dandytanty

[dandytanty]

Week 13 - Assignment 3 Postmortem

I am proud of what my group and I have accomplished with all the skills we have learnt throughout the semester. HungryCube started off as a rough code that has been transformed with the implementations of various techniques displayed in Tracey Fullerton's book. The ability to complete missing Formal Elements, such as outcome, in the game, the inclusion of Dramatic Elements, such as challenge, and Combining the two Elements to create System Dynamics was rewarding itself. The ability to then conceptualise new ideas to the stages to add more mechanics, adding more Dramatic Elements, and creating the digital prototype was a challenge in itself as well. Applying aural feedback as stated in Chapter 8 was something I didn't know would change how play testers would actually play the game.

Assignment 3 was full of positives outcomes and a great learning experience for myself, and for my team. While the game has the functionality, completeness and balance that we believe were necessary, I believe that more mechanics could be added to the game that could add more aspects within the four aspect of digital prototyping as mentioned in Chapter 8. Additionally, balance could be changed to fit for skill instead of dynamic balancing, as mentioned in Chapter 10. We decided to balance dynamically as that would best fit the target demographic we had in mind. But devising a way to change it for skill would be challenging yet invigorating.

I'm happy with the amount of work I have accomplished with this project. In comparison to my previous projects, this project was the most I have worked on and have developed more skills with Gdevelop and game design. I managed to apply the knowledge I learnt which changed the way the game was developed and played.

HungryCube Game

https://games.gdevelop-app.com/game-4c112237-d58a-4cac-a4b1-2574d89e0427/index.html

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

[dandytanty]

Week 12 - Assignment 3 Iteration and Changes

Using the playtester data collected, changes definitely needed to be made for some aspects of the game. The first thing we changed was the ladder instructions. Due to mis-input or miscommunication, the instructions on how to use the ladder in the Volcano Level was using W and S key to go up and down the ladder. However, to use the ladder, Up and Down arrow keys needed to be used. This was fixed immediately. The second change made was the placement of the first golden apple. Few playtesters were able to obtain all golden apples. However, due to how fast you can complete the first level, you missed the opportunity to even partake in the golden apple quest. This was fixed by placing less food in the Forest Level and placing the golden apple closer. The next change we performed for the game was fix the jarring experience players were getting when taken to the next level. Once a player reached 100 hunger, they are teleported instantly, and players did not enjoy that. We fixed this by giving players the option to progress or keep exploring. After they press 'Enter' to progress, they are taken to a transition screen. This leads to the next issue fixed. As players were feeling rushed to read instructions, they couldn't digest information properly and missed key components to enjoying the level properly. Transitions screens were added to give players hints, instructions and context of what is happening.

The final fix we made were the powerups. In Chapter 8 of Fullerton's book, feedback is critical. In this case, visual feedback was given to players to let them know better that they have ingested a powerup. The playable character will now change colour respective to the powerup and level they are on. I'm so pleased with the progress we have done so far and look forward to completing this semester of IGB220

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

[dandytanty]

Week 11 - Game Discussion

I have some spare time to talk about a game that I’ve recently been playing an have fallen in love with. The game is Hunt: Showdown and it is a first-person shooter, PVPVE game. The objective is to hunt the main boss in the area whilst trying to fight off Non-playable enemies and players. What I found most interesting about this is the binaural audio it implements. 

Knowing that aural feedback is important in games as stated by Fullerton in Chapter 8, Hunt: Showdown implements HRTF. It is short for Head Related Transfer Function. Essentially, it allows for directional hearing on regular stereo headphones (Binaural Audio in Hunt Showdown, 2019). This plugin tricks the brain by utilizing the positional game data to add that extra sound filtering in runtime. In doing so, it simulates realtime positions of sounds in game. This is a game changer and it tips balance of the game with players. Player with stereo sound can compete with players playing with a surround setup. This does pose a question, why don’t other first person shooter games implement this system?

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

(2019). Binaural Audio in Hunt: Showdown https://www.huntshowdown.com/news/binaural-audio-in-hunt-showdown

[dandytanty]

Week 11 - Assignment 3 Playtesting

Playtest

To kickstart the Playtest segment of our game design, we had to complete the code we had that was still in progress. There were still many features missing such as power-ups fruits and the level design of the lava level. Through sheer determination (and stress) the team and I managed to make a prototype-ish of HungryCube. Every features we mentioned within the One-Page is now included. However, one thing that crept into my mind was Fullerton’s statement in Chapter 8, “Letting players know through visual or aural feedback, that their action has been accepted is critical. A good designer always provides some sort of feedback for each action the player makes” (Fullerton, 2018, p. 266). I mentioned this in a previous post that I want to implement sound in a game. After countless internal playthoughs, I realised that we weren’t thinking in the perspective of the player. They would not know what is good food from bad food. Using aural feedback, I put positive 8-bit sound effects for the good food and a bad 8-bit sound effect when a player eats rotten food. I also put dying sound effects when a player collides with an enemy. To let players know when they eat a powerup, we decided to add an icon that displays the powerup they have received. This should count as a visual feedback to let players know they have a powerup. 

With all features added (with minor additions), the other members started to do playtesting with no structure. However, I realised the oversight of an important aspect that was stated in Chapter 9 of the book. There has to be structure when conducting a playtest to provide a non-biased playtest and record as much key data as possible. I recalled all members and asked assistance of how to properly do the playtesting. With the assistance of the tutor and Fullerton’s guidance, we were able to create a script.

With this script we were able to do playtesting. Additionally, we added questions that determines the play testers demographic and a post-play questionnaire to know about their thoughts in the game. The most important part of the playtest was my role as an action scribe (record play tester’s actions in the game and their reaction to it). Recording every word spoken by the play tester was Tom’s job. Josh was the playtest director. 

In the end we had five naïve playtesters, with two of them volunteering to complete a deep play test. By the end of the playtests, we were ready to investigate trends in data and changes needed for the game to be complete with regards to Chapter 10 in Fullerton’s book. 

Reading Discussion

This week I read Chapter 12 of Tracey Fullerton’s book, ‘Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games’.

Chapter 12 discusses about the importance of Team Structure. In an indie development team, team members took on various roles and understood the importance of them. The fact that a small development team is able to replicate business processes similar to a Triple-A development team is what amazes. It also made me realise about the importance of my role as an asset designer and a lever designer in this project. Each role assists each other one way or another. In better understanding ones role, the better you can assist the team which leads to a better product.

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

[dandytanty]

Week 10 - Assignment 3 Development Progress

Development 

Progress done so far was us updating the One-Page to provide a clear direction of what the game will offer.

To solidify the collaboration, we set roles upon ourselves to clarify what tasks we are set to do. I was given the Asset Designer and Level Designer role as I have a program I can utilise to update the assets. Josh and Tom were to code in turn for the mechanics in the game.

To begin development of the actual game, we asked Josh for the game code, as we will use that as the base to start production. I started producing the assets for the game to start my collaboration to this project. Aseprite was the program I used to update the assets. For my role, accounting Chapter 8 the main area of investigation for me is Aesthetics. The following sprites were added to the game:

After adding necessary assets to the game, I proceeded with designing the Forest Level. The plan for the Forest Level is to include an abundance of food to create the Dynamic Balance, mentioned in Chapter 10, to increase the difficulty as players progress through each level.

Next week we begin playtesting. Hopefully, my other two members can code the main features of the game. I will be assisting in the code to improve my Gdevelop skills.

Reading Discussion

This week I read Chapter 11 of Tracey Fullerton’s book, ‘Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games’.

This chapter discusses about the original game idea you have and how fun and accessible is it. When you want to know how fun your original game idea is, asking the playtester is the obvious answer. However, as stated by Fullerton “they don't know how to articulate exactly where the fun is lacking” (Fullerton, 2018, p. 349). In the game, sometimes you might not know that you have put a ‘fun killer’ in it. It stated different types of fun killer features and to avoid them at all cost. With accessibility, finding out if the game is accessible is by letting players play the game without telling them anything about the game and without any help from you.

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

[dandytanty]

Week 10 - Team Formation

Today, we have formed our teams to start assignment 3. Assignment 3 has us taking a group member’s one page and using that one page as a guide to develop that game in Gdevelop. For Assignment 3, I was assigned with Thomas McLean and Josha Mccaffery. We analysed each others one-page and used a voting system to see who’s one-page we shall design our assignment 3. Josh’s one page was selected. In the upcoming weeks, we shall make a prototype of HungryCube

[dandytanty]

Week 9 - Runner Post Mortem

Since last week I have swapped the sprites of the cars to top-down views of people. Additionally, I have increased the spawn rate of the enemies and they now spawn on more lanes. This should add emphasize more dramatic elements such as challenge and conflict with regards to Chapter 4 in Fullteron’s book. Additional changes include a game over screen, a restart button and a starting instruction to give players a sense of awareness of what is currently occurring. 

I wanted and needed more time to make this game more enjoyable to play. There is no incentive to replay it. There is no special feature that sets it apart from other racer type games. Ways I want to improve the game is to increase the speed of the other runners overtime. This would make it more challenging for the player, making them want to see how well they can do. Another improvement that I want to make is to add power ups in the game. Currently, there are no power ups in the game, just a constant race to get the highest score. The game  is lacking one major formal element: resources. In adding powerups or a health bar in the game, this missing element would be added. It makes sense now as why the game feels like it’s missing something. Chapter 3 in the Fullerton’s book mentions that all formal elements are what makes games, games, and I missed that here.

I do hope that I can work on the next project proactively. Since the next project will be a collaborative project, I aim to do custom assets for that game. Additionally, I hope to implement various techniques mentioned in Fullerton’s book, such as aural feedback (sound), more dramatic elements and playtesting methods.

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

[dandytanty]

Week 8 - Runner Development

Development

To kick start the development of Runner, I followed the in-class tutorial to give myself an idea of how I should create this game. Following the tutorial, I realised it shared the same aspects of the Asteroid genre, in that you are avoiding the cars and getting the highest score possible. The tutorial also gave a step that I can now use in future GDevelop projects which was the Object Groups, where you can group objects together. After following the tutorial, this was the completed tutorial product. I’ll use this as a base to streamline my pitch idea and deliver the game faster.

Following the tutorial, I realised that this contains the functionality and completeness of the game. Additionally, it also includes balance as the game balances dynamically as stated in Chapter 10 of Fullerton’s book. 

Reading Discussion

This week I read Chapter 9 of Tracey Fullerton’s book, ‘Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games’.

This chapter was really insightful with playtesting. Playtesting is not just a process of having someone else play your game, but as a developer, you must also playtest your game before doing a proper playtest. "I advise playtesting and iterating your design" (Fullerton, 2018, p. 278). In the textbook, it also states the order of how to playtest. Starting off with the introduction to warm-up discussion to get an idea of the demographic that play tester is. This should lead to the play session where the play tester ‘thinks out loud’ as we would not know what they are thinking unless spoken out loud. Finally, this leads to discussion of game experience of what they think of the game and general feedback. There are different approaches data gathering, but I believe in qualitative data gathering as they contain extra information of that would be left out of quantitative data collection.

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

[dandytanty]

Week 7 - Race Pitch

Pitch

You are a runner. You are competing for the world cup of the best endurance runner alive. Race other runners and gain that title. Watch out for the other racers, they fight dirty and will hit you when you get too close. Oh no, obstacle on the road, avoid them quickly before you slip and lose. Conquer the competition by using left or right arrows, or using the A and D keys. Get the highest score and beat your friend's personal best.

Genre: Race, Top-down, Endless Runner

Demographic: Children age seven and above. This game targets those who want a casual mobile experience. Those who are familiar with the endless runner genre are would feel at home.

Image from: https://negativespace.co/runner-man-track-field/ 

Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dirty_road_near_Piter.jpg

Controls: Players can use arrows keys to move their character left and right. Additionally, A and D keys are supported for WASD users. 

[dandytanty]

Week 7 - Doom Defender Post-Mortem

I am quite happy with how Doom Defenders turned out. I learnt a lot more about GDevelop and my own development process. Through experimentation of GDevelop, I learnt that certain assets can be hidden. This changed my thought process with GDevelop as I have a tendency to complicate processes. 

I added a few more features while I was making this post-mortem as I didn’t feel accomplished with the amount of features I could have implemented. Referring back to Chapter 10 of Fullerton’s book with regards to Functionality, Completeness and Balance. Functionality is implemented as all controls are implemented and players can control the ship fluently and shoot where they want to shoot. The game has reached internal completeness where “An internally complete game is one in which the players can operate the game without reaching any point at which either the gameplay or the functionality is compromised” (Fullerton, 2018, p. 320). 

There are still more aspects that I want to change with Doom Defender. Powerups are the major thing that I want to implement but did not have time to. A shield powerup, an increased fire rate powerup, a map enemy wipe power up and teleport power up. These power ups can increase gameplay value and replayability. Additionally, if I implemented different enemy types, the difficulty of the game would certainly increase. Chapter 3 of Fullerton’s book stated that Formal Elements are what makes videogames, videogames. All formal elements are there but I’m disappointed that I could not implement Dramatic Elements stated in Chapter 4. My elevator pitch had story and some elements of world-building, but is barely applied upon in the game itself. It’s also missing character and conflict.

Overall, I learned more about Gdevelop through experimentation once again and I hope to improve it more over the coming weeks. 

Play the game here: https://games.gdevelop-app.com/game-4f2523b5-2aa4-455d-9df3-b956912893b7/index.html

Reading Discussion

This week I read Chapter 6 of Tracey Fullerton’s book, ‘Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games’.

Chapter 6 discusses about the conceptualisation. It discusses about different brainstorming methods that could come in handy when I make my next game. One method that stood out for me was the Put It On The Wall method, where you write an idea on a white board or palm cards and put them on the wall. After finding an idea that seems appropriate, it would lead to editing and refining. This stage is what Csikszentmihalyi called “evaluation” to see if an idea is worth pursuing (p. 182). Once all it is deemed worth it, it can be turned into a game, where the design for the game takes place. 

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

[dandytanty]

Week 6 - Game Discussion

I've got some spare time to discuss about a game. So a game that I will discuss is about my favorite PS4 game, Marvel's Spider-Man. Released in 2018, this game took away my entire weekend the week it came out and I still replay it from time to time. This game would have taken multiple prototyping phases to get the story, gameplay, mechanics and aesthetics to reach this much polish in the final product.

Doing research on the game itself and why the Web-Swinging mechanic feels so smooth and reactive, website ComicBook published an article on their website stating the Web-Swinging took three years to perfect. Their interview with one of the developers, Ryan Smith, stated "Adding an expressive camera that makes you feel like you are Spider-Man–how would you feel during those swings, during the dive, and how can we emphasise that with the camera?" This makes me appreciate the prototyping process more as without it, the kinesthetics of the game wouldn't feel right upon release

Fischer, T. (2019). Marvel's Spider-Man's Web-Swinging Took Insomniac Nearly 3 Years to Make. ComicBook. https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/marvels-spider-man-ps4-insomniac-web-swinging/

[dandytanty]

Week 6 - Doom Defense Development

Development

The development of Doom Defense is underway. The start of the development of Doom Defense was initiated during a workshop tutorial and was left to out devices to figure out how do we get to a polished prototype. Currently, Doom Defense has the basics of an Asteroid genre game. You have the spaceship, the enemy and the bullets to shoot the enemy. I envisioned Doom Defense to control differently from other Asteroid games, which is the ability to use W, A, S, D keys. Normal movement of an asteroid game is move with an analogue stick or click to where you want the spaceship to go. In Doom Defense, movement is set to the stated keys and you can shoot with the left mouse button.

Assets for the game so far have been obtained from GDevelop’s built-in asset library. The only assets obtained from a third-party source was the space background, which was obtained here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Deep_Look_into_a_Dark_Sky.jpg  Whilst I admire the assets and it’s niche aesthetics, I do plan on getting feedback within the next week with the game’s look and gameplay. As suggested by Fullerton in Chapter 7, prototyping allows game mechanics to be tested and find out how to make improvements to it.  

Improvements that I plan to add to the game is a leaderboard system. A scoring/leaderboard system should allow players of the game to compete against each other and build a competitive culture. In getting a score, it gives players an incentive to replay the game to beat their own high-score or another player’s personal best. In stating that, I have not implemented a player health system. This would mean that the players would just keep playing until they are bored and just close the game.

In the next post, I do plan on adding player health and a leaderboard/scoring system to give players incentive to play and a sense of survival. Additionally, I plan on doing user playtesting.

Reading Discussion

This week, I have read chapter 10 of Tracey Fullerton’s book, ‘Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games’.

Chapter 10 discusses about functionality, completeness and balance of the original game we are designing. Currently, I can say that my game has the functionality implemented by completeness and balance are not yet included. In Fullterton’s definition of completeness “An internally complete game is one in which the players can operate the game without reaching any point at which either the gameplay or the functionality is compromised.” (p320). For balancing, there are different methods to cater for a certain skill group. For Doom Defense, I have balanced the game dynamically in that difficulty is increased for the duration the player is playing for.

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

[dandytanty]

Week 5 - Asteroid Pitch

Doom Defense

Pitch

Earth is on the brink of collapse from creatures unknown coming from a portal. You, an Operative Elite Defender (O.E.D.), are humanity’s last hope and defense against such creatures. Shoot them creatures back into oblivion using your cannons. But watch out, these nasties hit back. Dodge the oncoming projectiles that can destroy your ship, the Model B Raven, and shoot and aim your weapons to blast them nasties back. Are you ready, Defender? 

Genre: Asteroid, Bullet-hell, Top-down Shooter Demographic: Aimed for adolescent to adults. This would fit those who are familiar with top-down shooters and bullet hell games.

Image from: https://kotaku.com/vic-viper-you-are-cleared-for-take-off-5839151

Image from: https://www.reddit.com/r/ImaginaryMonsters/comments/3t1n61/flying_kraken_over_istanbul_by_eren_arik/

Controls

Doom Defense uses W, A, S, D to control the ship and the mouse will be used to aim the weapons. Left-click will be used to shoot the ship’s weapons.

[dandytanty]

Week 5 - Tomb Dash Post-Mortem

Tomb Dash is not perfect as a final product. It is a concept for a platformer that I envisioned to be accessible and familiar for everyone. While stated in a previous post that I’m not a creative thinker, the idea of an Indiana-Jones-type platformer seemed is my base level creativity. Under normal circumstances and without any restriction of time, I do believe that an absurd yet refreshing take on the platformer genre would come across my mind sooner than later. In doing so, I would be able to add more dramatic elements to my game. In this scenario, it would be character and story to make players more invested in the game as stated in Chapter 4 of Fullertons book. 

My development of Tomb Dash has been decent if I were to analyse my work ethics. One aspect of my development process I would change would be more collaboration with other student and assistance heeded from the tutor. Navigating and experimenting with how GDevelop functions is a learning process, but if I were to request assistance from students and teachers, I do believe more could be accomplished. I could have even implemented my missing features that I stated within my elevator pitch.

Tomb Dash, currently, needs more improvement and polish. I have not spent ample time improving the game due to other assessment work taking priority. However, if time allowed me to, I would improve much more of the game and polish certain aspects of it. One aspect to improve upon is the movement. I recall stating in a previous post that I wanted to include a dash and a rope swing. With those features added, it would give players more freedom in movement ticking the area of kinesthetics in digital prototyping investigation in Chapter 8. Another thing I would improve would be to increase the length of the level. The current length of the game is quite short and lackluster, posing minimal challenge in both movement and combat. This was apparent within the play testing phase of the game. Two volunteers managed to complete the level under a minute with little to no difficulty. If only I added more enemy types, or more environmental hazards, this would extend play time and impose challenge as a dramatic element. The game is too easy in my opinion and approaches the line of boredom in Csikszentmihalyi theory of flow. Additionally, as stated before, a small platforming segment was implemented. Platformers included platforms and utilizing movement to your advantage to overcome obstacles.

With all those aspects stated, such as my development process and my game overall, I will take those into account with the creation of my next game. I hope I am able to achieve more in the next game design.

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

[dandytanty]

Tomb Dash Initial Feedback

Two play testers volunteered for playtesting my game, Tomb Dash. The following feedback I received were mix of positives and negatives. While two play testers provide information of what elements in my game need changing, I’m only limited to two player types with regards to Fullerton’s book, discussing player types in Chapter 4.

The positives of my game were:

Short and sweet

Fitting visual elements

Easy Controls

Accessible difficulty

Cons received were:

Too short

Controls didn’t use WASD

It was good to know that the aesthetics and gameplay did match what I had envisioned as I was focussing on the four areas of investigation stated on Chapter 8 of Fullteron’s book. 

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

[dandytanty]

Week 3/4 - Tomb Dash Development

Development

Tomb Dash development has been rough. Due to my lack of proficiency in coding and difficult understanding of coding languages, utilizing Gdevelop has been a challenge. Fortunately, Gdevelop is more forgiving unlike other programming languages. I am quite happy with how the game looks so far. The game is in a rough patch and still needs plenty of improvement to fully meet the elevator pitch mentioned on my previous posts.

The base structure of Tomb Dash is present in the development so far. Player movement, enemy movement, hazards and goal are present in the game. However, I would have loved to implement a dash feature and a swing feature in the game. Research was conducted on how to implement a dash feature and rope swing feature but unfortunately had to drop it due to other university assessments. If I did implement a dash and rope swing feature, this would have added to the kinesthetic and mechanic aspect of the four areas of investigation for digital prototyping in Chapter 8 of Fullerton’s book.

With how the development was conducted, I didn’t spend too much time looking for assets and used Gdevelop’s built in asset market. I wanted to spend as much time as possible learning the back-end of Gdevelop rather than the front and so assets do not match the aesthetics that I was envisioning for the game. Background image for the game was temple background by macarious on DeviantArt. Nevertheless, the current assets fit the theme of Tomb Dash and ticks off the box aesthetics in the four areas of investigation.

With the back-end aspect of Tomb Dash, creating the player and his hitbox were easily implemented. The platforms and the hazards were easily implemented as well. The same can be said for the treasure in the end. However, I spent most of my time developing the enemies as they didn’t want to move when I wanted them to. Countless hours were dedicated trying to fix the enemy. Through sheer determination I managed to fix their movement and they now work. 

I would have loved to implement a dash and a rope swing but more time would be needed to have them in the game.

Play the game here: https://games.gdevelop-app.com/game-af503a4f-6b09-4c0b-b46a-fae185a59b0e/index.html

Readings Discussion

These past two weeks, I have chapters 3, 4 and 5 of Tracey Fullerton’s book, ‘Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games’.

Chapter 3 discusses the formal elements of games and how to work with them. As stated in Chapter 2 and recalled in this chapter, Formal Elements are what makes a videogame, a videogame. These formal elements are players, objectives, procedures, rules, resources, conflict boundaries and outcome. Games made for single player in comparison to multiplayer games differ in game design. The game that I’m making is a single-player platformer and I can not help but if I were to design a multiplayer platformer and how different the mechanics would be. 

Chapter 4 discusses about the dramatic elements of games, how they can give context to gameplay and combine the formal elements into a meaningful experience. Dramatic elements are the challenges, premise, character, story, world building and conflict. Challenges in games have to balance challenge and ability to avoid falling into frustration and boredom. This is based of the theory Csikszentmihalyi created called “flow”. I believe character, story, world building and conflict are usually combined in games to create a meaningful experience. In adding those things, players are more inclined to connect with the character’s goals, their story, the world’s lore and the conflict that the character faces. 

Chapter 5 discusses about the system dynamics of games and the importance of combining the two elements in the two previous chapters to create a system. Fullerton’s definition of system is “a set of interaction elements that form an integrated whole with a common goal or purpose.” (Fullerton, 2018, p129). In combining formal and dramatic elements together, you create a common goal or purpose. However, a system can be simple or complex, where one produces precise predictable results and the other is varied and unpredictable. To understand a system, it must be put in motion (playtest and tune the system).

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

[dandytanty]

Week 2 - GDevelop 5 Experimentation

To initialize the concept of Tomb Dash, GDevelop 5 was used. The program offered the necessary tools to create a base design for a game design or concept. With the assistance of in-class tutorial to create a basic platformer, the following was made:

Assets were distributed by Queensland University of Technology. This GDevelop experimentation was performed during an IGB220 workshop. It was reminiscent of another game creator, Scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu/). I am not the most proficient with coding and will need to spend more time trying to figure out how this program works. So far, the front end seems manageable. The back end is what I dread, however. I did not manage to finish the tutorial GDevelop project as I could not keep up with the tutor and decided to follow the word document containing instructions of how to make the game. I managed to finish the tutorial now and am quite please with the finished tutorial product. Next week, I shall start on the development of Tomb Dash.