move towards the left.
I didn't finish the course because the lessons finished before I cloud have finish watching the tutorial videos, In my opinion it was very refreshing to do something other than animations. I think the tutorials were very helpful and interesting.
As we started learning about players set up, I added the character model Jeremy Alexander supplied, since Jeremy already prepared a character for us, we didn't have to create an animation for him. To create the walking animation for the character, we had to create an event sheet for the character and connect it to the level event. Using the Event sheet we can control the character movements, for example I can implement the button D to make the character move right, when I press the a Key , my character will move towards the left.
I didn't finish the course because the lessons finished before I cloud have finish watching the tutorial videos, In my opinion it was very refreshing to do something other than animations. I think the tutorials were very helpful and interesting.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05/12/16
Running
In today's lesson we were told to create a running animation.
I think my running and walking animation were alright, however the arm movement weren't the smoothest. In the future I would like to improve my drawing and animations skills because I feel like I could have done better than this.
Jumping
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pre-Production
14/12/2016
Group Discussion
Today we had a group discussion about what we wanted our game to be about. This was our starting point and allowed us to share our ideas to discuss the direction and shape of the game. Having a group discussion helped us to improve our listening skills, communication skills and team building skills, as it allowed us to respect each others opinions and look at the game more globally from an unbiased point of view.
The challenges we faced within our group discussion was on deciding whether our game should be 'Side Scroller' or 'Top Down' and also what the theme should be. We resolved our disputes by having a group vote and took the approach of the 'majority rules'. Due to this our discussions were very successful and meant that the sessions were not dominated by anyone. I found it easy to express my ideas whether they were positive or negative freely and thought as a team this was an effective method of problem solving the challenges faced.
What we did next, was to assign a team leader and then the team leader assigned each member a role. I think this was effective as it meant that I knew what my responsibilities were with in the task and the leader was able to use our strengths to action the completion of the game.
Brainstorming
We decided to produce a 2D game. We then went onto brainstorm what type of 2D game we wanted to create, looking at themes, such as: Platformer, runner, shooter, etc. We decided to make a 'top down infinite runner' game. The genre of our game is 'Sci-Fi' because we thought we would have more creative freedom and be able to push boundaries within the game.We felt that this genre of game was unique to the 2D game scene, because, there are not a lot of 'Sci-Fi' themed runner games for your mobile.
We created a story for our game, because, we wanted to give the players context. This helps to eliminate the players queries of the motives or end result of the game with questions, such as: "Who's he chasing?" or "What is the point of this character". Popular games,like 'Flappy bird' have not had to use pre-stories, but the large majority of infinite chase games have a story to them which allow them to create a sequel for example 'Temple Run', 'Subway surfers' and 'Gravity run'.
We created a story for our game, because, we wanted to give the players context. This helps to eliminate the players queries of the motives or end result of the game with questions, such as: "Who's he chasing?" or "What is the point of this character". Popular games,like 'Flappy bird' have not had to use pre-stories, but the large majority of infinite chase games have a story to them which allow them to create a sequel for example 'Temple Run', 'Subway surfers' and 'Gravity run'.
15/12/2016
Concept Art
During our group discussion our project leader set us roles for our project, I was given the roles Concept drawer, sounder developer, drawing the comic and half the pre production. Concept art in the game design industry is there to help bring ideas of characters, buildings, environments and other objects in the game to life. This is an extremely important part of game development and is always needed because if the character does not fit for the game it can result in a delay in the development. I started drawing characters with robotics features such as metal jaw features and metal parts attached to them and I drew some characters with masks because there is so much controversy about how our earth will be filled with toxic gases in the near future.
05/01/2017
Final Designs
Bob
After finishing all the concept art, we discussed what we disliked and liked from the drawing and we decided to combine the space mask and the hoodie from character with the gas mask for Bob
I gave our good character bob robotic legs and a space mask because I wanted him to fit in more with our theme, also I gave Bob a mask which he will wear for the entire game because I wanted to reveal Bob's face in a sequel game just like how Metroid revealed Samus was a woman.
Henry
For our evil character I wanted to give him a mystery look. I wanted him to be the type of character that keeps secrets too himself and remains unexplained just like the Joker from Batman. I therefore, dressed him in a mask and trench coat to cover his identity, which was a perfect fit . I wanted his personality to be just as evil and menacing just like the joker, for example: In Batman The Dark Knight robbery scene, The joker told his henchmen to kill each other after they have completed a specific job ten killing the last man standing. I wanted our antagonist to have this type of personality.
06/01/2017
Final Designs coloured
16/12/2016
Breakdown of sound production sources
We would like to use futuristic sound effects for our Sci fi game. To achieve this, we will need to create high frequency sounds with high frequency cut off. We were inspired by the movie, Star Wars, who uses high frequency sounds for their laser guns and wish to build on that concept to match the game, especially because it is directed from a birds eye view.
Jump sounds - We will be prioritizing jumping sound effects because it is the main focus of our game and will be used to enhance when our main character 'Bob', is jumping over objects or dodging enemies.
Shooting sounds - We will be adding laser sounds to alert 'Bob' for incoming danger. When 'Bob' here's the laser sounds, he is able to decide which route he is going to take next i.e Search for 'Power Ups' which is to boost the players attributes or to run to safety. This helps change the direction of the game. The laser sounds are representative of the police, who 'Bob' is trying to avoid in order to meet his quest of taking revenge.
Death Sounds - The death sound will tell the player that they are dead and about to transitions to the "game Over" screen.
Hurt/Wounded sounds - We will being using an"urggghhh" sound, which will indicate the character has been injured. The more "urggghhh" the character gets, the higher the increase of death.
Coin sounds - We will have a currency within the game. The coin sounds will alert the player when they have picked up a coin or purchased an item.
Footsteps - We are going to use a variety of sounds associated with the character running or jumping on different surfaces.
Stabbing sounds - We will need a sound of something being stabbed because when the main character "Bob" catches "Henry" he will kill him as revenge for taking his families life.
2nd Death Sound - A death sound for Henry's death.
Impact sounds - We are going to be using impact sounds to highlight when the character falls against objects or into other characters.
.... Adding more as we progress.
Bibliography
- krc Sound Effects. (2015). Sound Effects Shot Laser STAR WARS. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dav5kn_8BmY. Last accessed 16/12/2016.
19/12/16
Proposal
a proposal is a plan or suggestion formally write to put forward for consideration
20/12/16
GDD
A game design document is a highly descriptive living design document of the design for a video game
09/01/17 - 13/01/17
Comic
The comic main purpose is to give our game a story, having a story allow us to branch out to animations, sequels and crossovers.
I looked at comics such as Danganronpa and Marvels comics as references.
Overall, for some players the story is not as important as the gameplay, but for some gamer's it's their key reason for enjoyment. In my opinion it definitely helps me immerse into the game and help me connect to the characters, and provides a completely different source of enjoyment.
While there are games that doesn't need a story to keep me playing such as Call of Duty, Super smash bros and Battlefield. Overall I think the story is very important, and have a longer lasting impression on me.
16/01/17 - 18/01/2017
Creating Sound
Music and sound effects are a key element to a game, because they are 50% of the experience. With the right type of music playing at the appropriate time, the player will feel more immersed in your game. For example in Final Fantasy XV, when Noctis is fighting Leviathan and the original sound track (OST), Apocalypsis Noctis starts playing made the experience a moment you'll never forget because the composer Yoko Shimomura made the tune immersing for the player, with the Choirs singing at a high pace to match the fast paced fight with Leviathan and how the pianist, violinist, Trombone, French horn, double bass, basson and cymbals kept speeding up and slowing down the tempo, which leaves the player on the edge and totally enthralled.
Live performance
Gameplay
In today's lesson I created some sound effects, using a website called bfxr. As I said in my breakdown of sound production sources, we will be prioritizing the jump sound effect because its the main component of the game. Because our game setting is Sci Fi, I wanted to make a high pitch jump because I felt that would suit our game.
I wasn't really knowledgeable with creating sounds, which was a limitation for our game, however I was happy with the sounds I produced.
 |
Jump
Jump Sound Link |
 |
| Laser Sound Laser Sound Link |
In today's lesson we also created Foley effects. Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects such as creating horse hooves sounds by using coconut shells or creating lava by recording water running out the end of a drain pipe onto a stone/patio/concrete floor. These reproduced sounds can be added to film, video and other media production to enhance audio quality.
We wanted to create some background sounds such as wind, cars driving pass and a wounded sound for when the player is being hit. We used the AKG D230 and Beyerdynamic MCE 72 to record our Foley sounds effects.
Wind
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2unCUBTFkyLRkFWbWdjTEFGdFU/view?usp=sharing
Bibliography
- Ipsen Foxaen. (2016). Final Fantasy XV OST - Apocalypsis Noctis (Live at Abbey Road Studios). Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQKoyrB309E. Last accessed 18th Jan 2017.
- Mekkah Dee. (2016). FINAL FANTASY XV OST Trial of Leviathan ( Apocalypsis Aquarius ). Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pilpUt_FLls. Last accessed 18th Nov 2016.
- Daquan Tielo. (2015). Foley (filmmaking). Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking). Last accessed 18th Jan 2017.
- David Filskov. (2015). The guide to sounds effects. Available: http://www.epicsound.com/sfx/. Last accessed 18th Jan 2017.
19/01/2017
Game Testing
We tested our game out and we notice that Bob was moving too slow. It was very hard to dodge any cars at the speed he was going. We increased the speed of his movement and it improved the experience. At this point we kept increasing the speed and acceleration and deceleration until bob moved from the middle of the screen to the right side of the screen. then from the right back to middle in 1 touch, and vice versa.
20/01/2017
Microphone
The Microphone we used for our project AKG D230 and Beyerdynamic MCE 72. The AKG Model D230 is a robust dynamic microphone intended for general use in electronic news gathering actives in radio and television. Its is used for maximum accuracy for close up speech.
The Beyerdynamic MCE 72 CAM stereo microphone is suitable for stereo recording in home studio applications, film, video and interviewing. For Musicians the MCE 72 is an excellent microphone for assessing performance in rehearsals, productions and concerts.
Recording sound effects is an expensive process. Professional game companies tend to use expensive equipment and professional actors/ real life objects
A large majority of game studio generally have a sound bank which they take basic sounds and mix, compress or manipulate the basic sounds to their needs.
Studio Equipment used while recording sounds and voices are Microphones, Monitors, Mixers , Interfaces, Recorders, Softwares, Outboard, Headphones and Accessories, which can cost around to £1,000 - £10,000.
- talk about what microphone we used
- research
and explore microphone types and best choice for use in professional audio
recording.The Beyerdynamic MCE 72 CAM stereo microphone is suitable for stereo recording in home studio applications, film, video and interviewing. For Musicians the MCE 72 is an excellent microphone for assessing performance in rehearsals, productions and concerts.
Recording sound effects is an expensive process. Professional game companies tend to use expensive equipment and professional actors/ real life objects
A large majority of game studio generally have a sound bank which they take basic sounds and mix, compress or manipulate the basic sounds to their needs.
Studio Equipment used while recording sounds and voices are Microphones, Monitors, Mixers , Interfaces, Recorders, Softwares, Outboard, Headphones and Accessories, which can cost around to £1,000 - £10,000.
Condenser Microphones VS Dynamic Microphones
Condenser Microphones
Condenser Microphones are the most common types of microphones you'll find in studios. They have a much greater frequency response and transient response, a transient is a high amplitude, a short duration sound. They also generally have a louder output, but are much more sensitive to loud sounds.
Dynamic Microphones
Compared to condenser microphones, dynamic microphones are much more rugged. They're also especially highly resistant to environmental changes such as humidity. Condenser mics can suffer performance problems under extreme humidity changes, which makes them the perfect choice onstage.
Dynamic mics like the Shure SM57 and Shure SM58 are known for their good soun quality and the amount of abuse they can withstand. Dynamic Microphones don't require their own power supply like condenser microphones.
Dynamic mics like the Shure SM57 and Shure SM58 are known for their good soun quality and the amount of abuse they can withstand. Dynamic Microphones don't require their own power supply like condenser microphones.
Bibliography
- Nikandros Robert. (2015). Road Runner. Available: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/beyerdynamic-mce-72-cam-stereo-microphone-with-special-video-accessories. Last accessed 18th Jan 2017.
- Felim Alboin. (2015). AKG D230 - Omni-Directional Handheld Dynamic ENG Microphone . Available: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/128222-REG/AKG_2558_Z_00020_D230_Omni_Directional_Handheld.html#rv. Last accessed 18th Jan 2017.
- Joe Shambro. (2016). Condenser vs. Dynamic Microphones. Available: http://homerecording.about.com/od/microphones101/a/mic_types.htm. Last accessed 18th Jan 2017.
- talk about what microphone we used
- What type of files we
23/01/2017
Changes
We changed the background because we all agreed on that it made our game look out of place. The people on the houses looked really small when compared to bob. We decided to remove the tiles in the middle, and add a blue sky background and some clouds. Instead of having cars driving on the street, We decided to turn them into hovercar because it would fit our theme more.
24/01/2017
Coding
To make our game harder, we wrote a code that increased the max fall speed, the higher the points got. This would make the cars fall faster past the screen. Making them look like they're driving faster.
28/02/2017
Evaluation
I like the overall design of my project, It is a suitable game for anyone who wants to pass the time, it also helps people develop their reaction time and hand-eye coordination. The content of the game is suitable for all ages, and it is easy and fun to play.
Aesthetics
I like the colour scheme used as it was very bold and very children like with it's bright vivid colours such as bright Blue, red and yellow. Having colour for our designs are almost as inportant as the overall design itself, because it affects our feelings, perceptions and interactions. You can use colours to make a user feel welcomed, comfortable or relaxed
For example theses are some colours our group used:
For example theses are some colours our group used:
Red symbolizes - passion, fire and aggressiveness
Blue symbolizes - calm, innocence and nurturing
Yellow symbolizes - happiness, cheerful and jealousy
One idea we had when we begun our pre-production, was to get our main character to have some traits from the Kamen Rider G3 from Kamen Rider. Kamen Rider is a Tokusatsu, a Tokusatsu is a Japanese live-action film/television drama that features special effects. However we had to discard this idea because after finishing drawing the main character for the comic and game, we weren't happy with the end product because it looked so distorted.
Our colour schemes were fine in my opinion because I liked how child friendly it was, however during our peer assessment we had a comment that stated that our colours didn't match the Sci-Fi theme. It's very clear that not all colour schemes are going to look visually appealing with every single game theme. They felt we should have used a metallic colour, which basically means a colour that appears to look like polished metal.
From taking on the feedback, I think my group could possibly use different shades of gray such as dimgray, dark gray and slate gray to give it that Sci-Fi feel.
Gameplay
Gameplay is a combination of game mechanics, for example the basic of a shooting game is to hit while not being hit. Golf's basic gameplay is to hit a ball and reach a designated spot. In a point and click adventure game, the basic gameplay is usually to solve puzzles related to the context.
Our game "Wanted" was a Top down scrolling moblie game featuring 2D retro style. The objective was to direct our main character "Bob", who moves continuously on a hoverboard, avoiding hovercars and other people on hoverboards. Bob moves left to right each time the player taps on the side of the screen they want to move and tapping the middle to jump.
During our peer assessment we got a lot of feed back saying our game was repetitive in a tedious way. However, even though our game is an endless runner, it would get very repetitive at one point. But, I think they meant our game was tedious because every time they played the game they felt like they were doing the same actions over and over, and they wanted something to mix up the gameplay such as Power- ups, Challenges and Customization. If our game had power- ups like the " Super star" that will make them invincible, from Mario, this will give the player the mentality "I can do anything" and will be doing more high- risk-high-reward plays.
Our game has a high score feature. However I feel this could be improved by adding an online leaderboard system, because when it comes to games people are very competitive and I think having an online leaderboard will keep our game alive as people will be fighting for first place.
We will need to add an options bar so the player can mute all sounds and sound effects, because we had a lot of complaints about the background music being obnoxious, our peers felt that the our music choice did not match the theme of the game, they thought the music was more suited to a game where there was more stealth and atmospheric. They suggested that players should be able to turn off the sound if they wish while playing the game to allow them to listen to their own music, if they wanted to. We didn't have any objections to this.
During our peer assessment we got a lot of feed back saying our game was repetitive in a tedious way. However, even though our game is an endless runner, it would get very repetitive at one point. But, I think they meant our game was tedious because every time they played the game they felt like they were doing the same actions over and over, and they wanted something to mix up the gameplay such as Power- ups, Challenges and Customization. If our game had power- ups like the " Super star" that will make them invincible, from Mario, this will give the player the mentality "I can do anything" and will be doing more high- risk-high-reward plays.
Our game has a high score feature. However I feel this could be improved by adding an online leaderboard system, because when it comes to games people are very competitive and I think having an online leaderboard will keep our game alive as people will be fighting for first place.
We will need to add an options bar so the player can mute all sounds and sound effects, because we had a lot of complaints about the background music being obnoxious, our peers felt that the our music choice did not match the theme of the game, they thought the music was more suited to a game where there was more stealth and atmospheric. They suggested that players should be able to turn off the sound if they wish while playing the game to allow them to listen to their own music, if they wanted to. We didn't have any objections to this.
My roles
Ryan - Pre Productions, Concept Art, Sound and Comic
Joe - Pre Productions, Sound and Drawing objects
Azlan - Drawing Backgrounds and Coding
My roles for this project were Pre-Productions, Concept Art, Sound and Comic. The Pre production work was fairly easy to deal with, however it was the Concept Art, Sound and Comic I was really skeptical about doing. The comic because I'm not really an artist and my knowledge on creating sound wasn't the greatest, but I stayed optimistic and tried my best. I used the comic from Danganronpa the game, as reference and I was listening to jump sounds from games such as Mario, Sonic & Megaman, and tried to recreate my own.
The Comic went to waste, as our lead coder was incapable of coding the comic into the game. As I said in my brainstorming having a story would of helped us communicate with our games community and helped in the marketing aspect.
In my opinion not having a story just confuses our community, Our game is called "Wanted" and I fear we will get questions, such as "Who's he chasing?" or "What is the point of this character". So, I though adding a story would eliminate these question and it would give our player a real sense of achievement because our game does not have a daily quest, challenge or achievements.
Also by not having a story would have a effect on our marketing of the game because when I look at games such as Angry Birds, They put more effort into their gameplay. Their story is so basic you can follow it without even without reading the introduction or first few chapters.
The story for Angry Birds is about multi coloured birds trying to save their eggs from green colored pigs, and this basic story has lead them into making 1 movie, 3 animated series, 15 sequel's and 3 spin offs. I felt if we had a story in our game it would of made more of a reason to do sequels and more.
I personally, I am not an expert on mobile or casual games. I have played a few. I am more into Stimulation (Multiplayer and Thrilling) and Challenge (Work and Hard) games, So I had to overcome my personal bias and adventure into my empathy blind spots because doing this will help me have a better understanding on what my target audience demands of me.
Joe - Pre Productions, Sound and Drawing objects
Azlan - Drawing Backgrounds and Coding
My roles for this project were Pre-Productions, Concept Art, Sound and Comic. The Pre production work was fairly easy to deal with, however it was the Concept Art, Sound and Comic I was really skeptical about doing. The comic because I'm not really an artist and my knowledge on creating sound wasn't the greatest, but I stayed optimistic and tried my best. I used the comic from Danganronpa the game, as reference and I was listening to jump sounds from games such as Mario, Sonic & Megaman, and tried to recreate my own.
The Comic went to waste, as our lead coder was incapable of coding the comic into the game. As I said in my brainstorming having a story would of helped us communicate with our games community and helped in the marketing aspect.
In my opinion not having a story just confuses our community, Our game is called "Wanted" and I fear we will get questions, such as "Who's he chasing?" or "What is the point of this character". So, I though adding a story would eliminate these question and it would give our player a real sense of achievement because our game does not have a daily quest, challenge or achievements.
Also by not having a story would have a effect on our marketing of the game because when I look at games such as Angry Birds, They put more effort into their gameplay. Their story is so basic you can follow it without even without reading the introduction or first few chapters.
The story for Angry Birds is about multi coloured birds trying to save their eggs from green colored pigs, and this basic story has lead them into making 1 movie, 3 animated series, 15 sequel's and 3 spin offs. I felt if we had a story in our game it would of made more of a reason to do sequels and more.
Research
For my research I played games such as Super Mario Run, Temple Run, Subway Surfers and Gravity Run. The main objective of these game are for players to dodge obstacles as they automatically scroll into the screen with the goal of not crashing into them as long as possible. By design these endless game are design so the player can never actually win, and the main goal is to earn a better high score. These games also allow players to collect virtual currency during each run, that offers enhancements that improves the players chances of a better score or character customization.I personally, I am not an expert on mobile or casual games. I have played a few. I am more into Stimulation (Multiplayer and Thrilling) and Challenge (Work and Hard) games, So I had to overcome my personal bias and adventure into my empathy blind spots because doing this will help me have a better understanding on what my target audience demands of me.
Conclusion
A lot has changed from when we finished our pre- production. Originally we envisioned our game to be about the main character "Bob" chasing down the main villain "Henry" for killing his family. The chase is set on a road and when the player reaches 10,000 points they would activate a cut scene of Bob killing Henry. After that Bob starts getting chased by the police. In my opinion I prefer our original idea for our game because it gave more context to our game and it separated us from other infinite running games, also it would of gave our player a goal to reach just like how flappy birds have their medals system Bronze 10 pts, Silver 20 pts, Gold 30 pts and Plantinum 40 pts, Everyone would attempt for platinum just to outdo up their friends.
Something our game lacked was upgrades/power ups. When an endless runner captures "Just one more time" mentality for the user, that's a sign of success. However, When coders/designers can't lay down the "Just one more time" factor, players wouldn't have any ambition to spend money to progress the game, and they probably wouldn't stick around for long and delete our app. I feel like adding upgrades, power ups, challenges or even daily quest would have enhanced our game. However if we were to add upgrades to our game, I would make them come by frequently and very efficiently because if a games upgrades do not help players to achieve longer runs consistently, or if they are hard to come by, the game wouldn't evoke the players urge to continue.
If we decided to put our game onto the app store, I would like to do monthly/termly updates because, currently our game is lacking a lot of essentials like Leaderboards, Challenges and Customization. If there are no continual incremental improvements, players have nothing to work towards and nothing to look forward to.
Overall, my group was alright, except for our lead coder. He started showing signs of a dictator, He was telling me, not "asking" to do the coding while I was doing Pre Productions, Concept Art, Sound and Comic while he had nothing on his plate. Our lead coder wanted to upload our game to the AppStore and I felt that this clouded his judgement towards the unit, because he wasn't following the units on the brief, He was adding anything he felt that would enhance his game. He wouldn't listen to reason, on numerous occasions, I asked him to write some notes on what went wrong during the coding since it was apart of the unit but we was being very stubborn and refused and I felt this slowed our group blog production. It was only towards the end of our project, he started focusing on the blog work because I went around asking people for their honest opinion if they would have downloaded our game if they saw it on the Appstore and a large majority said no and I think this helped him realize, we should be focusing more on passing the course than the game.
Overall, my group was alright, except for our lead coder. He started showing signs of a dictator, He was telling me, not "asking" to do the coding while I was doing Pre Productions, Concept Art, Sound and Comic while he had nothing on his plate. Our lead coder wanted to upload our game to the AppStore and I felt that this clouded his judgement towards the unit, because he wasn't following the units on the brief, He was adding anything he felt that would enhance his game. He wouldn't listen to reason, on numerous occasions, I asked him to write some notes on what went wrong during the coding since it was apart of the unit but we was being very stubborn and refused and I felt this slowed our group blog production. It was only towards the end of our project, he started focusing on the blog work because I went around asking people for their honest opinion if they would have downloaded our game if they saw it on the Appstore and a large majority said no and I think this helped him realize, we should be focusing more on passing the course than the game.
Gameplay of "Wanted"
talk about the sudden rise in difficulty
No comments:
Post a Comment