LP Post 8 – Multiplayer Submission
GROUP: Jose Deschamps, Rohil Aniruth, James Berry and Justin Brandon Kinard
The roles of the team were Rohil was on art duty with the boss and animation, James was working on the advertisement, promo items, and character art & animations. Justin was working on the character movements and background art and I was programming the boss and programming whatever else needed help. Overall the teamwork was good and got the job done within the timeframe without too many core issues dragging the project down.
At playtesting we had many of our concerns reaffirmed. Those were that the players need the opportunity to get eased into the characters and different roles they could play. There is still a bit of debate on whether this should be done via a story or training mode with the latter being the favorite among the group. There weren’t any features that were added or cut in response to the Playtech playtesters; however, we made changes to the character that would’ve originally used a hook shot before Playtech in the interest of time. We didn’t want to allow ourselves to be hung up on making that feature work and prevent us from having a four-player game as intended.
Watching people play was great because once they figured out where they were and what they were doing, (took about 20 – 30 seconds in the longest cases) they went to work without needing to be lead at all.
Below are screens of the planning doc and feedback from players.
LP Post 7 – Multiplayer Progress
The development of EndAll was difficult, due to not being sure if all the player’s action and physic would work properly together without making the game feel flat. Luckily the mechanics work together pretty well and we had the players from Playtech enjoying the fast-paced gameplay. Most of the players really wanted to be boss to kill their friends, due to how strong EndAll was, it made the players controlling him feel in power which was the goal that we set out to achieve. Players that were the boss at first felt unbeatable until later on in the battle they notice that they could actually lose as well, which gave the groups of players great competition between each other. During the development process, I made the call to gut some of the character ability due to not having enough time to hit the overall scope of the project because there were too many ideas and concepts that needed more time to be adjusted and playtested. Since everyone on the team was just working on whatever part that needed to be done, we didn’t have much time to take a photo of level design process or ideas. We just had meeting between each other and made sure we were all on track on what was needed or to be cut.
Deja Vu / The Story of Paco is a simplistic puzzle game where you experience being stuck in a inescapable room that never ends. Follow the riddles and the clues to uncover Paco untold story.
LP Post 6 – Final Platformer
When I began developing the concept for the platformer, I got inspire by a game called “Is It That Level Again” I knew that I wanted to do something similar but the difference was that I wanted the rooms to never changed at all. During this time I began drawing concept levels and trying to figure out how should I ramp up the difficulty in the game a interesting way. I did a lot of trails and error with different design choices that never ended up in the game at all. The time stamp during this point of development was around the first week, where I began conceptualizing my ideas on paper prototypes and figuring out what would be the main mechanic of the game that I would be relying on.
At this time, I decided that I wanted to go with a one button mechanic, which the player would be interacting with to unlock a door that will let you progress to the next levels in the early portion of the game. As the game continues I began incorporate different action with the button depending on how many time you interact with it to complete the level. Which I found it to work while ramping the difficulty for the player to understand what’s going on in the game. As the game goes on the player will notice that the button becomes useless and forces you to figure out how to escape this room in a other way. I did this on purpose because I wanted to the player in the tutorial level to be dependent on the single button to understand the point of the game until you were forced to become nondependent on that same action. The 2nd mechanic in the game was the interaction with the objects in the room which would be feeding the player with little hints, in the form of riddles. Which would guide you to defeat the level, I wanted the puzzle to not be extremely difficult because I wanted the game to be very casual. I design all the levels within the scope of my target audience which is to be fun and casual and not cause frustration to the user.
During the critique, I didn’t get much input on anything mechanical which was ok I guess, the focus was mostly on the art style. Which was about the main button in the game that didn’t fit the art style, which I would agree. I will be redoing that button in a later time. I did finish updating the fusebox which was also out of place within the world of the game. I redid the art style and looks much better, all that is left is the animating and redo the main action button to fit the world.
Link to the project
https://theyesmanjose.itch.io/dejavu
LP Post 5 – Platformer Progress
In this platform project, I have been having a hard time taking my hand drawn concept and reproducing in Unity due to the game not having a meaningful impact to myself in the sense, that the game doesn’t really addressed anything. I’m focus on making this simple puzzle interesting to the user but I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate some kind of narrative that can feed my interests. As for the concept the game, the player will control an avatar within a room space and must figure out how to escape the room by interacting with obvious object that are in the environment. The goal is to ramp up the difficulty by how you interact with the object that are available to you as you play. The first level start off simple having a switch and a door, forcing the player to only interact with two objects. As time goes on there will be objects that have been in the room the whole time since the first level but you couldn’t interact with them, but later become available as you get further in the game and try to figure out why are you stuck in an endless loop in the room. As for the balancing the difficulty ramp for the player, I might have to switch the orders of the room that I have created so far. I won’t know the actual ideal situation on how hard is the game to player without doing a lot of playtesting. I do need to start developing the visual and art for the game, I have been mostly coding the backend of the game and getting it to work properly.
Writing Assignment Four (Rocket Man)
Rocket Man is a political style Shmup game that is playing with the ideas of what will happen if we go to war with North Korea. You as the player take control of Trump and actually goes over to North Korea and bombs it. What will be the aftermath of this decision? Freedom and Liberty or Nuclear warfare?
When I first heard about the upcoming assignment, which was to make a Shmup game. I knew that I wanted to add a political element to this game theme and focus the player to a narrative about current events that is happening in America. Which was the high tension surrounding the issues with America and North Korea about bombing each other. I believe the idea about going to War or having a possible Nuclear warfare in the up-coming future to be a scary thought. I couldn’t imagine how does Japan feel about this? Since they’re the closest one that would be impacted the most if a war broke loose due to either side pulling the trigger to soon. I do think, there is a major play here with China. Anyways back to the main point, I just wanted to create an experience that give off a funny and fun visual “Collage Art Style” and give the player the thought that If you were to defeat Kim Jong Un, you would start a Nuclear war strike which isn’t good for anyone. I believe that this will give people something to think about when it comes to war, and not depict a Hollywood fantasy of how everyone is happy at the end. The other choice in the game is to not play at all or just to let Trump die, which leave the player with a message to not entertain the thoughts of a corrupt leader who is currently in power. I think this is a funny way of telling the truth about our leader who is acting like a child and using racism to force our hand into dumb decision.
During the first weeks of developing the game I experimented with different art style like “Pop Art” “Vector base clean lines” and “Collage” , which I found “Collage” to be a interesting way to showcase the game that reflexes the feeling and emotion I wanted in the game. The emotion that I selected for this project were Anticipation, Joy, Shock, and I used them by giving the player a smooth narrative experience with them. I didn’t focus on having random level which make no sense in my game. I wanted the game to be a complete experience and could easily been impactful to the user. Having multiple levels to show individual enemies characteristics while also loading scene is something that I didn’t want to do, due to having the player likely to feel removed from the topic.I believe the message of the game would’ve been lost, if it become too much of a gaming game it would have no meaning. I added different movement to all of the enemies of the game. During the first wave it’s just a simple horizontal movement enemy which are Korean fighter jets, then during the second wave it would spawn truck with rockets that forces the player to interact and move differently in the game. Then after the player has gotten more than 4000 points score it would spawn a small hovering jets that shoot at your current position. I tweaks the spawning to have a smooth transition to the boss, which I found a sweet spot when I was playtesting the game at D12 and at home. I also added all three of the emotion onto Kim Jong Un during the final boss battle in the game. I created a FSM AI for him which took a long time to get working with no issues, he has three action relating to the emotion I selected. The first one is his straight missile shot which makes the player feel anticipation. Then his second attack is the reigning missile, that represent the joy emotion because of the audio sound bite of him saying feel rocket man power, which I believe would make the player laugh and find the joy in the game. His third and final attack is Kim summoning his troops to shoot you down from the sky, which gives the player the feeling of shock when they first encounter them.
In the critique, the game was getting negative feedback for not following a three level structure that had different waves. Which I don’t agree with, because I was going for a smooth single play experience working off a political narrative. I believe using a three level structure didn’t work for what I was going for. In the game there three different enemies movement and attacks while also having a boss with three transitional attack that represent the emotions and story of the game. If I wasn’t following any narrative or a quick single transition for the end goal of the game, I could’ve easily just made a generic aesthetic shooter and have broken apart the waves into scene like everyone else did in the class. Which doesn’t really interest me much, or help me push the envelope of creating some different. If I was going to do like everyone else and follow a simple structure it would look like something this, scene one, straight flying ships then you kill ten of them. Then you would go into the second scene and fight only ground trucks and finally the third scene would’ve been the hovering air jets that shoot two different missile until you get to fight the boss and end the game. I just choose the best way to get the message of the game quickly to the player without using a bunch scene or “LEVELS” to showcase waves that don’t really help the game, get its story across while keeping the polish experience. I wanted this game to be shown at exhibition and show as a complete project.
10/5/17
Game Design Project #2 Shmup
https://theyesmanjose.itch.io/rocket-man
Writing Assignment Three
The game I have been working on is called Rocket Man, it’s a political style Shmup game. That was heavily influenced by the current political drama with Trump and North Korea. I found the tension surrounding the idea about a nuclear warfare that could happen in the future to be scary thing, that puts all of us on edge including our allies. I took it upon myself to create a game around this topic. The game focus on the idea, if Trump actually goes over to North Korea and bombs it, what would be the aftermath of this decision.
In the game you play as Trump flying over Korea and you as the player have three abilities while controlling Trump, Which are a Shield, Bomb and Projectile. The goal of the game is to defeat Kim Jong Hu. The emotions that I have selected are Anticipation, Joy, Shock, which they would be playing a role on each stage of the encounter with the enemies of the game. I hoping that these emotion are easily convey throughout the design of the level.
The current version of the game is still a working process due to I have been experimenting with A.I coding, which has been difficult to implement correctly. I had to remove a lot of A.I algorithm due to not having enough time to finish this project within the given time frame. I always try on each new project to do something new and challenging that forces me to become a better programmer. In the current state of the game, I hope that the player has fun and laughs at the ridiculous ideas and concept that I’m currently playing with, in hopes that the player gets better understanding how we have a man child as president and how this situation should be taken seriously as time goes on.
9/30/17
Notes on Game Like Mine Talk
The game that best represents my work is called Don’t Look At Me. It is about women’s experiences of being catcalled and harassed in today’s society. I see this game being much more than a experience but as a movement to express oneself and influence the audiences that interact with it. As a minority I find myself feeling powerless without a voice, games like these give me the courage to expression my views through the art that I create. In my work I tend to question issues about political or social problem and try to bring controversial topics to the forefront. I find these topics to be interesting on how they’re not being incorporated within the game industry, majority of the game focus on the same themes and ideas. I believe games can be more than just entertainment but a way to give people meaningful stories and experiences that have real impact in their everyday lives. I know in the recent years there have been games that are pushing these type concepts, for instance “That Dragon Cancer”. Which was heavy criticized for developing a game about a real boy with cancer but later respected for pushing innovation on how we tell stories in games. I find these games influential to my work and it’s a current theme among my projects. I hope to continue making games that tell interesting stories through architecture and design.
9/18/17
The Last Stretch
Team: Jose Deschamps, Rohil Aniruth, Marlise Chu
The group and I have been working on our prototype called Road Rage, where player’s build roads and drive their cars on a 3D landscape and be the first one to fifteen points. You acquire points by driving through road tiles that have been placed or by completing “combo road”. The game has action cards that give players positive and negative affects, which helped with adding some positive and negative feedback to the balance out the gameplay.
When we got our feedback from the playtest during Monday class, we tried testing many of the suggestion that were given to us like making all the players start at the top of the box. Incorporating bigger combo and also the ability to complete another player’s combo to take their points. We found that these ideas help the game become more interesting and fun. I believe that the game still need a better rule system to guide the player while figuring out how to make the combo system easier to read. During final playtest, players like connor were confused on how to get more cards back into their hands while also keeping track of all the player’s turn. Since the game was made to be chaotic and fast pace, that has been the most challenging part of balancing this game. We also got some more feedback today which was great, about letting the player hold on to their action card instead of using them right away. Which might add some strategy elements to the game and keep everyone on their toes.
Overall our team work well together even if we had some difference during development everyone did a good job cleaning the game up and listening to critique. Which were informative on being able to applied and test them effectively to creative a fun game.
9/11/17
Insight behind the Prototype
Ideas & Problems
Team: Jose Deschamps, Rohil Aniruth, Marlise Chu
When we were given the mechanic in class for the beginning development cycle for this board game, we had a rough time grasping how to apply these mechanic into our ideas. The first mechanic that we drew out was “Players must build the board as they play”, this mechanic was very difficult to incorporate because no one had any previous experience playing these type of games. We began watching videos of similar game that play this way like “Days of Steam”, “Carcassonne and “Cartography”, which help us get the ball rolling on creating a prototype to test.
Rohil & Marlise first concept was about a dungeons type game where we would have to collect shape cards that are face down on a board to complete a cutout body card that every player would have in front of them. The cutout body would be filled up by the shapes that the player would’ve gather. This mechanic for the game was simple, it focus around drawing out cards which gave the player three different action to play per turn. They were the following light, which will let the player see any of the facedown card and placed it back down onto the board and other two were tile and step. Tile would let the player placed a tile piece which can be walk onto it. Step would let the player move his avatar piece onto the nearest tile. We test play this game many times but the game seem very boring and not balance on how everything should work correctly.
After this idea fail, we began to brainstorm more but we couldn’t come up with anything else that day. During the weekend we met up and began thinking about new ideas, and Marlise come up with a cool idea about playing a game on a 3D box. I thought the idea was fire, so we began thinking about how to incorporate these idea onto 3D box. I pitch to the group an idea about building road tile all around the box and players would use cars to navigate box. Everyone in the group liked the idea so we began to create a prototype about this concept.
During playtesting session we found the game to be fun and funny, especially after we incorporated cards that affect the player cars and roads. The game focus on sixty cards which makes up of different shape roads, and also cards that have position or negative effects in the game. The way you start the game is that each player draws a car onto a blank piece of a post it note, this will be the avatars for the players in the game. After that is done, the player who drew the coolest car would go first, each player starts by pacing their car onto the 3D box. Then the first player takes the stack of sixty tiles and shuffles them and draws fifteen cards. That player looks and select any card from that pile and passed it onto the next player. This continues onto there are no more cards left, then the first player begins by placing his/her first tile onto the 3D box. The game will stop after they’re no more possible option of connecting a road tile. The player that can drive their car to the connecting road the farthest wins the game. After we received our critique about the road prototype, we began incorporating those ideas about speeding the game up, but we couldn’t figure out how to do it. Everything that we have tried so far, just made the game feel the same. We adding traps and drive cards but the game still feel slow, I believe the concept of playing one card at a time must change. Hopefully we can figure out a solution to fix this issues we are having at the moment.
9/6/17