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GG!!!
Were finished babyyyy
It has been a great semester being among (sus?) the IGB220 cohort.
The skills that i have picked up from these projects will be invaluable for me in the coming years of my degree and im glad that i could do them!
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Week 13 - Assignment 3 Postmortem
With the ending of Assignment 3 out game ended up quite good and the team and i are pretty happy with the result. Of course it isn’t prefect and if we had more time we would have loved to add more mechanics and make the game overall more fleshed out.
That being said the game that we ended up with is a stark improvement from the one that we started with 2 weeks ago. Some major improvements to quality of life, audio, art, etc, has really transformed the game.
My contributions
my contributions to the gameplay side of things was minimal as i mostly did all of the UI and menu, etc.
however i did do the health system
this segment of the programming shows some of the health mechanics as well as how it interacts with the game
the UI was meant to be a placeholder until the art assets were updated, however the health/energy bars themselves don’t look bad and certainly do their job and i suppose that the people in charge of the art either couldn’t fit it into the time frame or forgot about it. Either way, this isn't the biggest issue its simply a pet peeve of mine.
Conclusion
in conclusion, the final prototype is just that, a prototype. Although it still has much developing to be done before it’s anything impressive, it definitely taught me the basics of creating a game with a team and the advantages and disadvantages that comes with the process. This project has taught me much and the skills and knowledge learnt here will help me plenty in the coming assignments.
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Week 11 - Playtesting
We had a playtesting session recently in the workshop in which we tried many different games and had many different people play our game and fill out a report.
The reports that the participants filled out gave us much insight into what we needed to change. For example, all 3 stated that the controls were difficult and unintuitive, this of course was an easy fix but one that we would not have known if not for this feedback.
The Tasks channel in discord was full after this playtesting session leaving us with much work to do each.
However the end result of the game was ultimately much better off due to the results from the playtesting.
Here were the most common complaints/feedback we got from the session:
- The game is unituitive to learn how to play. A how to play screen is necessary
- The game is a bit difficult, to a degree that its frustrating
- the controls could be changed, specifically space bar to jump instead of A
- it was not always clear where to move next in the stage.
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Week 10 - Assignment 3 Development Progress
Our Assignment 3 is a Metroidvania style platformer called “Overclock” in which the player will attempt to reach the end of the stage while avoiding enemies, death pits, collecting loot, struggling to manage their health, and managing their energy meter.
Meet the Team:
- Daniel
- Nathan
- Duke (Minxuan)
- Sam
So far in development we have been making the basics of the game to get a feel for how we want the game to progress further on and into playtesting
the current game mechanics looks like:
- a basic jumping mechanic, can easily build upon this.
- an enemy. this enemy jumps at the player when they see them, however it is bugged currently and the physics do not work.
- a basic short level, good for prototyping, and playtesting
- basic sound effects and sprites. Most sprites don’t have any animations just a single frame as of now.
- simple health system that Game Over’s the player if health reaches 0.
We are sharing the documents through GitHub and Fork. Having never used either of these, it has been challenging to learn how to use these repositories as well as keeping up with my side of development.
We have also set up a discord in which we inform each other on what we are currently working on an what needs to be working via the numerous specific channels. (e.g. tasks is where we put tasks that the game needs done)
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Week 9 - Racing Postmortem
The racing game was playtested at this weeks postmortem playtest session.
Although it was a risky move, i believe not playtesting up until i got the game to a point that i was happy with was a smart move as the information i received at the session let me improve the game tremendously in areas that i did not think needed them until it was brought to my attention.
Changes in development process
As stated before i have been experimenting with how my development process works. The changes to playtesting was one of these changes that i believe to have worked very well. Some of the other changes that i have made were to the programming. In this project i have opted to create the wire-frame for the code to fit into first before doing the gameplay aspects. This includes creating the main menu, controls screen, how to play screen, etc. I did this to see if it would making the programming smoother and also serve as a reminder for what the gameplay has to do/achieve. Although i would not do this particular change again i did find that it did not negatively impact my development process it only made the process a little more stiff and didn't allow me the creative freedom that i tend to desire when programming as i come up with ideas while i’m creating the game.
Changes to the prototype
the significant changes to the prototype were as follows:
- new types of obstacles that push the player further back than others, but are easier to dodge
- a new item that randomly appears that will boost the player forward if they manage to touch it
- many changes to hitboxes smoothing them out making the gameplay more forgiving as players stated that it was a bit hard
- small fixes to issues like movement keys not working if the player presses them all at once.
- bug fixes
- removed Herobrine.
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Week 8 - Racing Game Development
The game idea that i had formulated for myself was one that i was excited for so development has been a fun and overall enjoyable experience. Racing games are never my go-to but i believe that i have the solid foundation of a good game.
The game state currently
As of right now the core mechanics of the game have been completed such as:
- the car movement
- screen scrolling
- a timer, indicating victory when it reaches 0
- obstacles on the road
- hitting too many obstacles loses the game
Although these mechanics are now in function and the game is able to be playtested if i wish, i’m going to opt to not playtest as of right now as i believe that all of the playtest reports are simply going to include the issues that i have identified myself in my own playtesting so i am going to wait until i have fixed all the current issues/mechanics to a certain degree so that i might receive some more deeper playtesting feedback.
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Racing Game Elevator Pitch
The player races down a narrow street, trying desperately to escape the forces of darkness that are right on their tail. To escape, last long enough without being caught and make it to the safe zone. But be wary, the road is full of obstacles and each hit will inch you closer to the darkness, get hit too many times and its GAME OVER!
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Week 7 - Asteroids Postmortem
After another round of postmortem playtesting my game was in a very solid position as i had already completed other playtesting sessions and improved my game based off of those.
I believe that this second project shows the maturity of my game development process as the process was both much fast and much smoother. My Gdevelop skill has improved as well, allowing me to develop more interesting and complex gameplay mechanics for this project.
Thankfully, as this project we were gifted assets to use for the sprites, i did not have to do much of any art work, however this is only delaying the inevitable as at some point i am going to have to work on refining my art skills no matter how much i am afraid to do so.
Need Improvement
- the artwork
- most of the sound effects were taken from stock sound websites
- no background music in the game or any sort of interesting visuals.
- fixing the small issues that arise towards the end of the project. There were called out by playtesters but i felt that they were too insignificant to fix, however in retrospective i should have fixed them in order to make a complete game.
Changing the Prototype
This prototype is much more advanced than the last. This makes me believe that i have created a game that i set out to make. The only thing about my game now that i could change to make it better would be large drastic gameplay changes. Perhaps the reason the game has come out much closer to how i envisioned it compared to the platformer is because i set myself a more achievable goal.
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Asteroids Playtest Results
A playtest was performed after the development blog post to see what players want fixed now that the game is must more refined.
Playtesting Feedback
Most of the feedback this time around were small, insignificant changes that are more of a nuisance than an actual issue. Some examples are the asteroid ship shaking violently if you hold the movement button without moving the mouse, and some players not liking the fact that the ship has a specific green spot where the bullet comes out as it looks odd.
However there were a few bigger issues that were brought to my attention, such as:
- the audio files would occasionally bug out and not play correctly
- the UI was often talked about being criticised for its simplicity with most players asking for a much more aesthetically pleasing and engaging UI.
- there are some instances where a visual identifier would be appreciated such as when the ship gets hit once it might blink or change colour for a few seconds to show the player that it is in an invulnerability state for a short time.
Fixing the Feedback
Fixing the smaller feedback will be an easy task and will simply be a matter of research and time into working out the kinks of each issue.
However fixing the larger issues will remain a top priority and i aim to have them all fixed by the time of the postmortem.
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Week 6 Asteroids Development
The asteroid game has undergone significant development since the inception of the elevator pitch. The game is by now almost fully functional with some mechanics still to be implemented and some minor issues to fix but overall in a state good enough for early playtesting.
What I've learned thus far
While Gdevelop is a tool meant for beginners, and it has its limitations, it provides me a solid base to learn and perfect the art that is developing a game. I have gotten much better at time management as well as I’ve gotten better at programming in Gdevelop.
I have also learned that the asteroids game style is a bit more difficult to make as there are more moving parts and a lot more randomness.
I have also learnt how to do more UI things as well as a menu as i wanted the end product of this game to feel more complete than the platformer. These menus and UI aspects will undoubtedly be useful in the making of my next projects.
Game Progress
I have altered the game to be much more fluid and intuitive past the instructions provided by the course.
This includes the altering of Asteroid speed, Bullet speed, Bullet firing rate, and the change of the collision masks of the asteroids
Theses adjustments make for a more balanced gameplay. If all of the asteroids were on the same length timer, 2 undesirable things would happen:
1. the asteroids would all spawn at the same time, making the game feel choppy and would lead to some down time
2. the smaller the asteroids the more difficult to hit, this leads to the timer for the smaller asteroids being longer than the larger ones.
The original collision masks for the asteroids were just a plain square making it seem as if the player has been cheated by the game when they die/lose a life, therefore i altered the masks to better match the objects like so:
Large Asteroid Example
Medium Asteroid Example
although these changes do not change the game in any drastic way, they alter gameplay significantly. It was imperative that i did these changes before a round of playtesting as more than likely these issues would have arisen in the play-testers feedback.
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Asteroids Elevator Pitch
Okay so imagine the classic game of asteroids, but its leveled up with power ups and more difficult stages. that’s the premise of the game. I want to make a game that is a fresh take on an old idea, something that is both a nod to its origins but also a new game with more challenging and fun aspects and mechanics.
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Week 5 - Platformer Postmortem
After the round of playtesting and developing off of the results last week, the game has become much more fleshed out as i begin to complete the project and move on to the asteroids project next week.
This first project however has given me great insight into my development process and has allowed me to incrementally increase my skill at Gdevelop and game development in general.
Although i am happy with how my game has come out, there are many things about my development process that i would change to streamline progress and improve the overall quality of the next project.
Need Improvement
- in the beginning there was little to no planning, i more or less just started developing without much thought of what i was making. This lead to issues later down the line as i added more features as previous features would break/fail as a result.
- although there was some playtesting for this game, the quality of the playtesting and results was low as i was ill-prepared and did not make any documents for the participants to fill out.
- The small things. After the completion of this project i realised that its the small things that makes a game go form good to great. Focusing just a little harder on perfecting the smoothness of mechanics, or making the hitbox just a little more accurate really makes the game feel a lot better for the player.
Changing the Prototype
there are many things about the prototype that i believe needed to be changed, the main issues came down to a lack of interesting enemies to battle against. as there is only one type on enemy the combat gets boring quick.
The other main issue is one that i strive to improve upon throughout the semester which is the art. As i am terrible at art (like really terrible) the game either just uses stock Gdevelop sprites or poorly made sprites in piskel and this really hurts the aesthetic of the game.
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Platformer Playtest results
Making this post after a quickplaytest session with some friends doing a different degree. The results from this playtest will influence the upcoming development progress before the postmortem and will hopefully round out the game nicely.
Playtesting feedback
The most common playtesting feedback was that the movement in the game was too simple and not all that challenging for the player. They also stated that the game was missing more game elements as of right now as there is only an end goal to reach and only 2 ways to die: by losing hp to “easily avoidable” enemies or by falling off of a platform which many said was very difficult to do.
Another playtesting feedback was the sound design of the game. As of right now there aren’t many sound effects and there is no background music.
Fixing the feedback
Here is a list of all the things i intend to change before the postmortem based on the feedback of the playtesting as well as my own perfectionism:
- Add more sound effects and a background song
- fix bugs with platform collision
- fix hitbox on the character
- add more challenging level design
- change the way that the character jumps such that it gives a bigger burst of speed and is more challenging while remaining enjoyable
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Week 3-4 Platformer Development
While learning the basics of Gdevelop this week I have been getting more and more excited for the upcoming projects and I have also been thinking about how i might go about bringing my platformer idea to life and starting to realise what aspects of my pre-developed elevator pitch are reasonable and what are unreasonable at the current stage of my Gdevelop skills.
Although i want to keep the idea of having to get to one end of the stage, collecting an item, then running back to the beginning of the stage to complete the level, i am not sure about how to make the level more difficult once the player has reached the item. So for now i’m going to leave that out of development and come back to that idea if i have the time afterwards.
Readings The textbook readings these few weeks have also helped develop my thought process and the way that i attack a problem within the assignment. This week the most important takeaways from the readings have been the importance of iterative design as well as playtesting.
iterative design and playtesting also work hand in hand together as if i playtest, even if minimal, throughout all stages of production the level of quality of the game will exponentially grow. This is something that i intend on doing moving forward in the assignment.
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Platformer Elevator pitch
I’ve always been a fan of the metroidvania sub-genre of video games, i think they are a simple way to make an enjoyable and fun game. The game will be a 2D side-scrolling platformer in which the player will have to avoid dangerous obstacles and reach then end of the stage to grab the exit token. However, once the exit token is grabbed by the player the level does not end, it only gets more difficult! On top of the difficulty spike the player must then run back to the beginning of the level to make it out alive and reach the next stage. The name concept so far is “Rewind”.
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About me:
My name is Sam McCarthy, i’m 18, and i’m from the middle of nowhere (Kingaroy). I’ve been interested in game design and games in general ever since i was a child playing games with my family. Some of my best memories in life involve games and so my main goal in game design is to be able to give others the opportunity to make some great memories as i have.
My goals for this unit is to unleash my creative side and create a fun albeit simple game that allows me to get a grasp on core game mechanics and being able to objectively look at a game that i have created and see what needs improvement in order to make the best game possible.
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