Day: December 19, 2017

itch.io download link: https://youngjord.itch.io/an-okay-game

Our game was called CyberDome, an asymmetrical 2 versus 1 / co op arena combat multiplayer game. The game is set in the CyberDome, a futuristic arena made for the most glorious combat.

There are three players in our game. Two players are in the same team and the third one is against them –

Player 1 (Light) – They have the ability to use a jetpack to navigate around the environmental and are equipped with a quick fire laser gun. This makes them more agile but less impactful in terms of damage and hence they have to work in accordance with the other player to win the game. They have also have two special abilities, one of them being shielding (protecting themselves and their partner). This ability has a cool down,a forcing the player to use it judiciously.They are viewed from a first person perspective.

Player 2 (Heavy) – They are equipped with a heavy laser beam gun and don’t have the ability to jump, which while limits their agility, but greatly increases their damage. They also have the bonus ability to throw bombs. Also to make it more challenging and force the player to use their ability more judiciously, the ability has a cool down.They are also viewed from a first person perspective.

Players 1 and 2 team up to defeat Player 3.

Player 3 (Boss) – They are the most powerful character game who features the most number of abilities, which are four different attacks, (while doing the same amount of damage, they force the player to strategize their play style accordingly) Unlike the other players, the boss can’t move as it is attached to the center of the arena, but it can rotate in order to prevent its weak spots being hit and strategize it’s style, whether it’s offense or defense.

Goals of the game – For Players 1 and 2, they have to team up to defeat Player 3 in order to win. Whereas Player 3 has to defeat Players 1 and 2 to win.

How is the game asymmetrical – The game shows it’s asymmetricality primarily by differentiating the experience of each player. While Players 1 and 2 feel like playing a first person shooter bossfight game, Player 3 feels like playing a top down action with tower defense elements. And even when the primary goal of Players 1 and 2 are same, their individual interactive experience are differentiated enough to elicit different emotions when engaging in interaction.

The Player roles are balanced in such way that in terms of health and impact of damage, the boss is equal to the other two players combined and vice versa.

Our Roles

While everyone holistically assisted everyone, here are our primary roles in the making of the game respectively –

Wilson and Tanish – Level Design, Effects, UI

Meriç – Character Design and Creation, assisting in programming.

Jordan – Primary Gameplay Scripting, assisting in character abilities design

PlayTech Presentation and Feedback –

As luck would have it, owing to time shortages, we presented a playable demo of our game at the PlayTech event. While it was certain that there was still a considerable amount of refining to do for our final version, much to our surprise the game was well received in terms of the overall look and feel of it. Almost all of the people playing the demo responded positively to how to visuals of the environment, characters, UI and effects melded to create a cohesive experience reminiscent of cyberpunk art. Obviously if given more time, we would refine on our game by making the interactions and game logic more robust, but we’re proud that we were able to take this challenge and came up with something which was certainly a step in the right direction.

These are the core ideas we agreed upon for our game –

It is a split screen 2 versus 1 Arena  Combat multiplayer game.

It’s going to be set in a single hexagonally shaped arena with pillar-shaped platforms.

There are going to be three playable characters.

Player 1 has a jetpack and has 2 attack abilities, Is more agile(move faster and jump higher) but does less damage. Their default weapon is a quick fire gun. Is viewed from over the shoulder third person camera viewpoint.

Player 2 is a heavy, meaning they are less agile but do more damage. They also have 2 attack abilities. Their default weapon is a heavy laser beam or a machine gun. Is also viewed from over the shoulder third person camera viewpoint.

Player 3 is the boss. They can’t move but they can rotate themselves. They have 4 attack abilities and has a weak spot. The boss has multiple attack phases. The phases haven’t been finalized yet, but in some phases, the boss would not take damage. They are seen from a top down perspective.

 

Goals of the game –

For players 1 and 2, they have to team up and defeat the boss to win.

For player 3, they have to defeat the other players to win.

 

Gameplay style-

Primarily will feel like a 3rd person shooter with some light platforming involved, for Players 1 and 2.

For Player 3, the boss, it will feel like a top down action game with elements of real time tower defense.

 

Aesthetics –

Low poly, 80’s wireframe aesthetic would be used to give a sense of stylized futuristic atmosphere.

 

Further Elements for consideration –

The special abilities of each player still need to be elaborated upon further. At this stage it seems like, the abilities involve spawning bombs and spikes for players 1 and 2, and for player 3, it is to spawn turrets, special melee moves, bombs and more.

 

Playtest in class –

We only had a demo to show and explain to players what the game would be like. So it was difficult to get any feedback that helped with our development. There was only the arena which received positive feedback. It is unfortunate that we could only have this to show. However it only goes to show how much harder we need to work in order to produce a finished prototype.

 

Reflection on Development –.

It had definitely been tough with all our members focusing on other aspects of school. There is also our inexperience with designing an asymmetrical multiplayer game with such a small time frame. We have started to make progress at least and leave the ideation phase which shows promise for future development.